Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Trump Campaign Accused of Twisting Dr. Fauci's Words in Commercial; Trump Claims He's Now Immune to COVID-19; Interview with Valerie Jarrett about the Election and COVID-19; Amy Coney Barrett Faces Confirmation Hearings Tomorrow. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired October 11, 2020 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:19]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM.

And we begin tonight with the White House already blamed for disregarding doctors and scientists during this terrible pandemic. Now accused of actually twisting the words of the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, in an official Trump campaign ad for the president. This is the commercial that Dr. Fauci is objecting to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump is recovering from the coronavirus and so is America. Together, we rose to meet the challenge. President Trump tackled the virus head on as leaders should.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I can't imagine that anybody could be doing more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Just one major problem with that, Dr. Fauci wasn't talking about the president. The quote is from an interview with FOX News back in March where he was talking about the Coronavirus Task Force and its efforts to respond to the pandemic. In a statement provided exclusively to CNN, Dr. Fauci told us this, and I'm quoting now, "In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials," closed quote.

All of this happening in a time when the last thing we should be worrying about is whether we can trust the president on the coronavirus. Just on Saturday, Johns Hopkins University reported 54,639 new cases here in the United States and 618 new deaths here in the United States. This is the fourth day in a row, by the way, that we've seen 50,000-plus new cases. First time that happened -- the last time, I should say, that happened was back in early August.

Let's get straight to our White House correspondent, CNN's Jeremy Diamond is on the scene for us.

Jeremy, are we hearing any reaction, first of all, from the White House about these comments, very strong comments, from Dr. Fauci?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the Trump campaign is standing by its decision to use this small snippet of Dr. Fauci's words from that interview that he conducted back in March and the president is also chiming in, Wolf, taking to Twitter to say that, "They are indeed Dr. Fauci's own words. We have done a phenomenal job, according to certain governors, many people agree, and now come the vaccines and cures long ahead of projections."

But, Wolf, of course, what we know is that two things are very important here, the timing and the context of Dr. Fauci's comments. Not only did Dr. Fauci make these comments all the way back in March in the early months of this pandemic, but he was also very clearly referring to the Coronavirus Task Force and this kind of whole of government effort not referring to President Trump specifically as this ad makes it appear.

But, Wolf, the Trump campaign's decision to use Dr. Fauci in this makes very clear two things. First of all, that they recognize that President Trump is underwater with voters as far as his approval ratings on the coronavirus, nearly six in 10 voters feel that President Trump has mishandled the coronavirus and clearly they also recognize that Dr. Fauci is an overwhelmingly trusted voice on the coronavirus.

But instead of using him to share valuable information about this pandemic, they're trying to use him here to prop up the president's re-election campaign.

BLITZER: Yes. Very, very significant. Jeremy, bring us up to speed on what the president and his doctors are saying about his health right now.

DIAMOND: Yes. Well, President Trump has been making some pretty misleading statements about his health including claiming that he's now immune from this coronavirus which the CDC warns people who have recovered from the virus not to assume.

Here's the president earlier this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I beat this crazy, horrible China virus and it also gives you immunity. I mean, it does give you immunity. Even the people that just could not accept anything, I mean, they just don't want to accept anything. No. So we -- I passed the highest test, the highest standards, and I'm in great shape. And I have to tell you, I feel fantastically. I really feel good. And I even feel good by the fact that, you know, the word immunity means something, having really a protective glow means something. I think it's very important to have that."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: Now medical experts do believe that there is perhaps some degree of immunity for people who have recovered from the coronavirus, although it's not clear how much immunity and for how long that actually lasts. But the president is trying to suggest here that he is completely immune. In fact Twitter went and put a misleading information label on the president's tweet in which he made very similar comments.

[19:05:08]

And, Wolf, the president also this evening on a call with campaign supporters claiming that he has tested negative for the coronavirus. But that's not exactly what Dr. Sean Conley, the president's physician, said. In a statement late last night, Dr. Conley said only that the president doesn't have any detectable transmissible virus in him any longer but he did not say that the president has tested negative, something that you would presume he would include if indeed that was the case -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And we'd like to hear -- we all like to hear from Dr. Conley. Tomorrow it will be one week since the last time he answered reports' questions. Not only reporters but the American people have a lot of question they'd like answered from Dr. Conley but he just releases on a daily basis these very short written statements, doesn't answer our questions at all.

All right, Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much.

Let's get some more now on the president's efforts to declare a victory over this deadly virus, joining us, Dr. Ashish Jha, he's the dean at the Brown University School of Public Health. Also with us CNN medical analyst, Dr. Celine Gounder. She's the former New York City assistant commissioner of health.

Dr. Gounder, what do you make of the president's claim that he's immune?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Wolf, there's still very little we know about the immune response to coronavirus, how long immunity might last, and whether -- how robust that immunity might be. I think the other important thing to you remember is, yes, the president has tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, but he was treated with antibodies produced by Regeneron.

Those Regeneron antibodies are going to be floating around for a while and on top of that, furthermore, he's been treated with three different medications which may well interfere with the immune response to coronavirus long term.

BLITZER: So just to be precise, the president says he's now immune, but we have no idea right now how long that kind of immunity would actually last, right?

GOUNDER: We have no idea. And we have no idea if he's truly immune.

BLITZER: You know, Dr. Jha, the claims did not end there at all. I want you to listen to what the president's son, Eric Trump, said on ABC earlier today. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC TRUMP, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SON: It goes to speak to how good some of these vaccines that are being created are and what my father has done on the vaccine front, no one could have done. No one could have done. I mean, literally, Biden was calling my father xenophobic for shutting down America from travel to China and then the virus came from China. My father literally started day one creating this vaccine. He worked to push this vaccine and now my father just took it. And you see how well he got over it.

JON KARL, ABC NEWS HOST: Wait, wait, can you --

E. TRUMP: I think he's an inspiration. I think, as Americans, Jon, we should be proud of that.

KARL: Can you clarify that you said your father just took a vaccine?

E. TRUMP: Meaning when he was at Walter Reed. The medicines that he was taking and --

(CROSSTALK)

KARL: The therapeutics.

E. TRUMP: And on Saturday, again, I spoke to the man three times on Saturday, and he sounded tremendous and I think it goes to show the power of, you know, medicine in this country and how far that -- you know, that we've come on COVID.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The only problem there, Dr. Jha, as all of us heard, there's no vaccine that's been approved yet. There are therapeutics. He did some therapeutics, some treatments, but no vaccine. Why do you think he would make such a major blunder like that?

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes, it's confusing and unhelpful and obviously the president did not get the vaccine, just to be very clear as far as we know. That wouldn't have been appropriate. And the more important point here, Wolf, is that we have had incredible progress on therapeutics and vaccines, and they have been done by the scientists.

The scientists got going on this early on vaccines. We had a bit of a head start because we've done a lot of work with the previous SARS virus. So as much as I do give, you know, the president credit for parts of Operation Warp Speed, the science here has been a global scientific effort, not one by a president or even by any individual group of scientists, but scientists collaborating around the world. BLITZER: You know, Dr. Gounder, the president keeps touting the

antibody cocktail that he got, the experimental cocktail he got from Regeneron and says he wants to make it free for people who need it. It hasn't even yet been formally approved for emergency use. He got it on -- for compassionate use. But I want you to listen to what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I just want to say we have Regeneron, we have a very similar drug from Eli Lilly and they're coming out and we're trying to get them on an emergency basis. We've authorized it. I've authorized it. And if you're in the hospital and you're feeling really bad, I think we're going to work it so that you get them and you're going to get them free. And especially if you're a senior, we're going to get you in there quick. We have hundreds of thousands of doses that are just about ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So what's your reaction to that, Dr. Gounder?

[19:10:01]

GOUNDER: Well, remember that promise a few months ago that everybody who wanted a test for coronavirus could get a test, any time, and it would be for free? This promise sounds just about as hollow to me. I just don't see how it's possible when you're talking about a couple hundred thousand doses being available. Our current projections for late December are that we might have something on the order of 300,000 new infections in the U.S. per day. And while not all of those people will get critically ill, you're still looking at a huge demand for a therapy like this and not nearly the needed supply.

BLITZER: You know, Dr. Jha, he got the Regeneron, monoclonal cocktail, but he mentioned this antibody therapy from Eli Lilly. The company says their treatment to reduce virus levels, hospitalizations, E.R. visits for people with mild to moderate cases. Lilly expects to submit a formal request for emergency use authorization in November.

How significant is this? Is this a silver bullet, the Eli Lilly cocktail, the Regeneron cocktail?

JHA: You know, we all want a silver bullet, Wolf, and it's unfortunately not. It is helpful. I don't think we should downplay it. It is helpful. As Dr. Gounder said, you know, with a couple hundred thousand doses and more than 50,000 Americans getting infected every day right now, we would quickly exhaust the supply. So I wish that the government, the administration, had gotten serious about these antibodies and built up millions of doses of them so when they became authorized we could use them much more widely. Unfortunately we're not going to be able to do that because we haven't had the proactive role from the federal government.

BLITZER: And as mentioned, the last four days, there's been more than 50,000 confirmed coronavirus cases every day here in the United States.

Dr. Gounder, you heard Dr. Anthony Fauci calling out the Trump campaign for putting him in this political commercial, this ad, with the remark that he says he was taken out of context and it was used totally without his permission. He doesn't get involved in politics.

The White House, as you know, has been meddling with the efforts of scientists to stop this pandemic from the beginning. What's your reaction to the use of Dr. Fauci and this campaign commercial?

GOUNDER: This is yet another attempt to politicize the science, to politicize the public health response. And Dr. Fauci was actually complimenting the long-term public health workers who are working in the trenches to fight coronavirus even in the absence of the support they really ne from the federal government. And as we've seen, the federal government has tampered with the work of those public health officials at the CDC and on down.

And so it's sort of a laughable thing that he would -- ironic thing that he would turn that into a compliment about the administration's performance here.

BLITZER: Yes. It's not only been almost a week since we've heard from the president's doctor about his health, it's been weeks and weeks and weeks since the Coronavirus Task Force of experts like Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, Dr. Hahn, Dr. Redfield, have been doing their daily coronavirus briefings. They haven't taken place at all.

And once again, the American public deserves to hear from the experts on what's going on because the numbers are going up and up and up, and all this is very disturbing in so many states across the country.

Dr. Celine Gounder, Dr. Ashish Jha, thanks to both of you for joining us.

Up next, I'll get reaction to Dr. Fauci saying the Trump campaign took his comments out of context. The former senior adviser to President Obama, Valerie Jarrett, she's standing by. We have lots to discuss when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:17:50]

BLITZER: Returning to our top story, the misleading campaign ad from President Trump by taking the words of Dr. Anthony Fauci, perhaps America's most trusted expert during this pandemic, out of context. Of course Dr. Fauci says he was talking about the Coronavirus Task Force, was not endorsing any candidate. And this was an interview, by the way, that he gave to FOX News some seven months ago. Not a recent statement by any means.

Joining us now the former senior adviser to former President Obama, Valerie Jarrett. She's also the author of the book, "Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward." There you see the book cover. Valerie, thanks so much for joining us. I want to get to some of the

substance. But what's your reaction to this little uproar that we see now, the Trump campaign using these words from Dr. Fauci to mislead voters out there?

VALERIE JARRETT, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, good evening, Wolf. It's a pleasure to be with you. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised, but it is pretty appalling, and as Dr. Fauci said, he's never endorsed a candidate, they didn't ask his permission. He wasn't even talking about the president. He was talking about the task force, taken totally out of context, and so it's blowing up on them and they shouldn't be surprised.

They keep getting caught and it sends a very powerful message to the American people about whether or not they should trust this president. And his campaign is behaving in this way.

BLITZER: Let me get to the really critically important issue with the stimulus talks that are still under way, albeit, it doesn't look very promising. The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote a letter to her Democratic colleagues criticizing the latest offer, the latest deal proposed by the White House saying until these serious issues are resolved, in her words, we remain at an impasse.

But isn't it time for the two sides to find a compromise, neither getting completely what they want? Because there are so many millions of people out there, you know, Valerie, who are legitimately suffering right now. They need help, not only to pay for their rent, pay the bills, but even to put food on the table for themselves and their kids.

JARRETT: You're absolutely right, Wolf, the American people are in desperate straits. Nancy Pelosi, leader -- Speaker Pelosi and the House passed a bill back in May and for months the Republicans refused to move.

[19:20:02]

And so yes, they should come to together. It's not helpful to have the president first say he's going to put it off until after the election. Really? People should have to wait until after the election to get the relief you just described? And then he goes from that to the other extreme, a very large package that it seems as though there isn't really any support for. So of course they should work together. He hasn't invited them to the White House virtually, which would be an appropriate thing for the president to do, to say the American people are counting on us. Let's work this out.

BLITZER: Yes, they just need a compromise. It's not going to be perfect. But at least you get a trillion and a half or maybe $2 trillion out there to help critical businesses that are laying off thousands and thousands of people right now. You do what you can do and you work down the road on some other big projects.

As you know, the Democratic presidential nominee, the former vice president Joe Biden who you used to work with on a day-to-day basis, he spoke yesterday about the election. I want you to listen to what he had to say because this caused a stir. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Here's the deal, guys. We got to go out and make sure you vote because the only way we lose this is by the chicanery going on relative to polling places.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Now after he said that, he clarified his remarks, said he would accept the outcome of the election. The use of the word chicanery, he says, I guess he didn't mean that, but do you agree with the former vice president's initial statement that the only way he can lose is if there is chicanery or people are cheating?

JARRETT: I think what he was noting is President Trump, for example, encouraging his supporters to go and watch the polls, and who knows what kind of aggressive behavior that would take. We've seen states like Texas making it harder for people to vote absentee. The Appellate Court upheld their decision today to limit the number of ways in which people can vote by absentee ballot.

We know that there are concrete examples of voter suppression all around the country and I think what the Vice President Biden was saying is, look, if it's on the up and up, we give people the opportunity to vote, and the vast majority of the American people will support him. But I hasten to add, Wolf, that he doesn't take a single vote for granted. He will be out there trying to earn the respect and support of the American people every single day until the election is over.

But he is -- he should rightly be troubled by the kind of rhetoric and behavior that we're seeing in parts of the country. Every American should have the accessible right to vote in a fair way and particularly with this overlay of the pandemic, voting by mail. There are no examples of vote fraud by mail. It's been done historically in our country. The president's own FBI director said that there weren't examples of voter fraud there.

We should encourage people to vote safely and you would think that back in May, for example, when the House was passing a bill, we would have ensured that the Senate also focused on resources for the post office and that did not happen.

BLITZER: Yes, lots at stake right now. Just 20-plus days to go until November 3rd. But millions and millions of people already are voting here in the United States.

Valerie Jarrett, thanks so much for joining us.

JARRETT: You're welcome, Wolf. Be safe.

BLITZER: Thank you. You too.

Tomorrow is a pivotal day up on Capitol Hill here in Washington as the hearings for the U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett are set to get under way. We're going to tell you what she's expected to say in her opening statement. That's next.

Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:27:52]

BLITZER: Tomorrow a pivotal day in the U.S. Supreme Court battle, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings for President Trump's nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Today, Judge Barrett released an advance copy of her opening statement as Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer weighs his party's remaining options to try to halt the process.

Our congressional reporter, Lauren Fox, is joining us right now.

So, Lauren, what's in Judge Barrett's statement and what else can we expect tomorrow?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, tomorrow is really going to be the opening day that Democrats are going to be able to grill Amy Coney Barrett. But, Wolf, this is really going to be a day where you hear from each individual senator, each member will have about 10 minutes to make opening statements. We, of course, expect that the Chairman Graham will be able to make his opening statement, first followed by Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat, but we also will get our first glimpse into what Amy Coney Barrett, the president's nominee to fill that Supreme Court vacancy, what she will say.

And we have gotten an expert of her remarks. She says, quote, "There is a tendency in our profession to treat the practice of law as all- consuming while losing sight of everything else. But that makes for a shallow and unfulfilling life. I worked hard as a lawyer and a professor. I owed that to my clients, my students and myself. But I never let the law define my identity or crowd out the rest of my life."

And of course, you can expect that coronavirus is really going to be overshadowing these hearings as well tomorrow, Wolf, because we're going to be keeping our eye out for which of the senators who were diagnosed with coronavirus more than a week ago, two of them on the Judiciary Committee, Mike Lee and Thom Tillis, whether or not they will be participating in person. Thom Tillis said last week he plans to attend virtually the first couple of days but hopes to be there on Thursday for a critical vote.

We still don't know whether or not Mike Lee will be attending in person tomorrow or not. We're told by his spokesman that the plan is for them to make that announcement tomorrow morning -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Let's see what happens on that front. You know, Lauren, the Democrats, they're seeking also more information from Judge Barrett. They say she left out materials in her Senate filings. What can you tell us about that?

FOX: Well, essentially they are arguing that her questionnaire when she first filed it to the Senate Judiciary Committee was incomplete.

There are two things that they are looking for an explanation about, and we should note that Amy Coney Barrett updated that questionnaire with supplemental information on Friday night, but it was after a couple of key missing items.

One of them this newspaper ad from the newspaper in South Bend from a pro-life group, essentially criticizing Roe v. Wade, that the judge signed her name to; the other one, several lectures that she gave, two of them to anti-abortion groups back at Notre Dame. They want to know exactly why weren't those materials initially included in her questionnaire -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, we will watch the hearings start tomorrow going on for four days here in Washington.

Lauren Fox, thank you very much.

Let's bring in our chief legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin. He is the author of the important new book entitled, "True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump." There you see the book cover.

Jeffrey, you've also written an important book on the Supreme Court. You're an expert in this area. Is there anything realistically the Democrats can do to prevent this confirmation from going forward?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: At this point, it doesn't look that way. There are two Republicans: Susan Collins and Senator Murkowski, who have said they are going to vote against -- they're going to vote against her. But the Democrats need two more votes, and it really does not look like there are two more votes there, but the process has to go forward.

This is a deeply bizarre proceeding in the middle of a pandemic that has worked its way through the Senate. There are two prominent Republicans, Lindsey Graham, the senator and Chuck Grassley, who is in his mid-80s, neither of whom have agreed to take a COVID test.

It's just a very bizarre proceeding, but that Republicans appear determined and looks like they have the votes.

BLITZER: What do you make, you know, Jeffrey, of Judge Barrett's prepared remarks, the advance release of her opening statement that was put forward today? You've gone through it.

TOOBIN: It is pretty standard for these proceedings. You know, ever since Robert Bork in 1987, Supreme Court nominees have mastered the art of saying very little, committing themselves to very little and Judge Barrett appears to be acting in that tradition.

There is nothing in that statement that commits her to vote one way or another on controversial issues. She talks about her background. She talks about her nine children. I mean, these are all endearing qualities, but they really don't tell you a lot about what kind of justice she's going to be. BLITZER: Yes, she does have a very, very impressive personal life or

family life and all of that. We'll see what kind of impact that has during this confirmation process.

As you know, the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer today warned that Democrats could boycott the Judiciary Committee's final vote if Republicans can't get a quorum. How do you see these things playing out because as you know, two Republican members of the Judiciary Committee are now still dealing with their own COVID?

TOOBIN: I made a mistake. It is seven children. It's not nine. It's not nine children. But, yes, it is a possibility that if there are two absences on the part of the Republicans, it is possible if the Democrats decide not to show up that there will not be a quorum.

At the moment, it looks like Mike Lee and Thom Tillis are recovering sufficiently that they will be able to show up in person and vote. But as I say, this proceeding is literally unprecedented, because so many members of the Senate are afflicted with COVID.

Now, whether they are recovered, whether they are still communicable, how -- whether they will be able to show up is uncertain, but as far as we can tell now, the Republicans do appear determined and able to come and vote and that means they'll have a quorum so they can move into the full Senate later in the month.

BLITZER: All right, I want you to standby, Jeffrey. We have more to discuss on a different issue, the former Vice President Joe Biden continuing to dodge the question of whether he supports adding seats to the U.S. Supreme Court. Does that concern voters? We'll discuss. We'll get the latest on that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:38:53]

BLITZER: We have Senate hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett set to begin tomorrow morning. Democrats are running out of options to keep President Trump's pick off the U.S. Supreme Court.

This week, Joe Biden was asked if he would try to add justices to the Supreme Court -- that's called packing the court by some -- in retaliation, but the former Vice President has repeatedly in recent days refused to give a straight answer to that question. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You'll know my opinion on court packing when the election is over.

Court packing is going on right now. It's going on with Republicans packing the court now. It's not constitutional what they're doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our political correspondent, Arlette Saenz who covers the Biden campaign for us. Arlette, is the Biden campaign showing any sign at all of offering a specific direct answer on that issue of adding seats to the U.S. Supreme Court if Judge Barrett is confirmed?

SAENZ: Well, Wolf, Joe Biden has been getting this question for several weeks and he has been sticking to that same answer saying that he is not going to talk about his position when it comes to packing the court before Election Day.

The Biden campaign argues that this is a distraction that the Trump campaign and the President are trying to put in place and that they don't believe that it's a conversation that should be dictated by what Republicans want to talk about.

And Deputy Campaign Manager, Kate Bedingfield appeared earlier today on CNN's "State of the Union" and was asked about this by Jake Tapper. Take a listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE BEDINGFIELD, DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER AND COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, BIDEN 2020 CAMPAIGN: This is a distraction that they want to throw out as a hypothetical, that they want to throw out right now to distract from the fact that they are trying to ram through a nominee who, as I said, is going to change the makeup of the court against the will of the American people.

They don't want to talk about that, so they are trying to create a distraction, and you know, send folks down a rabbit hole talking about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, one thing to note is that during the Democratic primary, Joe Biden said that he opposed adding more justices to the Supreme Court. This was an issue that was talked about a lot by his Democratic primary rivals, who several of them did want to see packing the Supreme Court happen, but Biden hasn't offered any public indication just yet, where he stands and has said that he will not give that formal answer until after the election.

Now, you have seen the Trump campaign trying to seize on this. Earlier, they held a call with some surrogates telling them to promote the fact that the former Vice President isn't talking about his answer to court packing.

So it's unlikely that this is an issue that's going to go away. But for the time being, it seems like Biden is sticking to his position of just simply not answering the question -- Wolf.

All right, Arlette, thank you very much. Arlette Saenz reporting for us.

Let's bring back our chief legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin. Once again, his new book "True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump." Jeffrey, why is this such a tough question for Joe Biden to answer. He

is on record a while ago saying he opposes adding additional seats to the U.S. Supreme Court?

TOOBIN: Well, because there's real conflict in the Democratic Party about this issue. A lot of Democrats are so furious that they believe that Mitch McConnell has stolen two seats from them. The Merrick Garland seat at the end of the of the Obama administration, and now, you know, rushing through the confirmation of Judge Barrett to replace Justice Ginsburg, that they want to use their power under the Constitution, which they have to increase the number of justices.

There's also the feeling that this is sort of an unfair game that the number of justices has been set for so long since 1869, that it is considering tampering with the structure of government.

In 1937, Franklin Roosevelt tried to increase the number of justices on the court, and it is generally considered sort of a black mark in an otherwise very successful presidency. So that tension within the Democratic Party is something the former Vice President is trying to navigate by not engaging with the issue at this point.

BLITZER: You know, the former Vice President, Jeffrey wouldn't be facing these questions if the President and the Republicans in the Senate have been so effective in confirming judicial nominees over the past four years.

Biden claims Republicans are the ones resorting to court packing, what do you make of that?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, I don't think that that is really accurate. I mean, they fill vacancies. You know, it's funny, Obama was accused of court packing when he was filling vacancies on the D.C. Circuit.

There is nothing unconstitutional or inappropriate about filling vacancies on the court, especially the lower courts and Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump have been very industrious in doing that. McConnell was also very industrious in stopping Barack Obama from confirming judges once he took control of the Senate in the last two years of Obama's presidency.

But you know, this is something Republicans have focused on much more than Democrats, which is, you know, using the power to nominate and confirm judges or stop the other side from confirming judges to extend their legacy in power.

And there's a lot of frustration about that among Democrats, and if Biden wins, and if the Democrats retake the Senate, there will be enormous pressure on Biden and the Democratic Senate to do unto others as was done to them that they will start pushing through young liberal judges to counteract what they feel is a very rightward drift in the Federal Judiciary.

BLITZER: And these are lifetime appointments, Federal judge. If you're in your late 40s like Judge Barrett right now, you could spend the next 30 or 40 years on the U.S. Supreme Court having a huge impact on day-to-day activities of the American people and it's so, so significant, indeed.

Jeffrey Toobin, thanks so much for joining us.

[19:45:08]

BLITZER: Dr. Anthony Fauci has been one of the nation's leading experts on the coronavirus pandemic and he is now saying the Trump campaign took his comments out of context. Will this impact voters' decisions with just 23 days to go until Election Day here in the United States? We have new information. We'll be right.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's get back to our top story. The new misleading campaign ad from President Trump by Dr. Anthony Fauci says they took his words out of context without his permission. The Trump campaign isn't backing down saying the ad is accurate.

I want to bring in our senior political analyst, "The Atlantic" senior editor Ron Brownstein.

Ron, thanks for joining us -- what -- we're only 23 days from the November 3rd election, is it really wise to be picking a fight with someone like Dr. Fauci at this really sensitive moment? He is probably the most trusted voice when it comes to the pandemic.

[19:50:27]

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It continues -- the astonishing decisions that this administration and the President continues to make. I mean, not only from a public health point of view, but from a political point of view, it is utterly inexplicable how he continues to flout public health guidelines in state after state where he has held rallies, how he went out and did an event at the White House so soon after his own diagnosis when consistently in polling, 60 percent of Americans say they do not believe he has taken this outbreak seriously enough from the very beginning.

And similarly on this. I mean, he is looking at polls like the ABC/Washington Post poll today where over 60 percent of Americans say they can't trust what he says on the coronavirus. Half -- almost half of Americans say they do not trust at all what he says on the coronavirus and he puts himself in a position where he is being contradicted by, as you say, someone who is who is one of the most trusted sources of information.

So he continues to kind of erode his own position on what is the most pressing issue for voters.

BLITZER: So with 62 percent of the American public, according to this ABC News/Washington Post poll, saying you can't trust what President Trump says about the coronavirus, does he still have time to win back that trust among, you know, those voters who are still undecided out there? He desperately needs them.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. No, I don't think there's much -- I don't think there's much movement. You know, we've had at the last CNN poll, 60 percent disapprove of the way he has handled the virus. In the ABC/Washington Post poll today, it was 58 percent.

There were state polls that came out today in Iowa, he was down nine to Biden on who you trust to handle it. And in Michigan and Nevada, he was down by double digits on who you trust to handle it.

I think the mold is cast here and the President again, rather than trying to deal with the public's concern from the very beginning, his posture has been to project normalcy at all costs, regardless of what's happening regardless of the public health consequences.

And I think that the actual kind of a tangible effect of that has been no matter what he says every day, it is overshadowed by the way in which he is holding these rallies. The clearest message he is sending to the public is that no matter how many people die, no matter how many people get sick and no matter how long he is in office, he will not take this seriously.

BLITZER: You've seen these new polls out there that show Biden ahead by what -- six percentage points in several key battleground states, Michigan and Nevada, specifically and in Iowa for that matter, as well, where the President will travel this week. He will be in a rally in Iowa. There's a dead tie, at least for support right now.

President Trump won there in Iowa by nearly 10 percentage points back in 2016. If he can't win Iowa, can he win the election?

BROWNSTEIN: No, no. I mean, and Iowa of course is a virtually all white state where a majority of the voters are the non-college whites who are the core of his coalition.

There is a very clear message from all of this national and state polling over the last several weeks. And the clear message is that President Trump has governed from too narrow a base from which to win this election.

You know, he is still at 60 percent among non-college whites in both the national poll today, and most of these state polls. National poll put him at 80 percent almost among white evangelicals, and he is still very strong in rural areas, and yet he is trailing in all of these battleground and national surveys because he has alienated everyone else to such an extent.

He is facing towering margins against him among voters of color and young people, and he is on track to lose between 55 and 60 percent of college educated white voters, which would be the weakest performance for a Republican presidential nominee in history polling.

You know, while we're talking tonight, there's an ad going on another show "60 Minutes" with Cindy McCain endorsing Joe Biden. And you know, we've seen about half of George W. Bush's Cabinet endorse Joe Biden and roughly half a dozen Republican governors endorsed Joe Biden, all of it kind of symbolizes the shearing away as of almost like an iceberg that is breaking off from the Republican coalition of many of these center right voters, college educated suburban voters who previously voted Republican, but cannot abide Trump's volatility, his appeals to racial prejudice and xenophobia.

And so there is something of a realignment happening here in terms of consolidating a movement of these well-educated suburbs that we saw very clearly in 2018. They're going to move even further away from the Republican Party in all likelihood in a few weeks,

BLITZER: We'll see what happens in 23 days. Ron Brownstein, as usual. Thanks so much.

Up next, amid a global pandemic, the Trump campaign put out an ad with the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci who says takes his comments out of context, that, as doctors are fearing we may -- may be at the start of a second wave of the pandemic here in the United States.

[19:55:09]

BLITZER: The next hour of this special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM starts right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BLITZER: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

[20:00:07]