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The Situation Room
U.S. Sets Record with 52,000 Plus Daily Cases; Virus Surging in 36 States ahead of July 4 Holiday; U.S. Surgeon General Warns Deaths will Lag Spiking Cases; California Cases Increase by Almost 5,700 in 24 Hours; Trump Admin Sends Mixed Messages on Avoiding Crowds; How Canada Crushed The Curve; Trump's Mt. Rushmore Speech To Blame Left- Wing Mob For Trying To "Tear Down Our History" & "Divide Our Country"; Washington Redskins To Review Team Name. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired July 03, 2020 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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Tune in this Sunday for "State of the Union." The guests, FDA commissioner, Dr. Stephen Hahn, Austin Texas mayor, Steve Adler, Iowa senator, Joni Ernst, and Illinois Democratic senator, Tammy Duckworth. It's at 9:00 a.m., at noon Eastern. Our coverage on CNN continues right now. Have a great weekend.
[17:00:40]
JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Wolf Blitzer is off today. I'm Jim Acosta and this is a SITUATION ROOM Special Report. And we're following breaking news.
President Trump is heading for Mt. Rushmore where more than 7,000 people are expected to attend a holiday event tonight but with no social distancing and masks optional. This comes as the U.S. set another record for new coronavirus cases, 52,000 in a single day, and 36 states are now suffering surges of new infections.
President Trump silent on all of this. But we're learning he continues to stoke cultural wars and intends to do so tonight. A campaign source familiar with the speech says president will focus in part on efforts to quote, "tear down our history."
We'll begin with the latest on the pandemic. CNN national correspondent Jason Carroll is in New York for us. Jason, extreme concern about the spread of the virus this holiday weekend.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim. I mean no matter how you look at it, every day this week, there's been some sort of record set whether it's been in Florida, or Texas or Arizona. And now the holiday weekend is upon us, and that has health officials especially uneasy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): Fireworks shows, parades and beach barbecues canceled from coast to coast over concerns the holiday weekend could fuel a surge in new coronavirus cases. Florida now leads the nation in the average number of new reported COVID-19 cases per day. The state announced 9,488 new cases Friday.
DR. NICHOLAS NAMIAS, JACKSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, MIAMI: The numbers are going up in the hospital. The ICU beds are filling up and it's requiring a lot of work and a lot of effort to move patients around to make a spot for the new patients, whether they're COVID or not COVID.
CARROLL (voice-over): The state's youngest victim, an 11-year-old boy from Miami-Dade County who died from COVID-19 complications.
Tonight, a 10:00 p.m. curfew goes into effect county wide to discourage holiday goers from heading out.
MAYOR DAN GELBER (D-FL), MIAMI BEACH: There is nothing more American than making a sacrifice by staying home to keep a family member safe, a neighbor safe or a stranger safe.
CARROLL (voice-over): By early Friday, crowds had already started gathering on this beach on the other side of Florida in Clearwater.
Cases are on the rise in 36 states and the U.S. hit another record Thursday. More than 50,000 cases across the country in a single day.
The nation's top infectious disease expert says there isn't just one event behind the surge.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It's very difficult to say that this particular demonstration or that particular rally or that particular holiday at a beach did it. But something happened to make the spike go way up like that.
CARROLL (voice-over): Health officials seeing record hospitalizations in California where singing and chanting in that state is now banned at houses of worship. The concerns? That the virus will be transmitted through infected, exhaled droplets. While in Texas masks are mandated in more than two-thirds of the counties in the state, the governor who, critics say, was slow to make the move now says --
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): If people gather on the fourth of July the same way they did in Memorial Day, it is going to lead to a massive increase in the number of people testing positive, the number of people who will be hospitalized, and it could lead, once again, to an increase in the number of people who lose their lives.
CARROLL (voice-over): And despite having once downplay the importance of wearing a mask, the country's surgeon general says it's imperative.
DR. JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: If you want college football in the fall, young people, please, wear a face covering. If you want prom next year, please wear a face covering. It can prevent asymptomatic spread and help us overcome this virus.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And Jim, as you recall, right after the Memorial Day weekend, health officials saw a spike in COVID-19 cases. They're hoping that people have learned their lesson since then. There have been more restrictions put in place since then, more closures, but ultimately what they say it's going to take are people basically heeding the advice of health officials, wearing those masks, practicing social distancing. Jim?
ACOSTA: CNN's Jason Carroll, thank you very much.
Let's get more on the crisis in California where CNN's Dan Simon is working that part of the story for us. Dan, you're in Santa Monica where beaches are closed. What are you seeing there?
[17:05:00]
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jim. It is a picture-perfect day here. Temperatures in the mid-70s and not a ton of people here. The beaches are closed in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura Counties. It will be up to the individual jurisdictions to enforce the closures, but as long as you don't have a ton of people out here, I doubt you'll see really anybody get any citations.
Of course, all of this comes amid the surging amount of cases that we've been seeing in California. In Los Angeles County, 1 out of 140 people are said to be infectious next week. Mayor Eric Garcetti says that could go up to 1 out of 70 people.
Meantime, Brad Spellberg, the chief medical officer for L.A. County and USC Medical Center says, ICU beds are becoming saturated. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BRAD SPELLBERG, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, LOS ANGELES COUNTY: We were seeing sort of 10, maybe 15, new patients per day that were positive coming to our emergency room. That number now is typically 20 to 25 per day. And at that rate, if that rate continues to increase, we will run out of ICU beds in particular.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON: And that's why you're seeing this major push to try to get people to wear their mask. We're now seeing cities within California issuing fines to people who get caught without wearing their mask. In West Hollywood, if you get caught, a $300 fine. In Santa Monica, the third time, if you get caught three times, $500.
So, we're talking about some serious money here. So, they're trying to get folks really to wear those masks, and of course, we saw Governor Newsom issue a PSA, very powerful PSA encouraging people to wear their face coverings. Jim, we'll send it back to you.
ACOSTA: All right. Let's hope they get their attention. CNN's Dan Simon, thank you very much.
Let's get more on all of this with epidemiologist and CNN medical analyst Dr. Larry Brilliant and CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
Elizabeth, let me go to you first. The country hit another record-high in new cases yesterday. How dangerous is that situation heading into this holiday weekend. It feels like Memorial Day weekend all over again. And one expert is even calling this a perfect storm for transmission.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, Jim. We saw what happened during Memorial Day, is that in the weeks that came after that, that the numbers went up. There is no reason to expect anything different with July 4th unless people behave differently.
But there really isn't an indication that that is the case as people get together, whether it's a group in someone's home, or a large group at a larger gathering, that is a problem. I have been saying this from the beginning, that you do not need a PhD in immunology to know that this virus thrives when people get together. The numbers go down when people are apart. It doesn't mean that you need to stay in your home, but certainly, large holiday gatherings are a real concern.
ACOSTA: And Dr. Brilliant, the surgeon general warns today that the death toll lags behind rising cases. We certainly saw that at the beginning of the pandemic here in the U.S.
So, what could we be seeing in the next few weeks? Are we going to see the death count start to go up in a dramatic way here in the U.S.?
DR. LARRY BRILLIANT, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Hi, Jim, thanks for having me.
This is a hard time. We're just about to see the peak in the death rate that comes on the heel of Memorial Day. It's Memorial Day plus three or four weeks for the illness count, and then add two, three more weeks for the unfortunate death count. That's what we're running into when we run into the fourth of July. It's like the fourth of July plus another four weeks, then we're going to be into Labor Day.
This disease is accelerated by holidays, in gatherings, and we're in the midst of our summer festivals. This is a very hard time for us.
Everybody has to wear a mask. It's your chance really to contribute to independence of our country. It's to protect us from this pandemic bringing us to our knees.
ACOSTA: Yes. And Elizabeth, a lot of Americans are deciding whether to get together for fourth of July weekend, and they're going to see President Trump hold this event with more than 7,000 people. They're not going to be doing social distancing. They're not making masks mandatory.
What sort of example does that set, and does it continue this mindset in a huge part of the country where they just don't take this seriously enough?
COHEN: Jim, it sets a terrible example. Not only are they not using masks and not requiring or not requiring masks, not requiring social distancing, but the president will be speaking at an amphitheater where the chairs -- there will be folding chairs that are zip-tied together.
ACOSTA: Wow!
COHEN: So, you are forced to sit sort of as a pack. That is a real problem. It is just amazing to me that a leader, or the leader, would have an event that forces people, basically, to be close to one another. Thousands of people. It just doesn't make sense.
[17:10:01]
There has to be some other way to celebrate our nation's birthday than by putting people in danger. And even if the people who aren't get infected there, don't get sick themselves, they will then go home and possibly give it to someone who will become very ill or will die.
And so, I think that as we move into this holiday weekend, and we each make our own decisions about what we're going to do. We should think, do I want to kill someone? Hopefully, the answer is no. why would you want to go to a large gathering or maybe you if you're young and healthy, maybe you will be fine but you will become infected, you won't know it. And you could infect your grandmother. Why would you want to kill your grandmother? That is the question that we should all be thinking about as we move into this weekend.
Nobody wants to kill their grandmother. That's what we should be thinking about as we head into this weekend.
ACOSTA: Yes. And about those, we know from talking to the Secret Service, they say that they zip-tie these chairs together so if people have to make their way out of the event quickly, the chairs don't become a hazard or an obstacle for people trying to leave the area quickly.
There you see some of the zip-ties there. But, Dr. Brilliant, it sort of sets the stage for a potential super spreader event. Does it not, if people are sitting that closely together.
BRILLIANT: It does, Jim. And just look at the rocks and look at Mt. Rushmore. Two of the four faces, Washington and Jefferson, on Mt. Rushmore got smallpox. It's a reminder that even the great and the near great of our presidents are vulnerable to this disease.
In the great influenza of 1918, the President Woodrow Wilson got the Spanish flu, the great influenza. No one is immune to a novel virus which has never hit us before for which we don't have an antiviral or a vaccine.
The thing that Elizabeth just said, think about your grandmother. Think about your family. Think about who you can carry this disease to and know that in two-weeks, yet a good vaccine, not just a vaccine. Until we get a good vaccine, that's how you affected everyone is susceptible.
That's the message for Independence Day, for the fourth of July. Wear a mask, practice social distancing, practice hygiene. Don't go together indoors with a lot of people whose immunity status you don't know.
ACOSTA: That's a great message for this holiday weekend. Dr. Larry Brilliant, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much. Really appreciate that.
Breaking news next. New details that our President Trump intends to stoke the cultural wars in a speech tonight at Mt. Rushmore.
Plus, more on the grim new record number of coronavirus cases in the U.S.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:16:58]
ACOSTA: More now on the breaking news. President Trump heading to Mt. Rushmore for July 4th event with more than 7,000 people but with no social distancing and masks optional.
Let's go to CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, the president's remarks tonight won't be your typical 4th of July speech, not a lot of unifying, it doesn't sound like in the speech.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, the president has spent the last week focusing more on protecting the statues of confederate traitors than on this coronavirus pandemic. And tonight, we expect the president to continue stoking those cultural wars. I'm told that the president will focus in his remarks on efforts to tear down our history and blame a left-wing mob for trying to divide our country.
A Trump campaign aide framed the speech for me this way, Jim, saying the president will tell the truth about America's history and he will tell the truth about those trying to tear it down and divide our country. But Jim, no matter the president's words, this 4th of July speech will come against the backdrop of what's happening around this country which is a coronavirus pandemic that is getting worse, not better.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND (voice-over): Tonight, President Trump is doing the exact opposite of what many health experts advise, drawing a crowd of thousands to celebrate Independence Day at Mt. Rushmore, even as coronavirus cases hit new records. Up to 7,500 people are expected, many of them sitting shoulder to shoulder as Trump speaks in the shadow of four former presidents.
GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R-SD): We'll be giving out free face masks if they choose to wear one, but we won't be social distancing. DIAMOND (voice-over): Just like at the president's recent campaign rally, masks won't be required. After a week spent defending confederate monuments, Trump will continue stoking the culture wars at Mt. Rushmore, warning about efforts to "tear down our history" and accusing a left-wing mob of trying to divide our country, according to a Trump campaign aide familiar with the speech.
As Trump continues to participate in large gatherings, the Surgeon General Jerome Adams waivered on whether others should do the same.
CRAIG MELVIN, HOST, "TODAY": Would you advise someone to go to a large gathering? Yes or no?
ADAMS: Well, Craig, it's not a yes or no. Every single person has to make up their own mind. They have to look at their individual risk. As you mentioned, CDC says larger gatherings are a higher risk. You have to take that into account.
DIAMOND (voice-over): But the White House's coronavirus coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, this week sending a different message. Avoid crowds.
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: In addition to the handwashing and the social distancing, wearing mask, and not having large gatherings inside. Not having large gathering outside. But if you participated in a large gathering in the last four weeks, we ask all of you to come forward and be tested.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence forced to delay a trip to Arizona this week after eight members of his Secret Service detail tested positive for coronavirus. Just the latest instance of Secret Service personnel testing positive or being forced to quarantine.
And while Dr. Anthony Fauci warns --
FAUCI: We're setting records practically every day of new cases in the numbers that are reported. That clearly is not the right direction.
[17:20:05]
DIAMOND (voice-over): President Trump insists the virus is getting under control.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And the crisis is being handled.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Falsely claiming there is a rise in coronavirus cases because our testing is so massive and so good.
The reality? Infections rising in 36 states with 52,000 new cases on Thursday alone. A new record expert say is not caused by increased testing. And despite criticizing his predecessor for golfing amid a crisis, the president today did just that, hitting the links for his 365th day at a Trump property since becoming president.
(END VIDEOTAPE) DIAMOND: And, Jim, while the thousands of people expected to attend the president's remarks at Mt. Rushmore this evening will not be social distancing, the president is having another fourth of July party at the White House tomorrow evening. And at that event, we've been told that there will be some social distancing. The attendees will be frontline healthcare workers, and the deputy White House press secretary said that they're doing it to ensure the health and safety of those attending. So, the question, Jim, is why is that not happening tonight as well? Jim?
ACOSTA: It's a very good question. CNN's Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much.
Let's get an early look at what the president will be seeing once he arrives at Mt. Rushmore. CNN's is there. Joe, what are you seeing?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, the authorities are looking for about 7,500 people to show up here at the Rushmore amphitheater. There are two levels. We're up on the balcony. We shot some pictures just a few minutes ago of what's going down on the main level. And as you can see, a lot of people there. And the other thing I think you have to take note of is, as we've been seeing people come in, there has not been a lot of examples of people wearing face coverings, hardly any at all, as a matter of fact.
There also is not going to be a lot of social distancing here as far as we can tell, and a number of reasons for that. Obviously, Trump supporters who follow the president, but also just the physical space. One of the things we noticed is there are black folding chairs here in long rows, hundreds of these chairs, for this event, and they are connected by plastic zip ties. So, people sitting in those seats are going to have a very close experience to the person sitting next to them. Why is that?
Well, we're told by the authorities it's the law, according to the fire marshal. There are concerns that if you have loose seats and there is a problem like a fire, a problem like a storm, what ends up happening is those seats can block egress for other people and perhaps even be used, for example, as a weapon. So, the fire marshal says we're not going to have seats like this that aren't connected. That's the status right now, Jim. Back to you.
ACOSTA: All right, Joe Johns, thank you very much. Let's talk about all of this with CNN senior political analyst David Gergen and the "New York Times" White House correspondent Michael Shear.
Michael, let me start with you first. Amid this new peak in the coronavirus cases, the president golfed this morning and he's heading for this huge, as Joe Johns was describing, non-socially distancing event tonight. What does that tell you about his priorities right now?
MICHAEL SHEAR, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Look, I think one of the things that's most striking is how discordant the president's - the message that the president is sending is with the rest of the sort of public health community out there. The -- you know, the president, as you well know, Jim, has an incredible bully pulpit. There is no platform, no single person has a bigger platform to tell the American people to send a message to the American people about what they should do. And the fact that most of the public health community, and frankly, a lot of the president's own political allies, Republican governors are beginning to send a very different message about the need to wear masks, about the need to stay socially distant, even going so far as to tell people to stay home on a very popular holiday weekend.
And instead of reinforcing that, the message that the president is sending this evening and, you know, it's really no surprise given where he's been for the last several months, but the message is one of ignoring all of that, and they can say that they're handing out masks, but you and I know that most of the people in the event tonight won't be wearing them. They'll be sitting close to each other, and I think that's you know a big concern for the people who, like Dr. Fauci and like Dr. Birx and others, who are monitoring what is going on with this virus.
ACOSTA: And we know the White House is keeping people like Dr. Fauci off the national TV networks right now. We've been reporting that today.
David Gergen, the surgeon general punted today when asked if people should attend large gatherings like the one that the president is hosting, but Dr. Deborah Birx just yesterday was urging people who have attended big gatherings to go get tested.
[17:25:09]
Our members of the administration on the same page here. The surgeon general who is one of the most senior health officials in the country speaking honestly about this.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Michael is absolutely right. It's very discordant. The messages coming out of the White House. The health people are saying one thing, the president saying quite another. In effect, the president is sabotaging the whole effort to open up and ordering people to be careful, go with masks and everything else.
But I think what is so offensive, he kind of goes beyond that. What is so offensive about this (INAUDIBLE) tonight. You know, Mt. Rushmore, as long are four American heroes. But those presidents up there in relief. Each one of them would have been appalled by what's going on here. You think of Washington, he's a unifier, so as Jefferson, especially Lincoln, and also, Teddy Roosevelt. They were not dividers.
And to have this July 4th be used and exploited by the president would appall them. And beyond that, of course, there's the racial issue working in the background. You know for the last three or four weeks, we've been talking about the grievances that people of color especially have and Americans have, and how they've been mistreated in history.
Think now about a president going to a monument with four white male faces. It's not just in keeping it. As much as we honor people up there, there's something offensive. It's almost like you're giving the finger to the whole argument and the conversation we're trying to have about race in the country now.
ACOSTA: But not to his base. And Michael Shear, tonight's event, as David was just alluding to, is expected to blame the left as his campaign officials are describing it, for dividing the country, so they say, and trying to tear down the country's history. In any other administration, this event would be an opportunity to unite the country. Ronald Reagan would not give a speech like this, for example, with nearly 130,000 dead from the coronavirus. What do you make of the president delivering this very divisive message tonight?
SHEAR: Well, look, I mean, I think, you know as David well knows because he served presidents in both parties, you know, presidents from Bush to Clinton to Reagan, I mean have tried, especially in the months leading up to a reelection campaign, have tried to broaden their base, broaden their appeal to beyond just a base of voters and to sort of be a president of all America. That's both, you know, a good policy, but it's also good politics in most presidential campaigns.
And what you have instead in President Trump is a president and a campaign and a core of advisers around him who seem to have no interest in even making the attempt at that broadening. Instead what they do is double down on the very hardcore base that has sort of been with the president for a long time, and that means stoking the culture wars that amp up and rev up that base. And whether that has been -- it reminds me of taking a knee, and at the football games, it reminds me of the immigration agenda that the president has used and the scaring folks with caravans of -- migrant caravans coming up for the 2018 elections, and he's doing it again this time.
And you know I think the real question is whether it's going to be successful for him, and I think there is a lot of reason to think that it just won't this time, because it doesn't add to the number of people who are his supporters.
ACOSTA: All right. David Gergen, Michael Shear, very insightful commentary on all of this. Thank you very much.
Coming up, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is expecting thousands of visitors this holiday weekend despite a warning, it's a "petri dish" for the coronavirus. I'll speak with the city's mayor.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:33:58]
ACOSTA: The Fourth of July weekend promises to send a wave of travelers to South Carolina's Grand Strand of beaches but this year the fun comes with a big dose of anxiety because of the coronavirus.
Joining us now is the Mayor of Myrtle Beach, Brenda Bethune. Mayor, thank you so much for joining us. Since reopening, conditions in Myrtle Beach have been described as a petri dish for the virus. I'm sure you don't like to hear that as the mayor, but outbreaks have been linked to the city and other states are warning residents not to travel to your area. I'm sure you've heard that as well. Given all of that, can you really say visitors will be safe this holiday weekend at Myrtle Beach?
MAYOR BRENDA BETHUNE, MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA: Well, I don't think that any city can guarantee absolute safety in a situation like this. We do have thousands of people coming this weekend. And without knowing where they're coming from and where they have been and who they've been around, there's no way to guarantee that. But we are doing all that we can and I believe that people spread this virus that's been proven, not places. So we enacted a massive order yesterday to try to prevent further spread and control it.
[17:35:06]
And you say you're expecting thousands, maybe over 100,000. And I know you have a new mask ordinance, but are you planning any other measures to deal with this huge influx of crowds? I mean, one of the problems I suppose, is that people don't want to wear the mask because what they hear on TV from, you know, certain leaders in this country and so on.
BETHUNE: You're exactly right. And that is a concern, is a great concern. We do have extra law enforcement in town from other areas of the state helping us. We are working on compliance and education and getting the messaging out. And our regulatory teams are out working with big box retailers, shopping malls and things like that, to educate the business owners, the retailers as well as the community.
ACOSTA: Is there a part of you though that worries that, you know, by drawing all of these people there to Myrtle Beach that you're going to -- your city is going to, in part, be responsible for people getting sick, cases skyrocketing in that area? How do you wrestle with that?
BETHUNE: Well, as I said, people spread this virus and we can't stop people from coming here. But we all have personal responsibility in helping to prevent the spread of this virus. So ...
ACOSTA: So -- but you're keeping the beaches open, you're allowing the people to come there and congregating, you're not going to be able to stop everybody from crowding together on the beach. And you're not going to be able to force people to wear masks on the beach, I suppose. So how do you deal with that?
BETHUNE: Actually, our beaches have been very well maintained since we opened back up and that's because of our beach patrol, our fire department and our lifeguards working cohesively together. Very few issues on the beaches. Now in our main entertainment corridor, yes, we do have crowds and that is where we have an influx of police officers and regulatory units to help control those crowds as well.
ACOSTA: All right. We wish you luck and hope everybody stay safe down there. Mayor Brenda Bethune is telling everybody down there to pay attention to these new mask ordinances and listen to local authorities down there. So we hope they do that. Thank you, Mayor. We appreciate you coming on.
Coming up --
BETHUNE: Thank you.
ACOSTA: -- why Canada is crushing the coronavirus curve while its next door neighbor, that is the United States, is not.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:42:14]
ACOSTA: The U.S. is the current epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, but it's a very different reality just across the border in Canada. CNN's Paula Newton has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Canada, it's been a hallmark of the pandemic, empty hospitals. The feared wave of COVID patients never happened. Canada started out much like the United States. But as the COVID curve climbed, Canada crushed it.
Now seeing on average, just a few hundred new positive cases a day. That means right now, the U.S. is reporting more than 10 times more positive cases per capita than Canada. And yet no one here is declaring mission accomplished,
JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: What the situation we're seeing in the United States and elsewhere highlights for us is that even as our economy is reopening, we need to make sure we are continuing to remain vigilant individually and collectively.
NEWTON (voice-over): Vigilance has been the watchword early and widespread testing of free health care system still building surge capacity, longer shutdowns, slower reopening, social distancing, and there is no controversy over wearing masks. Most see it as their duty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wear it for myself and others. It protects them for me and me from them. Just it's -- just respectable, like being respectful to other people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The right (ph) from the top down, they're leading by example in terms of their use of mask.
NEWTON (voice-over): British Columbia's top doctor acted as the country's early warning system successfully managing the very first outbreaks and proving it could be done.
DR. BONNIE HENRY, PROVINCIAL HEALTH OFFICER FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA: A lot of it comes down to cohesiveness, being able to provide the information that people needed to do what we needed them to do. And that has held up as we've gone into opening up things again, people still are adhering to the basics to try and ensure that we still keep each other safe.
NEWTON (voice-over): Dr. Henry points to something else that was critical, keeping politics out of the response. Here's a conservative leader praising the liberal Deputy Prime Minister.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chrystia Freeland, what can I say? She's an absolute champion.
NEWTON (voice-over): It would be like a Democratic governor calling Vice President Mike Pence, their hero.
HENRY: In general, we were all coming together. We have the same basic information for people and the politicians made the right decisions based on advice and that helped us.
NEWTON (voice-over): Also critically important, the U.S.-Canada border remains close to all but essential travel, and anyone entering Canada right now must quarantine for 14 days. And the E.U. has deemed Canadians as safe for entry, unlike Americans.
And yet here too, missteps have had tragic consequences. More than 8,500 people have died. The vast majority of the deaths link to crowded and poorly staffed seniors homes.
[17:45:09]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seen a lot of bad stuff happened, but I don't remember anything with this level of sadness.
NEWTON (voice-over): Prime Minister Trudeau admits it's been a national shame. And in that contrition, Canadians see a willingness to recalibrate the country's response to the virus based on unwavering deference to science.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Yes, Jim, at every turn, they have tried to defer the science. I mean, Jim, I don't want to act as if the response in Canada was perfect. It wasn't and thousands of Canadians have paid the price especially Canadian seniors. But when things weren't going right, even in nursing homes, they call them the military. Not a perfect solution, but a realization that they had made a mistake.
And the differences are really stark. You know, tomorrow's Fourth of July, Canada Day was on Wednesday. On Canada Day, Justin Trudeau went to a food bank and that was it. The celebrations had moved online months ago. And now, you know, in terms of what they're dealing with today and tomorrow, so many health professionals worried about the repercussions of July 4th.
And I can tell you, Jim, there are a lot of Americans very close to that Canadian border watching this right now and thinking, why not us? Why could we not crush that curve?
ACOSTA: Absolutely. And when we just showed that graph a few moments ago, Paula, you may not be able to see it on your end. The contrast between the United States and Canada, separated only by a border. But it seems so much more these days as our curve is skyrocketing, and the one up in Canada is flat lining.
Paula Newton, thank you very much for us, taking us up to see how things are going up in Canada. We appreciate it.
Coming up next, President Trump planning to speak tonight about efforts to, quote, tear down our history. I'll talk to one mayor whose city is taking down its Confederate statues.
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ACOSTA: President Trump intending to stoke cultural wars tonight at Mount Rushmore. A campaign source familiar with the speech says the President will focus in part on efforts to, quote, tear down our history.
Let's get more with Richmond, Virginia Mayor Levar Stoney. Mayor, thanks so much for joining us. You've had Confederate statues coming down in your city. You've been presiding over that. Meanwhile, President Trump is resolved to protect them. And tonight at Mount Rushmore, he's expected to argue that the left is tearing down the country's history. That's the way the campaign is putting it. How do you respond to that?
MAYOR LEVAR STONEY, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA: Well, first, I will tell the President I've taken down -- begun taking down mountain monuments in my city because of a public safety hazard. For years now, people have gathered there to support hate, bigotry, things of that nature. And that's not the city we are any longer. And so, starting July 1, we began taking down monuments here in the city of Richmond.
My number one responsibility as a Mayor, and as the Emergency Management Director is to protect life and property. And that's what began doing. But also number two, I would say those monuments have been up for 100 years too long. And in a time where we need to be uniting as one people, the President has chosen to, once again, be the divider in chief. And that's not what we need right now in this country.
And so, when I think about those monuments, those are the symbols of racist symbols and also symbols of the Confederacy. We have to do -- we have to go the extra mile to rip out a systemic racism from our governments, from health care, from our legal system, from our criminal justice system. Removing monuments is just the start.
ACOSTA: And what does it tell you that the President plans to blame the left were dividing the country in an event to celebrate our country's independence?
STONEY: Yes, you know, this is I think the President has obviously failed on many occasions recently. We all should not be surprised that this is a part of his playbook. He's been using the same playbook from day one. I think about what the President said back in 2016, to black and brown people. He said that, you know, what do you have to lose? Both for me, what do you have to lose?
For the course of the last three and a half years, we've come to find out what we have to lose. Thousands of black and brown people have lost their life because of COVID-19 and the pandemic. And we've seen his mismanagement there. We've seen babies being potentially caged at the border.
So when you ask what we have to lose, this playbook that keeps on running over and over again, we are very familiar with it right now. And if whether you consider yourself a liberal or you're black and brown, we know exactly what he means.
ACOSTA: And the Washington Redskins today announced a review of the team's name, which many consider to be a racial slur. I know there are a lot of fans in Virginia, especially down in Richmond. Their training camp is held in the city of Richmond. They're using a different area in Northern Virginia because of the coronavirus. Is it time to change the name of the Washington Redskins do you believe?
STONEY: You know, I've seen the NFL over the last couple weeks step up. They were a little bit behind when it comes to Colin Kaepernick, you know, and Colin Kaepernick, his peaceful protest and taking the knee. And I'm glad they finally have arrived to the moment where now they see that a systemic racism is real and they participated in it.
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And you know what, the Washington Redskins' name should be changed as well. I think that's long overdue as well. I think people are looking for something totally different. People can still enjoy football, the NFL without a racial name like the Redskins.
ACOSTA: And there are probably plenty of good alternatives out there. Mayor Levar Stoney, James Madison graduate as well, thank you very much for joining us.
STONEY: Go Dukes.
ACOSTA: We hope we could have you forth. Go Dukes.
Coming up, 52,000 new cases in a single day and fears of many more infections this holiday weekend. The latest on the coronavirus pandemic next.
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ACOSTA: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world.
