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Trump Believes Coronavirus Pandemic Under Control; President Trump Holds Press Briefing; Trump Again Falsely Claims U.S. Has One Of The Lowest Coronavirus Mortality Rates; At Least 78 Killed, Thousands Injured In Beirut Explosion. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired August 04, 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]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We 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 breaking news.
We're standing by for President Trump to take questions from reporters at the coronavirus briefing. There's certainly a lot to ask about, after he gave a stunning new interview in which he seemed to show a very disturbing lack of knowledge about this deadly pandemic and a lack of empathy at the same time.
He essentially shrugged off the rising U.S. death toll by saying, "It is what it is."
This is what the pandemic is right now. New deaths are rising in 27 states. More than 156, 000 Americans are dead, and more than 4.7 million Americans have been infected.
Let's go straight to our national correspondent, Erica Hill.
Erica, there's breaking news on the vaccine front amidst all of this.
ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, there is.
We're hearing from a third company, Novavax, that says its phase one trials have shown that its vaccine is safe and that participants actually developed some immunity to the virus. In fact, they say participants developed a four times higher antibodies on average than people who had recovered from COVID-19.
Now, what is important to point out here is that this data has not yet been reviewed by other scientists. We know how important that is. But this is just another reminder of the hope that people have in a vaccine as they wait for something to help, because, at this point, as those numbers show, Wolf, the virus is basically out of control.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. JAY VARKEY, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Our national response to this pandemic should be a national embarrassment. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's under control, as
much as you can control it.
VARKEY: The data that actually comes from the White House Task Force backs up exactly what Dr. Birx said. There is uncontrolled spread in over 32 states in the country.
HILL (voice-over): Six months into this pandemic, the virus is not under control, despite the president's claims, cases surging in Southern Illinois.
GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): The data can tell you if you're winning or losing against the virus. Unfortunately, right now, the virus is winning in Jackson County.
HILL: Early gains giving way to spikes in San Francisco.
FELIX CASTILLO, BUS DRIVER: People pretty much finding complacency. They weren't scared anymore of what was going on.
HILL: And while there are some bright spots -- California's positivity rate is declining, and 14 states, including Arizona and Florida, are seeing a dip in new cases over the past week -- of the 28 states in yellow, those holding steady, many are plateauing at a very high level.
DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH: I think these new levels are going to make what we have had already seemed like, boy, I wish we were back in the old days.
HILL: Deaths, which lag by at least two to four weeks, are rising in 27 states, Arkansas and West Virginia seeing record hospitalizations, Atlanta's Georgia World Congress Center now a surge hospital again.
KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D), MAYOR OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA: It saddens me that we are still heading in the wrong direction so many months after we had an opportunity to get on the other side of COVID-19.
HILL: In Georgia's largest school district, 260 employees can't work because they have either tested positive or been exposed to the virus. Two new studies suggest testing and contact tracing, still lacking, are the key to reopening schools.
KELLEY FISHER, TEACHER: We don't want to endanger one student, one teacher, one support professional, one community member.
HILL: Teachers in one Phoenix district calling on the governor to issue statewide safety mandates, as Arizona's top education official warns it's unlikely any school in that state will be able to reopen safely for in-person or hybrid learning.
DR. AMY COMPTON-PHILLIPS, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: If you just look at the facts, the U.S. has about 4 percent of the world's population and about a quarter of the cases, 25 percent of the cases. We definitely have a problem here in the U.S. (END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: When we look at schools, too, we know how important getting kids back to school is in terms of getting parents back to work.
In fact, some economists at Goldman Sachs have put out a note saying they're concerned that the next group who are at risk for losing their jobs are parents. Single parents, those with young children, and those who can't work from home, they say are the most at risk when there's a lack of child care.
And pre-pandemic, according to that note, Wolf, about a third of the U.S. work force had children at home.
BLITZER: Erica Hill reporting for us -- Erica, thank you.
Now, President Trump, we're standing by for him to take reporters' questions, after that jaw-dropping new attempt to claim the pandemic here in the United States is under control, when, clearly, it is not.
Let's go to our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.
Jim, the president keeps contradicting his own top health experts. He contradicts the facts as well.
[18:05:00]
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf.
And an administration official tells CNN, others on the White House Coronavirus Task Force agree with Dr. Deborah Birx's stark assessment that we heard over the weekend that the pandemic in the U.S. has entered a new phase and that COVID-19 has become -- quote -- "extraordinarily widespread."
President Trump lashed out at Birx after she made that remark, but it's the president's latest comments on the virus that are raising questions about his grasp on reality. The president is insisting the virus is -- quote -- "under control, " telling the news site Axios, "It is what it is."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): For President Trump, each appearance in front of the cameras brings another departure from reality on the coronavirus.
The latest example, his interview with Axios. Asked about the soaring number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., the president says, it is what it is.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's under control. I will tell you what.
JONATHAN SWAN, AXIOS: How? A thousand Americans are dying a day.
TRUMP: They are dying. That's true. And it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control, as much as you can control it.
ACOSTA: The president tried to insist the data is on his side. But that argument fell flat too.
SWAN: I'm talking about death as a proportion of population. That's where the U.S. is really bad, much worse than South Korea.
TRUMP: No, because you have to go by the cases.
ACOSTA: In Mr. Trump's world, the U.S. is leading in its response.
(on camera): Why does the U.S. have so many deaths compared to so many other countries around the world?
TRUMP: We haven't been given -- and not me. I'm not talking about me. The vice president, the task force have not been given the kind of credit. The United States has done an amazing job, a great job.
ACOSTA (voice-over): But that's not true, which is why the president hammered the coordinator of his Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Deborah Birx, for acknowledging reality.
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: What we're seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread.
ACOSTA: After slamming her comments as -- quote -- "pathetic, " a remark that left Birx feeling stung, Mr. Trump up here to dial back his criticism.
TRUMP: I think we're doing very well. I told Dr. Birx, I think we're doing very well. She was in my office a little while ago. She's a person I have a lot of respect for.
ACOSTA: The president is also taking some personal jabs at the late civil rights icon John Lewis, who was laid to rest last week.
TRUMP: He chose not to come to my inauguration. He chose -- I don't -- I never met John Lewis, actually, I don't believe.
SWAN: Do you find him impressive?
TRUMP: I can't say one way or the other. I find a lot of people impressive.
Nobody has done more...
SWAN: Right. But back to...
TRUMP:... for black Americans than I have.
SWAN: I understand.
TRUMP: He should've come. I think he made a big mistake.
ACOSTA: The president is reversing himself on the subject of voting by mail, at least in Florida, after blasting the practice in the past, tweeting: "Whether you call it vote by mail or absentee voting, in Florida, the election system is safe and secure, tried and true. So, in Florida, I encourage all to request a ballot and vote by mail."
CNN has learned, Florida Republicans appeal to the president to back off. White House officials insist, Mr. Trump is being consistent.
QUESTION: And will he admit now what is the fact, that voting across the country by mail is safe and secure and tried and true?
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, the president has always said that absentee voting for a reason is different than mass mail-out voting like what Nevada is seeking to do, which leads to mass fraud.
QUESTION: But it's the same thing.
MCENANY: And, also, and I'd refer you to the campaign on this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now, as for negotiations on a new coronavirus relief bill, a White House official said aides to the president are eying various proposals for Mr. Trump to take executive action should both sides in Congress fail to reach an agreement by the end of the week.
There are also signs of divisions inside the administration. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, they were both telling Republican senators behind closed doors today that they are on the same page when it comes to a deal.
And as for how the virus is impacting operations over here at the White House, we should report National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien is back on the job. He tested positive for COVID-19 last month -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Glad he's back. Thanks very much for that, Jim Acosta. Appreciate it.
Let's get some more in all of this.
Joining us now, our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Sanjay, the president says this pandemic is under control. But deaths are rising in 27 states. We're still seeing surges of new cases. States that are leveling off, they're leveling off plateauing at a very high level of infection.
Does this look to you like a crisis here in the United States that's under control?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, Wolf, I mean, this is clearly not under control.
I mean, we're seeing this roller-coaster-like pattern happen across the country. I mean, the story of what happened on the coast, coast areas first, and then now happening in the South, and then moving now, we see, to other states around the country, the concern is that the pandemic or the epidemic, at least in the United States, may not be slowing down. It's just sort of moving around place to place.
A place starts to redline. Maybe some protective measures go into place, and you see the epidemic, the outbreak sort of move to other parts of the country.
[18:10:02]
So, it's pretty clear that it's not under control. What's striking to me Wolf, is just, because we don't have full eyes on this, we don't know the extent of this.
There could be five to 10 times as many people infected as have even been counted. So, we don't even know what we don't know at this point in terms of how bad the problem is.
BLITZER: Yes, they may have been asymptomatic or having very minor symptoms and they never bothered to get a test.
The president also says -- and it's pretty amazing -- "It is what it is, " as more than 1, 000 Americans have been dying for so many days. As a physician, what do you make of that flippant attitude toward human life?
GUPTA: Look, Wolf, I mean, these are -- you look at this, and part of you says, obviously, this is a bad virus, very contagious virus, but so many of these deaths are preventable, Wolf.
I mean, I have known people who've died of this now. Yes, I can't imagine what those families thought when they hear "It is what it is" with regard to their loved one's death.
So, I mean, I'm a doctor. So you can imagine what my attitude would be toward this.
This was not inevitable, Wolf, this situation. It is true it is a bad, contagious, lethal virus, an act of Mother Nature that has circumnavigated the globe and wreaked all kinds of destruction, like a storm, like a viral storm. But as bad as it's been in the United States, it didn't need to be like this.
I mean, there were things that we could have done and, hopefully, Wolf, still things that we can do to try and slow this down and mitigate those deaths.
BLITZER: Yes, the president keeps suggesting the U.S. has done a great job over these past five or six months in dealing with this.
But, clearly, there's been a major failure over these past five or six months, especially, Sanjay, when you compare how we have dealt with this, the United States, compared to other countries in Europe or in Asia, right?
GUPTA: Yes, I mean, look at just most countries, frankly. I mean, there's a few that you will point to, Brazil and Russia, and
say, we're on par with them, but most Asian countries, almost the entire European Union, not every single country, but if you look at the E.U. as a whole, the population is greater than the United States, and they have done a much better job in terms of bringing those numbers down.
They were faced with some of the same challenges we were. They had significant spikes early on, but they were able to implement basic public health measures, Wolf. I mean, people want the home run, touchdown vaccine therapeutic. Everybody wants that.
But there's a lot of really good singles and doubles and triples that could make a huge difference. I mean, we talk about this all the time. And I don't mean to sound silly saying it over and over again, but wearing a mask, physically distancing, staying away from crowded indoor places, washing your hands a lot and avoiding large crowds.
If, Wolf, you just told everyone to do this for three weeks, forget if someone's asking you to do it at a policy level or whatever, if every American just did this for three weeks, we'd be in a totally different place by the end of this month.
But we just can't seem to get there still, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, it's really, really sad.
Sanjay, as parents all across the country are now trying to decide whether to send their kids back to school, we're learning very disturbing news. Two Florida teenagers have just died from this virus. This is a reminder that, while young people tend to fare so much better against the virus than adults, there is still a real risk out there, right?
GUPTA: Yes, I mean, the risk is lower for younger people, but it's not zero.
And the thing about risk is that you say it's one in 1, 000. That's not the number. But I'm just saying, whatever the risk is, if you start to have more and more young people infected, you will see more people getting sick, more young people getting sick and dying.
The risk is still low. But if you start to have so many younger people actually getting infected with this virus, we're going to hear tragic stories like this. And, look, I got a 15-, 13- and 11-year-old. Those are my kids.
So now they're hearing about these stories of kids that are their age that are going getting sick and dying of this. I mean, it leaves an impression on people, for sure. And I think it needs to help guide us in terms of how we move forward.
BLITZER: Sanjay Gupta, thanks, as usual, for joining us. I should say Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
I want you to stand by. We're going to need you. We're waiting to hear what the president has to say in response to reporters' questions. We will get your thoughts as well.
And, of course, we will have coverage of the president's Q&A with reporters.
We're also digging deeper into his jaw-dropping new interview and what he apparently fails to grasp about the coronavirus.
And we will have the latest on that truly powerful explosion that rocked a major capital city -- we're talking about Beirut, Lebanon -- and the death and the chaos that followed.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:19:02]
BLITZER: We are standing by for President Trump to take reporters' questions at his coronavirus briefing, this as we're getting a new window into his thinking on the pandemic that's both startling and disturbing.
Let's break it all down.
Joining us now, our Chief Political Analyst, Gloria Borger, our senior political commentator, David Axelrod, and CNN contributor and biology professor Erin Bromage.
David, in that interview with Axios -- all of us have seen it now -- the president was pressed on his response to this pandemic. I want to play one little clip involving his stunning response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think it's under control. I will tell you what.
SWAN: How? A thousand Americans are dying a day.
TRUMP: They are dying. That's true. And it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control, as much as you can control it.
This is a horrible plague that beset us.
SWAN: You really think this is as much as we can control it, 1, 000 deaths a day?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[18:20:00]
BLITZER: "It is what it is, " David, that's the president's response to nearly 1, 000 Americans dying each day.
If you didn't see it on video, it would be almost hard to believe, right?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The entire interview, but that in particular, Wolf.
Look, part of the problem, the president standing at the podium right now. And every day he stands up and he reads a script that is written for him. And it generally tries to tell the country that he's taking it seriously, we're moving in the right direction.
But whenever he ad libs, or whenever he's in an interview situation, you get a real window into how he's thinking about this. And he is so desperate to spin what is plainly not a success into a success that he is blithe about the loss of 1, 000 Americans a day.
And that absence of empathy, that absence of connection, that absence of recognition of the tragedy that people are going through is really stunning, but so too is the dissonance between this attempt to try and show the president involved and in control, and a president who seems completely oblivious to the realities around him.
BLITZER: You know, Gloria, the president says -- and I'm quoting now, when he says, "We're doing everything we can."
Is he essentially throwing up his hands at this moment?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I think he's thrown up his hands throughout this entire pandemic.
And when his science advisers like Deborah Birx try to tell the truth, Tony Fauci, try to tell the truth -- Birx did over the weekend, when she was talking about the severity of what is now occurring in this country -- he called her pathetic.
So what you have is Donald Trump reading off of the script, trying to convince the country, yes, we're -- things are going great. We're doing everything we can. Things are heading in the right direction. We're moving in the right direction.
And then you have his science advisers saying, wait a minute, it's not. We have major problems here. And so, what does the president do? He contradicts them when he goes off-script in front of a camera. And he takes pity on himself, because, of course, he believes -- and I think rightly so -- that the way he has handled the pandemic is hurting his reelection.
I mean, it took him -- how long did it take him, Wolf, to finally acknowledge that you ought to wear a mask? And now he's fund-raising, saying, wearing masks are patriotic.
It took him a long time to even acknowledge that basic fact.
BLITZER: Yes. If he would have said right at the beginning what his advisers were saying...
BORGER: Yes.
BLITZER: ... his health care -- wear a mask, it's going to save a lot of lives, and it could have saved a lot of lives if he had done so, told his supporters out there, just wear a mask. It's not that complicated.
BORGER: Sure.
BLITZER: Erin, I want you to watch another rather puzzling exchange in this Axios interview, where the president tries to explain why he thinks the U.S. is doing better than other countries. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Take a look at some of these charts.
SWAN: I would love to.
TRUMP: OK? We're going to look.
SWAN: Let's look.
TRUMP: And, if you look at death per...
SWAN: Yes. It's started to go up again.
TRUMP: Here is one. Well, right here, United States is lowest in numerous categories. We're lower than the world.
SWAN: Lower than the world?
TRUMP: We're lower than Europe.
SWAN: What does that mean? In what? In what?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Take a look right there. Here is case death.
SWAN: Oh, you're doing death as a proportion of cases. I'm talking about death as a proportion of population. That's where the U.S. is really bad, much worse than South Korea, Germany, et cetera.
TRUMP: You can't do that.
SWAN: Why can't I do that?
TRUMP: You have to go by -- you have to go by where -- look, here is the United States. You have to go by the cases.
Here's one right here, United States. You take the number of cases.
(CROSSTALK)
SWAN: OK.
TRUMP: Now, look, we're last meaning we're first.
SWAN: Last? I don't know what we're first in.
TRUMP: Take a look again. It's cases. SWAN: OK.
TRUMP: And we have cases because of the testing.
SWAN: I mean, 1, 000 thousand Americans die a day. But, I understand. I understand, on cases, it's different.
TRUMP: No, but you're not reporting it correctly, Jonathan.
SWAN: I think I am, but...
TRUMP: If you take a look at this other chart, look, this is our testing. I believe this is the testing. Yes.
SWAN: Yes, we do more tests.
TRUMP: Now, wait a minute. Well, don't we get credit for that?
And, because we do more tests, we have more cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: I think Jonathan Swan did an excellent job, and he is reporting it accurately.
Erin, the president makes this argument all the time. There's a lot of testing. As a result, there are more cases.
But set the record straight for us.
ERIN BROMAGE, PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS DARTMOUTH: Well, he can't have it both ways.
He complains about, because we're testing so much, we have so many cases. But when you start looking at death per case, then it makes it look better.
So he's trying to have his cake and eating it too here. Yes, we are testing a lot, and we're identifying a lot more cases than other nations are. But when you look at the mortality statistics, the number of Americans that have died in the total population of America, it is terrible.
[18:25:00]
We are not leading the world there in only but the worst sense. He's really misguided about how he's using the statistics and trying to mislead people in the direction that makes it look better, rather than what the real situation is.
BLITZER: You know, Gloria, is the president simply incapable of grasping this reality of the situation? Or is he choosing not to face reality? How do you see it?
BORGER: Well, Wolf, what was sort of striking to me as you ran that piece of tape was that the president seemed to be holding all of these pieces of paper and handed them over to Jonathan Swan, as if they should be self-explanatory.
But when Jonathan Swan questioned him on it, he had a bit of difficulty saying what he meant to say, which is, we're winning. We're winning, aren't we?
And then Swan said, well, no, that's not per capita. That's...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: All right, hold on, Gloria, for a moment.
BORGER: And...
BLITZER: The president is answering reporters' questions.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
QUESTION: ... SEC is now investigating what happened. Can you say a word or two whether you think that there might have been some kind of a problem in terms of how those arrangements were made? Is there any grounds for concern, from your perspective?
TRUMP: Well, I don't know. I wasn't involved in the deal. The concept of the deal is good, but I will let you know. We'll -- we'll do a little study on that, and we'll find out.
QUESTION: OK. And...
TRUMP: If there's -- if there is any problem, we'll let you know about it very quickly, but I wasn't involved in it.
It's a big deal. It's a way of bringing back a great area, too, in addition to the pharmaceuticals. Kodak has been a great name, but obviously pretty much in a different business. And so we'll see what that's all about, but we'll -- we'll let you know very quickly.
Yes, please.
QUESTION: I just wanted to follow up, before I ask a coronavirus question, on Lebanon. You called this an attack. Are you confident that this was an attack and not an accident?
TRUMP: Well, it would seem like it, based on the explosion. I have met with some of our great generals, and they just seem to feel that it was. This was not a -- some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a -- seems to be, according to them -- they would know better than I would, but they seem to think it was a attack. It was a bomb of some kind. Yes.
QUESTION: Interesting. And, on coronavirus, you've talked a lot about -- when you talk about the mortality rate, the deaths as a proportion of cases, which -- I understand that is significant when you look at how deadly the virus is or how good a country does at keeping people alive...
TRUMP: Right. QUESTION: -- who get infected. But when you're talking about the scope
of this virus, when you look at the percentage of the population that's died, there's only three countries that have more deaths than the U.S. So how do you explain that: that -- why the percentage of the population who has died is so much higher in the U.S.?
TRUMP: Well, I think, actually, the numbers are lower than others. I will get back to you on that. But we, proportionately, are lower than almost all countries. We're at the bottom of the list.
And we're -- relative to cases, also, we're at the bottom of the list, which is a good thing, being at the bottom of the list. But I can get back to you. We have about four or five different lists on that. And we're, generally speaking, at the very bottom of the list. So, I will get back to you.
QUESTION: Because when I -- when I look at the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center on their Web site, it says the most affected countries, when you look at deaths per 100, 000 people of the population -- so how many people in the population have died -- you have the UK, Peru, Chile, and then the U.S.
You know, Canada has 8, 000, 9, 000 deaths. Obviously, they're smaller than us, but that's only 6 percent of the population. You know, that's 6 percent of our total cases. So why are the deaths so much higher in the U.S.?
TRUMP: Well, a lot of our numbers were based on the -- New York had a very tough time, as you know. New York, New Jersey -- that area. And when you take them out -- just as an example, take a look at Florida, relative to New York.
That's not to say anything wrong with New York. It was just a very tough place. People are close together. It's crowded. it's not easy.
But when you take that out, our numbers are among the lowest. And even with it in -- I will get back to you, but we have among the lowest numbers. They've done a fantastic job on it.
Yes, please. Go ahead.
QUESTION: Yes, Mr. President. I would like to ask a question about the election, but one thing on unemployment first. Are you considering taking executive action to extend or, rather, reinstate the unemployment benefits that expired last week, if Congress can't get a deal by the end of the week?
TRUMP: Yes.
QUESTION: And, as a general point, what rate, then, would you want in there -- a percentage or a flat rate?
TRUMP: We are looking at it. We're also looking at various other things that I'm allowed to do under the system, and -- such as the payroll tax suspension. And so we're allowed to do things. We're talking with the Democrats. They seem to be much more interested
in solving the problems of some of the Democrat-run states and cities that have suffered greatly through bad management, I mean, really bad management.
[18:30:02]
So that seems to be whether they're looking for a trillion dollars to help out with cities that are run by Democrats, in some case, radical left Democrats that have not done a good job. I appreciate today
"The Wall Street Journal" said very good things, that we did a great job in Portland by having our people go in Homeland Security, Chad Wolf and the folks. We went to Portland and we've done a great job. And they had that in an editorial that we really won that situation.
But we want the whole -- we did save the courthouse. The courthouse was going to be burned or knocked down. It was in tremendous danger. We went in. We took care of it. And we appreciated what The Wall Street Journal said.
As far as the various things that I may or may not sign, I may not have to sign. I mean, progress has been made, as you know, very well on the Hill. Let's see what happens. But I have the right, including the payroll tax suspension, we may do some things.
We wanted to take care of eviction problem. People are being evicted very unfairly. It's not their fault. It's China's fault. It's not their fault. And people are being evicted. We can do that with an executive order. So if we don't get -- and we want to do it that relatively quickly.
Even from the standpoint of COVID, people get evicted and then they go into shelters and there are thousands of people in the shelters. And this is not a time -- you never want to be in a shelter, but this is not a time to be in a shelter with the COVID. They catch it. They get it. And it's no good.
So I may have to do something on evictions too because the Democrats amazingly don't want to do it. We offered them short-term deals and we offered them lots of alternatives. But, so far, the only thing they really want to do is bail out states that have been poorly managed by Democrats.
REPORTER: And if I could on the election, sir --
REPORTER: President Trump on the sale of TikTok, you are basically arguing that U.S. government is going to collect a platform of a transaction, including two companies in a way that it doesn't pull stay-in (ph). That's unprecedented. That's never happened in U.S. history before. And the administration has offered very little explanation about how that's going to work. Can you back your statement on -- provide specifics about --
TRUMP: Did you say, that's impressive? Did you actually use that term?
REPORTER: I said it's unprecedented.
TRUMP: Well, it's almost the same thing, not quite. I like impressive. I like impressive, not quite, close.
So, TikTok, TikTok is very successful and does tremendous business in the United States. People are riveted by it. I have many friends when they saw that announcement they called -- I think their kids love it, they don't because they don't get to see their kids anymore. But they are -- it's an amazing thing, whatever it may be.
And I told Microsoft, and, frankly, others, if they want to do it, if they make a deal for TikTok, whether it's 30 percent on the United States or the whole company. I say it's okay, but if you do that, we'll really make it impossible because we are letting you operate here so the United States treasury would have to benefit also, not just the sellers.
And I said inform (ph) --
REPORTER: How?
TRUMP: Very simple. I mean, we have all of the cards, because without us, you can't come into the United States. It's like if you are a landlord and you have a tenant, the tenant's business needs a rent or gets a lease.
And so what I said to them is, whatever the price is, a very big proportion of that would have to go to the treasury of the United States. So they understood that. And, actually, they agreed with me. I mean, I think they agreed with me, very much.
Yes, please, on the back.
REPORTER: Thank you, sir.
TRUMP: So that may or may not happen. We have given them until September 15th or so. And we'll see. If we can have it and if they can be great security, meaning, the obvious security, Microsoft would be a company that would be good in that respect. They are approved in that respect in many levels, including working with the department of defense. They knew they have very high level approvals. So it would be good but there are other companies also.
Yes, please?
REPORTER: Thank you, sir. Have you or the -- anyone in the administration reached out to other companies aside from Microsoft to see if they're going to --
TRUMP: Well, we have had other companies call us. Microsoft called me directly. And we had other companies call. I don't know where they are. It sounds like Microsoft is along the way of doing something. I don't blame them. It is a great company. It's a really great company. But we cannot take the security risk of any of those companies, including Huawei, which, as you know, we could have (INAUDIBLE) to. But we can't take the security risk. I think the attitude on China has changed greatly since the China virus hit us. I think it changed greatly. It hit the world and it shouldn't have. They should have been able to stop it. So we feel differently. I just -- when you lose so many thousands of people -- ultimately, it will be millions of people around the world. It's a terrible thing that happened to the United States and Europe and the entire world, really a terrible thing.
[18:35:05]
Yes, please?
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. I have two questions, one the virus and one (INAUDIBLE) on the virus.
You said recently that there can be too much testing. Can you explain what the downside would be from testing too many Americans for the virus and why you haven't provided a date by which all Americans might have the same kind of testing we have here at the White House?
TRUMP: Well, we do more testing than anybody in the world, as I explained. And I don't mean just a little bit. If you look at India, they're at about 11 million and we are at 61 million. And it comes a point when you want to focus your testing in a different way, and we'll be announcing some.
What we have done is incredible with the testing, not only the testing, not only the number of tests, but also very importantly the quality of the tests and the machinery itself to do the tests. Nobody thought it would be possible to get a five-minute and a 15-minute result. That's a very accurate result. And we do with Abbott. Abbott Laboratories has done a great job. Many of these companies have done an incredible job.
So we're looking at that very strongly and we're looking at doing something that if we do it -- look, right now, what the testing is doing is helpful, but we are spending massive amounts of money and we want to have it channeled very accurately. We wanted to be able help the most people we can.
But we are testing at a level that no country in the world, and I have spoken to the leaders of the world, and they will ask me about it, no country in the world thought it would be -- it's even believable that we're able to test so much, 61 million versus -- most countries don't even test.
You know when they test? When somebody is feeling badly. If somebody is feeling badly, they're symptomatic, that's when they test. And that's a big difference with us. We go around looking because if we find, we find spots, we find hot spots.
And one problem is, from the standpoint of the media, we end up with far more cases than we would normally show. So it's, as I called it the other day in a statement, I said it's called media gold. For the media, it's gold. But the truth is we have done an incredible job in testing. Nobody in the world has done the job. Other leaders have told me the same thing. They can't believe we were able to do it. And we will continue. But we want to really be able to test very specifically the people that are in most danger, most in need.
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to ask you first about what you tweeted out earlier today in regards to Florida and your comfortableness as it relates to mail-in ballots for Florida. Why does that apply to Florida and it doesn't apply to mail-in balloting across the country?
TRUMP: So, Florida has got a great Republican governor and it had a great Republican governor. It's got Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, two great governors. And over a long period of time, they have been able to get the absentee ballots done extremely professionally.
Florida is different from other state. I mean, in Nevada, where you have a governor, he said, let's just send out millions of ballots and the post office cannot be prepared. I haven't spoken to the post office about it. But I don't know how they could possibly be prepared.
Florida has been working on this for years. And they have a very good system of mailing. And that would be absentee or even beyond absentee.
So the case in Florida, there aren't too many people that would qualify. They are so well-run. Florida is a very well-run state, low taxes, low everything. They've done a great job, really a great job. And the two governors, between the both of them, they've really got a great system of absentee ballots and even in the case of mail-in ballots. The postal services are built up there. You don't take so long time.
When you look at the Carolyn Maloney election, I think they -- and I'll give you the story. I think you have to do that election over. That election was no good. You have to take a look in New York, they have thousands of ballots. They don't know what happened. Is there fraud? Is there -- it's a disaster. And that's only for a relatively small number of ballots, but I think they have to do the election in New York over.
The Times wrote a big story about it yesterday, a front page story. It's a disaster. It's a mess. And they have to do that -- I think they have to do that -- I think they have to do that election. But nobody can know what the election result is.
So in the case of Florida, they have done a great job and they've had tremendous success with it. But they have been doing this over many years and they've made it really perfect.
So, for Florida, you can mail in your ballots. You don't have to go. And maybe a couple of other states, they've worked out a system, but this took years to do. This doesn't take weeks or months. In the case of Nevada, they're going to be voting in a matter of weeks. And you can't do that. I can't imagine the post office all of a sudden as supposed to be dealing in millions of ballots. But Florida has done a great job and we have total confidence. And if you mail in your ballot in Florida, it's going to matter. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.
[18:40:00]
REPORTER: What about in other states, between current (ph) voters in other states request ballots for mail-in votes?
BLITZER: The president walking out of the briefing room after answering reporters' questions for a bit.
One we should make right away, the president says and he repeated it, he said the United States is doing a very, very significant job, the best job as far as dealing with the deaths from the coronavirus. He said we are at the bottom of the list, the very bottom of the list in dealing with deaths from those who have come down with coronavirus simply not true. The United States is not at the very bottom of the list. A very significant -- another significant statement -- well, that was a mistake that the president made. That was not an accurate statement.
He did say he got a briefing from some of his generals on that huge explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, and he basically said that what he heard from the generals, this was not some sort of manufacturing accident or anything along those lines, it was an attack, it was a bomb of some kind. That's a significant development, if, in fact, it was a bomb that resulted in thousands of people being injured. Last count, more than 73 killed, but that number is going to go up. That is a significant development as well. The president suggesting it was a bomb, it was an attack of some kind from the briefing from his generals, he says.
Jim Acosta, you were listening to this whole thing. Major subjects on coronavirus, on mail-in voting, on this Beirut attack, the president says, was a bombing, what did you think?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Wolf. And I think on the explosion in Beirut, we're just going to have to wait and see what national security officials over here at the White House have to say about that.
The president met with his national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, earlier today, but one thing, we haven't gotten any kind of definitive word when it comes to this situation in Beirut is what was behind that attack. And the reporting, so far, coming out of the region has been thin.
And so we're waiting to see whether or not what the president said there just a few moments, which obviously caught everybody by surprise, whether or not that turns out to be true.
But on the coronavirus, Wolf, a couple of things, you mentioned the very first thing that has to be said, the president continues to rewrite history and try to paint over the reality of the situation when it comes to coronavirus deaths, trying to paint this picture that the U.S. is somehow doing well in that regard when you just look at the numbers that are on the screen right now, as we speak, the United States has a quarter to one-fifth of the deaths in the world from the coronavirus. Those numbers obviously speak for themselves.
And, Wolf, the other thing I think we need to pick up on is what the president was saying about testing. At one point, he said testing has been incredible in this country, what we have been able to do. He went on to say that testing is performing so well in this country that people can get their results back in five minutes and seven minutes and so on.
He said, Wolf, we have been hearing from people across the country, you name it, in all walks of life, who have been undergoing and dealing with very long delays, five days, seven days, sometimes 10 or 11 days before they get their results back from the lab for their coronavirus test, which renders that test basically useless at that point because, obviously, if you are tested on day one and you don't receive your results back until day 10 or 11, even if the results come back negative, you could have contracted the virus in that interim period. And so the president continues to not really deal with the reality on that situation when it comes to that.
And then mail-in balloting, just as you mentioned, Wolf, that jumped out at me when the president was talking about mail-in balloting. He was asked, why is it okay for there to be mail-in Florida, something he tweeted earlier today, but not the rest of the country, and the first words that popped out of the president's mouth in response to that question was that Florida has what he called a great Republican governor in Ron DeSants.
And so the president appears to be tipping his hand there essentially saying, well, I like the situation in Florida because I have got a governor there who is on my team. That obviously is not going to sit well with lots of Americans around this country who were wondering why is it the president is saying it's okay for mail-in balloting in Florida and not everywhere else. It's obviously not consistent. The White House is trying to say earlier today he's been consistent on this but that's just not true. Wolf?
BLITZER: So if there is a Democratic governor, mail-in voting is not good. If there's a Republican governor, mail-in balloting is very good because they're doing such a great job, he says.
Gloria, the president didn't answer one of the reporters' questions when he had said earlier that there is sometimes too much -- some experts say there is too much testing going on. And she asked, who says there's too much testing, when, clearly, there isn't enough testing going on right now?
[18:45:02]
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's the same question that he got from Jonathan Swan, and he still couldn't answer it. It was kind of shocking to me that he went out there today without an answer that was at least prepared for him by his staff. Maybe he did and he didn't use it. But he kept saying, you know, I would get back to you on that after he
was bragging about how low the COVID death rates are. And he still couldn't answer that question. And then he talked about the rise in cases not accompanied by the rise in deaths, and we know that that -- we know that that is not true.
And then the other thing he did was somehow try and blame the United States bad numbers on COVID on New Jersey and New York because those states had a bad time as he put it. And then when he moved to congressional negotiations on what to do on another stimulus package, he tried to make it appear as if the Democrats were trying to protect the bad management of their Democratic governors.
What he did not say is that if a lot of these states don't get the money they need because they had to spend an awful lot of money on fighting COVID in the first place, a lot of those first responders would be out of work, and that is what he didn't talk about.
You know, he did talk about, you know, I'm going to stop evictions and maybe I'm going to try and do a payroll tax cut, which nobody other than the president is enthusiastic about, but trying somehow to blame the bad numbers on New York and New Jersey which we know are very blue states was kind of remarkable.
BLITZER: I am looking at my notes, he said New York and New Jersey had a tough time. You correctly point out he is blaming New York and New Jersey for what is going on in March and April and June.
You know, Sanjay, when the president says that the U.S. is at the very bottom, his words, quote, very bottom of the list when it comes to the deaths, and there's been now more than 146,000 Americans who have died from coronavirus over the past six months alone, what possibly could he be talking about?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm not entirely sure. I mean, you know, people are doing these comparisons, number of people who have died to number of people infected, number of people per 100,000 people, number of people over the population of the country. I am not sure that's the right way to consider this. You know, you have the absolute numbers as you are pointing out, Wolf, versus all of these relative numbers.
And, you know, depending on how you're trying to look at it, you can make things look better or worse. Here is the thing, with this particular issue, this is a worldwide issue. This is a pandemic.
The virus that's circumnavigating the globe, that it can affect humans anywhere. And what we know is that despite the fact that we represent less than 5 percent of the world's population, we do represent 20 to 25 percent of the world's infections of this coronavirus, and 20 to 25 percent of the world's deaths. So, that is really the denominator you have to look at here because this does affect all humans on the planet. We don't know the full magnitude of this problem in the United States.
And if you just do the calculations quickly, number of people who have died over number of infections, it would whoever around 3 percent. But there could be 5 to 10 times as many people infected and don't know it because of inadequate testing. Now, that would mean that there is a lot more widespread infection, but that would mean the mortality ratio, if you will, would come down, which would be more in line with other countries.
So, my point is, Wolf, we don't know. What we do know is that represent a disproportionate number of infections and deaths here in the United States as compared to the rest of the world.
BLITZER: Is there any serious doctor or scientist out there who says the United States right now, as the president claims, is doing too much testing?
GUPTA: No. I think if any, I have not heard of anybody saying that. I think it's very clear we are not doing enough testing. And again, this isn't a matter of opinion. These are matters of facts. When you look at the positive ratio and try to get a sense of what percentage of people are coming back positive in the testing, are you doing enough testing.
In many countries around the world, the positive rates are 1 to 2 percent positive. So, out of 100 tests you do, one or two come back positive, and then you can say aha, I am doing enough testing. In the United States, it has been high, well over 12 or 15 percent. I think more recently, it's been just below 10 percent. They don't have the exact number.
My point is that these are actual numbers in calculations and objective data that you can look at and from a public health standpoint, it makes the case that we're still not yet doing enough testing.
[18:50:04]
And that's why I say that we may have 5 to 10 times as many people out there who had been infected with this virus than the confirmed numbers will show.
BLITZER: And despite what the president says, at least half if not more of all the tests done in the United States, you don't get the results back in 15 minutes or 20 minutes, you get the results back in a week or ten days or longer which is clearly unacceptable right now.
Daniel Dale is our CNN reporter, our fact-checker.
All right. So, tell us what facts you're looking at.
DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: Wolf, I can't emphasize strongly enough that we need to emphasize extreme caution with the president's claim that what happened in Lebanon was an attack or possibly a bomb. That is not what we have heard from the Lebanese government so far who says that was ammonium nitrate that was left in a warehouse.
The president said that he heard this from the generals, but, frankly, this is a president who has repeatedly fabricated conversations with generals and others. I'm not saying I know he's wrong but we need to wait and see until we hear from more credible sources, Wolf.
The president also claimed as Gloria said that the recent spike in cases has not been accompanied by what he said was a, quote, significant increase in deaths.
Wolf, the average for daily deaths have gone from 500 in late June to more than a thousand today. So, this is the president saying more than 500 American deaths a day are not significant.
And again, Wolf, the president continues to down play the pandemic, saying we're putting out fires and embers. As Dr. Birx said recently, this is extraordinarily widespread around the country, urban and rural. It is not just embers. And just a quick note, the president keeps comparing the U.S. testing numbers to India saying we've done tons of tons of millions. India has done 11 million. India, in fact, has done 20 million tests -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Stand by, Daniel.
The president at one point also said progress is being made up on Capitol Hill on these negotiations to get some emergency funding to millions of Americans who are still unemployed, potentially going to be evicted from their homes. He says he's not going to let that happen. He says, and I'm quoting now, it's not their fault, it's China's fault.
Have you heard reports he says progress is being made up on Capitol Hill?
ACOSTA
: No, and as a matter of far, his own top officials, people like Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, have been telling reporters that things are not going well and that both sides remain pretty far apart.
Now, the president may be hearing something privately that we're not hearing publicly. Perhaps these are negotiating tactics. That is -- that is not unheard of in this town.
But one thing we should point out, Wolf, the president said also confirming our reporting earlier today he is willing to take executive action. I was told by a White House official earlier today he's willing to do that by the end of this week if there's not some kind of negotiated settlement to all of this. I guess the question becomes what does the president do? What kind of executive actions does he think he can take to provide that kind of relief to Americans they're looking for right now? What we're hearing from our colleagues on Capitol Hill is what the president can offer in terms of executive action -- at least this is how it's viewed on Capitol Hill -- won't come close to what lawmakers are talking about right now in terms of these enhanced unemployment benefits and so on.
Wolf, we're just going to have to wait to see what the president comes up with by the end of this week because at this point, his own top officials, like I said, the chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has been indicating to reporters that they're not near agreement at this point, Wolf.
BLITZER: You know, Gloria, I'm anxious to get your thoughts, when the president says they're doing a great job of voting by mail in Florida, so he encourages that to happen in Florida. He tweeted earlier in the day, I encouraged all to request a ballot and vote by mail. So, he likes -- as Jim Acosta was pointing out, he likes voting by mail in Florida where there's a Republican governor but hates voting by mail in other states where there's a Democratic governor.
BORGER: Yeah. Look, I mean, this is kind of situational, obviously, for this president. Talk about a mixed message. This is a president who has been ranting about how voting will be corrupted if you vote by mail. And he's been saying it everywhere.
And suddenly, he says, wait a minute, it's okay in Florida. So, why did that happen? That happened because Republicans went to him, and they said, you know what? Republicans vote by mail in Florida, and if you are convincing Republicans not to vote because the election is a sham, then our people are going to lose and you could lose. And this could hurt you. So, he's changed his tune.
It's completely situational. It's about saving himself and about saving Republicans down ballot. And he is learning, I think, a little bit late from Republicans that, wait a minute, lots of Republicans in red states or battleground states have been voting by mail and doing it very well without any problem for quite some time.
[18:55:02] And so, he had to back off. So, the message now is completely muddled.
BLITZER: Totally muddled. And clearly, I think all of his campaign advisers know that Florida is key for this president. If he doesn't carry Florida, the polls right now show it's very, very close in Florida, he's not going to be re-elected president of the United States.
So he's basically telling the Republicans, his supporters in Florida, you know what, it's great to go ahead and vote by mail, vote as often, vote by mail and do so as he's telling everybody else. It's really, really bad, but in a state like Florida, it's critically important.
Everybody stand by, because the breaking news we also heard from the president, we also heard him mention that in Beirut, Lebanon, where at least 68 people confirmed dead. That number is expected to go way up. Thousands of people are injured after that huge explosion rocked the capital city.
The president suggesting that his generals told him it was probably some sort of bomb, it was an attack, a bomb of some kind, the president says he was told by his, quote, generals.
Let's go to our international correspondent, Ben Wedeman. He's in Beirut. He was there when the explosion happened.
Ben, what are they saying, authorities in Lebanon right now, about the possible cause of this explosion?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're talking about more than 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate that was confiscated back in 2013, maybe 2014, being kept in one of those -- the warehouse where the blast took place. Now, Lebanon being Lebanon, this is the Middle East, of course many suspicions are pointed at Israel when this sort of thing happens, but no official has indicated at this point that it was an attack.
So, this statement by President Trump has taken many people by surprise. People do normally take the words of the U.S. president seriously, but there's been no indication from official sources here in Beirut that this massive blast that happened just about seven minutes last 6:00 p.m. local time, was an attack.
Now, the government has given itself a five-day deadline to investigate exactly what happened. In the meantime, it's declared a state of emergency and declared Beirut to be a disaster zone.
What we've seen is the latest what we've seen is the latest from the health minister is more than 70 dead, more than 4,000 wounded. But what we're seeing on local television is that reporters are reading out the names of the wounded and the missing. And it appears there are many people missing because what we know from those who have gone around this city that there are some areas, some neighborhoods, which are totally demolished with buildings collapsing into the streets.
Our producer was out and about. He said all the roads are strewn with scattered glass. He said many of the people that were injured just lightly didn't even go to hospital. They went to pharmacies to be treated.
So, the numbers of people actually wounded, Wolf, is probably far higher than 4,000. And unfortunately, the death toll is certain to rise at this point. And this explosion in the port of Beirut has serious ramifications for a country that's in the process of economic collapse.
About 70 percent of Lebanon's food is imported through Beirut's port. And one of the buildings, which was right next to that huge blast, was Beirut's main grain silo. So, there are worries that as a result of this explosion, on top of the damage, the wounded, the dead, the missing that there could now be food shortages as a result of this catastrophe, the likes of which people in this city who have seen it all, civil war, wars, unrest, have never seen before -- Wolf. BLITZER: Just tell our viewers very briefly, you're there in our
Beirut bureau, I don't know how far the Beirut bureau is from the port of Beirut. But we can see the destruction, the windows blown in the bureau as well, a lot of damage where you are.
WEDEMAN: Yes, in fact, we're less than a mile away from the port. I was here. I was in the only room, thank God, where the windows did not shatter. This is our studio.
And if we can just pan the camera around a bit, the window frames have been torn out. The floor is strewn with broken glass. All our equipment -- this microphone I'm using is the only microphone we have left functioning. And here -- you can bring the camera back to me. And this is our only camera. The others are all damaged, Wolf.
BLITZER: Well, fortunately you're OK. Our team is Beirut is OK. We will stay in close touch with you.
Ben Wedeman on the scene for us.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
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