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The Situation Room
Biden and Harris Call for Mask Mandates in Every State; CDC Chief Breaks from Trump Spin, Admits "We Were Underprepared" for Crisis; Fauci: "I'm Not Pleased with How Things Are Going"; More Than 2,000 Students, Staff Quarantined As Schools Reopen; Trump Admits He Opposes New Postal Service Funding To Block Mail-In Voting; Trump Unloads On Harris, Calls Her Mean, Nasty, Angry. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired August 13, 2020 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:08]
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 in the Situation Room, and we're following breaking news.
We're standing by to see if President Trump takes questions at a White House briefing that's about to begin. It becomes -- or it comes as U.S. coronavirus death toll tops 166,000 people with more than 5.2 million confirmed cases. The country has reported its deadliest day of the pandemic since May.
Also breaking, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are calling for mask mandates in every state in their first full-day campaigning together. The presumptive Democratic presidential and vice-presidential nominees through direct contrast with President Trump's response to the pandemic, making it clear that will be a centerpiece of their campaign.
Let's begin with CNN's Jeff Zeleny in the Democrats call for mask mandates in every state. Jeff, that is a big change from what the president has been saying.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Jim, it certainly is and that indeed was the point of what former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris were trying to do today. They were trying to draw a contrast on their first official day on the job, if you will, at least as the Democratic candidates for president and vice president.
First and foremost, it was in style. They held a briefing with medical experts as well as economic experts about four of each through a video conference call in Wilmington, Delaware. Mr. Biden and Senator Harris were sitting there the room asking questions, you know, essentially taking in all this information. These were similar to the briefings that Mr. Biden has been getting, you know, for the last several months or so but he was joined by Harris for the first time.
But he did call for a mask mandate. He said a three-month mask mandate could save 40,000 lives. He also said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's not about your rights, it's about your responsibilities as an American. Be a patriot, protect your fellow citizens, protect your fellow citizens, step up, do the right thing. This is not about Democrat, Republican, or independent. It's about saving Americans lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: And then Senator Harris was also there. And she was brought in to make another case. Just in case the point wasn't clear the differentiation between President Trump and this ticket. She said this directly at the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESUMPTIVE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: What real leadership looks like is Joe Biden. To speak up, sometimes telling us the stuff that we don't necessarily want to hear but we need to know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: So, this is certainly not what we thought the presidential campaign would revolve around. But it is clear that this is what it will end on, at least one of the topics it will end on. The Biden- Harris campaign want to draw a contrast between, you know, the reality of the coronavirus pandemic facing the country. So it was tough medicine, no question, but they are clearly, you know, from the fact that they are photographed wearing masks, to the fact that they are hearing this advice, Jim, certainly a stark contrast.
And again, that's the point. Trying to show these governing styles much different than what we're seeing from the White House.
ACOSTA: No question. It's a huge change from what we see with the president.
Jeff, also the Biden campaign says their fundraising has popped since the Kamala Harris announcement. What are the latest numbers?
ZELENY: We're hearing from the Biden campaign that $34 million has been raised by the campaign since the announcement of Senator Kamala Harris. They said the biggest hour came between five and 6 p.m. yesterday when $3 million was raised in that hour alone. Specifically, because Democrats they say are excited about this ticket. It is showing excitement across the board.
I'm also hearing, Jim from a Democratic official that Democratic campaigns for the Senate, for the House, even governors' races also are raising more money than they have at any other point this summer or spring. So clearly, the Biden campaign is going to have enough money. It's essentially at parity with the Trump campaign, almost $300 million in the bank both of them have so money is not going to be an issue here. But certainly, a lot of excitement at the selection of Senator Harris. But Jim, the convention comes next week, the Democratic one followed by the Republican one. That's also another big fundraising opportunity.
Jim?
ACOSTA: All right. Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much for that.
Let's bring in CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, along with our Political Correspondent Abby Phillip.
Dana, Biden and Harris are keeping a relentless focus on the coronavirus pandemic during these early days on the campaign trail together. I mean, this looks like their message heading into the fall.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And why wouldn't it be? It's the only thing that matters right now because it has so many tentacles into people's lives, whether it is their kids' education or their job, or you know, or going -- being able to go to the store or go -- or watching sports. I mean, you name it. It affects everybody in this country.
And the fact of the matter is, it has been a bumpy ride to say the least for the president and his team.
[17:05:03]
And if you are somebody like Joe Biden who has decades of experience in government, including being in the administration during a time where they had the threat of a virus to go -- to be like we're seeing now potentially, and I'm talking about the Ebola virus, why wouldn't you use that as a contrast as to show voters this is what you have, and this is what you can get. I mean, it just -- anything else would make no sense politically.
ACOSTA: And Abby Phillip, I mean, the president has changed his tune on masks. Initially he was mocking Joe Biden for wearing a mask now he says it's patriotic. Joe Biden said much of the same today. This is shaping up to be a coronavirus campaign it seems for the Biden-Harris ticket.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean, this is exactly what you would expect from I'm someone who is running as a challenger because these elections President Trump is an incumbent, and elections that are incumbents are facing re-election are really just about whether voters want four more years of the same. And Joe Biden's task, Kamala Harris' task is to convince voters that they don't.
And as Dana said, this is everything in people's worlds right now. Nothing about people's lives are the same today as it was four or five months ago. And most people want to go back to some semblance of normalcy. And they understand that the only way to do that is to get to a place where this virus is under control. Public polling has shown that Americans now say that the coronavirus is the most important issue to them. It is more important to them than the economy, and the economy is an incredibly, you know, pressed -- it's an incredibly pressing problem for so many Americans.
So, I think that gives you a sense of how important this is. And for the Biden campaign, I think all that you see out there and the imagery around this event is further evidence of the contrast. It is in the two desks sitting across from each other six feet apart. It is in the fact that this briefing has helped partially virtually with the experts on the television screen. It is in that they were -- they wear masks going into the room and coming out of the room.
All of that is part of the sort of imagery that is demonstrating to the American public a contrast. We saw President Trump today, he was in a room packed full of people shoulder to shoulder, not a soul wearing a mask. And I think that this contrast is made easier by the way that the White House has conducted itself throughout this pandemic.
ACOSTA: Yes, Abby, whenever I'm at the White House, you hardly ever see masks there. And it's hard to imagine that would be the case in a Biden administration.
Dana, poll show widespread disapproval of the president's handling of the pandemic. How much lower could these numbers go if Biden and Harris continue to hammer away at this over the next few months?
BASH: Well, they absolutely could go lower. There's no question. The open question is what it means in terms of -- because we're getting that close. What it means in terms of voter turnout. What it means in terms of who is paying attention and who is really susceptible to these kinds of messages that you're seeing right now on the screen versus what Abby and -- just described and what you witness every day at the White House, Jim. That's really the open question right now.
And, you know, for -- I'm just thinking for so long, the Trump campaign thought that they were in the catbird seat because they had saved up so many tens of -- hundreds of millions of dollars to prepare to throw at in an onslaught against whomever would emerge as the Democratic nominee. And here they are with money but they're slowly being matched by money, but money is almost irrelevant because this whole campaign is turned on its head and it's turned -- and it's focused on one person and that's Donald Trump and the question of his leadership. And there's nothing you can even imagine that would put that question for voters on display more than the pandemic that we're in right now.
ACOSTA: And Abby, in the absence of traditional campaign events, do you think that this format of the public coronavirus briefing is an effective messaging tool for the Biden-Harris campaign? At some point, they're going to have to take questions from the press in which they didn't do today. They were shouting questions at them as they were leaving the room. But, what do you make of the stagecraft?
PHILLIP: Well, I think for now, this is probably enough to garner the public's attention because it's new. Kamala Harris is being introduced onto the world stage, there is interest in that and what that looks like. I actually was struck by the stagecraft of the public remarks afterwards.
[17:10:00]
The Biden campaign is slowly but surely figuring this thing out. There was a lot of criticism I heard even among Democrats about the way that -- the initially Biden was doing these, you know, interviews from the basement of his home, this became a kind of punch line for the Trump campaign. But I was hearing from Democrats, too, were saying they've got to figure out how to make this look on par with a president of the United States being in the Oval Office. And I think they're getting there. These images, you could imagine seeing this in a traditional campaign event just like you would have seen four years ago with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
So I think that that does matter because it needs to be something that gets people's attention. But at the same time, I also think that that they are going to have to figure out the actual campaigning. There's going to need to be some persuasion happening, and I'm not sure that it's being done in sort of these, you know, televised very stoic events.
ACOSTA: All right. Dana and Abby, thank you so much for that.
Now, the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. CNN's Martin Savidge is working the story for us. Martin, Dr. Anthony Fauci says he is not pleased with how things are going.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, he's not. And he's a voice that, of course, many Americans rely on. Even though he has been speaking out about the seriousness of the pandemic, today, he was also saying that some Americans need to start thinking about getting back to normalcy or be doing it safely and following medical guidelines. He's not the only official telling Americans what to do.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice-over): The head of the CDC candidly admitting what many Americans already painfully know.
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: We were underprepared.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Director Dr. Robert Redfield grimly warning of what could come next.
REDFIELD: This could be the worst fall from a public health perspective we've ever had.
SAVIDGE: Invoking the memory of President Kennedy, Redfield telling Americans what they can do for their country.
REDFIELD: I'm asking you to do four simple things. Wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands, and be smart about crowds.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): In the past week, overall new coronavirus cases drop slightly, but Americans are still dying at a rate of more than 1,000 people a day. Wednesday, the deadly is day of summer so far with close to 1,500 deaths, a number not seen since May.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Bottom line is, I'm not pleased with how things are going.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): COVID-19 testing is down across the U.S., but positivity rates continue to climb in 35 states. Dr. Anthony Fauci says that too is an indicator of bad things to come.
FAUCI: We know now from sad past experience that that's a predicted that you're going to have more surges.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Tuesday, Marion County, Florida saw its deadliest day of the pandemic so far. That same day, the local sheriff issued a mandate banning office visitors from wearing masks. Also banning his deputies though he offered some exceptions.
Also in Florida, one day after the Marion County School District reopen for in-person learning, an entire elementary classroom and a bus route were placed under quarantine after students showed COVID-19 symptoms. That same day, President Trump gave Florida's education commissioner a shout out of praise.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Great job on you're doing Florida.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Nationally, more than 2,000 students, teachers, and staff across five states have been quarantine after at least 230 positive coronavirus cases have been reported. To try and ease parents back to school fears in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio pledges every city public school will have a certified nurse when they reopen.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: To all the folks who have been raising that concern, I hear you loud and clear. And that will be in place we have a whole month until school begins and we're going to be ready.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Also to help parents, the American Academy of Pediatrics releasing new guidelines on face coverings, advising that apart from rare exceptions, all children over the age of two can safely wear them saying, quote, just like children understand that they must wear bicycle helmets and buckle into their car seats, they will come to learn to wear masks routinely when necessary.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: Getting back to Dr. Anthony Fauci, he was also recommending that people get outdoors more. And if they can't do that, open a window whether you're in a car or whether you're in a room.
Admiral Brett Giroir, another member of that coronavirus task force. He too was speaking out today. He was encouraging, of course, people to wear mask. But thinking ahead to the Labor Day weekend, and warning people that if you have a house party and a large gathering of friends inside of a home, that is just as dangerous as going out to a bar in this kind of an environment. Social distancing, mask wearing, the biggest tools that Americans can use.
Jim?
ACOSTA: Simple, straightforward, but we need to do more of it. CNN's Martin Savidge, thank you very much.
Up next, the CDC director warns of the worst fall in public health history unless Americans follow coronavirus measures. We'll talk about that with the former CDC Acting Director Richard Besser. That's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:19:16]
ACOSTA: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is breaking from President Trump's spin on the coronavirus pandemic and speaking truth the country needs to hear.
Joining us to talk about that and more is the former Acting CDC Director Richard Besser. Dr. Richard Besser, thank you so much for joining us.
I'm sure you saw this earlier today. The CDC Director Robert Redfield acknowledged today that we are unprepared for this pandemic, that we are unprepared from the beginning. And he called it the greatest public health crisis to hit this nation in a century. What do we need to do to make sure that we're prepared for the fall which Dr. Redfield warns could be even worse?
DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: You know, Jim, I feel like we're careening down a mountain road out of control, and the driver is refusing to put his foot on the brakes. You know, we know what other countries have done to get this under control and we need to do that here.
[17:20:05]
This simple step of wearing masks and requiring that everyone do so. Keeping a distance from other people, washing our hands, ensuring that we are doing testing to identify where cases are occurring so we can track contacts and get people isolated and quarantined. But we're moving forward towards reopening schools in places where community transmission is not yet under control. And in that situation, we're going to see what's happened in a number of Georgia school areas where they reopen schools but they've been able to do it only very briefly because transmission occurs in the school and they have to shut down.
That's preventable. And we have a choice to make here.
ACOSTA: And Dr. Redfield hasn't been this outspoken throughout much of the pandemic. And he hasn't really contradicted the president all that much, but he seems to be doing that today offering this variable blunt assessment, sounding more like Dr. Fauci or Dr. Deborah Birx in recent days. What do you make of that? BESSER: Well, I think it's refreshing when we're hearing the appropriate level of concern from our public health leaders. But then, it depends what's done with that. If there's -- if we consider -- if we continue to see this disconnect between what public health leaders are saying which is that we have a roadmap, we know what to do, we can get this under control. The future isn't pre determined, and political leaders who said let's just go ahead with this. Let's get kids back in schools, people back to work, people back in restaurants and bars. There's nothing to worry about.
If we continue down this course, then this winter, this winter will be a disaster in America.
ACOSTA: And Joe Biden is focusing his campaign heavily on the coronavirus pandemic. I'm sure you saw this earlier today. Let's listen to something that he said earlier this afternoon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Every single American should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months at a minimum. Every governor should mandate, every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing. This is America, be a patriot, protect your fellow citizens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: What do you think about that? The former vice president, Dr. Besser, essentially calling on all Americans to wear masks, for governors across the country to put in mask mandates. That is a sharp contrast with what the administration is doing right now.
BESSER: Yes. You know, masks are mandated here in New Jersey where I am. And what I really liked about that message was that it calls to us as Americans to come together, to do the right thing, to take responsibility for each other, and recognizing that my wearing a mask says that I care about your health and you wearing a mask says you care about mine. And, you know, if people would do this without it being required, that's terrific. But hearing the message from the top that says this is mandated, it's a requirement, there's nothing to question here.
You know, I'm a pediatrician, I was thrilled to see the Academy of Pediatrics come out and with a very reassuring statement that says, you know, children two years and above, they can wear masks. There are very few conditions that would make that a dangerous thing to do. You can teach kids how to do it, it's not a big deal. Let's get it done, let's have kids wear cloth masks. That's terrific.
ACOSTA: And you mentioned kids, let's talk about school reopening. As of today, more than 2,000 students, teachers, and staff across five states are quarantined after potential exposure to the virus. What does all that say to you?
ACOSTA: Well, it says to me that the measures that public health says need to be in place to make this safer. Every child aren't in place. And what I'm really concerned about here, Jim, is the disparate impact. You know, we've seen this pandemic playing out in cruel ways, Black Americans, Latino-Americans, Native Americans being hospitalized and dying at rates that far surpassed their proportion of the population.
The same thing is going to happen in schools and is going to happen with children. You know, CDC has already released data to say that Latino children are hospitalized eight times the rate of white children, black children at five times the rate of white children. And when you look at how we fund schools in America with so much coming out of property taxes, we're going to see wealthy communities being able to make environments much safer for children and staff and teachers and schools and lower-income communities, many of which serve children of color. Not being able to do that and we're going to see the impact in terms of health, we're going to see the impact in terms of education.
ACOSTA: And scary to think about our schools becoming hotspots with this virus.
[17:25:00]
Dr. Richard Besser, thank you so much for joining us. Important information, we appreciate it.
Coming up, President Trump turns up the volume using sexist and racist stereotypes to attack Senator Kamala Harris. He's also saying out loud what others have presumed. He's holding up money for the Postal Service. He says so it won't be able to handle mail-in voting.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:30:16]
ACOSTA: And we're waiting for President Trump to take questions at the todays' White House briefing. He's had plenty to say already today, much of it aimed at Senator Kamala Harris.
Let's go to CNN's Jeremy Diamond. The President is on the attack. He's been on the attack all day long, Jeremy.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He certainly has been, Jim. The President is throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks, whether it's his attacks on Kamala Harris or his refusal to fund the Post Office to stop try and stop mail-in voting or even his promises of a payroll tax cut that he cannot enact without Congress. Everything that the President is doing these days, Jim, seems to be focused on one thing and that is shoring up his re-election chances.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND (voice-over): With more than 1,000 Americans dying every day from coronavirus and his re-election chances in question, President Trump is showing he'll say or do just about anything to win a second term.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now you have a sort of mad woman, I call her.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Today, the President digging in on his sexist and racist attacks on Joe Biden's running mate Kamala Harris playing into the stereotype of the angry black woman.
TRUMP: She was extraordinarily nasty to Kavanaugh.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Trump is also throwing up barriers to mail-in voting.
TRUMP: They want $25 billion, billion for the post office.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Making clear he's against more funding for cash- strapped Postal Service because he wants to stop an expansion of mail- in voting.
TRUMP: Now they need that money in order to have the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. If we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money, that means they can't have universal mail-in voting. They just can't have it.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Trump who recently placed a top Republicans fundraiser as the new postmaster general fueling allegations he's trying to manipulate the postal system for political gain.
JOE BIDEN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Pure Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK guys, let's go, let's go.
BIDEN: He doesn't want an election.
DIAMOND (voice-over): As Trump continues to falsely tie mail-in voting to widespread voter fraud, today a federal judge in Pennsylvania ordering his campaign to produce evidence as it sues to stop expanded mail-in voting in that battle ground state. The President is also pressuring his Attorney General to wrap up a review of the 2016 Russia investigation before Election Day.
TRUMP: Bill Barr has a chance to be the greatest of all time. But if he wants to be politically correct, he'll be just another guy.
DIAMOND (voice-over): And lashing out at FBI Director Chris Wray for being insufficiently cooperative.
TRUMP: We have an election coming up. I wish he was more forthcoming, he certainly hasn't been. Let's see how Wray turns out.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Trump is also trying to woo voters with promises of free money.
TRUMP: Now, at the end of the year, the assumption that I win, I'm going to terminate the payroll tax.
DIAMOND (voice-over): White House officials claiming the President only meant he intends to forgive repayments on a temporary tax holiday. LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: The payroll tax deferral will be forgiven. And, you know, when he says we'll terminate it, that's what he's referring to.
DIAMOND (voice-over): The President needs Congress to do that, too
TRUMP: This very important. This is a big event.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Pivoting to the world stage, Trump announcing a U.S. brokered peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and temporarily suspending Israeli plans to annex parts of the west bank. Jared Kushner who helped broker that deal also field in questions about a recent meeting with Kanye West and doing little to quell suspicions he's trying to help the rapper's campaign to siphon votes from Biden.
JARED KUSHNER, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: So we got together and we had a great discussion about a lot of things. He has some great ideas for what he would like to see happen in the country and that's why he has the candidacy that he's been doing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND: And Jim, after former Vice President Joe Biden came out today to give his policy descriptions for the coronavirus pandemic, we just heard the President moments ago responding directly to Biden at the White House briefing room podium. He accused Joe Biden of politicizing the pandemic. And Jim, to listen to some of what the President was saying here, you would have thought that he was talking about himself.
One quote that the President said was, at every turn, Biden has been wrong about the virus ignoring the scientific evidence. And, Jim, I think that describes the President, perhaps, more than anything.
ACOSTA: That's right, Jeremy. And don't forget the President mocked Joe Biden once for wearing a mask, now the President has embraced mask wearing. And we saw Joe Biden talking about that earlier today. Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much for that.
Let's get back to Political Correspondents Dana Bash and Abby Phillip. Abby, I want to get your thoughts on President Trump's attempt to paint Kamala Harris as a mad woman as he was saying earlier today.
[17:35:05]
He has a history of racist and misogynistic comments. Can we expect him to ratchet up this rhetoric further? I suppose he's just going to keep doing this.
PHILLIP: Yes, absolutely, Jim. I mean, in this case, it just seems like this is almost an instinct on the President's part that he is grasping at straws to figure out how to attack Kamala Harris, which is a little surprising because it's not like this selection was something that nobody knew was a possibility. They've had months to prepare for this. And yet the President keeps going back to these tropes he's used against many women in the past, not just in the political sphere, reporters, you know, myself included, using these kind of adjectives to describe them that really speak to stereotypes. Not just of an angry black women but of women in general, describing them as angry and shrill and, you know, all kinds of language like that.
And then on top of that, you have the President's advisers on his campaign raising a similar birther conspiracy here about Kamala Harris as they did about President Barack Obama. Jim, this is just more of the same from the Trump campaign, but I think the American public have had many, many years of this kind of behavior and they see right through it. It's hard for me to see how this kind of thing beyond really riling up his base is going to help him with the problem that he has which is that independents and these suburban women he keeps talking about are fleeing the Republican Party and fleeing him. They do not want to support this kind of rhetoric.
ACOSTA: And we just have to say this birther stuff, these are just ugly lies that are being said about Kamala Harris. She was born in the United States just like Barack Obama was born in the United States. They are ugly lies and that's just how they should be described.
And Dana Bash, let's talk about President Trump's push to suppress voting by mail. I mean, you know, maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I just never thought I would see a day where the President of the United States would just come out and say he's trying to suppress voting in this country, I guess, in this case voting by mail. I mean, I suppose our shock absorbers are just worn thin at this point. But what do you make of him essentially saying this out loud?
BASH: He's given everybody a gift, not just his political opponents, but people who are apolitical, who are simply focused on making sure that the democratic process moves as smoothly as possible, particularly, and especially during a pandemic. And, you know, what I keep trying to do is point people who are saying this, starting with the President on down from the administration, to their fellow Republicans, who are running states like Ohio, like Arkansas, two governors I have spoken within the last two weeks who have said, Jim, that they are encouraging much more voting by mail because they believe in their states, it is going to be safe that they are working on protecting from fraud. And it is important to do during a pandemic.
The problem is that the Postal Service is national. And the President has his claws in the Postal Service. And he is, as you mentioned, saying very clearly now that that is his strategy. So when I said at the beginning, it's a gift, already Democrats were very upset about it, and maybe they can do something about it because they do have the power of the purse.
ACOSTA: Yes. And just to get -- I mean, just to get away from the strategic part of this, and then, you know, confusing Republicans and upsetting Republicans, it just sounds authoritarian to have the President of the United States talking about, you know, trying to monkey around with the Postal Service in a way that will benefit him in the election, and it's just unfortunate.
But we're standing by, President Trump to take questions at a White House briefing. Up next, what a key member of the President's Coronavirus Task Force just said about the state of testing in the U.S.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:43:46]
ACOSTA: A key member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force speaking out moments ago about testing and what the country needs to be doing differently to get the pandemic under control. Let's dig deeper with CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, thanks so much for being with us. Let's watch what Admiral Brett Giroir, the administration's testings are said about testing. Let's listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: You beat the virus by smart policies supplemented by strategic testing. You do not beat the virus by shotgun testing everyone all the time. Not only do we not recommend this strategy of testing everyone on a frequent basis, but I think it could instill a false sense of security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: What's your reaction to that? I mean, obviously, more testing is a good thing. But are there downsides to regular testing as he's talking about?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I really don't think so, Jim. I mean, you know, I think that this is a very big topic of conversation around this entire pandemic, perhaps one of the central topics. We have not been doing adequate testing from the start. We've never caught up on testing.
I've had a chance to sit down and talk to Admiral Giroir a few times about this. I think, you know, the -- unfortunately I think right now this sounds like a defense of what is clearly an abysmal testing system in this country.
[17:45:05]
He says we only should be testing symptomatic people. Well, you know, frankly, you know, symptomatic people, the advice to them, the guidance to them should be that they should stay home because they are clearly symptomatic. What we've been crushed by, I think in this country is the fact that so many people who are asymptomatic have been out there and continuing to spread this virus.
I mean, 40 percent of people who are -- 40 percent of the spread has likely come from asymptomatic people. We know people are much more likely to spread this even before they develop symptoms. The whole point of the testing is that there's a lot of people out there who right now are carrying the virus, and they don't know it. So the fact that the Admiral keeps saying we just need to focus on testing symptomatic people and all that, I think has fundamentally missing the boat -- ACOSTA: All right. And Sanjay, we want to go to President Trump, he's
taking questions at this press conference.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are kids on reduced and free lunch programs. They need these meals to make it through their day. And with districts shutting down school, what, if anything, can the federal government do to make sure that the kids still get decent meals, as long as the schools are out?
TRUMP: Well, you know we don't want the schools shut down. We want the schools to open. And especially very young children handle it -- children, all children -- but especially very young children handle it very well. So we want schools open. We don't want to be in that position.
We want schools open. We've made payment. And we would, frankly, if the school isn't going to open, we would much rather follow the child with the payment. Give the money to the child, meaning the parents of the child, and let that -- let the parents do what they have to do, including bringing the child to another school, because we're finding that whether it's parents or children, people want to get back to school. They want to have their life back.
Some people say they don't want -- the Democrats don't want schools open, because that's where you have a lot of polling booths. And if you have a school close, you can't very easily have polling booths at the school. And that's becoming -- I think maybe we'll be able to show that as fact, but that's another thing that they're doing to try and keep people away from the polls. So we have to look into that, but it's -- you've been reading about it, I've been reading about it, and I don't like it.
But we'd like to see the schools open. Then we don't have that problem. Good question.
Thank you. Please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, what's your understanding of how long Israel will suspend this West Bank annexation plan?
TRUMP: What do you think? Tell me.
DAVID FRIEDMAN, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: Well, we have -- we're putting all our eggs into the basket of peace. We have an agreement with the Emirates. We're going to nail down all the details, embassies, overflights, commercial, and then we're going to extrapolate that to the rest of the region.
How long that takes? I can't tell you. But that's -- we've prioritized peace over the sovereignty movement, but it's not off the table. It's just something that will be deferred until the -- we give peace every single chance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And to follow up, what do you want the Palestinians to take away from this deal, since they're not really a party to it? TRUMP: Well, but they are supported largely by some of the countries that we're talking to and that have already signed, you know, in the case of the one country. But others will be following. And I think the Palestinians will -- without saying it necessarily yet, I think they very much want to be a part of what we're doing. And I see, ultimately, the Palestinians -- I see peace between Israel and the Palestinians. I see that happening. I think as these very big, powerful, wealthy countries come in, I think the Palestinians will follow, quite naturally.
Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you believe that a deal could have been reached without Israel's agreement to temporarily suspend annexation?
TRUMP: Say it again. Could you make it louder?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you believe that a deal could have been reached without Israel's agreement to temporarily suspend annexation?
TRUMP: What do you think about that, David? It's interesting.
FRIEDMAN: I think you can't do both at the same time. So I think, again, prioritize peace. Sovereignty after peace is given every opportunity and every sovereignty. I don't think the two could have been done at the same time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And have you asked Israel to permanently consider abandoning annexation --
FRIEDMAN: No, this is a temporary process. There's been no request.
TRUMP: OK? Please, Kaitlan.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Mr. President. This morning you said that you do not want to fund the U.S. Postal Service because Democrats are trying to expand voting by mail. So I've got two questions for you. One, are you threatening to veto any legislation that includes funding for the Post Office?
TRUMP: No, not at all. No.
COLLINS: So you would sign something that does include funding?
TRUMP: Sure. A separate thing, I would do it. But one of the reasons the Post Office needs that much money is they have all of these millions of ballots coming in from nowhere, and nobody knows from where and where they're going. You saw what happened in, Kaitlin, in Virginia. It was, you know, 500,000 applications coming in, going all over the state; nobody even knows where they came from.
[17:50:09]
You saw what happened in New York, which was a disaster with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. It was a basic disaster. And you see Paterson, New Jersey, what's going on there. And we can give you many other locations and sites.
What has happened is that's part of a big negotiation. That's a actually small part of a big negotiation to get more money to people that it wasn't their fault. It was China's fault. And Post Office is part of it. Another part of it is they want $3.5 billion just for the ballots themselves. Why it's so much? I don't know. But that's what the Democrats want.
But if the bill isn't going to get done, that would mean the Post Office isn't going to get funded, and that would also mean that the $3.5 billion isn't going to be taken care of. So I don't know how you can possibly use these ballots, these mail-in ballots.
Absentee ballots, by the way, are fine. But the universal mail-ins that are just sent all over the place, where people can grab them and grab stacks of them, and sign them and do whatever you want, that's the thing we're against.
COLLINS: But isn't that precisely the problem -- is that you're saying you do not want to give this Post Office funding in this coronavirus legislation? They say they need it so they can be prepared. So if the pandemic is still going on in November when the election happens and people don't feel safe to go vote in person, they can vote by mail, and it can be safe and it can be secure.
TRUMP: I can understand the Post Office. And if we could agree to a bill, the overall bill, which is obviously a much bigger number than just the Post Office, that would be fine. But they have the Post Office as one of their requests. It's their request.
COLLINS: But this morning you said you were against it, didn't you?
TRUMP: I'm only against -- what I'm against is I'm against doing anything where the people aren't taken care of, and the people aren't being taken care of properly. We have -- we want people to get money. It wasn't their fault that they got shut down. They got shut down by China.
So whether it's the Post Office or whether it's the $3.5 billion -- you know, they're asking for $3.5 billion just for the universal mail- in ballots, but they're not willing to make a deal. These are two points within a very big deal.
The thing they want more than anything else, Kaitlan, and you know this, is bailout money for the states and for the cities that are in trouble, which, for the most part, are Democrat-run states and cities. So New York has a problem, California has a problem, Illinois has a tremendous problem, and others. They want to be able to bail out these states, and we don't want to be doing that, or certainly don't want to do it to the extent. They're looking for $1 trillion. We don't want to be doing that.
COLLINS: But this morning --
TRUMP: Please go ahead. COLLINS: I'm just really confused, because this morning you said they need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all these millions and millions of ballots, and you said that would be fraudulent. So it sounded like you said you're blocking --
TRUMP: No, no. No, no. I said it will end up being fraudulent, because if you look at what's happened over the last few weeks -- just look at the few instances where this has happened -- it's turned out to be fraudulent.
COLLINS: There's no widespread evidence of fraud, though.
TRUMP: Well, if you look at New York, it was fraudulent. If you look at Paterson, New Jersey, it was fraudulent.
COLLINS: There's no evidence of fraud.
TRUMP: Of course, there is. The whole thing is a mess. In fact, Carolyn Maloney's opponent is -- he's gone crazed. He said they took the election away from him, and he may be right. I think they should redo that election.
And if you look at Virginia, it's terrible. Look at some of the things that have happened in California. Look at California, where they found a million non-eligible voters. That was done by Judicial Watch -- Tom Fitton and Judicial Watch.
We have to have an honest election. And if it's not going to be an honest election, I guess people have to sit down and think really long and hard about it. But if the Post Office -- if they're not going to approve a bill and the Post Office, therefore, won't have the money, and if they're not going to approve a big bill, a bigger bill, and they're not going to have the $3.5 billion for the universal mail-in votes, how can you have those votes?
What would mean is the people will have to go to the polls and vote, like the old days -- like two years ago, three years ago, four years ago. They have to go to the -- it doesn't say anybody is taking the vote away, but it means that the universal mail-ins don't work. Absentees do work. It's a very different thing. An absentee -- where you make an application and you send it in, they send you a vote. It's different.
But -- so, Kaitlan, I'm not saying anything wrong with voting. I want them to vote. But that would mean that they'd have to go to a voting booth, like they used to, and vote.
COLLINS: Even if they don't feel safe voting in person? People want to vote by mail because of the pandemic.
TRUMP: Well, they're going to have to feel safe, and they will be safe, and we will make sure that they're safe. And we're not going to have to spend $3.5 billion to do it.
And when you go to a voting, it would be wonderful if we had voting ID. And some states have that, and some states don't because they can't get it passed. Most states want it. But we want people to vote. We want people to vote so when they vote, it means one vote, it doesn't mean ballots all over the place.
[17:55:05]
You saw what would -- what was happening in Virginia, where piles of ballot applications are dropped all over the state. They had them named after dogs. They had them named after dead people. We want to have an accurate vote. I'm not doing this for any reason. Maybe the other turns out to be my advantage, I don't know. I can't tell you that.
But I do know this. I just want an accurate vote -- and it's a fair question, by the way -- and so does everybody else.
COLLINS: Just to follow up --
TRUMP: OK. Yes, in the back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, how does the accord today between Israel and the UAE help struggling and persecuted Christians in the Middle East?
TRUMP: Help what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does it help struggling and persecuted Christians in the Middle East -- the deal today?
TRUMP: Well, I think it's going to. I think it's a big start. And you're right about that: Christians have been persecuted by some countries in particular in the Middle East. And I think this is a big start. It's going to be a very strong start, very powerful start, and it's something that I will tell you. I've told David, I've told every one of our negotiators: If you look at the way Christians have been treated in some countries, it's beyond disgraceful.
It's -- if I had information and if I had absolute proof -- some of the stories that we've heard, which are not easy, which is not easy to get -- I would go in and do a number to those countries like you wouldn't believe. What they do to Christians in the Middle East -- and it's disgraceful. It's disgraceful. You're right.
It's a very big part of the overall negotiation. And as countries come in -- for instance, UAE has agreed very strongly to represent us, I think they will very well with respect to Christianity. Because in the Middle East, it's not treated well. It's not treated well at all. It's treated horribly and very unfairly, and it's criminal what's happened, and that's for many, many years.
I think it's a great question and very -- it's a very unfair situation. Please, go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. Larry Kudlow said that there's a routine check-in call with China on the phase one trade deal. My question is, what if they bring up TikTok and also WeChat? Would you instruct your team to engage them on that executive order you just signed?
TRUMP: No, we have a deadline of September 15th. And whether it's Microsoft, I understand -- and others are negotiating -- we also said that, obviously, it's worthless if we don't allow them into the country, so we said that the United States Treasury is going to be getting something out of this deal, something very substantial.
But what we want is total security, but we have a deadline of September 15th. So I know Microsoft and others are very interested in it, but that's our deadline. And it has to be proven to be totally secure. We don't want to have any information going into China with what we've been through.
And I have to tell you -- you talk about the deal -- you mentioned the phase one deal. Well, the phase one deal, it's a very interesting situation because you've been hearing, the largest order of corn in history, the largest order of soybeans, the largest order of beef. They've done more than they've ever done.
So you're going to have to figure that one out. With where I'm coming from, I could have -- because they see my attitude. My attitude toward China is not friendly. But they have gone into orders that are extremely large, extremely large, and our farmers are very happy.
But with what they did with respect to the pandemic, the plague that came in from China, it just is a different feeling. It's an incredible deal, but I have a very different feeling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so --
TRUMP: But they are giving the Midwest, our farmers, among the largest orders they've ever seen. Somebody told me today -- Bob Lighthizer said there's about 40 percent of the -- of what they're selling now is going to China. So maybe they're trying to make me change my mind a little bit because you know my attitude on China, and it's not -- it hasn't been very good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) with them in these negotiations?
TRUMP: Well, we're not talking to them. No, we're talking to the companies. And there is a company, but it's a company within China, that means China. And the deal will have to be substantially beneficial to the United States, and we need total security. OK?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Mr. President
TRUMP: Go ahead, please. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Mr. President, can you say whether you yourself think that annexation should be off the table for Israel? And if so, have you communicated that to the Prime Minister?
TRUMP: Well, not off the table. No. It's something they've discussed, but Israel has agreed not to do that. I mean, more than just off the table, they have agreed not to do it. And I think that was very important, and I think it was a great concession by Israel, and I think it was a very smart concession by Israel.
But, David, do you have anything further to add on that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Prime Minister was pretty clear today at his own press conference.
