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Kenosha Officials Urges President Trump Not To Visit The City; Biden Blasts Trump On His Campaign Return; FDA Chief: Vaccine Could Get Emergency Authorization Before Trials End; Trump Retweets Conspiracy Theory Claiming Only Six Percent Of People Listed As Coronavirus Deaths Actually Died From COVID-19; Intel Chief Won't Brief Congress In Person On Election Security; Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) Is Interviewed About Election Security. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired August 31, 2020 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: TSA says airline passenger traffic was down 75 percent from last July to this summer. Our coverage on CNN continues right now.

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. This amid please from officials in Kenosha, Wisconsin, urging the president not to visit tomorrow following the unrest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

The mayor who has just have extended a curfew for the rest of the week says, "The timing is wrong for the president to visit, adding, you have a community in the process of trying to heal." We'll also see if Mr. Trump reacts to a blistering indictment by Joe Biden.

In a speech, the Democratic presidential nominee accused the president of "rooting for chaos and violence, adding, that he's trying to scare America." The White House is denying the president is fanning the flames of division by praising his supporters who clashed with protesters in a deadly confrontation in Portland, Oregon.

And we're following breaking pandemic news. The U.S. just crossing the six million mark of known cases as the death toll climbs past 183,000 people. Let's begin at the White House with CNN White House correspondent Kaitlin Collins. Kaitlan, we do expect to hear from the president soon.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and we may hear more of what he tweeted within an hour of that speech from Joe Biden where Biden was really trying, Jim, to turn around one of the president's main criticisms of him, which is that it won't be safe in Joe Biden's America. Joe Biden is saying, look, this is happening now and it's happening on Donald Trump's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): Tonight, the White House says President Trump wasn't fanning the flames of division as he lavished praise on his supporters who clashed with protesters during a deadly confrontation in Portland.

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president was highlighting that these were good Americans going into peacefully be a part of a protest and show their voice.

COLLINS (voice-over): There have been nightly protests in Portland since George Floyd's death, but violence escalated Saturday after a caravan of Trump supporters waving 2020 flags drove into the city and clashed with counter-protesters, coming to a head when a man believed to be affiliated with a far-right group was fatally shot.

President Trump mourned the victim on Twitter, but instead of calling for de-escalation, he called the caravan great patriots. Trump posted this video of a man firing a paintball gun at protesters and seemed to justify it by saying, "The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching an incompetent mayor admit he has no idea what he is doing." The White House claimed Trump didn't see the video he retweeted.

MCENANY: I don't think the president has seen that video nor have I. You're going to ask me about a paintball video when in fact for 90 days we've seen horrific, horrific violence by Antifa.

COLLINS (voice-over): Joe Biden wasn't slated to return to the campaign trail until after Labor Day, but under rising pressure to push back on Trump's claims that he's anti-law enforcement, Biden denounced violence and rioting today.

JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?

COLLINS (voice-over): Biden accused the president of attempting to change the subject from the pandemic that has killed over 180,000 Americans.

BIDEN: Afraid they're going to get COVID. They're afraid they're going to get sick and die. And that is in no small part, it's because of you.

COLLINS (voice-over): When President Trump travels to Kenosha, Wisconsin tomorrow a meeting with Jacob Blake's family isn't on his schedule. He still hasn't spoken to the family, though it's been over a week since Jacob Blake was shot by a white police officer.

MCENANY: Currently the plans are to meet with local law enforcement and some business owners and he'll survey the damage, but there will be more detailed plans forthcoming that are announced.

COLLINS (on camera): Okay, so no, he's not scheduled to meet with the (inaudible). COLLINS (voice-over): The White House says the president condemns violence in all forms but would not say if he condemns the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old accused of fatally shooting two protesters.

MCENANY: The president is not going to, again, weigh in on that. You can ask him this evening.

COLLINS (voice-over): Over the weekend, Trump liked a tweet that said Kyle Rittenhouse is a good example of why I decided to vote for Trump.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (on camera): Now, Jim, this afternoon in the Oval Office the president met with the attorney general, Bill Barr, and the acting Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Chad Wolf, to talk about what's going on in these American cities, the unrest you're seeing in places like Portland.

It's not clear yet if they're going to join the president when he briefs reporters in the next half hour, but we should note while he is going to Kenosha, Wisconsin tomorrow, Joe Biden just told reporters he is also weighing his own trip to Kenosha, though it's not clear when that could happen.

ACOSTA: And Kaitlan, we know you'll be there with the president when he takes questions from reporters in just a little while. Kaitlin Collins, thank you very much.

[17:05:02]

President Trump is scheduled to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin tomorrow but he doesn't plan to meet the family of Jacob Blake who was shot multiple times by police sparking days of protest. CNN's Omar Jimenez is there for us. Omar, the governor and the mayor are making fresh pleas to the president not to come, but he's coming anyway.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jim. Local officials say it's still too soon for President Trump to make a visit here, specifically saying the community is still in the process of healing.

But they did say while they are staying tight-lipped on what exactly this visit is going to look like, they did say it is going to take away some of the limited local resources they have that has as of late been focused on managing protests, violence, even as we have seen that has become violence in some cases, a theme that we've seen play out now in multiple cities over just the past week alone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ (voice-over): For over 90 nights, protests in the streets of Portland.

(GUNFIRE)

JIMENEZ (voice-over): But on Saturday, a man was shot and killed as protesters, fueled by racial injustice, clashed with a pro Trump group. The man killed was wearing a Patriot Prayer hat, a far-right group based in Portland, according to a reporter with "The New York Times."

The shooting followed a pro-Trump cruise rally near the city. Portland police unsuccessfully tried to keep the large caravan of cars, motorcycles and trucks from coming into downtown. Some made it and clashes broke out. But the police chief says the caravan had already cleared the area when the man was shot.

CHUCK LOVELL, PORTLAND POLICE BUREAU: Individuals are free to disagree, but criminal activity, especially violence, is out of bounds. We've witnessed an increase in more and more uncivilized activity in our city and in our nation. It's incumbent on all of us to do better, so lives -- no more lives are lost.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Portland has experienced several weekends now of clashes between far-right demonstrators and counter-protesters. The president tweeting, "Portland is a mess and it has been for many years. If this joke of a mayor doesn't clean it up, we will go in and do it for them."

TED WHEELER (D), MAYOR OF PORTLAND, OREGON: President Trump, for four years we've had to live with you and your racist attacks on black people. We learned early about your sexist attitudes towards women. We've had to endure clips of you mocking a disabled man. Do you seriously wonder, Mr. President, why this is the first time in decades that America has seen this level of violence? It's you who have created the hate and the division.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Tuesday, President Trump is planning to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, a place that's seen days of protesting in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Some peaceful, some not so much. A 17-year-old is accused of killing two people and injuring a third, an act his lawyer says was self-defense.

Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, says this isn't the right time for the president to visit. Writing a letter that reads in part, "I along with other community leaders who have reached out are concerned about what your presence will mean for Kenosha and our state. I'm concerned your presence will only hinder our healing. I am concerned your presence will only delay our work to overcome division and move forward together." Local leaders echoing the governor's concerns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I felt his timing was wrong.

JIM KREUSER, KENOSHA COUNTY EXECUTIVE: Basically, you know, it's not the ideal time. There's a lot of crisis going on in our community.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The past few nights have been peaceful in Kenosha. The governor mobilized over a thousand National Guard troops to respond to the violence as a community and a country waits for what comes next for Blake and the police officer who shot him.

(END VIDEOTAPE) JIMENEZ (on camera): Now, the mayor announced the curfew here will be extended throughout the rest of the week. And on whether President Trump would be meeting or speaking to the Jacob Blake family, Blake's dad says he has no interest.

And Blake's uncle specifically said, and I'm quoting here, President Trump is a racist who stokes racial tensions. He's been stirring racial tensions since he got in the White House. Why as Jacob's uncle would I want to talk to him? Our focus is on Jacob and healing the community, Jim.

ACOSTA: Certainly sums it up. Okay, CNN's Omar Jimenez, thank you very much. Let's get more on all of this with "CNN Tonight" anchor Don Lemon and CNN law enforcement analyst and former police commissioner for the city if Philadelphia, Charles Ramsey.

Don, let me start with you first. President Trump, he's expressed sympathy for the Portland victim who appears to be a member of a far- right group, but he hasn't condemned the murders in Kenosha by one of his supporters.

He still hasn't expressed any sympathy or much of any sympathy for Jacob Blake and right now he has no plans to meet with the Blake family, although it sounds like they don't want to meet with the president during the visit to Kenosha tomorrow. What does all of that tell you, Don?

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Well, it tells me that this president is desperate to regain control of the narrative.

[17:09:58]

Joe Biden, I think, the former vice president did a really good job today of making his case when it comes to the violence that's happening on this president's watch, which some think was overdue for the vice president to do.

So, I think this president is desperate to change the narrative, change the conversation as it relates to the coronavirus, as it relates to what's happening with our economy, as it relates to what's happening with unemployment or employment in this country.

So, he is stoking violence. He is stoking unrest. He is -- he wants to go to Kenosha and divert the resources away from the folks who actually need them. I'm not sure what good he's going to do there, especially if the parents and the family don't want to meet with him.

Now, I will say, I will say we've heard from the father and we've heard from the rest of the family. They don't want to meet with the president. The mother, who is a god-fearing Christian woman may be different in that.

So I don't know if the mother will either have a change of heart or decide to meet with the president because the mother, again, Christian woman, has great respect for the office of the presidency, she may want to do it, but in that she should weigh the good and the bad that can come from it and also how this may play out politically, not being used as a pawn and so on and so forth.

So, I think that obviously desperation, the president, you know, today Joe Biden doing a good job. It just shows you that they are concerned and nervous. And they should be. Today, Joe Biden did a good job.

ACOSTA: And Charles Ramsey, today Joe Biden accused President Trump of "rooting for chaos and violence." What impact do you see the president's rhetoric having on the situation in Kenosha and in Portland over the weekend?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, it raises the temperature. I mean, we're in a very dangerous situation right now. I mean, just think about it. Over the weekend, during protests we had four people shot, three of whom died. I mean, it doesn't get much more serious than that.

So, instead of calming things down, making comments like we've heard coming out of the White House, whether it's the president tweeting or the press secretary, it just inflames things even more. Things should be -- we should be trying to calm things down a bit.

People aren't going to necessarily agree on an awful lot. We're so polarized that you're not going to really achieve that at this particular moment, but you don't have to make it worse than what it already is and that's exactly what we see going on.

I thought Vice President Biden did an excellent job today, really trying to calm things down, trying to unify the country, and also making it very clear that, you know, all this nonsense about this being somehow Joe Biden's America. I mean, President Trump is the president. This is happening today, it's happening now.

And the question is, what are you going to do to stop it? What are you going to do to calm it down, Mr. President? Because this is something that's already out of hand and it's only going to get worse. The toothpaste is out in the tube and you're not going to able to put it back in unless you start doing something very serious now to get this under control.

ACOSTA: Don, I have to think that the president --

LEMON: Jim, can I weigh in here?

ACOSTA: Yes. Sure, sure. Go ahead, Don.

LEMON: Can I say something? Here's something that we forget. We have a tendency to be myopic about these things or to have a short memory about these things. This is America. America has dealt with unrest within its borders, within its country, many times.

People who didn't want black people to vote, didn't want black people to have equality, didn't want women to have equality, didn't want women to vote, so on and so forth. We have dealt with these issues. We have dealt with rioting in the streets because people didn't want their children in the same school as a person who didn't have the same skin color as them. Because people did not want people to be able to marry someone who is

outside of their race. Because people did not want women to vote or have equality in the workplace. We have dealt with unrest and not always from people of color, but unrest from white folks as well who didn't want those things.

We have a short memory of that. America is well-equipped to deal with these things. What we should not be dealing with is someone who creates the division from on top, from on top -- at the top of this country. Someone who sows the discord, someone who uses it as a cudgel, and someone who tries to exploits it in order to save power or to gain power.

That's what is unusual about this and that's what we should be concerned about. But we should remember, we are well-equipped to deal with this. We are America. This is what we are about. When you put a whole bunch of people together who are not like each other, of course there are going to be clashes.

I'm not saying there should be violence or rioting or any of it, but again, this grand experiment about America is what's playing out right now and if we deal with it properly, we'll be just fine.

[17:14:57]

ACOSTA: Very good point. Don Lemon and Charles Ramsey, I have to wonder, though, the more the president whips things up, if more people are going to get hurt and we'll have to wait and see how that plays out. But Don Lemon, Charles Ramsey, thanks for joining us.

Don will be back at 10:00 p.m. eastern for his program, "CNN Tonight." Be sure to catch Don's new podcast as well. It's called "Silence is Not an Option." It's a terrific podcast. Please catch that.

And coming up next, we'll take a closer look at Joe Biden's blistering new indictment of President Trump. Plus, the head of the FDA says a coronavirus vaccine could get emergency approval before trials are over, sparking new controversy and questions about political influence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: And we're waiting for President Trump to take questions at the White House. He's likely to be asked about today's scathing criticism from Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden.

[17:20:02]

Let's discuss that with CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger and our political commentary Bakari Sellers. He's the author of a memoir called "My Vanishing Country." And Gloria, let me start with you. Let's watch some of Joe Biden's critique of the president earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BIDEN: Trump has sought to remake this nation in his image, selfish,

angry, dark and divisive. This is not who we are. To do we really feel safe under Donald Trump? Mr. Trump, do you want to talk about fear? Do you know what people are afraid of in America? They're afraid they're going to get COVID. They're afraid they're going to get sick and die.

And that is in no small part is because of you. The simple truth is Donald Trump failed to protect America. So now he's trying to scare America. You know me. You know my heart. You know my story, my family's story. Ask yourself, do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really? I want a safe America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Gloria, a lot of Democrats over the weekend were wondering when Joe Biden was going to come out and forcefully respond to what President Trump said last week at the convention, all of the things that were said last week at the convention. Did Joe Biden take care of those concerns?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I think he did that today. This was a terrific speech. He did what he had to do. He portrayed himself as the candidate of stability and safety and security and portrayed Donald Trump as a toxic candidate of chaos and economic disaster without any leadership in the country.

And I think that last line when he said you know me, do I look like some radical socialist here? This is the problem that the Trump campaign has been having. Because if you look at Joe Biden and you look at his past career, you would have to say this is not a radical socialist.

And so they're trying to stick that label on him, but I think what he did today made it more difficult for that label to stick.

ACOSTA: And Bakari, Biden called President Trump a bystander in his own presidency. What did you think of that message today? And what stood out for you?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I thought that today was a day that when you contrast what the president will do in a few minutes, it's a pretty clear juxtaposition. And what the Biden campaign was attempting to do is something that I have to be honest with Glo and everyone else, I wasn't sure if they were going to be able to thread this needle and they did so perfectly.

Because you couldn't spend this speech trying to have, as some reporters in mainstream media, people have talked about, some Sister Souljah moment. You couldn't go out there and alienate black folk or the base who are righteously protesting.

But there is a clear discernment between those who are protesting and those who are rioting, even Jacob Blake's (inaudible) same thing. And Joe Biden hit those notes. They walked that line, they threaded that needle perfectly. Everything else is just saying man to man, Donald Trump, you failed at

your job. There are millions of people who are out of work or tens of millions of people who are out of work. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have died and 6 million people, I believe, who contracted COVID.

So, this is on you. And they threaded this needle perfectly because it's really weird that Donald Trump's campaign message is do not vote for Joe Biden because Joe Biden may make it worse for you than it is right now in Donald Trump's America. And that's just a really weird contradictory theme that the Trump campaign is trying to push forward. I think it's failing.

ACOSTA: And Gloria, Joe Biden had to do some fact checking of his own today. He sort of became like Daniel Dale today, it seemed like, saying that he's not banning fracking. Does the former vice president need to do more of that?

BORGER: He does. I mean, he just -- and he said it's a lie. Stop lying. It's a lie, and let's move on. And, you know, he was in Pennsylvania and he said, look, I don't want to end fracking totally and I'm going to take Donald Trump's lies on one by one.

And what was so interesting to me today was if you remember from the convention, he didn't mention Donald Trump by name during the convention. Well, that was all gone today. More than 30 times he mentioned Donald Trump specifically.

Donald Trump's America specifically. Donald Trump's lies specifically. Donald Trump's failures specifically. So, we're going to hear a lot more of that. And, you know, I'm sure Donald Trump is going to respond, but I think this means that Biden is not going to sit back and let him take punches without responding.

ACOSTA: All right, very good. All right, thanks for all of that, Bakari and Gloria, appreciate that. More breaking news ahead.

The U.S. surpasses six million confirmed coronavirus cases as the death toll continues to climb.

[17:25:04]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:29:59]

ACOSTA: We're following breaking news. The number of known coronavirus cases in the U.S. has just surpassed six million, with more than 183,000 Americans now dead in the pandemic. CNN's Nick Watt is on Los Angeles with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Processions today for the dead in Detroit. More than 183,000 now confirmed killed by COVID-19 nationwide. But the President just retweeted an article that distorted data to suggest the actual toll is 9,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's wrong, it's misinformation, and frankly it is deadly.

WATT: A new Trump advisor is, according to "The Washington Post" now pushing the so-called Swedish model. Let the virus spread to the point of herd immunity, which the newspaper says could lead to 2 million deaths in the U.S.

"We have a convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic with the political season." the FDA Commissioner just told "The Financial Times," "We're just going to have to get through that and stick to our core principles."

But recent White House pressure on the CDC to tweak testing guidelines and the FDA exaggerating the effectiveness of plasma treatment is fostering fears of political meddling.

And now Dr. Hahn says the FDA could grant emergency authorization for a vaccine even before trials end, saying, "We may find that appropriate, we may find that inappropriate. We will make a determination."

ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, CENTER FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: He's basically laying the groundwork to be able to say that he believes that the benefit outweighs the harm, which is not a scientific standard we should use for this vaccine that we're going to put into tens of millions of people.

WATT: Case counts are ticking up in 20 states. Record average new case counts in these six states. And more than 1,200 students have now tested positive at the University of Alabama. Suny Oneonta just joined many other colleges suspending in-person classes for two weeks.

JIM MALATRAS, CHANCELLOR, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: Twenty COVID cases became 105 cases. We stepped in immediately.

WATT: Many learning online, but the plea from Dr. Birx, don't go home in case you infect mom and dad.

DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE RESPONSE COORDINATOR: Most university students are not going to know they're infected.

WATT: Nationwide key metrics are on a slow decline.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: As a nation we are clearly doing better now in the last day of August than we were on the first day of August and it's largely because of smart policies in Texas and Arizona and Florida around masking and closing bars.

WATT: Florida just logged its lowest daily case count since mid-June, showing signs of creeping near normalcy. In Miami-Dade today you can eat inside a restaurant again. But by law, they still go to be half empty.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: Now, on Fox News, the President was just asked if given a do- over he would put Dr. Anthony Fauci on his Coronavirus Task Force again. The President replied, "I inherited him. He was here."

He said that he does and has disagreed with a lot of what Dr. Fauci has said, but that the two men get along. And he said this, every once in a while he'll come up with one that I say where did that come from? I'm guessing that perhaps Dr. Fauci would say something similar about the President. Jim.

ACOSTA: I imagine so. All right, CNN's Nick Watt, thank you very much.

Let's get more on all of this with Dr. Peter Hotez, Professor and Dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Hotez, before we get to the FDA Commissioner, what he's been talking about, let me just ask you very quickly what Nick Watt was saying a few moments ago, what the President was saying about Dr. Fauci, that he inherited him, he was here. It's not really showing a lot of respect for somebody who is just widely trusted across the United States.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Yes, Dr. Fauci is someone who's given selfless service to the American people for 40 years, advising us about infectious diseases. He's a winner of the American Medal of Freedom. He's a national hero. And the way the President makes it sound like Tony was just dumped on him. It's disgusting. It's ridiculous.

ACOSTA: Dr. Hotez, let me move on to the FDA Commissioner. He says it's possible they could sign off on an emergency use authorization or even approval for a coronavirus vaccine before the end of phase three trials. Does that raise red flags for you?

HOTEZ: It does, Jim. You know, emergency use authorization is something we really haven't used in this country for vaccines for the simple reason that vaccines are products that are administered to healthy people to prevent them from getting ill.

This is -- we use emergency use authorizations for things like ventilators, we use them for PPE and we've used them unfortunately for hydroxychloroquine, which was already revoked. So it already has a taint to it that the American people are worried about.

[17:35:05]

So, right now emergency use authorizations are have to be considered as a substandard or incomplete review. And this is not something we can do for a vaccine, especially for some of the new operation warp speed technologies, which are new technologies that we've never used before for vaccinating the American population or any major population.

MRNA vaccines, adenovirus vector vaccines, these are brand new technologies, so the idea that you're going to give a substandard or incomplete review for something like that for a vaccine where you're going to administer to tens of millions of Americans and the fact that EUAs have a terrible reputation among the American people because of the experience with hydroxychloroquine, that's really concerning. And so I think they're going to have to find another mechanism.

If there's data to support the fact that the vaccines actually work and are safe, then go through the full review. Expedite it if you have to and you can do a few other tweaks. But I think the EUAs, for me, from my perspective is a nonstarter.

ACOSTA: And over the weekend President Trump retweeted a totally false conspiracy theory that said the CDC admitted that only 6 percent of people listed as coronavirus deaths actually died from the virus. That post was taken down by Twitter. How dangerous is that kind of misinformation?

HOTEZ: Well, it's dangerous for two reasons. One, it's not true. It's true that a lot of Americans who perished in this COVID-19 epidemic this year have underlying comorbidities, such as diabetes or hypertension, but the cause of death is clearly COVID-19. And it also gives me pause for concern that the President and people in the White House would even try to make that statement. It suggests that they're doing everything they can to cover up the fact that they single handedly are responsible for this COVID-19 epidemic in the U.S. they refuse to launch a national response.

And as a result, the U.S. has led the world in new COVID cases throughout this year and except for the very beginning of the epidemic and it leads in the number of deaths. It's one of our greatest national tragedies and it's our biggest public health failure. So these are sort of sophomoric attempts to kind of cover it up and yet it's another disgusting type of thing that they're doing.

ACOSTA: All right, Dr. Peter Hotez, thank you very much for those insights, always appreciate it. And thanks for joining us.

Coming up, will House Democrats go to court to force President Trump's intelligence chief to brief Congress in person about threats to election security? I'll ask the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Adam Schiff.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:42:18]

ACOSTA: And the breaking news, we're waiting for President Trump to take reporters' questions at the White House. But over the weekend the President supported the decision made by his Director of National Intelligence to do away with briefing Congress in person on foreign interference in the U.S. election.

The administration is promising written reports instead. And we're joined now by the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff.

Chairman Schiff, thanks for joining us. In practical terms, what impact will this change have on your understanding of election security for you, for your members and for the American people who will be casting their votes very soon?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): And that's the biggest issue, Jim, is how will it affect the American people. I think the answer is if they're allowed to do this, to basically shut off the flow of information, the American people are not going to find out the full extent of efforts made to choose their president for them by foreign powers and particularly by Russia. So it has a real impact.

You know, if the American people are brought into the confidence of the intelligence community and are told, OK, this is what Russia is doing, this is how they're trying to influence you, it really weakens the power of foreign nations to meddle in our affairs. But that's something the President is willing, you know, to accede to. That he wants the help, I think he's made that clear over the years.

He wants whatever help he can get. He doesn't believe that he can beat Joe Biden in a fair election. And he doesn't want the American people to learn about what Russia is doing on his behalf.

The reliance on written information is wholly insufficient. We've seen the problem with that before where documents can be wordsmith, they can be technically accurate but be completely misleading. And without the ability to question intelligence officials, without the ability sometimes to put them under oath and make sure we get the full answers, we can't be confident that either Congress or the American people are going to find out what foreign nations are doing to influence their vote.

ACOSTA: And the written briefings, you said you can't just trust what's in the written briefings because a lot can be left out in the process. How far are you prepared to go to get these oral briefings? Might you subpoena the director of National Intelligence, other top officials, to get these briefings in a verbal format?

SCHIFF: You know, we will certainly consider using whatever tools we can and we must to compel them to fulfill their lawful obligation. This is not just something we want, it's something the country needs and it's something by law they're required to provide. That intelligence doesn't belong to them, it belongs to the American people.

[17:45:00]

And to give you an illustration of what I'm talking about, Jim, you might remember a month ago the director of the National Security Counterintelligence Center issued a public statement that was so generic as to be essentially meaningless. There was nothing inherently inaccurate about any sentence in that document, it just didn't tell the American people anything. And it also gave a false sense of equivalence about what Russia was doing and what China or other nations were doing.

When we had public -- when we had, not public, but when we had full House briefings, we could question those intelligence officials. Why did you leave out of that first statement that Russia was trying to denigrate Joe Biden and help the candidacy of Donald Trump? That compelled them to issue a subsequent statement and make it clear to the American people that Russia had picked a side and was once again trying to help the Trump campaign.

If we didn't have that ability to hold them to account, then we might still be relying on that rather generic and misleading statement. So this is what's really at issue and it's why, you know, we will consider, as I said, whatever tools we need to get the American people the information that they need to make an informed judgment.

ACOSTA: All right, Congressman, Chairman Adam Schiff, very important topic and I know you'll be following it. And we'll get back to you obviously with more questions about this I think between now and Election Day. Chairman Schiff, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

And coming up, the shocking death of Actor Chadwick Boseman from colon cancer at only 43 years old. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us to share what people need to know about this disease.

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[17:51:29]

ACOSTA: Family, friends and fans of actor Chadwick Boseman are mourning his death from colon cancer. The "Black Panther" star was just 43 years old.

Let's get more with CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, this took so many people by surprise over the weekend. It was heartbreaking news. He was two years younger than the age they recommend screening for colon cancer. So, what should people know about this disease? And when should start getting those screening?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I mean, his case was unusual, right? I mean, he was very young when he was diagnosed, he was 39 years old. And the time that he was diagnosed he already had advanced colon cancer, you know, stage three at that point. So, it's a tough situation.

Having said that, you know, if you look across the board, about 10 percent to 12 percent of people who get diagnosed with colon cancer now a days are under the age of 50. And that's why that, you know, they move the screenings back, Jim. It used to be 50 years old to get to screening, now some agencies are saying you should get your screenings at age 45.

And we've seen it sort of go younger and younger in terms of who's getting colon cancer. We're not sure why. Some of that is probably because of the screening, but some of that is probably because of just lifestyle, other environmental factors. But it's a tough situation for this.

What we can say for sure is if you diagnose this early, and this is why screenings are important, 90 percent survival at five years if you make that diagnosis. But unfortunately we also hear only about 39 percent right now are diagnosed at an early stage.

So there's the rub, Jim. You want to diagnose them early because it's so much better if you do, but unfortunately not enough people still are.

ACOSTA: And just how much bigger is the risk of colon cancer within the African-American community?

GUPTA: It's significant. And I think that this has been some of the differences. And we can show the differences between different demographics. But different organizations have had different ages by which they recommend people get screened for that very reason.

But, look, overall across the board if you look at black Americans, not only do they have higher cancer rates overall but they also have higher cancer deaths. So, you know, when you heard from some of these organizations saying, look, we should move the screening back to age 45, which I realize in Chadwick Boseman's case would not have made a difference. I mean, he was 39 when he was diagnosed.

So in those situations, it's really a question of paying attention to any symptoms, which when you're 39 years old, you think I have stomach cramps or pain or something like that, how could that possibly be cancer, right? But, again, we know this is a cancer that's increasingly affecting younger people. We know you've got to pay attention to it even, you know, even if you're in your 30s.

ACOSTA: And Sanjay, as you know, we're in the middle of this global pandemic. Do people still need to be proactive about their regular doctors' appointments and screenings? I'm sure some people don't want to go to the doctor right now unless they actually feel like they might have the coronavirus. But how important are those regular appointments and screenings?

GUPTA: Yes. I mean, a lot of those types of screening especially in March, April sort of timeframe, we -- there was a significant drop-off of people going because all hospitals essentially were COVID hospitals and screenings did take a back seat.

I think in many places, most places I would say around the country now, you should do ahead and schedule those screenings. Get back to it. Don't put that off.

Again, age 45 for colonoscopy, I know there's a lot of people, I'm 50 now, a lot of people around my age who still haven't done it. It's a good time to go do that.

Another thing I would suggest is set up a telehealth sort of protocol with your doctor. Just do this now, even if you're not having a particular problem or needing a screening, just get that telehealth protocol done.

[17:55:06]

If you have a telehealth sort of way of communicating, you can schedule the screening I think much more easily.

ACOSTA: All right, very good advice as always Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Thank you very much for that. We appreciate it.

And breaking news next, we're standing by to see if President Trump takes questions from reporters at a White House briefing.

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ACOSTA: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Wolf Blitzer is off tonight. I'm Jim Acosta in THE SITUATION ROOM.