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The Situation Room

NYC to Close Non-Essential Businesses, Schools in Hot Spots; Trump Back at Walter Reed After Photo Op Visit to Supporters Outside; Wisconsin Battles Surge in COVID-19 Cases. Aired 12-12:30a ET

Aired October 05, 2020 - 00:00   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Much more coming up in the president's hospitalization. His condition right now is right outside the Walter Reed Hospital in just a few moments.

But first, there are major developments unfolding in New York City right now. The Mayor Bill de Blasio considering closing all non- essential businesses and schools in various neighborhoods where COVID test positivity rates are now very disturbingly climbing.

Joining us is CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro. Evan, so what more are you learning about the mayor's proposal for a partial second shutdown in New York City or at least major parts of New York?

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly ominous news, Wolf. What's an issue here is a rising infection rate in certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and Queens. And what the mayor is proposing is basically a neighborhood by neighborhood battle against those rising numbers. In nine neighborhoods, he's proposing basically a return to the kind of lockdowns we saw in all of New York back in April closing of schools, non-essential businesses, things like that. And in 11 other neighborhoods near those nine neighborhoods, he's proposing new restrictions on things like gyms and outdoor dining which just reopened here.

Now, New York has been enjoying a lot of good days when it comes to the pandemic over the past few months. But at a press conference today, Mayor de Blasio made it clear that today is not one of those days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NYC, NY): So today, unfortunately, is not a day for celebration. Today is a more difficult day, and I'm going to be giving an update. That gives me no joy at all. In fact, it pains me to be putting forward this approach that we'll need. But in some parts of our city in Brooklyn and Queens, we're having an extraordinary problem. Something we haven't seen since the spring.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [00:05:07]

SANTORO: Now, Wolf, as I said, these are proposals. Mayor de Blasio needs Governor Andrew Cuomo to sign off on it. But for those of us who have been here in New York for this entire pandemic, the thought of returning to some of these lockdowns is a very scary one.

Wolf?

BLITZER: It certainly is. Evan McMorris Santoro in New York, thank you. New York, by the way, isn't the only city seeing a troubling new bout of new cases, a new surge of cases the entire country has as well. Get this, more than 54,000 cases were reported on Friday, including the president's of course. That's the highest single day case number reported since 64,000 cases back on August 14th.

Dr. Patrice Harris is back with us. Dr. Harris, how worried are you right now that potentially, I hope it's not going to happen, we're seeing the start of a spike or what they call a second wave here in the United States?

DR. PATRICE HARRIS, FORMER PRESIDENT, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: Wolf, these are certainly difficult decisions but certainly they should be driven by the data, it looks like the infection rate is increasing there. At least in some of the zip codes in New York, we've seen an increase nationwide. We've seen certainly an increase in Wisconsin over the last couple of weeks or so. Now, certainly more folks are opening businesses, more schools, colleges and universities are open. And so as a result, there is likely to be increased spread.

The key is, do you have systems in place to quickly address outbreaks so that folks can quarantine and isolate? Wolf, this is what we were talking about at the very beginning when New York was hit really hard. So the idea is to make sure that you are collecting the data and then that you can determine what next steps to do according to that data. Hopefully, you can slowly shut down any businesses where maybe there are a lot of people, or there's an inability to wear mask or social distance and not have to go back to the total shutdown that we particularly in New York experienced early on.

BLITZER: We're now in October, the flu season starting here in the United States. How will this flu season, Dr. Harris, complicate the fight against the coronavirus?

HARRIS: Well, certainly we are worried about that twindemic as folks have called it, you know, the COVID-19 and the flu. Now, Wolf, and I have said this before on your show, we are not helpless. And perhaps some of the very basic public health measures that many are using, wearing mask, again, keeping distance, washing hands, those very measures can also protect us and prevent high flow rates. The other huge intervention that can be used to decrease the flow is to get the flu vaccine. So certainly I and physicians across this country, the AMA, are encouraging everyone to get the flu vaccine that's appropriate for them.

BLITZER: That's very, very important. It could be life saving, indeed. All right, Dr. Patrice Harris, thank you very much.

We're only 30 days out from Election Day here in the United States. Millions of Americans, by the way, have already voted. So what effect does President Trump's hospitalization have on the race for the White House? We'll discuss when we come back.

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BLITZER: There's a breaking news coming into the Situation Room. The U.S. Justice Department says the attorney general of the United States Bill Barr has received four negative coronavirus tests since Friday, including another one today but we're also told he will begin self- quarantine at least for now. Remember, he was in the Rose Garden event a week ago Saturday for the president's U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett at the announcement. There you see him. Kellyanne Conway there, she's tested positive. Since then, at least seven people, by the way, at that event in the Rose Garden have now tested positive for COVID-19. Very disturbing developments. We'll see what happens on that front.

Meanwhile, the president tried to shift attention away from coronavirus all summer but now it's certainly driving the political conversation here in the United States with less than a month ago before Election Day. And the administration is still downplaying the threat even as this virus hits the White House. Before the president's photo op today, his physician address the mixed messages concerning President Trump's health.

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DR. SEAN CONLEY, TRUMP'S PHYSICIAN: I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, the course of illness has had didn't want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction. And in doing so, you know, came off that we're trying to hide something, it wasn't necessarily true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN politics reporter and editor-at-large Chris Cillizza is joining us. Also CNN's Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash.

Dana, president's surprise little motorcade trip around -- outside the Walter Reed Hospital today. What did you make of it?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It was reckless. You know, it was classic, vintage Donald Trump that he wanted to have a moment and that he wanted to thank the people out there. But also he wanted to have the visual, the optics of him being vital and him being you know, OK, which is wonderful but he's got a deadly virus and he's in a car, as you've been talking about this evening, Wolf, with physicians.

[00:15:18] In a hermetically sealed car with other people, and whether they're, you know, wearing PPE or not and they were. It's just dangerous unnecessarily so. Never mind the fact that somebody who has this kind of virus and has had the issues that his own doctor finally admitted to with regard to oxygen levels and so forth. Why do this? Well, we know the answer. He did it because he, because he could. And because he wanted to, again, show vitality.

BLITZER: So Chris, so was the president's little drive by today meant to reassure Americans, or do you think this was more of an effort to reassure the president that he could do this if he wanted to?

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, I think it's the latter, Wolf. I think if Donald Trump want, to echo Dana, Donald Trump wanted to do it, he's the president, he has a group of people around him who enable him. Largely no one says, Mr. President, like the Secret Service, we'll go with you because that's their job and their sworn responsibility. But maybe this isn't the smartest thing because as Dana said, it's, it's not necessary.

You can't -- just because you can do it, that doesn't mean you should do it. I just think Donald Trump likes to hear the people who love him cheer for him. And I think this is another example of that. We know he's concerned as most presidents would be, honestly, if they were in a situation like this to make sure that they present themselves as sort of hail and as hearty as possible. We know he cares very much about appearances and being appearing strong and tough. But this is not someone who thinks about other people. Never has.

We shouldn't be surprised by this, Wolf. But we should call it out for what it is which is deeply irresponsible.

BLITZER: You know, from a bird's eye view, Dana, how is the president's illness, he's in the hospital now, change this final month of the presidential campaign.

BASH: Every time something happens, you know, has happened over the past week or two weeks from Ruth Bader Ginsburg passing away to the crazy debate performance that we saw just last week to the president contracting coronavirus. We think OK, this is, this is the October surprise, this is the thing that we're not expecting. So I'm reluctant to say that we've seen the things and that's it because who knows what's going to happen next. But particularly this past week between the president's debate performance and not just contracting coronavirus, but what we know about the way that he handled it and not being safe and being really irresponsible and putting other people at risk, even his own supporters, his own money, people, his own donors, he went to that fundraiser in New Jersey. It's not good. And I've talked to people even today who are in the field with polls for their own races and their own clients who have said that they have seen a drop of the president's or with the president's support, and he was already not doing that great in a lot of really key battleground states.

No, it's not to say that things won't turn around but remember, people are voting right now. BLITZER: Yes.

BASH: There's early voting that is happening right now in key states like North Carolina, for example.

BLITZER: A key battleground state. You know, it's interesting, you know, Chris, the Trump campaign wanted to focus it on the Supreme Court, wanted to focus in on the stock market, wanted to focus in on law and order. The last thing they wanted the American public to focus in on was coronavirus, but that hasn't all changed these last few weeks, right?

CILLIZZA: Yes. It's remarkable. I'm with Dana that, you know, October 4th, there's still 27 days left and a couple days after that for the election, 30 days total. So you always got to be careful particularly when Donald Trump is involved. But I think what you saw in the last six to eight weeks, Wolf, especially was Donald Trump doing anything and everything he could to make the conversation in the last 30 days of the selection be about anything other than the coronavirus. So whether it's law and order and peaceful protests versus violent protests and Antifa versus white supremacists, all of that. Then obviously the Supreme Court pick Amy Coney Barrett, could this be a referendum on Donald Trump and conservative justices.

But remarkably, Donald Trump getting the coronavirus and so many people around him getting it or continue to win and others. That will be the thing that makes it impossible for Donald Trump to not get away from it. This being a referendum on coronavirus and his handling of it.

[00:20:03]

BLITZER: That's an important point as well. Chris Cillizza, Dana Bash, guys, thank you very, very much.

There are new cases of coronavirus spiking all across the United States right now. But one state is seeing such a big surge that hospitals are getting overwhelmed right now. We have that story when we come.

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[00:25:30]

BLITZER: Until he became ill with the coronavirus and now spending day three in the hospital, President Trump had planned back-to-back rallies in Wisconsin this weekend. Now, Wisconsin is considered a coronavirus hotspot amid a spike in new cases. CNN's Omar Jimenez spoke to health officials who are struggling big time to try to keep up.

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OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a comeback story in Wisconsin no one wanted to see. This week, Wisconsin set a record for average daily coronavirus cases in the state, as well as a record number of hospitalizations and a record number of deaths due to COVID- 19.

DR. PAUL CASEY, BELLIN HEALTH GREEN BAY: This is a scenario we were scared of. Our numbers rise every day, the hospital is now overcapacity. We're having to resort back to some of our contingency plans.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Since mid-June, the number of new cases in the state had been on a steady rise. But beginning in early September, the numbers exploded.

(on camera) This is a relatively brief moment of calm inside the emergency department at Bellin Hospital here in Green Bay over what's been weeks of chaos trying to keep up with the pace of patience. They have seen fearing, they're on the brink of the crisis as they've now had to put beds in the hallway for the first time just to handle the pace of people that have come in.

Why are we seeing the numbers that we've been seeing at least over the course of the past three weeks?

CASEY: There's a significant part of the population that doesn't believe in the public health measures we all recommend. So, the common theme we're seeing right now is acquisition of the virus through close family or friend contact.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): County officials also point to COVID fatigue. People have started to relax their practice of health guidelines. Labor Day weekend gatherings with few masks or social distancing, schools reopening with students in close quarters, and some rebelling against the statewide mask mandate. All these factors in the sudden rise.

CHRIS WOLESKE, PRESIDENT AND CEO, BELLIN HEALTH: We're all seeing these increasing hospitalizations that are taking beds away from our ability to care for other services and we've managed it but it is getting very challenging and very concerning as we watch the numbers continue to grow.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): But it's not just Green Bay, cities and counties across the state are struggling to find a way forward.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our case numbers have reflected, you know, we're in a bad spot.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The White House coronavirus taskforce says Wisconsin has one of the highest rates of new cases in the country within the region of the Midwest which now has the country's highest seven-day average of new daily cases per capita according to Johns Hopkins' data. And as the state tries to get a handle on the growing crisis, those affected serve as cautionary examples.

LEAH BLOMBERG, DIAGNOSED COVID-POSTIVE EARLIER THIS YEAR: COVID really does a number on your body.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Thirty-six-year-old Leah Blomberg says she had to be put in a medically-induced coma after she tested positive in the spring.

BLOMBERG: They had actually told my husband to prepare for the worst that they did not expect me to make it.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): And months later, the virus' effects still linger.

BLOMBERG: I get winded carrying my groceries 20 steps from the front step to the kitchen. Even if you don't think it's serious, not hurting anything to treat it like it is which it is. I know firsthand. I barely made it through the first round. I don't know if I'd survive a second round.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Omar Jimenez, CNN, Green Bay, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Thank you very much, Omar.

Coming up, amid contradictory messages about his health, President Trump says he has now learned a lot about the coronavirus. But instead of isolating, the president, get this, chose to use his motorcade as a photo op today just outside the hospital. Standby, we're getting new information.

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