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The Situation Room

Interview With Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL); Vice Presidential Debate Set For Tonight; Trump Returns To Oval Office; Many Americans Facing Financial Ruin As Stimulus Hopes Fade; U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 211,000 With 7.5 Million Cases; Trump Continues Spreading Baseless Claims About Election After Ballot Printing Errors In Two States. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired October 07, 2020 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.

We're following breaking news this hour, President Trump's reckless return to the Oval Office. Take a look at this, live pictures coming in from the West Wing. You see the Marine guard there at the door. That means the president is just beyond that door inside the West Wing in the Oval Office, despite, despite his coronavirus infection and the growing outbreak inside the White House.

The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and social media adviser Dan Scavino have been working alongside the president while wearing personal protective equipment.

We're certain to hear a lot more about the White House coronavirus outbreak at tonight's historic debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris, now just a few hours away.

Senator Harris would be the first woman to hold the office and the first person of color. And with all the focus that the president's illness has developed, we can't forget the pandemic's enormous death toll here in the United States, which now stands at more than 211,000, with more than 7.5 million confirmed cases.

Let's begin our coverage this hour with our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.

Jim, the president once again showing complete disregard for the basic coronavirus guidelines put forward by the CDC, as this outbreak inside the White House has continued.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf.

And we should point out the president just tweeted out a Web video, a White House-produced video, in just the last several minutes. We're going through it right now. But one quick headline from that video, the president refers to his

being infected with the coronavirus as a blessing from God and a blessing in disguise. So, we're going through that video right now, and we will have more on that as we go through it.

But, in the meantime, as you said, President Trump returned to the Oval Office, even as he's still infected with the coronavirus and capable of spreading COVID-19 to other people. He's been in the office, Oval Office, with a couple of top aides, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

The White House continued to cloak the president's health in secrecy today. The president's doctor released a statement saying Mr. Trump feels great and is symptom-free.

But top White House officials are giving conflicting answers on whether the president entered the Oval Office yesterday. And CNN has learned the president was not being tested daily for the virus prior to his positive results last week. White House officials will only say he is tested regularly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): With a Marine stationed outside the West Wing, meaning the president was back in the Oval Office, White House officials are dodging key questions about Mr. Trump's recovery from the coronavirus.

The president's doctor, Sean Conley, released another brief statement that first quotes Mr. Trump: "The president this morning says, 'I feel great!'" and goes on to say: "His vital signs, including oxygen saturation and respiratory rate, all remain stable and in normal range. He's now been fever-free for more than four days, symptom-free for over 24 hours."

Top White House officials are giving conflicting answers on whether the president stopped by the Oval Office on Tuesday, with economic adviser Larry Kudlow saying, yes, he did.

LARRY KUDLOW, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: The government is functioning. The president actually showed up in the Oval Office yesterday with extra precautions with respect to his COVID-19. And he's getting a lot better.

ACOSTA: But Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters Mr. Trump only wanted to go.

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We're looking at his prognosis from a health standpoint. He wanted to go to the Oval yesterday. If he decides to go to the Oval, we have got safety protocols did there.

ACOSTA: Meadows would not say when the president last tested negative for the virus, before his positive results on Thursday.

QUESTION: Mark, was the president tested daily before Thursday? MEADOWS: You have already had that asked and answered.

ACOSTA: White House officials tell CNN the president is tested regularly, while people around Mr. Trump are tested daily. That's a critical distinction, considering all of the people in Mr. Trump's orbit who've come up positive with COVID-19.

Administration officials are looking at both the Rose Garden event for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Mr. Trump's debate prep session that's included Kellyanne Conway and Chris Christie as likely spreaders of the virus late last month.

If Mr. Trump caught the virus that weekend, he could have passed it on at a Gold Star event for military families, where many people were not wearing masks.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yesterday, I was very proud to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court.

[18:05:01]

ACOSTA: As well as his news conference the same day.

JOSEPH BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Will you shut up, man?

ACOSTA: Add to that his debate in Ohio two days later, and then his rally in Minnesota.

Dr. Anthony Fauci says that's why he's been urging Americans to be more careful.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: Take a look at what happened this week at the White House. That is a reality right there. And every day that goes by, more people are popping up that are infected. It's not a hoax.

ACOSTA: Behind closed doors, the president is back to tweeting conspiracy theories, with one including a notable typo that combined the words caught and cough.

The president also thanked a supporter who tweeted, "I would wade flu a sea of COVID-infested water to vote for President Trump on November 3."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who slammed the president for abruptly ending coronavirus stimulus talks, questioning whether his medications are affecting his actions.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): There are those who say that steroids have an impact on people's thinking. I don't know. But there are those health care providers who say that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Now, as for that Web video from the White House of the president, it is the first time we are seeing the president on camera since he returned from Walter Reed.

Let's play a chunk of that now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it. This was a blessing in disguise.

I caught it. I heard about this drug. I said, Let me take it. It was my suggestion. I said, let me take it, and it was incredible, the way it worked. Incredible. And I think, if I didn't catch it, we'd be looking at that like a number of other drugs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And so you see there, Wolf, the president referring to his being stricken with the coronavirus as a blessing from God.

The president throughout that video describes some of the medicines that he's been on as being part of the reason why he sees all of this as a blessing.

But, of course, Wolf, we have to underline not every American who is stricken with the coronavirus has access to the kind of medical care that the president has had access to over the last several days.

And so, obviously, that is going to be held up as a reason to wonder whether or not the president fully understands the plight of Americans who catch COVID-19 and are falling ill from COVID-19. Obviously, the president sounding very upbeat in that video, but, obviously, the medical care he receives is very different from the medical care that lots of other Americans receive around the country -- Wolf.

BLITZER: It certainly is.

That video, Jim, it was produced by the White House. It wasn't produced -- it wasn't made available through news media coverage, the White House pool or anything. It was produced by the White House. Do we know when they did this?

ACOSTA: It appears from that video that this may have been recorded yesterday.

We did hear that the president was recording a video yesterday. And then the White House did not release that video last night. And so you're absolutely right, Wolf. That is something that you have to underline here, that this is a video produced -- shot, produced and released by the White House.

There was no press pool or anything like that, that went out onto the Rose Garden to record this. This was the president, along with his social media and video teams, out there putting this video together. You can see the president talking into the camera there and looking like he's OK, looking like he's healthy.

But, of course, we should underline, Wolf, we have been talking to our sources ever since the president has been stricken with the coronavirus, and we have been hearing conflicting things. Obviously, we're hearing that the president is having some trouble breathing, that it hasn't always been a smooth ride when it comes to how he's been dealing with the coronavirus.

Obviously, the White House wants to present a very different picture and show him that he's doing -- show that he's doing all right, but no question about it, this is a White House video produced by the White House. There were no journalists, there were no reporters, no videographers, photographers who were around the president to independently observe as to whether or not the president is doing as well as he seems in that video, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, the president not wearing a mask. And there were individuals working the cameras, the audio, there at the scene. A little worried about them, obviously, as well.

Jim Acosta. I know you're working your sources. We will get back to you.

Amidst all of this, we're getting more details right now on tonight's vice presidential debate.

I want to go to CNN's Kyung Lah. She's on the scene for us in Salt Lake City.

Both sides must be preparing for the president's COVID diagnosis to be a major topic, Kyung, at the debate tonight.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Without question, Wolf.

As far as the Harris campaign, we have heard this from her aides in a call in advance of the debate this evening, that while Senator Harris may be on stage with the vice president, it will be President Trump that she wants to return to as a topic.

Certainly, his coronavirus status, his diagnosis hangs over this entire debate, down to those dividers, those Plexiglas dividers that separate the two candidates, two of them on both sides.

[18:10:03]

The moderator will be sitting on one end. But those dividers will be separating the two candidates, so, the visual cue, all of it hanging over all of this.

The Harris campaign also said that what they're going to be reminding Americans about is that Mike Pence, the vice president, is the one who is at the top, the head of the Coronavirus Task Force, so, again, trying to tie him back to what we are seeing in the United States as far as infections.

The vice president, though, is known for his diligent practice, practicing 90 minutes straight, drilling. It is something he is known for. The campaign, the Harris campaign, says they expect him to be smooth and practiced -- Wolf. BLITZER: Yes, I expect it to be a little bit more civil than the debate last week.

You know, Kyung, we saw the Plexiglas on the debate stage. What other safety measures are in place in light of the coronavirus outbreak at the White House?

LAH: Well, you can see that I'm wearing a mask inside the debate hall. Everyone inside the debate hall needs to wear a mask.

And they're asking reporters, people who are attending to wear this type of mask. It's a specific mask that they're handing out to people here on the campus of the university.

They are also spacing people apart on stage. The candidates are separated by 12 feet and three inches, a very specific distance between these two chairs. And that, in addition to the Plexiglas, the hope is to try to protect these candidates as best as they can.

Also, whenever you walk around here on the campus, Wolf, what you see is hand sanitizers everywhere. You see wipes. And you also see people asking people to separate. If you're standing too close to somebody, you're not wearing a mask outdoors, they do ask you to separate.

It's really a unique situation, where they are going specifically up to people and saying, hey, you guys are a little too close -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I'm glad they're doing that. It's better to err on the side of caution, of course, with a deadly virus like this out there.

Kyung Lah in Salt Lake City, thank you.

Let's get some more analysis from our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, and former Ohio Governor John Kasich. He's now a CNN senior political commentator.

Sanjay, in this new video that was just released by the White House, President Trump said he thinks it's a blessing. It's a blessing from God, he said, he caught the coronavirus. He said that the experimental drug that he got, he called it a cure. And he told Americans they will get better fast, just like he did.

Is he actually using his own illness to downplay this coronavirus, which is so deadly, even further?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I hope he recovers well from this. But it certainly does sound like it. Right?

I don't think anybody would consider this a blessing. So many people have died. Wolf, you talk about it all the time. I keep in touch with so many of these families who've lost loved ones. This is not a blessing by any means.

And, Wolf, he's not out of the acute phase of this illness yet. We know that he was receiving this cocktail of medications. He received the antibodies, which may have been helpful to him. Antibodies are these proteins that can help fight the virus. He received the remdesivir, which is an antiviral.

And I think he's still on steroids, because, if you look at the trials, that usually is 10 days' worth of steroids, six milligrams a day. So, he's probably still on steroids, which could be making him feel well, but that's not treating the underlying illness.

Wolf, it's also important to point out something we have talked about, and that is these long-hauler symptoms. And, again, I'm not -- I hope he doesn't develop any of this.

But about close to 90 percent of people who are hospitalized for COVID do have lingering symptoms, shortness of breath, fatigue, sometimes neurological symptoms, such as headache or confusion, difficulty thinking. So, it's not a blessing.

Nobody wants this. You don't want this. Herd immunity is not -- is it back to him advocating for herd immunity? That's a terrible idea. So, I don't know what he intended to convey in that video, but you don't want this disease, Wolf.

BLITZER: No. And you don't know. Even if you get through the coronavirus, you don't know about the long-term ramifications on your health, because we know there are a lot of what they call long-haulers out there who have problems months and months down the road.

The president, Sanjay, said it was his suggestion to be treated with that Regeneron antibody therapy. What's your reaction to that?

GUPTA: Well, I don't know. What I can tell you -- I don't know how it came about.

You and I both know, because we talked to the -- one of the founders of the company last week, this is not even a therapy that has emergency use authorization yet. There's been a lot of enthusiasm around using antibodies. Antibodies, again, are these proteins that can help fight the virus.

And you would produce them if you got a vaccine or you could give them to somebody, as was given to the president. But there's not a lot of data around this, 275 people in this first trial, and we didn't even really see that data.

[18:15:03]

But whether he ordered it, I'm sure his doctors talked about this as a possibility and probably talked to Regeneron, the company that makes these antibodies. And then he would have needed to get a compassionate use authorization for this, because, again, it's not even authorized under emergency use.

BLITZER: Yes. He made a point of saying it was a cure and he was grateful to Regeneron for that drug.

What did you gather from the president's appearance in this new video that the White House released? Remember, this is an official White House video. What does it say that, even when he has this virus himself -- and I assume, Sanjay, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, he's still contagious -- he wants to put out this image of him walking around.

He's over there in the Rose Garden. He's not wearing a mask. There's a government camera crew there. I'm worried about them, obviously. He's heading from the residence over to the Oval Office. You know this area well. What do you make of that?

GUPTA: It's really worrisome, Wolf.

And it makes no sense. I mean, he should be in isolation. He has this disease. It's been diagnosed in him. He's still contagious. People are typically contagious up to 10 days after they develop symptoms. So, he's still in that contagious period.

We've -- CDC, all these doctors have been telling people for months now, if you have the disease you need to isolate even within your own home. You can't even see some -- your family members. Use your own bathroom. Use your own kitchen utensils, all that sort of stuff. And here he is out and about without a mask on?

It's a terrible message to send. Like you, I'm worried about the people that are around him. This is a contagious, deadly disease. I feel like I'm living in some sort of surreal movie here. How is it that the president of the United States, who has this disease, it is contagious and it is deadly, is out there making a video and possibly infecting other people?

It's just -- it's wrong on every level, medical, moral, you name it.

BLITZER: Yes, and he's ignoring the CDC's own guidelines for those who are infected with the disease and potentially contagious as well.

Kaitlan, we don't know, unless you know, when the president actually filmed this video. We don't know if this was edited by the White House. What do we know?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this doesn't appear to be the video that the president had taped yesterday, which we thought it was a little questionable why they had not aired that video yet. This seems to be a new video that the president taped outside today.

And this is notable, because it's the first time we have actually seen the president, though this is a taped appearance, coordinated by the White House, with no independent media there, we should stress.

But this is the first time we have actually seen the president since Monday. And so people have been questioning why we hadn't seen the president, why his doctor hadn't briefed reporters. He was instead only putting statements out.

And so this is the first time we have seen him. And if you watch this video, it's about five minutes long, Wolf, you do see a period in there, I think about almost the two-minute mark, where there is an edit, it appears, because it goes from being kind of close zoomed in on the president to zoomed out.

So, of course, that's going to raise questions. It doesn't appear to just be a completely taped live address, where you're seeing the president as he is, and you can evaluate, how's his breathing, how does this look, seeing him in person and judging how he's looking, dealing with this several days into his diagnosis.

But, Wolf, during that video, what I noticed also is the president talked about two things. He talked about the fact that a vaccine likely now won't come until after the election. That's because of those new FDA rules to make sure a vaccine is safe, that they want to monitor people who do get it in these trials for two months after they get the second dose of it in those clinical trials.

The president had been incredibly upset about that with the FDA administrator, because he was tweeting about it just recently. Of course, now we know those rules have been approved and that is going to be the situation. It's not going to be able to be rushed through because they want to make sure and see if there's any side effects.

And the president is conceding there, there will not be a vaccine until after the election, though he says it will be soon.

But also talking about this Regeneron-produced treatment that the president got, he talks about making it free, Wolf. And, of course, as Sanjay noted, it's not even close to being approved yet. It doesn't have that emergency use authorization.

But that is something we have talked about, is the president is saying this is a blessing in disguise, it's not a big deal. He's talking about getting access to this treatment. This is a treatment that fewer than 10 people in the United States outside of clinical trials have gotten access to. It is not widely available.

The president is having a very different coronavirus experience than you or I would have. And so that's important to stress, as people are watching the president projecting this rosy image, that what he's getting is not what everyone else is necessarily going to get.

BLITZER: Yes, that's absolutely true.

Governor Kasich, more than 211,000 Americans have now lost their lives to this virus. The president won't stay at the hospital. He won't wear a mask. You saw him now without a mask. You would think he'd want to send a message, wear a mask. It's so critically important. It can save lives.

He won't even follow the guidelines that the CDC has put out to isolate, safety, stay in what the CDC calls a safe room. Does that look like someone who's really learned more about the virus since getting it himself?

[18:20:02] JOHN KASICH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, Wolf, the -- what -- the people who are really acting his actions carefully are our senior citizens.

He had them pretty well locked down. But we have now begun to see either these folks moving away from him into a position of neutrality, just kind of looking at Joe Biden, and some of them are actually going over and saying they support Biden.

So we know that our seniors are the most vulnerable to this virus. And when they watch the president, whether with this motorcade, which has been widely condemned, in terms of what he did there, the way in which he has not been wearing masks, the way he scaled the steps to do that video, there's a lot of senior citizens shaking their heads, saying, you know, I don't know about this guy.

And you think about it. Just take a second and think about our seniors all over this country who are saying, wait a minute, I'm trying to lock down, my wife and I are trying to be careful. We're trying to do the responsible thing. We're not even seeing our grandchildren, because we don't want them to carry the virus here.

And there are parents that won't take their grandchildren because they're worried that the grandchildren may infect mom and dad. And so here they're watching this, and the guy's walking around doing videos and filming, not wearing a mask. Couple that with the motorcade activity. And they're not willing to answer the question about when had he had it.

And I think it's having a significant and profound effect on his standing now vis-a-vis Joe Biden.

BLITZER: And what's very disturbing is that the president's White House physician has refused to answer reporters' questions now for two days, yesterday and today, issuing just a very, very short little statement.

Everybody, stand by. We're going to have much more coming up on all the breaking news.

Also just ahead, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, she's standing by to join me in THE SITUATION ROOM. We have a lot to discuss, including the president's reckless trip to the Oval Office.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:26:25]

BLITZER: We're following the breaking news here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

President Trump is back in the Oval Office, despite, despite his coronavirus infection and the expanding outbreak inside the White House. So many White House officials have now come down with coronavirus. Let's continue the conversation with Democratic Senator Tammy

Duckworth of Illinois.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

In this newly released White House official video, the president says it was a blessing from God that he contracted the coronavirus. You have said the president's negligence actually caught up with him. He clearly sees it very differently.

What do you say to the president, as he actually continues to downplay this virus?

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): Stop jeopardizing the lives of Americans and stop jeopardizing the national security of our country.

You are acting negligently. And it is a dereliction of duty, the way you're behaving. He's put those immediately around him at risk. But he's also now continued to send out messaging that is contrary to what science tells us we should do, when -- to avoid contracting this deadly illness and to avoid spreading it.

He's modeling the absolute worst behavior. And we have 210,000 dead Americans right now that attest to the fact that this virus is deadly.

BLITZER: It's very deadly, indeed.

We watched, Senator -- we watched this evening as a U.S. Marine guard stationed outside the door at the West Wing of the White House, as a result of the president's actual return to the Oval Office. That Marine guard only stands there when the president is in the West Wing in the Oval Office.

I wonder what you, as a former -- as a veteran of the U.S. military, make of the president's putting members of the U.S. military, White House staffers, several of them, White House, not just officials, but those who work at the White House, potentially at risk by refusing to do what the CDC says he should be doing, isolating in what they call a safe room at the White House?

DUCKWORTH: Were he not the president, if he were a typical commander of a military unit, he would be relieved of duty. He would be fired.

You cannot jeopardize the well-being of your troops the way he has. And, remember, it's not just the Marine guard, Wolf. It's also the military aides that are around him, some of whom have already tested positive since the president has become ill.

Remember that you have got a military aide who carries the football with the nuclear codes in it there. He has put the commander in chief of the greatest military on the face of the Earth in danger, himself, and he's gotten himself sick, and now he's getting everybody else around him sick.

If you were a typical commander, you would have been relieved of duty. And that is -- it boggles the mind he would do that, not just to the military men and women who wear the uniforms, but think of their families watching their loved ones having to carry out the orders of this commander, who continues to show no regard whatsoever for their well-being.

BLITZER: Yes, I spent seven years as a White House correspondent, and it's not just the senior staff, and several of them have come down with coronavirus, but it's the porters, the butlers, the cooks, everybody who cleans up over there. It's regular people who potentially could be endangered.

Let's talk about something else that's very significant for millions of regular people out there right now. As you know, after the president tweeted that the stimulus talks with the Democrats in the House and Senate were off, eight hours later, he seemed to signal, well, maybe they're still open to a deal.

What does this mean for your constituents right now who are struggling, who are unemployed, can't pay the bills, can't pay the rent, struggling to get food on the table?

They're understandably frustrated with Washington's inability right now to provide desperately needed assistance.

[18:30:02]

DUCKWORTH: Well, they're desperate. They're scared. I remember what it was like to be a child, you know, with my dad who is unemployed and who literally couldn't put food on the table. I mean, that's where millions of Americans are right now. They can't make their rent. They can't make their mortgage of payments. Those protections are gone. There's no more unemployment insurance. Their kids are hungry. Their kids aren't in school. And this president continues to get in the way of any type of a conversation we could be having, any type of negotiations we could be having.

He should be sending a message to Mitch McConnell, pull up the HEROES Act that has passed the House, let's have a vote on that, or at the very least, come to the table and negotiate. Remember that Mitch McConnell has yet to attend any of these negotiation briefings.

And let me tell you the real consequences of that. Peoria, Illinois is laying off firefighters. Rockford, Illinois, they're not filling police officer positions that are empty. You have all of these municipalities who are not getting the funding, so they can't provide health and safety services to their citizens, in addition, to all of those hungry kids out there who do not have food on the table today because this president, these Republicans in the Senate refuse to negotiate a rescue package that's desperately needed by so many Americans in the middle of a pandemic that this president made worse.

BLITZER: Yes. And it was really amazing yesterday when the president announced that he was ending all discussion at a critical moment like this. Then he reversed himself a few hours later. Senator Tammy Duckworth, thanks so much for joining us.

DUCKWORTH: Thanks for having me on, Wolf. BLITZER: All right just ahead, new coronavirus restrictions are on the way for parts of New York as officials there, they are struggling to tamp down the hot spots. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:35:00]

BLITZER: Breaking news. The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus has now topped 211,000 with more than 7.5 million confirmed cases.

I want to bring in Dr. Eric Rubin, the Editor in Chief for the New England Journal of Medicine, which just released a truly scathing editorial slamming the U.S. handling of the pandemic, calling on voters to remove the leadership from office, the current leadership in Washington. Let's discuss. Dr. Rubin. Thank you so much for joining us.

And let me read what you and your fellow editors at the New England Journal of Medicine wrote. I'll read the bottom line. When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs. Very strong words, an extraordinary statement, Dr. Rubin, from a medical journal. It's the first time, I take it, you've ever taken this kind of step, at least in modern history. So, why now?

Dr. Rubin, unfortunately, I'm not hearing you. We're trying to correct the audio. But this is a really major development. The New England Journal of Medicine has been around for 200 years and they're now saying the Trump administration, for all practical purposes, the leadership should not be allowed, in their words, to keep, to keep their jobs. We're going to try to reconnect -- actually, Dr. Rubin, can you hear me now?

DR. ERIC RUBIN, EDITOR IN CHIEF, THE NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE: I can.

BLITZER: All right, good. We fixed the audio, fortunately. It's a sign of the times. Tell us why you decided to write this editorial now.

RUBIN: Well, I think it was an accumulation of events. We are not a political journal. We're a medical journal. We specialize in medicine and public health. But we were watching such poor decision-making, decisions are made -- that were very contrary to the evidence.

This is not an easy situation. We haven't had an outbreak like this for 100 years with this kind of death rate. And we don't know the right answers. But we do know many of the wrong answers. And wrong choices were being made consistently and costing thousands, tens of thousands of lives. It was hard not to speak out.

BLITZER: When I read the editorial, the bottom line is you were suggesting, you and the editors at the New England Journal of Medicine, basically saying don't re-elect the president. Is that what I'm hearing?

RUBIN: Yes. Although I think, in general, we were talking about many leaders who have made these poor decisions, these decisions that are not based on fact but on unsupported opinion. That can apply to governors. That could apply to other leaders as well.

BLITZER: Well, do you think the country has learned the lessons of this horrible experience, this deadly coronavirus pandemic?

RUBIN: I hope that there are lessons to be learned. It's very hard in the fury of the news cycle and with so many other things to do. I think it can be hard for people to focus on the bottom line. But the bottom line is our economy is a mess. We're losing lots of lives that we didn't need to lose. And none of that had to happen, not to the extent that it has.

BLITZER: Certainly, when you look at how other countries have dealt with this much more successfully, unfortunately, than we have, we've, in many respects, failed. Dr. Rubin, thank you so much for what you're doing. Thanks to everyone at the New England Journal of Medicine as well. Thanks for joining us.

RUBIN: Thank you for having me on, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Just ahead, we're going to preview tonight's debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris.

[18:40:03]

Much more on that, and a lot of news coming up right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Tonight, another key battleground state is open for early voting with Election Day less than a month away. But as Americans head to the polls, President Trump is again stoking fear about the security of the vote. CNN's Senior White House Correspondent, Pamela Brown, is following this for us.

[18:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump is back at it on Twitter, attempting to undermine the election. This time, he's seizing on small printing errors in North Carolina and California, saying it will be the most corrupt in American history, a completely baseless claim.

INAJO CHAPPELL, MEMBER, CUYAHOGA COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS: In the 13 years I have served in the Cuyahoga County, Ohio Board of Elections, including the last three presidential elections, I've never witnessed the kinds of falsehoods being disseminated about the integrity of our elections process that I've been seeing in this presidential cycle.

BROWN: In a new series of videos from the Army for Trump website, the president's campaign is training supporters to become poll watchers, something both political parties do. This video gives some specific instructions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of the time you're looking at body language. If you see a confused look on a voter's face or a confused look on the poll worker's face or any kind of delay in the process, there's your clue.

BROWN: The videos say to be respectful and not disrupt the process. But Philadelphia's district attorney announcing a plan to protect voters from those who may show up at polling stations and try to intimidate them.

LARRY KRASNER, PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The district attorney's office intends to make sure that there is no threatening presence at these polls. We are well-prepared and ready to act immediately along with our criminal justice partners if anything like that should happen.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: Your voice is important.

BROWN: Now, security experts, including FBI Director Christopher Wray, are going directly to voters.

CHRIS KREBS, DIRECTOR, HOMELAND SECURITY'S CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY: Because of the changes due to COVID, on November 3rd, we might not know the outcome of our election. And that's okay. But we're going to need your patience until official results are announced.

BROWN: Today, early voting is now under way in the crucial swing state of Arizona. With voters lining up early to get their votes tallied. Meantime, the U.S. Postal Service says it is doing all it can to try and implement election mail rulings in light of its own internal data showing on-time first-class mail delivery plunged in September.

KRISTIN SEAVER, USPS: Our number one priority between now and the November election is the secure and timely delivery of the nation's election mail. It's our duty and we take it very seriously.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And if an election issue goes before the Supreme Court, President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett remains non- committal on recusal. Today, Democratic Senator Chris Coons says he asked Barrett directly over the phone to recuse herself and she would not commit.

Now, Wolf, a White House spokesman said in response to that, asking the nominee to prejudge or promise a decision on a case, saying it violates the bedrock constitutional principle of judicial independence -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Pamela, thank you very much. Pamela Brown reporting for us.

Just ahead we're taking a closer look at what Mike Pence and Kamala Harris need to do in tonight's vice presidential debate.

We'll be right back.

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[18:52:32]

BLITZER: So, we're just hours away from the start of the vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris.

Let's bring in our political director, David Chalian, for some analysis.

David, this is one night only for the VP candidates. Not three debates, just one. What are you expecting to see from these two seasoned debaters?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, first and foremost, Wolf, I expect to see the coronavirus debate. I mean, both physically on the stage there in Utah, you see that plexiglass that's been put up next to each candidate. You know that they've been moved further apart than initially, they're now more than 12 feet apart on that debate stage.

This is because, obviously, of the president contracting the virus and any potential contact that Mike Pence may have had at the White House with some of the other people in addition to the president that has tested positive. That's it on the physical stage appearance, Wolf. But also as the issue that is facing the country right now.

I mean, Kamala Harris' mission for tonight's debate is to make sure to put the Trump administration's mismanagement of the pandemic front and center for as long as possible through this 90-minute debate.

And Vice President Pence obviously has a lot to defend just in the last week from his boss, whether it is the way in which he dealt with those he interacted with and the contact tracing or the lack thereof in the White House, to his behavior at the hospital and the joyride with the Secret Service agent in the car, to him coming on the south lawn and going up on the balcony and ripping the mask off, and clearly a moment that was a total lack of leadership.

So, there's a lot for Vice President Pence to answer for here as well, and as you know, he's the head of the coronavirus task force.

But I would just note, Wolf, you've got two presidential candidates at the top of the ticket who, no matter who gets elected, will be the oldest person elected president of the United States. So the number two, who that person has as their vice president, is critically important.

So I think there's going to be a lot of interest in this debate. And, of course, Kamala Harris is a historic candidate. This is the first time we're going to see an African-American woman, the first Indian- American woman sitting in that seat on this stage.

I mean, that representation is meaningful. And Mike Pence has to figure out how to navigate that history making candidacy that Harris represents.

BLITZER: We will be catching together with you. David Chalian, thank you very much.

We'll have more news just ahead.

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BLITZER: Finally tonight, our tribute to some of the victims of the coronavirus pandemic.

Silvia Gloria De Hoyos of Texas was 74 years old. Her daughter, Rachel, describes her as a devoted and nurturing matriarch who lit up a room, making people laugh and feel safe at the same time. We're told she thrived on the accomplishments of her children and grandchildren.

Charlene Struck of Nevada also was 74. She loved nothing more than to sit in the front row to watch her three granddaughters at their dance recitals. Her daughter and only child, Jessica, says her mom was her best friend, her right hand, and her world.

May they rest in peace, and may their memories be a blessing.

I'm Wolf Blitzer. Thanks very much for watching. I'll be back in one hour.

CNN's special coverage of the vice presidential debate starts right now.

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