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Erin Burnett Outfront

52.6 Million Americans Have Filed for Unemployment in 18 Weeks, Millions at Risk for Losing Their Health Insurance Too; Judge Orders Michael Cohen Be Released to Home Confinement, Says Government retaliated Against Him For Writing Trump Book. Aired on 7-8p ET

Aired July 23, 2020 - 19:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: I'm Wolf Blitzer. Stay with CNN for more breaking news on the coronavirus crisis. Thanks very much for watching.

Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, Trump's retreat. The President just canceling the GOP convention in Florida due to coronavirus. Tonight though he's still pushing schools across this country to reopen, saying it's safe and they only get extra money if they open.

Plus, record numbers of deaths in three states. Tonight, the effects of coronavirus reaching critical mass. Can states turn it around?

And a new spike in unemployed Americans who also could be without health insurance in the middle of the pandemic. Let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight breaking news, a grim milestone and a president in retreat. The President tonight canceling the August Republican convention in Jacksonville, Florida. As we learn more than 4 million Americans have now been infected with coronavirus, more 144,000 Americans have died of it and the virus right now is spreading more and more quickly.

Just take a look at this timeline, Johns Hopkins recorded the first case of coronavirus in the United States on January 21st. It took another 99 days to reach 1 million cases on April 28. Another 43 days to hit 2 million cases. Another 28 to hit 3 million and now only 15 days to hit 4 million cases in the United States.

And we have to say at this point, again, to be very clear that this is not just due to more testing, as the President keep saying. Over the past six weeks, there has been a 68 percent increase in testing. Cases though have more than tripled. The increase there, 224 percent. So the math, those are the facts.

One of the biggest hotspots in this country tonight is Florida, where President Trump was set to hold that big portion of his convention at the end of August.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I looked at my team and

I said the timing for this event is not right. It's just not right with what's happened recently. The flare up in Florida to have a big convention is not the right time. It's really something that for me I have to protect the American people. That's what I've always done. That's what I always will do. That's what I'm about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Look, this is a shocking about face, right, from the President who just weeks ago called the Governor of North Carolina backward and behind, his words, for saying, guess what, we can't have a convention here. It's not safe. Here's what the President said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When we signed in Jacksonville and, again, we wanted to be in North Carolina that almost worked out, but the Governor didn't want to have people use the arena essentially and we sort of - I said too bad for North Carolina and then we went to Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Too bad for North Carolina, he'll just move it to Florida. Again, calling the Governor of North Carolina backward and behind for trying to protect lives. Now, the President having to back down and retreat on his Florida convention.

But while Trump is in retreat on that Jacksonville event, forced to cancel, he is still overall painting a picture that isn't accurate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: A lot of the country has no problem whatsoever. Most of the country actually.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: That's not true. Right now we've got 23 states seeing an increase in cases. There are only five where cases are actually declining. And the President is not stopping his push to reopen schools. Again, saying that he will not give more funding to any schools that do not open.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Every district should be actively making preparations to open. Again, the children obviously have a very strong immune system, maybe even as strong as yours. They seem to be able to fight it off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: The truth is children have not been getting sick from this virus as adults and they have not been dying, but their teachers can get very sick, so can their parents, so can anyone, older in their lives. Because according to a new report from the CDC tonight, 41 percent of adults in this country have at least one underlying medical condition that could put them at higher risk for severe outcomes from the virus. That's 41 percent and then half of the counties in this country, nearly one in two adults have an underlying condition.

And so it's not just the parents and teachers we need to worry about that could come into contact with those children. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 3.3 million adults ages 65 and older, obviously, the most vulnerable group of Americans were your chance of death surges live in a household with school aged children. One of them, of course, is the President of the United States himself.

And many school districts going through all of that have come to the conclusion they can't safely open now. So currently, only five states have ordered schools to open for in-person instructor in full. Almost every other state is planning for some sort of hybrid situation or letting counties decide.

[19:05:06]

The country's second largest school district, Los Angeles, is having no in-person classes this fall at all.

Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT at the White House tonight. So, Kaitlan, look, the President after saying that the Governor of North Carolina was backward and all of these negative things and too bad for you North Carolina, I'm going to Florida, has now done the same thing and had to cancel his convention. Why did he do it so suddenly?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, Erin, this is all within an eight-week period that the President went from moving the convention in North Carolina because he was complaining that the health precautions they wanted them to take were too strict to now he is canceling the one he had moved to Florida because he is saying that the health risk there are too high, all within eight weeks that happened and it really goes to show what officials had been believing all along, because we have been hearing from many campaign officials and officials in Florida that they were getting too concerned about what this was going to look like as you are seeing Republican lawmaker after Republican lawmakers say they didn't feel comfortable into that convention.

And the President made this decision on a day that a Quinnipiac poll of Florida voters came out and said 62 percent of them did not think that it was a good time to hold the convention in August in Jacksonville with what's going on in the state. So the President is making this decision.

It came after we are told that he met with two of his campaign aides. They were talking about this. They said that they could still move forward with it if the President wanted to, Erin, but they said canceling is still an option, and you can use it to show some sort of leadership some kind of sense like that. That's how they said that to the President that they could frame it because, of course, it comes about a week after democrats said they are downsizing theirs from a few thousand people to just a few hundred. But, of course, you could not notice or couldn't help but notice in

that briefing today that the President went from talking about how he believed it was too risky to hold this convention, but then he continued on with his push for schools to reopen. He said yesterday he said he wants them to 100 percent reopen it and, of course, they are different venues. They have very different risk, but it is going to raise questions with the White House going forward if why the President doesn't think he should hold a political convention where people could be at risk, but he does think that people should go back to schools.

And so those will be questions that he's faced with over the next several days.

BURNETT: Yes, certainly. All right. Kaitlan, thank you very much. And I want to go now to Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Director of the Cardiac Cath Lab at George Washington University, also advised the medical team under President George W. Bush at the White House and, of course, our own Gloria Borger.

So Sanjay, look on this issue of the convention, the President in clear retreat, right? Calls Gov. Cooper of North Carolina backward and behind and too bad for you. Now canceling that convention in Jacksonville. But still pushing to reopen schools and saying I've got a hundred billion dollars, but I'm only going to give it to you if you reopen. These are two completely or seemingly diametrically opposed messages, are they?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are and they're also at odds with what the coronavirus task force has been saying. When they talk about schools, I mean, they've been very clear on this issue. The same guidance that they've been talking about with regard to Florida, if you have a lot of viral spread in your community and if the numbers are going up in the community at least five days in a row, that is not the time to open schools.

We do know, as you mentioned, Erin, we do know kids are less likely to get sick.

BURNETT: Yes.

GUPTA: But we say once you get to 10 years old, you're just as likely to spread as an adult. So it may be true even for kids younger, we just don't know that yet. So it doesn't make sense right now and, again, that's why we need the scientists talking about this directly to the American people.

BURNETT: So Dr. Reiner, I want to play more of what the President said about why he says he chose to cancel the convention in Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: To me every time you test you find a case and it gets reported in the news we found more cases, if instead of 50, we did 25 would have half the number of cases. So I personally think it's overrated, but I am totally willing to keep doing it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Dr. Reiner, so he said we thought it was wrong that people going to what turned out to be a hot spot as he continued and then he said, "We know when we chose it, it was not at all hot. It was free. All of a sudden it happened very quickly." That's not the case, though, is it?

JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: No. Cases in Florida have been rising for four weeks and the President has had a history in the last month of taking his show on the road to pandemic hotspots. At the end of last month, he held a large rally in Tulsa, as Tulsa was recording its largest daily coronavirus cases.

And then the following week he went to Phoenix, Arizona when they were doing the same. So the President has shown a disregard for the safety of the residents of those cities by holding these events as well as his advanced teams and security people by holding them in those venues.

[19:09:59]

And at that time, he's scheduled or rescheduled his convention in Jacksonville at a time where Florida was becoming the world's epicenter. But the truth is that there was no real chance that the convention could be held in Florida. It could not happen. So his people almost certainly told him that and it was just time to cut it.

BURNETT: And yet, Gloria, he's making the announcement after weeks of saying it was going to happen and saying all those pejorative things about Gov. Cooper of North Carolina. Yet when he did it today, Kaitlan mentioned the poll, the Quinnipiac poll, GOP voters, 62 percent in Florida said they didn't think it should happen safely. The polls were speaking very loudly and clearly and not saying what the President was saying. But yet no one knew it was happening. Florida leaders did not seem to know he was about to do this.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: What a shock. Look, this is a president, honestly, if you look at everything that's occurred over the last couple of days, who's becoming less and less relevant. I would say almost irrelevant at this point. He's trying to look like a leader, but he doesn't lead. He's following.

He want to talk about the convention. He had the fiasco in Tulsa. He couldn't afford to have another Tulsa. More and more members of Congress are saying, wait a minute, I'm not going to go. You had the sheriff of Jacksonville saying, sorry, I don't think this is really safe. And so the President had no choice, but to back off, but he wanted to make it seem like he was being a leader.

He's also had a reversal on schools. He softened his stance on schools. We're not quite sure what it is at this point. But instead of saying absolutely no money will go to those school systems that refused to open right now, he said, well, maybe we'll send the money directly to the parents. And he's been rejected by Republicans in Congress on his move for a payroll tax cut, because they don't think it would do any good.

So he's standing up there at the podium every day, trying to appear, in charge, when in fact events are just moving him like whitewater and he can't seem to get his feet on the ground here, because events are moving him. He is not leading. He just isn't.

BURNETT: And Sanjay, this is also happening as their school districts, which are, I guess, he would view it as defying him, that's not why they're doing it, but I mean school districts in completely red Republican areas as well as Democratic areas who are not doing exactly what he wants. And they had said, the Trump administration said we're going to give more guidance. They've had guidance on schools, but that they were going to give supplemental guidance after the President criticized the CDC guidance on how to open schools, said it was very tough. Mike Pence said it was too tough.

And now we have the CDC tonight coming out with some updates with a new line and it says this, the best available evidence indicates that COVID-19 poses relatively low risks to school-aged children. Obviously, that is true, statistically. The concern is what that would do to others. But when you think about this yourself, Sanjay, as a doctor with school-aged children, what's your feelings about sending them back to school?

GUPTA: Yes. I mean, topic number one in our household, right?

BURNETT: Yes.

GUPTA: And among our friends. Right now, we won't, and that's because of our community and where we live. We live in Georgia, in Atlanta and the numbers have been going up. The issue is exactly as you framed it, Erin. I think there is good evidence to suggest that my kids are less likely to get sick from this. I still worry about it. I think every parent does. I mean, even though it's less likely, I mean, gosh, it can be very, very severe in certain cases and we've known kids who've gotten very sick.

But right now the idea that they can still spread the virus, they would still be contributing to the fact that the numbers have been going up steadily in our area is a real concern. I mean, you know it's not an easy decision to make, but I think the data is very clear on this. So we won't do it right now, people have asked me this in our community and I tell the same thing to them.

BURNETT: So Dr. Reiner, the President, you heard him say, kids' immune systems are stronger so they don't get sick from this. It's more of a difference, I believe, that their immune systems respond differently. The adult immune system seem to kind of, I guess, over respond or overreact in a sense. Is this relevant, though, when it comes to opening schools or how relevant is it, because as a parent, when you hear this conversation, that is what you hear, kids aren't going to get sick. If we can just put Plexiglas between the teachers and protect the teachers, that the best thing to do given all the downsides is to send kids back. Where do you fall on this?

REINER: Well, the kids might not get sick, but they very well might get infected. And those children live in a home with parents who are vulnerable to get sick, and ill and die. And they may very well as you said at the outset be living with grandparents. And many of their parents will have comorbidities such as hypertension, or diabetes or diabetes or kidney disease that will significantly increase their risk.

So what the President doesn't tell you is that it's actually not about the children or it's certainly not only about the children. It's about the community in which the children live and that's where the risk is.

[19:15:05]

Spreading the virus to people who are really are susceptible of succumbing to this illness.

BURNETT: So, Gloria, will the President ever change his view on schools like he did in the convention? Because the convention one was, I mean, talk about whiplash, from backward and behind to we're done. Yes.

BORGER: Yes. I think we began to see the cement cracking today, because originally he was going to punish school districts that didn't open and ask every child to come back to school. And what we heard today at this press conference is a softening of his position and that is because members of Congress are hearing from their constituents who are saying, I'm afraid of sending my child back to school. I don't want my child to be a carrier of COVID.

And so I think the President originally thought this was going to be kind of a slam dunk issue for him and he has discovered in fact, that parents are reacting differently from the way he thought at the outset. And so he had to soften his position and Republicans, I think, were the ones who said to him, you just can't do this.

BURNETT: Yes. All right. Well, thank you all very much. And everyone, you should know, Sanjay will be back with CNN's GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS TOWN HALL at eight o'clock Eastern. You don't want to miss that. Bill Gates on tonight with Anderson and Sanjay.

And next, California heading in the wrong direction. So what is driving the number of cases and deaths to record highs?

Plus, the President again paints a rosy but false picture of the severity of the virus. What doctors in two of the hardest hit states are seeing tonight in their hospitals?

And another million people have just filed for unemployment. But it is not just their paycheck that is going away, many of them are losing their health insurance too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think nobody really knows what's going on and it's kind of like almost like a downward spiral.

(END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:20:26]

BURNETT: Breaking news, President Trump saying his administration has everything states need to fight coronavirus. It comes amid a grim milestone for at least three states today; California, Tennessee and Florida, all hitting single day highs for deaths from coronavirus. Nick Watt is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT(voice over): One hundred seventy-three people reported dead today in Florida, an all time high for that state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ (R) MIAMI: One person is getting exposed or sick and they're infecting every single member of their household.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT(voice over): Today, we passed 4 million confirmed COVID-19 cases across this country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: There's no end in sight in a sense that if there's no plan to control the virus at a national level, it's not going to go away by itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT(voice over): We're now six months in and the President still thinks testing is overrated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If instead of 50 we did 25, it would have half the number of cases. So I personally think it's overrated, but I am totally willing to keep doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT(voice over): Doesn't he realize that a case is a case whether it's found by a test or not and a known case can be contained. That's largely why we test.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: Finding and tracing those very early individuals is really critical.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WATT(voice over): So says Dr. Deborah Birx, who right now is

privately worried by recent upticks in test positivity rates in these 12 cities among them Las Vegas, St. Louis, Baltimore.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIRX: I know it may look small, and you may say, well, that's only went from five to five and a half, and we're going to wait and see what happens. If you wait another three or four, every five days, you'll start to see a dramatic increase in cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT(voice over): So in all of Oregon bars and restaurants must now close at 10 pm, Anchorage, Alaska, now reintroducing restrictions on the size of gatherings. Listen to this from a just published study. If the United States had collectively waited longer, opened more slowly and then kept our gathering sizes small, we might have reduced case counts like Europe or Canada and experienced a relatively normal summer.

Instead, baseball's opening day is today, late July with no fans and no spitting. Last year opening day was late March. Dr. Anthony Fauci threw out the first pitch at the nationals. Who'd have ever thought a mild mannered 79-year-old immunologist would be on that mound. Sign of our times.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: A new death record is not the only troubling sign as you go through some of these states, but for California specifically, it's not the only problem tonight.

WATT: No, Erin. Listen, for the last couple of days, we have also seen more than 12,000 infections. So right now Californians are dying and being infected at record rates. And the epicenter here is Los Angeles where clearly they are having some problems with reopened businesses not following the rules, 17,000 complaints apparently since March.

So next month, they are going to start fining businesses and for repeat offenders, Erin, they'll close them down for 30 days.

BURNETT: All right. Nick, thank you very much.

So next, the concerning rise of cases in several states as Nick talks about, Texas and Arizona on that list. We're going to speak to doctors on those states on the front lines with patients overwhelming their hospitals as we speak.

And another million people out of work in the United States, little or no money now for housing, food and something right now so crucial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like sadly your health insurance will probably be on the last priority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:27:58]

BURNETT: Breaking news, President Trump downplaying concerns about cities and states across this country where coronavirus cases are surging.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're continuing to surge testing to current hotspots such as Miami and Phoenix to detect those with the virus and take steps to stop from spreading it further. The country is in very good shape other than if you look south and west, some problems, that'll all work out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: That'll all work out. But the problem is one of his own top health experts, Admiral Brett Giroir, today admitted the administration is concerned about the outbreaks in states including Arizona and Texas. And OUTFRONT now we have two doctors who are on the frontlines in those states. Dr. Federico Vallejo, he is a Pulmonologist at McAllen Medical Center in Texas and Dr. Murtaza Akhter, he is an ER doctor at Valleywise Health Medical in Phoenix, Arizona. I appreciate both of you very much.

And Dr. Akhter, the last time you and I spoke you told me that you were saying a surge in people coming in that people just coming in and basically everyone was testing positive. That you were shocked when anyone didn't. What is it like now in the ER?

DR. MURTAZA AKHTER, ER DOCTOR, VALLEYWISE HEALTH MEDICAL CENTER: Thanks for having your back, Erin. Yes, the positivity rate is still ridiculous. As a matter of fact, just yesterday, my chairman stopped by while I was working and I said, hey, today the state's positivity rate was 24 percent and his response was, wow, that's not bad.

So you can imagine how bad it is if 24 percent seems good. Last weekend, we hit 30 percent, way above the 5 percent threshold. And remember, in the hospitals where the patients are even sicker, when they come to the ER, basically, every time I test a patient almost every time it is still positive. Over the course of the last month that I've been talking about this, I've had two negative tests, which is far too few.

That means a lot of patients in our community have COVID and a lot of them don't even know that they have it.

BURNETT: That's incredible. Dr. Vallejo, earlier this week, I know you said it's a tsunami what we're seeing right now. That was the word that you used. What are you seeing tonight? What is the case tonight?

[19:30:01]

DR. JOSE FEDERICO VALLEJO-MANZUR, PULMONOLOGIST, MCALLEN MEDICAL CENTER: Yes, it's exactly like that. It feels like a tsunami. It's overwhelming. We're seeing more and more cases in the emergency department.

[19:30:02]

We're seeing more and more cases in the intensive care units.

And the disease is also a problem. These patients are coming in really, really sick. And sadly, the mortality rate is also increasing.

BURNETT: The mortality rate is increasing.

So, Dr. Akhter, let me ask you, you know, when you hear -- I guess let me play something else specifically because you talked about the positivity rate. President Trump said today about your state. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Arizona is doing very well. It's heading down. Numbers are heading down, I think very quickly. The governor's done a great job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So, based on what you told me, you know, that your positivity rate that you're seeing, what would you say about Arizona doing very well? I mean, is there a significant improvement in any way?

DR. MURTAZA AKHTER, ER DOCTOR, VALLEYWISE HEALTH MEDICAL CENTER: Well, I'm not sure which numbers he's talking about. Our high temperature today was only 97 degrees and that's the best temperature we've had in many weeks, first time we didn't hit triple digits in a while. But in terms of COVID numbers, our positivity rate is super high.

Listen, the last time I was on, the last couple of times I was on, we were number one in the country for the percent of tests come back positive. Today I'm on your show again and we're number one in the country for the percentage of tests that come back positive as a percentage.

And we're feeling this in ER, too. I mean, I had a patient just a couple days ago waiting hours and hours in the ER because like I said, it's very hard to get a bed. I'm sure other doctors will tell you the same.

And hours and hours in, she was quite sick. She decided she wanted to go home. We said, listen, you're pretty sick, you should stay. She said, listen, I think I'm going to die. I want to die at home, not in the hospital.

I don't know what seems like a glimmer of hope from that statement if people are losing hope if they're waiting hours if the ER. I'm not sure where you can say Phoenix is getting better. There are some numbers that maybe give us very cautious optimism, but the most important ones still look bad. It is widespread.

BURNETT: Dr. Vallejo, you jus said, you know, because you're seeing more people, they're coming in extremely sick, that you're seeing mortality go up. There have been some talk that mortality may be improving in some of the ICUs, maybe just because people have now -- doctors like yourself have more kind of a standard of care that you didn't have a few months ago.

Is any of that true? Or just when you're getting overwhelming, you're seeing these numbers inevitably go up?

VALLEJO-MANZUR: Well, the number of hospitalizations are increasing is because you have patients that are really getting sick enough to get in the hospital. A segment of those are critically ill. And sadly even though we try with all the current literature on all the protocols we have, we still have a high mortality rate. In our neck of the woods, we're seeing numbers of daily deaths above ten a day when two months ago, we only have 12 deaths in that period of time. Now daily we're getting closer to 40.

BURNETT: Well, I mean, it's tragic. Dr. Akhter, you know, when we look at these numbers, 4 million confirmed cases today -- those are only cases we know about. But we know the deaths are close to 150,000 now. The president's former FDA commissioner is offering just this mathematical, talking about this prediction for 2020.

Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: We could have upwards of 300,000 if we continue on the current trajectory. Right now, we have close to 1,000 casualties a day. So, if we don't change that trajectory, you could do the math and see where we are towards the end of the year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So, that gets you to 300,000 plus. I mean, Doctor, I'm not asking you to forecast exactly, but given what you see where you are, what you see across the country, do you believe that that is a real possibility at this time?

AKHTER: Yes, you know, a couple of months ago, my residents were telling me the numbers. They were better at it than I was at that time. They were saying the projections are about 100 something thousand but it could be 200,000 to 300,000 depending how things go. Now it's looking probably at least 300,000.

The ironic thing is we could have prevented it. We knew the metrics we needed to take. It was distancing, staying home, wearing masks if you needed to be by people. It's really appalling that we could have prevented it, and instead, we're just shooting for that metric and almost like we're trying to surpass it. It makes no sense to me that we have a solution and we're not dog it.

It's as if we're watching the death counts go up and just don't care. It's really appalling.

BURNETT: Dr. Vallejo, when you are not at work, right, when you're out and about in your community, what is the one thing that you see people doing that when you think about people dying in your hospital that you would want them to know, that you would want them to change right now about how they're still behaving.

VALLEJO-MANZUR: Absolutely. That's the most disturbing part. You are in the hospital the whole day and you drive home and turn to the side of the highway and see the restaurants being full of people.

[19:35:03]

And it's lack of empathy.

So, my colleague is saying simple measures like the masks, the social distancing, it's not up for debate. We know it. It's very frustrating. These huge numbers that we're mentioning, 150,000 to 300,000, it comes out easy of the mouth to talk about these numbers, but these are real people with history. That's what's behind it.

BURNETT: Thank you both very much. I appreciate your time.

AKHTER: Thanks for having us, Erin.

VALLEJO-MANZUR: Thank you, Erin.

BURNETT: And next, more than 1 million workers in this country now just filing for unemployment. These are the new claims. Their job- based health insurance is going away too for many of them.

And a federal judge orders Michael Cohen release from prison, while ripping into the Department of Justice for putting him there again, calling it retaliation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Tonight, another 1.4 million Americans filing for first time unemployment benefits. Since mid-March, that stunning number 52.6 million people filing unemployment benefits. And now, many of them are also facing the loss of their health insurance.

[19:40:00]

Phil Mattingly is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ASHLEY PAMPLIN, RESTAURANT MANAGER: (INAUDIBLE) very optimistic and smiling, it'll all be okay.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Despite a furlough, Ashley Pamplin managed to stay positive in the first few months of the pandemic.

PAMPLIN: Unemployment and everything, that's what made it a little bit easier to be like, okay, I can stay at home and be okay.

MATTINGLY: But the Pittsburgh restaurant group where she worked just days ago decided it had to make cuts.

PAMPLIN: There's so much uncertainty and I think nobody knows what's going on. It's a downward spiral.

MATTINGLY: Now, Ashley Pamplin has joined nearly 18 million Americans as unemployed and those job losses have laid bare a significant hold for those individuals.

RACHEL GARFIELD, VICE PRESIDENT, KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION: Particularly at a time like this when people are losing their jobs at unprecedented level, they're losing their health insurance coverage at a time we're facing a health crisis in the country and many people have a need more than ever for health insurance coverage.

MATTINGLY: Nearly 160 million or about half the U.S. population received health insurance through their employer in 2018. Now as many as 26.8 million people could become uninsured due to those job losses according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. And while the group estimates that more than 20 million would likely qualify for Obamacare subsidies or Medicaid, that leaves more than 5 million people paying their own way all as a crucial $600 federal unemployment benefit is about to expire on July 31st.

PAMPLIN: That was actually like my saving grace. It really was

MATTINGLY: As Pamplin confronts the need to purchase insurance on her own, she is faced with a stark reality.

PAMPLIN: It was between food, utilities, mortgage, car insurance. Yes, it was just -- I feel like sadly, health insurance would be the last priority.

MATTINGLY: As lawmakers urgently debate an extension of that federal unemployment program, it's a decision millions may be forced to make with jarring repercussions.

PAMPLIN: I just don't know if I could afford that now. That's really saying something, because I felt like I was finally blessed in a position where I felt a little comfortable.

MATTINGLY: Pamplin had a job, health insurance. She closed on a new home just days after her restaurant shut down. She's still never stop smiling, the uncertainty has taken its toll though.

PAMPLIN: I don't want to lose everything I have worked hard to get, and then realize how hard it would be to get it back again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And, Erin, it's that domino effect, whether it's for individuals losing jobs, and losing their health insurance, small businesses as well across the board economically in the last four months that you've seen this play out in spades. And that's why lawmakers say they have an urgent need to pass this second package.

It could be a trillion, maybe $2 trillion. But those negotiations are at whatever the point is before you get into the starting gate. Erin, Republicans haven't even agreed on their own proposal to start negotiations with Democrats. That proposal was expected to come out today. Now, it's expected to come out on Monday.

Obviously, the crucial deadline, July 31st deadline on this federal unemployment benefits, it's coming next week. Right now, it looks like it's almost certainly going to last -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Phil.

And, next, a federal judge blistering message for the Justice Department as he orders Michael Cohen released from prison.

The president can't stop defending his mental fitness. The doctor who created that cognitive test Trump keeps talking about, he's OUTFRONT to tell you about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:47:32]

BURNETT: New tonight, a federal judge slamming the Justice Department and ordering Michael Cohen be released from prison to home confinement. The judge ruling Cohen was sent back to prison in retaliation for writing a tell-all book about the president.

OUTFRONT now, Jeffrey Toobin, chief legal analyst and former federal prosecutor.

So, Jeff, you know, pretty amazing, right, that you get this -- you know, the judge saying this was a retaliation, right, from the president's Justice Department for writing a tell-all book. Can this order from the judge be seen as anything else but a stunning rebuke to the president and his Attorney General Bill Barr?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: A total rebuke. Judge Hellerstein said I've been a judge for 21 years. I've released a lot of people from prison. I have never seen an order like this.

And, you know, first of all, writing books is protected by the First Amendment. And second, why this prisoner out of all prisoners is subject to this? The only conclusion he could draw, and I think it's a correct conclusion, is that this was an attempt to silence someone who is now a critic of the president.

BURNETT: So, Cohen's book, you know, look, this is the latest in a string of books the president has recently tried to fail to block from publication. There was his niece, Mary Trump, right? There was John Bolton's book.

So, was what happened today a surprise, you know, or -- to you at all or did you -- you know, did you think this was going to end this way?

TOOBIN: I think, you know, it usually is the case that the Bureau of Prisons has a lot of control over people who are released from prison prematurely. They can insist on house arrest. They can insist on, you know, no communication with certain people.

But this was such an outrageous and obvious restriction on his constitutional rights for no good reason. I mean, there is no public safety involved. This was solely based on the idea that the president shouldn't be criticized.

And so, for that reason, it did seem like a pretty obvious call for the judge, and it turned out that it was.

BURNETT: And they tried to say, oh, because he was, you know, captured by the "New York Post" having dinner with friends that this was all a violation. That was the original cover for why they had to send back, but it didn't add up.

TOOBIN: But there was -- there was no restriction on his ability to have dinner with friends. That was -- there was no basis for that.

And, you know, a lot of people dislike Michael Cohen on the left, on the right. But the point is the law has to apply to everyone equally.

[19:50:01]

And if you're going to release someone from prison, you have to allow them to have the same rights as everyone else and everyone else has the right to express themselves under the First Amendment, and so does Michael Cohen.

BURNETT: So we'll be seeing that Cohen book?

TOOBIN: We will be seeing that cone book and people can buy it if they want.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Jeffrey Toobin.

TOOBIN: All righty, Erin.

BURNETT: And next, Trump touting his performance on a cognitive test, that he keeps positioning, as you know, as an IQ test. So who gets this test? What you'll find out about the people who will get this test to begin with is really important, because the man behind the test is my guest, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Tonight, President Trump for the third time in two weeks defending his mental fitness on national television.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I took it at Walter Reed Medical Center in front of doctors, and they were very surprised. [19:55:06]

They said that's an unbelievable thing. Rarely does anybody do what you just did.

You couldn't answer many of the questions and I answered all 35 questions correctly.

They give you five names and you have to repeat them, and that's okay. If you repeat them out of order, it's okay, but, you know, it's not as good. But when you go back about 20, 25 minutes later, they say, go back to that question. They don't tell you this, go back to that question, and repeat them, can you do it?

And you go: person, woman, man, camera, TV. They say, that's amazing. How did you do that? I do it because I have like a good memory, because I'm cognitively there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Trump touting the results as another reason why he should be re-elected.

OUTFRONT now, Dr. Ziad Nasreddine. He's a neurologist who created the test the president took.

And, Dr. Nasreddine, I really appreciate your time.

So, the White House, of course, has not released these details, but the president said he aced your test and he keeps talking about it like it's an IQ exam. Help us understand what is on the test.

DR. ZIAD NASREDDINE, DOCTOR BEHIND COGNITIVE TEST TRUMP TOOK: Yes, Erin, this test is meant to assess cognitive functions, meaning that we are assessing which cognitive domains would be effective and neurological illness. So we look at memory, the concentration, attention, executive functions, perception. So all these skills are assessed to determine somebody's cognition is okay.

BURNETT: So, just to kind of understand, would a healthy person who does not have any suspected cognitive or memory or concentration issues need to take this test?

NASREDDINE: The test is meant to assess someone if he's concerned, or the family is concerned about their performance. So they usually go to their general practitioner or through a memory clinic, and we do this screening cognitive exam to assess their cognition. So it's not meant to be done for somebody who is not concerned about it.

BURNETT: OK. So this obviously important just for everyone to understand. You know, people have been sharing some portions of the test. You know, the president obviously talked about some and there's, you know, a question ask if the patient can recognize the drawing of a lion. They've been doing this to sort of suggest that it's a very easy test, again, if you don't have any cognition or memory issues. Is it? I mean, how would you describe it? NASREDDINE: The test has been developed and it took many years to

develop it because it has to be hard enough to pick up subtle (INAUDIBLE) deficits that are signs of Alzheimer's. So it is meant hard for patients who have a cognitive disorder.

It could be somewhat hard for somebody who is normal, especially certain questions are harder than others, especially the five-word recall. Most patients do not get the five words. Most normal people don't get it after five or ten minutes delay. Most of them get 3.7 words. So it's not that easy to go through the whole testing.

BURNETT: And why would you take it multiple times? Would that be to see if you're seeing a decline in memory? As you talk about, this is kind of a gauge for Alzheimer's?

NASREDDINE: I mean, we really take it often -- every year, once a year, every two years if we have a concern, or one is just checking if the progression of our memories, if our memory is dealing well, if there's any decline with time.

After a certain age, there could be some decline because it's more common after 70 to have cognitive disorders, so it's not uncommon to have the test repeated once a year, every two years if the person is also some concern or if the family is concerned.

BURNETT: So, when asked about the ease of some of the questions, the president talked about the difficulty of later portions of the test, and obviously, you just made the point, the five-word recall can be very challenging for someone even who does not have onset of memory issues. But here's how he described it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Yes, the first few questions are easy. But I'll bet you couldn't even answer the last five questions. They get very hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Is that fair, the last five questions are hard and a fully normal person would have trouble with them?

NASREDDINE: Actually, I think he's referring to the five-word question, because it does -- it is challenging. Some people get only two out of five, three out of five. It's not everyone can get five out of five or 30 out of 30 like I mentioned before. Only 10 percent of normal individuals get 30 out of 30.

BURNETT: Wow. Doctor, Ziad Nasreddine, I really appreciate your time. This was all very informative and important. Thank you, sir.

NASREDDINE: You're welcome. Thank you, Erin.

BURNETT: And thanks so much to all of you for joining us. CNN's global town hall "CORONAVIRUS: FACTS AND FEARS" with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson starts now.