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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Says "We are Going a Different Way" After Dems & WH Negotiators Fail to Reach a Stimulus Deal; U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll About to Cross 161,000; Pres. Trump About to Speak as Stimulus Talks Collapse; President Trump Speaking as Stimulus Talks Collapse, 30 Million Americans Without Jobs Await Aid. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired August 07, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.
Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next the breaking news, the President threatening executive action. His talks on the Stimulus Bill collapsed. Millions of Americans, 10s of millions of Americans have been depending on that lifeline. The president is about to speak and we're going to bring that to you live.
And growing questions about the tests used by the White House to protect the President after the Ohio Governor test positive then negative all around meeting Trump. I mean, isn't this more reason for a president to wear a mask?
And a top intelligence official warning China wants Trump to lose and Russia is actively working to defeat Biden. Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight the breaking news, the President of the United States threatening executive action this hour as negotiations over the stimulus package have collapsed. The President is about to speak from his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey. He just stepped out and told people to assemble there that he's going to be coming out to speak in just a couple moments. We're going to bring that to you live.
But it comes as the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin described the stimulus talks as far apart or at one point today very far apart. And new jobs numbers out today show an incredible slowdown in hiring. The United States down nearly 13 million jobs since the start of the pandemic.
So the issue here now is the $600 weekly jobless benefit, which expired at the end of July, right so people didn't get that this week. Currently, more than 30 million Americans are collecting those jobless benefits.
So I want to go first to Jeremy Diamond at the White House. So Jeremy, just to be clear here, the President had what we call a lid. He was done for the night. He was going to have his private time. That was lifted and he's going to be coming out to speak late. This news just came. We're expecting him any moment here. What are you hearing that he's going to do?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Erin. This news conference popped up as a surprise in just the last hour really. We found out initially that the lid was lifted, that the President was likely going to be making some remarks and now we're learning that it's a news conference with the poor reporters who are traveling with the President at Bedminster.
Now, two White House officials have told us as of now that the President is expected to address those stalled talks with Democrats over this phase four coronavirus relief package. Remember, Erin, just a few hours ago, those talks between the White House Chief of Staff and the Treasury Secretary and a top Democrats on Capitol Hill, they have stalled. They are at a complete logjam at this point after nearly two weeks of negotiations more than 20 hours spent between those top leaders on Capitol Hill.
Those talks have gone nowhere fast. They are still even after today, even after Democrats came a little bit closer to the republican position. They are still more than a trillion dollars apart about what this package should actually have in it.
And so, a couple of hours ago, we saw the President take to Twitter to say that he is going to be going another way. And that appears to be, Erin, a reference to the fact that the President has said that he will sign executive orders to act on his own to extend some of those unemployment insurance benefits and perhaps as well to essentially waive the payroll tax for employers and employees.
So the President here seeming to take unilateral action is perhaps what we are going to hear from him during this news conference that we're expecting to hear in just a few moments. We should note, of course, that both sides, Democrats and Republicans, have made clear that while there has been some progress at times, they are still very, very far apart.
And as of now, Erin, there are no more meetings scheduled between the White House and those Democrats on Capitol Hill. So it does appear the President is going to be headed for this unilateral action. The question, of course, is what happens next because Democrats have already made quite clear that they would likely challenge those executive actions in court.
And even if they stand, there are still a whole other host of issues that will be unresolved, namely funding for testing, funding for schools, those issues cannot be addressed by executive action. And so the question is, where do those negotiations between the White House and Capitol Hill have go from here, Erin.
BURNETT: Right. And those are crucial questions, testing in schools, nothing more important. Thank you very much, Jeremy. I want to go now to Kevin Hassett, he's the former Chair of the
Council of Economic Advisers under President Trump, and Austan Goolsbee, former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama and now an informal adviser to the Biden campaign. Gloria Borger also joins me.
So Gloria, I want to get Kevin's view on this as well. But first, just the basics of what Jeremy says. He's saying the President may come out and do an executive order and around Congress says he can't do it for testing. That's where we expect him to go in just a few moments, last minute announced press conference in Bedminster.
He's saying you can't do an executive order for testing money or for schools money, but the President would be allowed to waive the payroll tax and extend unemployment insurance benefits even though Congress has the power of the purse. Explain how that works, Gloria, how he can even do this on executive order if this is what he's about to do?
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GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I'm not sure how it works. One other thing he's talking about or the White House folks are talking about is extending the federal moratorium on evictions, for example. The Democrats are going to challenge all of these executive orders in court, because Congress does control the money.
As you know on the payroll tax issue, Erin, it's not only Democrats who are opposed to it but there isn't any support for that on Capitol Hill at all because that does nothing to help the unemployed in this country. And also down the road it could certainly hurt like the Social Security Trust Fund, the Medicare Trust Fund, so I think there are a lot of issues out here that that are going to have to be addressed.
Having said that, I think both parties owe the American public an explanation about how they could not come to any kind of an agreement on some of these basic issues and I know what the arguments are in both sides, the Democrats want a larger package and there are lots of Republicans who won't vote for a larger package, don't want to vote for one at all, so you understand the impasse.
But in the end, these are people's lives you're talking about and the President can sign an order. It can go to court, but how does it solve the problem?
BURNETT: All right. So Kevin, you've looked into this. So explain how does the President have the authority, given the Congress controls money to waive the payroll tax and extend unemployment benefit insurance?
KEVIN HASSETT, FORMER COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS CHAIR UNDER PRESIDENT TRUMP: Sure. And just like the backdrop plot, first of all, is I don't know what the President's decided to do. But he is a very careful planner, believe it or not, and he had lots of people working when I was still in the White House, I left about a month ago, on sort of the backup plan if it turns out that the House doesn't want to move up of its bill.
And I remember back then when we're in the White House, there were a lot of things that were viewed as poison pills of bill. Like for example, state and local aids that amounted almost to the total amount of state and local spending for the rest of the year and things like that. And so the backup plan is something that's actually - that there's a lot of legal support for because in an emergency, the federal government is allowed to say lend money to state.
And so if the President issued an executive order, let's say, to say, hey, you know what, states, if you need to spend more money on unemployment insurance, because you think your current replacement rate isn't high enough, then we'll lend you the money to do that because it's an emergency. The other kind of thing that they could do like you mentioned waiving evictions. I think that that's something that certainly for federally guaranteed or funded housing I think is on a strong legal stance there too.
The payroll tax goes back to, do you remember when they deferred paying taxes, and so they said that April 15th isn't actually going to be the due date for taxes?
BURNETT: Yes.
HASSETT: Well, for the payroll tax, the Treasury Secretary clearly has the authority to delay the collection of payroll tax. And so that's the kind of stuff that people talked about back when I was there in the White House and I'm not sure what the President is going to announce today but that's a thumbnail (inaudible) ...
BURNETT: The legal justification. OK. A lot of that makes sense.
Austan, from a political perspective and economic perspective, do you celebrate if the President does come out and extend the unemployment benefit insurance at $600 a week which his own party has dead set against and waiving evictions. Is that something that you would celebrate tonight?
AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS CHAIR UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes. Look, if he did that, I will be for that. That's a good idea. We lost 22 million jobs in a single month. We've got 10s of millions of people out of work. We've got hundreds of thousands of people that will be threatened with eviction. So that part of it I would be happy with.
Now, I'm not a lawyer, Kevin is not a lawyer either. How you got to a constitutional place that the President can cut taxes when Congress did not approve it, I don't fully get and to do an idea of the payroll tax cut, that's not even supported by Republicans. I don't see how the President is wrapping his head around this being a good idea.
I think if you look at the planning that they have done and I say that in quotes, the planning on how to slow and stop the virus, you see that it's again and again oriented to the short-term and not thinking about what comes next. So let's say they find those legal justification to put off or cancel the payroll tax. That undermines the financing of Social Security. Is that really the right way to do this?
Let's make the focus getting money to the individual that have been hurt rather than $5 trillion lending to big corporations.
BURNETT: So, OK, so here's the thing I hear your point on payroll tax and as you point out, there's many Republicans who don't want it either. But Gloria, what about the political point? Kevin is making the point that the President, believe it or not, does planning and if he did planning, he might have looked that this is a really smart thing to do, because he's then the one helping people and giving out an extension to unemployment benefit insurance, not Nancy Pelosi who said that she's for it.
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Could it be a politically smart move if indeed that's what we're about to hear?
BORGER: Here's the big issue sort of behind all of this, at least a trillion dollars worth of it is this aid to state and local governments. And what you hear Donald Trump saying is I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to bail out Democratic states who have mismanaged their handling of COVID-19 and I'm not going to do that.
And the Democrats are saying, you're not bailing out states that mismanaged anything. What you are doing is paying the salaries of first responders who are otherwise going to have to be fired if the state and local governments cannot pay them. And that I think is where the impasse is right now.
BURNETT: So Kevin, let me ask you, Ernie Tadashi who worked for President Obama, Austan knows him well, right? He did a study and it showed that people who went back to work in June, 70 percent of them were making more on that unemployment $600 a week that many Republicans said, oh, you're paying them not to work, why are they going to get jobs, you're paying them to stay home.
Seventy 70 percent of the people who got jobs gave up that check, because they wanted the job. Doesn't that show that this kind of simple assumption that if I'm going to pay you more from the government now to stay home, you're not going to go to work is false?
HASSETT: Well, first of all, you have to understand that there's a lot of uncertainty in June looking forward the $600 is going to be extended. And so once the $600 isn't extended, then of course, people would be really sorry if they didn't have a job (inaudible) and so it's a pretty risky strategy to take the extra 600 bucks and not go to work if you have a chance to go to work.
And I agree that the 70 percent number seems exactly right to be another, a lot of reasons not to go to work right now, for some people their workplace isn't safe that they shouldn't go to work, right? And so the idea of plussing up unemployment insurance benefits, it's a hundred percent support by the White House.
I was in the Senate Finance hearing room to negotiate the phase three deals. I was still at the White House at the time and the reason why they ended up doing the 600 bucks was and the Democratic people in that room stated this is that the computer systems in a lot of the states, both blue and red, are so outmoded. That they can't actually make it a higher fraction of income, they have to just make it a lump sum.
And since $400 is about the average benefit and a thousand dollars is about the average wage, then the 600 bucks came from that. It came from the fact that there are 50-year-old computer systems out there.
And so anyway, the bottom line is the President has the authority to lend money to states under the like FEMA emergency powers. And so if states, as Gloria mentioned, if they're worried that they don't have the money for first responders, which I'm not sure that's going to be true, given how much money has already gone out, then they could ask the federal government for a loan and I'm sure the President would give it.
BURNETT: OK. So you make a lot of points. But, Austan, I want to give you a chance to respond to something fundamental that Kevin said. He said that part of the reason the implication is that people were going back to work and not take their money was that they were worried that the money may go away that may not be renewed, but that if it's renewed, you may see less of that.
I don't want to take Kevin's point too far, but that's part of what he was saying. What do you say to that?
GOOLSBEE: Well, I would say in a normal time, even in a normal recession, we should think about these issues of what's the replacement rate and it's perfectly reasonable to have that discussion. This is totally not a normal time. If you look at the data, there are currently five out of work job seekers for every job opening. The highest ratio in the history of the data.
It is not the case and it's really offensive for the White House to be saying, people are choosing to remain unemployed. There are millions of people who are desperate to get a job, if only because more than 5 million people lost their health insurance when they lost their job in the middle of a pandemic.
So if you take us back, my objection is that the White House doesn't want to put the money into the people who have been hardest hit. It wants to do this through the corporate side. It wants to extend $5 trillion of lending facility to big companies. We had a $2 trillion tax cut for corporations and their main focus is not about those people and when it comes to the people, they want to tighten it and say, oh, we don't want anybody to get it who's not deserving and it doesn't make sense.
BURNETT: Quick rebuttal, Kevin?
HASSETT: Yes. Look, the President is very unlikely to issue an executive order about the corporate tax today. The unemployment insurance replacement - the White House a hundred percent says it should be higher because it absolutely knows that there are people that are hurting, because they can't go to work and they can't go to work because of this terrible virus.
And so the question is what's the smartest way to increase the unemployment insurance benefit is something that the President, I'm sure, would have preferred to have a deal with the House and with the Senate so that they did it sort of through normal legislation. But if they don't do it through normal legislation, he's not going to let those people not get the money.
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And so it's just a complete misdirection, Austan, to start talking about the corporate tax and what the President is about to do is use his authority to get money to people who are hurting.
BURNETT: And again, Gloria, but we're going to take a break here as we're waiting for the President. But what Kevin is giving is exactly the message the President wants out there, right? I am the one who is helping people. Congress failed you.
BORGER: Sure. Right.
BURNETT: Nancy Pelosi failed you.
BORGER: Right. And don't forget this is a president who, as we know, is not been completely engaged in these negotiations. He's had his Treasury Secretary up there, his Chief of Staff has been up there and everybody knows what the sticking points are. And they keep going round and round and round and I think if it were just about the level of unemployment insurance, I think they could work that out, perhaps, extending moratoriums for people who might otherwise be evicted from their homes. I think they could work that out.
Payroll tax, they could not work it out and Republicans would be just as happy to get rid of suspending the payroll tax, because nobody wants it other than Donald Trump. The big issue here is the state and local governments and what is the federal government going to do to help the States. We've heard the President talk about it with Andrew Cuomo, for example, in New York, so I think you might hear the President talk about it tonight.
BURNETT: Yes. I'm sure you will. The great irony is never mind who has failed on this and not failed in terms of handling, but there's plenty of red states and blue states that had some terrible outcomes here, whether it's their fault of the federal government's.
OK, thank you all. Please stay with me because you're going to be with me as the President is about to speak. And again, we don't know exactly what he's going to say. He did just come out and say he's going to be going to that podium in Bedminster, New Jersey, it is a golf club, in just a few moments.
Plus, a quarter of a million people are descending on a small town for a bike rally at this hour. You heard me right, a quarter of a million people. It is the largest public gathering since the pandemic began anywhere. They are not required to wear masks. They are not required to practice social distancing. And Arizona learned the hard way that masks and social distancing
work. And now the clock is ticking as a new challenge blooms.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to get our act in order now to prepare for the fall when the winter visitors return, when the cold and flu season returns ...
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BURNETT: Breaking news, we are waiting on President Trump to speak live from Bedminster, New Jersey after talks broke down over the stimulus bill. It comes as the number of Americans that have died from coronavirus is expected to top 161,000 people tonight and the number of cases in the United States will hit 5 million this weekend.
This as foreign policy assessed how countries are doing and put the U.S. at the very bottom of the list, 31 out of 36 countries. The list based on a country's public health and financial response as well as the government's use of science.
OUTFRONT tonight Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Director of the Cardiac Cath Lab at George Washington University Hospital, also advised the White House medical team under President George W. Bush.
Sanjay, first, this ranking 31 out of 36 other countries down there with us; Iran, Mexico and China, which, obviously, for different reasons however they fudged their facts, they've done a hell of a lot better when it comes to controlling it, but not to being honest about it.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, it's pretty clear just how bad off things are here, because there's real data around something like this. This isn't as nebulous or vague in terms of telling the story and see what's going on. We've said it so many times. I mean, we're not 5 percent even of the world's population. We have 20 percent to 25 percent of the world's infections.
Many countries that were sort of developing their first confirmed infections around the same time as us are doing a lot better than we are. We all have the same resources, tools, knowledge strategies available to us. Some implemented it, some did not and you can guess where we were.
BURNETT: Dr. Reiner, the U.S. government, the study describes as relatively weak. It's engaged in misinformation as much as any country in the index. That's a pretty incredible thing to say that the U.S. government has engaged in misinformation as much as any country in the index. Your response when you just hear that? JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: And it's very destructive
because misinformation about the virus leads to behaviors amongst the people. When you look at parts of this country, it's hard to find people wearing masks and that comes from misinformation. The scope of the virus needs to be understood by the population for the population to act.
So here in the United States, the center of misinformation is shocking, but it explains a lot of what's happened in the last five months.
BURNETT: So Sanjay, I want to also talk about the Governor of Ohio, OK, Mike DeWine. Now, he tested positive for coronavirus yesterday right before he was supposed to meet with the President right. Then nine hours later he tested negative. So we now know the first antigen test he took, that was the type of test, could produce a false negative 20 percent of the time, but yet this is the test that the RNC had him take before going around the President of the United States.
As the President of the United States, right, should this be a test with a 20 percent fail rate that the White House is relying on?
GUPTA: Yes. Well, there's two points here. I think first of all with these types of tests, if the test comes back positive, that usually means it's positive because it finds the virus or some evidence of the virus, depending on the type of test. If it comes back negative, you're absolutely right. I mean, 20 percent of the time with that particular test, the antigen test that the governor took, you get a false negative, so that's what it is.
I mean, that's what the test is approved to do. You trade off a little bit of accuracy for speed with these tests. So you want to get a quick result. The technology that we have now gives you a higher false negative rate.
It makes the case. I think the case that you're making that you can't count on it. It does a reasonable job, but you got to do everything else; wear masks, keep your distance and all that despite what these tests show.
BURNETT: Right. And, of course, for the broad economy, it could make hugely transformational difference. But for the President, just to state the obvious, there's no mask wearing and there's no social distancing, so he's relying a hundred percent on a test, 20 percent false rate, 40 percent for that Abbott rapid test they take.
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From a National Security perspective, it seems sort of shocking, Dr. Reiner, doesn't it?
GUPTA: Yes.
REINER: Right. And, again, if I had been advising this president on the coronavirus protection from the beginning, I would have limited number of people that he encountered on a daily basis. Really only people that needed to see him would have seen him. Everyone would have worn a mask, including the President of the United States. He and the Vice President would never be together and that's how you keep the president safe.
But what we saw early on were these mass gatherings at every Coronavirus Task Force. No one wearing masks. The President avoiding himself wearing a mask, sitting around tables, crowded around with people, instead of relying on testing to try and create a sterile cocoon around him and we've seen how porous that can be, not a great strategy.
BURNETT: And Dr. Reiner, let me just follow up on that. So I understand from a broad population perspective, the antigen test could be very important in this country, right? But again, we're talking about the President of the United States and even the broad population. It is true, right, that there are places in the world where you can have both rapid and accurate tests, correct?
REINER: Yes, like Germany. Germany ramped up testing very rapidly. Unlike in the United States where it took literally months to test 100,000 people. Germany developed a test very quickly. They then sent the blueprint out to hundreds of labs to enable them to make kits. So Germany developed a very robust testing capacity very early.
So now you can go almost anywhere in Germany, get a sophisticated molecular test and have the results tomorrow. And they have bandwidth. They have the ability to ramp up. So as the virus is increasing now in Germany, they have the ability to test more people.
In June, the State of Bavaria with 13 million people announced they were going to test everyone in that state. So they have both a national strategy and the ability to test widely. And that's why Germany has had a total of about 10,000 deaths in the country.
BURNETT: Well, it's pretty amazing when you think about it. They have something widespread. We not only do not have it widespread as the United States of America, but the President of the United States can't even benefit from it and could get coronavirus from somebody. I mean, it is shocking.
I mean, Sanjay, this all comes as the talk of a vaccine is really at fever pitch, right? The President raising the prospect of it happening by election day, which seems wildly optimistic even from optimistic people. Dr. Fauci today spoke about the effectiveness of a possible vaccine. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I believe we'll get an effective vaccine, but we don't know if it's going to be 50 percent, 60 percent, hopefully, I'd like to see 75 percent or more. But the chances of it being 98 percent effective is not great, which means you must never abandon the public health approach.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Sanjay, 50 percent to 60 percent effective, that as a lay
person, I find that deeply troubling. Is that something to celebrate, though? Should we be looking at that differently?
GUPTA: I think the FDA has set a sort of low bar in terms of level except for an emergency use authorization, about 50 percent. The idea is a little bit that if everyone took it, then you'd have 50 percent of the country sort of protected. If this thing was 50 percent efficacious.
Obviously, we know that 50 percent the country is not planning on taking it according some polls, so 50 percent of the country takes it. Then you only get the 25 percent sort of herd immunity. It's not exact math like that, but that would be close to what we get.
So you need to have a more effective vaccine especially if people are not taking it or not enough people are taking it. So we have to wait and see exactly what the efficacy is and they vary from populations, older people may be more benefited or less benefited. So we're going to get all that data and look at it very, very carefully.
One thing I just want to say as well, just about the testing, Erin, because I think that you are driving at this point, could we have safe, rapid, accurate testing that might even be pointing a location like antigen testing, think of like pregnancy tests, for example, that sort of testing. Yes. I think the answer to that question is yes, this is still befuddling to me why we haven't had the significant technological breakthroughs and antigen testing, the very rapid response testing.
I think we could have had it by now, 80 percent is not acceptable. I think to your earlier question. There are some technologies we've been reporting on very carefully. They're getting a much better, much better results, but why don't we have these sorts of tests available yet? It's still an open question.
BURNETT: Well, OK, so as we're speaking literally, you know the President is about to speak, right? And he's in Bedminster, New Jersey. By the way, a state where you are required now to wear masks inside actually and outside if you're at gatherings because of the spread.
We have just had a chance to look at who's in the room before the President is about to go and while we understand some masks were handed out.
[19:30:03]
We have, obviously, video of people not social distancing and I guess we're looking at live video. My understanding is there is maybe -- did these people just receive masks? There were many people not wearing them although what I see in this shot, I see most people wearing them.
What's your -- what's your reaction to this? It is, by the way -- it is New Jersey state law to wear them and that may be why they just put them on. I was told a moment ago they did not have them on, Dr. Reiner. But obviously, no social distancing.
Is it fine to just have the masks without the social distancing?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Actually, I saw the images from when they formed the crowd in the ballroom and about 2/3 of the folks there were not wearing masks.
BURNETT: I'm glad you saw that. That's what I'm referring to. Obviously, that's changed.
REINER: And, you know, that's how you spread the virus, a closed indoor space with a lot of people standing close together, most of whom are not wearing masks.
I don't understand why this time and time again happens at presidential events. You see people in rope lines without masks standing close together. This is why we are where we are now.
And this is abhorrent behavior. This is not the behavior with our European cousins, everyone wears a masks, everyone social distances. That's why their schools are opening this fall.
BURNETT: Right.
Sanjay let me make a point hear and I do want to make the point, we did see all these people earlier and at least 2/3 of them were not wearing masks. I don't know why they put them on. I presume it was the law in New Jersey. They wouldn't want to have on video a whole bunch of people violating the law, that would be a problem, at a presidential event. But their initial thing was that room is full, with two thirds of people not wearing masks and not social distancing.
I mean, how is it possible, Sanjay, that this is -- that I don't know who it is that's allowing this stuff but that this stuff is still allowed to happen at the very least because it could but the president of the United States' life at risk. He is 74 years old, he is overweight, he has heart issues, he is a very high-risk person to get very ill from coronavirus.
GUPTA: I think the fundamental problem, Erin, I think is that a lot of people out there who think this still isn't real. I mean, I think they put the mask on because they feel like they're placating the camera guys filming them now. I mean, there's still this belief that I'll do this because I have to but I don't think this is a real thing and I don't think the guy I'm about to listen to thinks it's a real thing either and maybe I'll even be ridiculed a little bit for wearing a mask.
I mean, this has become the story that we've been covering for so long. It's not a medical story anymore. I think Dr. Reiner would agree. I mean, this is -- it's a psychology story in some ways.
You know, I think I said on your program a couple of weeks ago if you could see the virus, if you could see this virus that is coming out of people's noses and mouths tethered by about 6-foot long things, all of a sudden people would spread out in that room, right? If you see the virus emanating, you would spread out but they don't believe it's real. That's why it's still happening.
BURNETT: It is amazing, Dr. Reiner, because we've looked at those pictures. Recently, I think it was a university in New South Wales, in Australia, they've put it out with various types of masks. It's spewing out there. Masks make a huge difference.
But once you see that image, you never forget it. Even without coronavirus, it perceives how you perceive standing near people.
REINER: Yeah, and just like how we behave in a hospital. Everyone wears a mask. No one stands within molecular distance of each other. We give each other space. We've cancelled all conferences. Every conference we do in the hospital now is via Zoom.
So, we don't sit in a conference room even masked together anymore. And because of that, the COVID-19 rate in health care workers is low. It's shockingly low for people who work in a COVID-rich environment because of something very simple which is wearing masks. And we can -- if you look at the University of Washington latest projections, we could cut the mortality rate by 70,000 people over the next several months if we simply adopt a mask -- universal mask wearing policy. It's really low-tech but so important.
BURNETT: And yet, Sanjay, you know, we're going to be talking about this later, but in Sturgis, South Dakota, you have a quarter million people gathering with no mask requirement and no social distancing requirement, OK? It's usually a half a million. It's a quarter million people.
It's the biggest gathering on the planet since this all began, right? The Hajj in Mecca gets brought down to a few thousand people, OK, and we have a motorcycle rally in this country going on in Sturgis, South Dakota. What -- I mean -- does anyone -- when you talk to doctors around the world, how do they even get their arms around that?
I'm sorry, here he is. He's just come out. Let's listen to him in Bedminster, New Jersey.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much and it's a great honor to have everybody here. I know the press was not quite expecting this.
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So I appreciate you're being able to attend. We have a terrific number of things and some very positive things to tell you tonight.
I want to begin by giving you an update on the economy. Economic health is vital to public health. That's why our strategy to kill the China virus is focused on protecting those at greatest risk while allowing younger and healthy Americans to safely return to work and safely return to school, very important.
We added 1.8 million new jobs in July, exceeding predictions for the third month in a row, and adding a total of over 9.3 million jobs since May. And I will say that the job growth that we've seen over the last three months, 9.3 million, is the single greatest three-month period of job creation in American history. That's big stuff. That's big news and great news.
Over the past three months, the United States has surpassed market expectations by a total of 12 million new jobs. Over the last few months, the United States has added 623,000 manufacturing jobs. Remember, you need a magic wand to get manufacturing jobs. And we're getting them even in a pandemic, which is disappearing. It's going to disappear. And 639,000 brand new construction jobs.
Over half of the new jobs are full-time jobs and wages are up by 4.8 percent which is terrific. Unemployment has fallen by nearly 30 percent since April. Think of that -- 30 percent since April.
Hispanic-American unemployment is decreased by nearly 32 percent. Jobs held by African Americans, which were hit especially hard by the shutdowns, incredibly hard, increased by nearly 1 million over the past three months, and that's also a record. That's a job record, African American, 1 million -- it's a job record.
We must ensure that the progress continues. My administration has enacted over 3 trillion in historic relief since China allowed the virus to infect the world. So, we've contributed $3 trillion.
My administration continues to work in good faith to reach an agreement with Democrats in Congress that will extend unemployment benefits, provide protections against evictions. A terrible thing happens with eviction, not fair. It wasn't their fault that we were infected with this disease from China.
And get relief to American families. Yet tragically, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer continue to insist on radical left-wing policies that have nothing to do with the China virus, nothing to do with it at all. So, you have a virus that comes in and you have people in Congress that don't want to help our people. If Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need.
And what we're talking about is deferring the payroll tax for a period of months until the end of the year. And I can extend it at a certain period. Hopefully, I will be here to do the job. We're going to do the job. We've been doing the job like nobody could. Nobody would, actually.
And so, we're going to have the payroll tax go until the end of the year, and it'll be retroactive to July 1st. So, we're going to go back to July 1st, and it'll go to end of year, payroll tax. At the end of the year, it may be extended.
We're going to enhance unemployment benefits through the end of the year. So, unemployment benefits will be -- that's a big one -- will be brought out to the end of the year.
And deferred student loan payments and forgive interest until further notice. So, students who are paying student loans, and in many cases, they're not even allowed to go back into their colleges. Extend the eviction moratorium. We will be extending that so people aren't evicted, not their fault.
We had a lengthy discussion this morning with President Macron of France concerning numerous subjects, but in particular, the catastrophic event which took place in Beirut, Lebanon. Horrible, horrible event.
At 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, I spoke with President Aoun of Lebanon to inform him that three large aircraft on the -- are on the way and they're fully loaded, fully loaded, with medical supplies, food, water and many other things, lots of emergency equipment.
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Also, first responders, technicians, doctors and nurses are on their way. This was an event like the world has not seen for a long time. Horrible event.
We'll be having a conference call on Sunday with President Macron, leaders of Lebanon and leaders from various parts of the world. Everyone wants to help. We spoke to a lot of people. They all want to help.
The United States is with authorities on the ground right now in Lebanon to identify further health and humanitarian needs, and we will provide further assistance in the period to come. We're working very closely with their government, and with their leaders.
And on behalf of the United States, I want to extend our condolences to all of the families, much larger number of families than anybody would have thought and anybody at first thought. But all of those families who lost loved ones, relatives, friends in this horrible tragedy. We stand firmly with the people of Lebanon and will continue to offer our full support through this difficult time. We have not seen anything like this in a long time.
As you know, earlier this week I met with American workers at the Tennessee Valley Authority who have been laid off by the leadership at the Tennessee Valley Authority. As you know, this is a form of utility. It's been around for a long time, since FDR.
And the head person not controlled by government but sort of semipublic in a sense, gets paid the highest salary in the world of government, gets $8 million a year. That's not a bad amount of money. Gets $8 million a year.
And we are not accepting that. Even though we're not the ones that appoint him or her, but in this case him, we're not accepting somebody getting paid $8 million a year. This has been going on for many years. And we will do something about that and we're already in negotiations right now, including possible termination.
They, and hundreds of their fellow American tech workers, the workers at the TVA, were being terminated from their positions on top of all of this and on top of the $8 million salary and the chief of staff who makes much more than a million dollars a year.
But on top of that all that, they were being terminated from their positions, these incredible people, in order to train the lower cost foreign workers imported to replace them. How's that for a law? When this was set up originally to create jobs in economic development. And now, they're getting fired and they're supposed to train people for a much lower -- who get a much lower salary. It's crazy.
This was a grave injustice. I fired the chairman of the board in response. On Friday, I fired the chairman of the board along with one other board member. That's the one thing we have. We have the right to fire board members. And I made it clear if they did not swiftly reverse course, I would continue with these firings of the board members.
And we just were informed that they have agreed to change course totally. And today, I'm proud to announce that a major victory for the workers of Tennessee and Kentucky and other areas that are covered, great states, great states, that the leadership of the TVA has cancelled all of the layoffs and given hundreds of American workers their jobs back. They're being rehired as we speak.
In this administration, we live by two rules: buy American and hire American. You can't do that. You can't fire all our workers and hire people back from other far-away parts of the world at lower prices, especially when they have to train the people. And they can never train them as good as what you have because they've been there for many years, they've done a fantastic job, and they love the TVA.
We have a lot of people in the office the other day. A lot of the media was covering it. They love the Tennessee Valley Authority.
So -- and they're so proud to work for it. But this happened. And it was a terrible thing.
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So, now, they're going to get their jobs back, they're all going to be getting their jobs back.
BURNETT: All right. The president of the United States as he's speaking just talked about this executive order that he's signing,
I want to go through what he said it's going to do. He led with the payroll tax. He said it will defer it until the end of the year, back in July 1st.
That he's going to continue with those enhanced unemployment benefits. That's what he said. He didn't say $600 a week. I'm presuming when he says continuing with the enhanced benefits, that's the number he's referring, but we'll find out, until the end of the year, and continuing pause on student loans and eviction moratorium. All this as Congress, of course, has failed to come to an agreement on any of the above, for school funding, or testing funding in the stimulus bill.
Austan Goolsbee is back with me, former chief of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama. And Gloria Borger also back with me.
Let me start with you, Gloria.
The president led with the payroll tax, which is the one thing that nobody was with him on in Congress, but then he went to the enhanced benefits until the end of the year.
He said he's going to extend enhanced benefits until the end of the year.
Am I right in just short handing that to at the current rate of 600 per week?
BORGER: Well, it wasn't clear to me and it's also not clear to me and it may be clear to you, maybe I missed something, but he said if the Democrats continue, I will act. In other words, if the Democrats continue to obstruct in one way or another.
So, I'm not exactly sure whether he's going to sign it or whether this was a shot across the bow and it's sort of enumerating exactly what he's going to do. I mean, I guess we have to stay tuned to see what he does later. But the thing that really struck me, of course, Erin, was six months into this pandemic the president was still saying it's disappearing. And it's still hard to wrap your arms around that, that he is saying that now.
BURNETT: So, let me bring in Kevin Hassett, the former chief of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Trump.
And, Kevin, I'm glad you're back. I know you're listening to him.
So, do you think -- two points I just made. One is when he says extend unemployment benefits he means at the current leader at $600 a week. And two, the point Gloria says, that if -- right, he didn't actually sign it, is this a shot across the bow to Democrats? I'll give you $600 a week but you're going to give me awe payroll tax and everything else that I want?
HASSETT: I think that it's possible that -- the fact is he can do a heck of a lot as we discussed in the early part of the hour. And I think we sketched pretty accurately about what he said, that he can defer the payroll tax, he can loan money to states to increase the UI benefits. He can defer student loans. He can, you know, stop evictions, and he can do all that without Congress.
And so, if Nancy and Chuck continue to insist on about a trillion dollars in state and local support, given that, you know, probably the state and local governments would spend just a little bit more than that over the rest of the year, then you're asking the federal government to take almost the whole tab, it's a pretty extreme position.
If they want to stick on that position, he's going to do this other thing. If they're willing to bend, I'm sure he would rather do it legislatively. BURNETT: Austan, what do you make of it? I mean, from a political
perspective here. You know, if this is an if you don't do this, I'm going to sign this. He's put Democrats in a corner, OK, a big corner, right, because he's giving them the big thing they said they wanted, but what about the Republicans? Because he led with the payroll tax. That's the most important thing. Republicans don't want it. But he's put that in there.
GOOLSBEE: Look, he's pushing the payroll tax. I think the fact that the payroll tax will fund Social Security is going to make this thing a little bit nuclear or toxic as we come to the election.
But I think if the president is actually saying that he's going to extend the $600 unemployment insurance, all of his allies in the Senate and even Kevin himself who have been saying it's a bad idea to do a $600 unemployment insurance, what are they going to say? I mean, it seems like he's kind of sawing the limb out from under them.
And then the second, we didn't say anything about the bizarro moment where the president seemed to be taking the last three months of jobs numbers and saying this is the greatest job creation in the history of the country, failing to mention that it followed the most catastrophic decline of employment that we have ever seen in any country and that the unemployment rate is over 10 percent. If he's actually bragging that the economy's good, I think he's going to look extremely out of touch.
BURNETT: All right. I appreciate all of you very much. Thank you. I will keep monitoring, of course, if the president takes questions.
Next, the massive bike rally I mentioned, the biggest gathering, I believe, on the planet since all this started, no masks, no social distancing, and a quarter million people.
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What could go wrong, everybody? What could go wrong?
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BURNETT: Tonight, the biggest public gathering since the coronavirus outbreak kicking off now. A quarter million people, 250,000 expected at the 80th annual Sturgis motorcycle rally begins today, ends next Sunday, long time, over a week.
Ryan Young is OUTFRONT and he is in Sturgis tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Any other year and this Sturgis motorcycle rally is a novelty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything is cool. You guys should come out.
YOUNG: A pilgrimage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We came 2,000 miles to work.
YOUNG: A celebration.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just the happiest people in the world.
YOUNG: But this year, some fear it could be deadly, 250,000 people expected to crowd a town of 7,000, making it the largest public gathering since the start of the pandemic.
LAURA ARMSTRONG, PRESIDENT, RAPID CITY, S.D. COMMON COUNCIL: They're not going to be able to handle any kind of social distancing. There is a significant amount of alcohol involved. It's a huge party.
YOUNG: Total coronavirus cases are low but rising in South Dakota. The state's testing positivity rate is between 8 and 9 percent.
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The WHO recommends locations at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days before opening, but South Dakota never closed so the rally isn't breaking any laws.
ROD WOODRUFF, OWNER, BUFFALO CHIP CAMPGROUND: I always look up here as being false evidence appearing real, and I think that's what has happened.
YOUNG: Rod Woodruff owns the Buffalo Chip Campground with 600 acres. He says there's plenty of room for social distancing and common sense.
WOODRUFF: Ride free, take risks. That's our motto, right? That doesn't mean you don't calculate them. These people calculate their risk every time they get on a motorcycle.
YOUNG: A city survey of Sturgis residents found 60 percent wanted the rally cancelled at this time but city leaders say bikers were coming anyway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't care if it's closed down. I'm going. They can all kiss my (EXPLETIVE DELETED), I'm going.
YOUNG: So, the city council allowed it with fewer official events but no mask requirement. For those afraid to leave home, the city will deliver supplies.
MAYOR MARK CARSTENSEN, CITY OF STURGIS: We've been doing that the entire time. We're actually expanding the program during the Sturgis motorcycle rally. They include anything that can be bought in Sturgis basically.
GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R-SD): Our economy benefits when people come and visit us.
YOUNG: South Dakota's Republican Governor Kristi Noem welcomes the crowd and says events like the Independence Day celebration out in Mount Rushmore proved the state isn't drastically affected by large gatherings. NOEM: So, we know we can have these events and give people
information, let them protect their health but still enjoy their way of life.
YOUNG: That's what vendors like Ted Smith want to hear. He came all the way from Florida.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't do work in Florida. It's no shows. It's no bike shows. They've all cancelled them out.
YOUNG: But others worry that 250,000 people crowding bars and restaurants could spread the virus and sent it home to others.
ARMSTRONG: They can infect our Native American populations, our law enforcement and potentially our bar staff.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
YOUNG: And, Erin, proving how you can never be ready for live television, there is downpour of rain and wind that's sending a lot of people scrambling for bikes and for cover.
I can tell you the weather here has been great so far, not a lot of social distancing, not a lot of people wearing masks. They are not upset at people that do decide to wear a mask, but you can see people made a conscious decision not to wear it in many other places.
So far, I've been told by many people, this is their right. This is all about riding that bike and being free, and that's what they plan to do over the next coming days.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Ryan.
And one of the center pieces of this rally is the Sturgis Buffalo Chip. It's a massive campground, 600 acres. Many attendees will stay there over the course of this ten-door -- ten-day, I'm sorry, outdoor rally.
OUTFRONT now, Rod Woodruff, he's the owner of the Sturgis Buffalo Chip.
And I appreciate your time, Rod.
So, let me ask you, you're holding concerts nearly every night of the rally, tattoo cafe, bike races, stunt shows (ph) scheduled. What preparations are you taking? I mean, you're going to have so many people on your site.
WOODRUFF: Well, we're not going to have nearly as many people as you guys are talking about. That 250,000 people is a fictitious number that -- you know, you just stop and think about it, you have a town, like you said, of 7,000 people. Main Street is only like six blocks long. You don't put 250,000 people in there. They wouldn't fit.
And there is not 250,000 people going to come to this rally, and the rally actually spreads out over 7,000 square miles. So, it's -- it's a black hills rally. It's not the town of Sturgis. So, trying to --
BURNETT: So, let me just ask you a question, when we say there's usually half a million that come to the state for this and it's going to be 250,000 this year, you're saying you don't think it will be anywhere close to 250,000 even?
WOODRUFF: Correct. And there was never 500,000 people here, either. Those are government numbers, and there's -- there's no basis for them.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: So do you have any concern at all, you know, when you think about your own property and the risk you're taking on of --
WOODRUFF: You know --
BURNETT: -- that everything being optional, I'm talking about masks and social distancing?
WOODRUFF: It's just like you said before, you know, these people are adults. They have lived their lives freely for decades. They have made their own choices about what risks to take in their life and they have decided that they come here.
We're out in the middle of the country. You can look for miles and not see a single house. There is not any of the contained rooms there with the contaminated air that congest you have from indoors.
These people are outside. They are camping. They are more than six feet apart. The campgrounds are more than six feet apart. They get on the motorcycles. They ride their motorcycles. They're more than six feet apart. And the air is fresh.
And so, you know, they don't have the same level of risk that somebody in a ballroom in New York City would have. It's -- you know, you don't have the congestion.
BURNETT: All right. Well, I appreciate your time and I hope that -- I hope that you're right. Thank you very much, Rod. Appreciate it.
And thanks so much to all of you. Anderson starts now.
