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Inside Politics
Trump Signs Executive Orders After Stimulus Talks Fail; Teachers Worry About Safety As Schools Reopen; Biden Faces Backlash For Remark About Black And Latino Communities; U.S. Approaching Five Million Coronavirus Cases; Cori Bush Defeats A Missouri Political Dynasty. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired August 09, 2020 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:29]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN HOST (voice-over): The president orders new coronavirus relief.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm taking executive action. We've had it.
KING: Executive action because talks on a bigger package collapsed.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: They're nickel and diming us.
KING: Plus, back to school stress.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If the teachers aren't safe, then the students aren't safe, then the community is not safe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a work in progress. But to just stay home and not be able to deliver education is not an option.
KING: And as Joe Biden picks his running mate, new Democratic voices hope he is listening
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The old ways of doing things, let's retire that. It's time for regular, everyday people to have a voice.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm John King.
To our viewers in the United States and around the world, thank you for sharing your Sunday. The coronavirus in the United States will pass 5 million infections today. The experts now project the United States death toll will hit 300,000. That's the population of Pittsburgh before Christmas.
Despite those numbing numbers, this in a South Dakota town this weekend, the 80th Sturgis motorcycle rally. To some, a celebration of tradition and freedom. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got the First Amendment, we got the Bill of Rights. We love it, right? And we're here to live it.
Tell people what the odds are, tell people what the risks and the dangers are and let them decide and expect them to be responsible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: To others, that event, a reckless affront to common sense and a likely coronavirus super spreader. Schools are another flash point right now and we'll dig deeper into that debate in just a moment.
First, though, the president and the coronavirus, and the latest example of how risky it is to believe what he says.
He called an event yesterday to announce new executive actions to help people thrown out of work or facing other financial stress because of the pandemic. The president said his actions would provide a $400 weekly unemployment bonus. A payroll tax holiday for those making less than $100,000 a year. He said it would be an extension of a federal evictions moratorium. And the president promised additional student loan relief.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm taking action to provide an additional or an extra $400 per week in expanded benefits. We're doing that without the Democrats. We should have been able to do it, very easily, with them but they want all these additional things that have nothing to do with helping people.
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have chosen to hold this vital assistance hostage on behalf of very extreme partisan demands.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: A lot of politics there. But if you actually take time to read what the president signed, you discover something quite different. The unemployment bonus plan relies on states putting up money, they say they don't have. Plus, a lot of experts, even a lot of Republicans, question the legality of that plan.
And what the president called an evictions moratorium is no such thing. The document he signed recommends government agencies use existing powers to try to help renters.
Quote, unconstitutional slop. That is what Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska called the president's actions. Top Democrats called the White House actions a stunt, more than a plan.
This is from the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Democratic leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer. We're disappointed that instead of putting in the work to solve America's problems, the president, instead, chose to stay on his luxury golf course to announce unworkable, weak, and narrow policy announcements to slash the unemployment benefits that millions desperately need, and endangers seniors' Social Security and Medicare.
We begin there this Sunday and with us to share their reporting and their insights, Julie Hirschfeld Davis of "The New York Times", Toluse Olorunnipa of "The Washington Post."
Toluse, I want to start with you. You're up in Bedminster where the president is at his golf resort for the weekend.
The part I don't get here is the president wants to be man of action. He says, I'm going to sign these documents, I'm going to help people because negotiations collapsed but this is a president who several months ago said there would not be a pandemic, who said then it would be gone pretty soon, the case count would be down to zero. If you read what he signed, it is not what he says it was.
At what point does the White House think that maybe we can't get away with this anymore?
TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, there's no long-term strategy here, politically, or in terms of trying to control the virus. You are seeing day in and day out, I talk to Trump campaign officials who say we are trying to win the day, trying to win every day, every news cycle until the election. And that's what the president was essentially trying to do, not having a long-term strategy.
But saying if I can get the cameras in front of me, showing me signing something that looks consequential, then, the American people will see me taking actions, and they will say the Democrats are blocking this from happening.
[08:05:06]
But when you actually look at the actual text of what he signed, there's not actually much that he is doing in terms of actually getting people money, getting people evictions relief, getting people support that they need, in terms of cutting their taxes. He's delaying the taxes and a lot of businesses are not even going to comply with that because they know there's going to be a big tax bill due at the end of the year.
So it does appear the president is sort of trying to do the optics approach to the presidency. Trying to win this, in terms of how it looks, optically. But not essentially trying to do what he said he was going to do as a candidate in 2016, which was get all the different sides in the room, lock the door, come up with a solution, and be the great dealmaker that he said he was.
Now, and again, we are seeing him, instead of making deals, taking executive actions that are not as powerful as legislation.
KING: I get, Julie, that, you know, this president has a casual relationship with the truth. That has been the case, as a candidate, as a businessman, and now as president. The part I don't get is his own self-interest.
They have to understand, the White House staff and the campaign staff, that we're going to read these things, that members of his own party, like Senator Sasse are going to say, no, this is what Obama tried with executive actions. This doesn't work, it's not legal, and if the Democrats are going to put it, the fine print to the test. That's what I don't get.
You cannot fool people about getting an unemployment check. They either get it, or they don't.
JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. I mean, think this -- this all stems from the fact that the president and the people around him really understand that he has no good options here. I mean, it would have been in his self-interest, in their self-interest, to have negotiated a deal with Democrats to get this recovery package passed. You know, it's been a bit of an irony watching these negotiations over the last couple weeks. And of course, everyone wants the economy to bounce back.
But one would think that the president, who is up for re-election in less than three months, has the biggest vested interest in seeing that happen and would want to seriously engage in these talks so they could get a result. But that didn't happen. So now, you have to question what the -- what the wisdom is of their strategy here, because, as you say, people are not going to be getting these checks in the same way they were, every week, $600 a week for months, which a lot of people, tens of millions of Americans, were depending on.
They may not see this payroll tax relief. They're not going to have a ban on evictions. People will still be losing their homes, and having trouble paying their rent. So, it's hard to see the upside.
But I do think the president is gambling that if these talks can resume and get somewhere, he will get the credit for having nudged them forward. And even if they don't, some portion of the American public will blame Democrats for having stood in the way and forced his hand to do whatever he could, even if it wasn't quite enough.
KING: Which raises the question, I think the next phase, how do the Democrats handle this, Toluse, in the sense that, you saw what Pelosi and Schumer, the speaker and the Democratic leader in the Senate saying that, A, it's a scam. It's not what the president said it was. And, B, it doesn't get to other key issues like funding for schools, funding for election security, like funding for food benefits and the like.
This is what the Democratic nominee, presumptive Democratic nominee, the convention is coming up. Joe Biden says this is no art of the deal. This is not presidential leadership. These orders are not real solutions. They are just another cynical ploy designed to deflect responsibility.
Some measures do more harm, than good. That is the Biden statement, the day of and the day after Pelosi and Schumer saying, no, Mr. President, nice try. Julie does raise an interesting point. What, now, for the Democrats?
Do you say get back to the table? Speaker Pelosi did say, do that yesterday.
Or do say, you know, what the president signed here doesn't do what he says. Just let it play out?
OLORUNNIPA: Well, the Democrats are definitely not without risk in this entire process. And I think they realize that if they have said they are willing to come down $1 trillion from their original ask if the president and if Republicans were willing to go up $1 trillion. They're trying to show the American public they are willing to negotiate. They do have the benefit of having, largely, unity within their caucus, unlike the Republicans, who are split about whether or not to do something, at all.
So they seem to be trying to attack the president, saying his payroll tax gambit, essentially, would defund Social Security. They are using that talking point to attack -- to attack this plan. They are, essentially, saying that if the president wants to actually help Americans, he should get back into the -- back to the negotiating table, come up with a deal. A deal is to be had.
There are a lot -- large areas of agreement and they are trying to say they're still willing to negotiate. That seems to be their tactic here while also bashing the president for his executive actions that don't solve the problem.
KING: And it's an interesting question, Julie, just how they are deciding to do this. The president loves this. The question is what do people in the country who have to decide whether he gets four more years. He is doing it at his golf course, the property. He is inviting members of the club into the room with the reporters.
So, they laugh at the president's jokes, and the hits at the news media.
[08:10:01]
He got testy yesterday, when he was, correctly, corrected by Paula Reid of CBS News. The president has said more than 150 times according to our fact checker, that he signed the law creating choice for veterans, V.A. Choice. President Obama signed that in 2014. But he is using these events, this should be executive actions, help people, coronavirus.
It's an official event. It was a lot of politics. Listen here, where he says I couldn't cut a deal with the Democrats because they wanted this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They want to try and steal this election because, frankly, it's the only way they can win the election. The bill, also, requires all states do universal mail-in balloting, which nobody is -- nobody's prepared for. Basically, what they are trying to do, with all of these requirements, including no signature verification, they are trying to steal an election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: One thing he does do is keep the fact checkers in business. But these events, again, if you read the paper, it's not what he promised. But most of the event was the airing of his grievances.
DAVIS: Yeah. For the second evening in a row, he had what was essentially a political rally, sort of disguised or billed as news conference, and talking about the economy. It was a bit ironic because he is at his private golf club, as you said. And Toluse saw that, our colleagues kept us apprised of what the scene was like with people sipping wine and applauding him. And as you just played right there, blasting Democrats.
Actually, some of the text of some of the orders he put out yesterday kind of read like political documents less than they did official presidential statements. And clearly, he is looking for a forum to tout these claims about the election being stolen. There is no evidence of that.
The one thing he was right about, though, is a lot of states aren't prepared for the amount of mail-in voting that's going to be needed and that's why Democrats and some Republicans have been pressing for money for that in the recovery package, which of course he has pushed back against. So it was a pretty interesting forum for signing executive orders that were billed as helping ordinary Americans, who have lost jobs, and are really struggling in this recession.
KING: Well, the debate on every point, to discuss. We'll continue and we'll see how it plays out.
Toluse, Julie, appreciate your coming in on a Sunday morning. We'll talk again soon I'm sure.
And up next for us, the back to school challenge. The nation's largest school district now cleared to reopen. There are already some new lessons and new coronavirus cases in districts already back in class.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:16:46]
KING: The back-to-school debate is now a big part of the coronavirus challenge, so let's take a look at what the country looks like right now, and how different areas of the country are making different decisions about getting children back in the classroom.
First, just our national map of how things are going. Much more encouraging than last Sunday does not mean challenges aren't ahead. But look. Six states trending up. That's the orange and the red. That means more coronavirus cases this week, than last week.
Nineteen states holding steady, that's the beige. You see this right here, and 25 states, half of the United States, trending down, right? Trending down. Better. Better. Still, challenges ahead but this is a better map than
we had last Sunday. However, most school districts remain at the local level, not the statewide level, the school decisions. And so, this map might be more helpful depending on where you live.
If it's red or orange, that means you are having more cases. If it's lighter, that means you are improving. These cities identified here and the Central Valley in California, these are communities the White House coronavirus task force is worried about because the percentage of positive tests are going up.
So, see where you live in the country. Decide. Is it safe for my children to go back into the classroom? That's part of the debate.
As you watch this play out, some states have already reopened schools. And in Indiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and North Carolina, schools have been reopened and, inevitably, they have some coronavirus cases.
The challenge, now, is how do you handle that? How many kids in quarantine? Do you shut things down? How do you keep things going? We will talk more about that in a minute.
CNN is tracking the largest 101 school districts in the country and this is what we know, so far -- 63 of them will start all online, 17 give parents a choice, all online or all in person, 11 have hybrid, 7 have a unique plan that's essentially a hybrid but sometimes it's different for kindergarten, first grade, than it is for high school or whatever. And three is still undecided as we get closer to the start of school.
New York state's governor just cleared all schools to reopen. Remember, New York was once the epicenter of the virus. How can schools reopen? Because New York, now, is in a much better place. You see, it's flattened the curve and it is down here.
This is the data experts say to watch. The positivity rate. Again, New York can open because its positivity rate, in tests, way, way down. Way, way down, around 1 percent right now, somewhere in that ballpark.
So what about Indiana? That is a state where the case count, at the moment, is still rising. A Friday, single-day high of new cases, so you have to be concerned there. Numerically, not a huge number but that is a trend line you do not want.
Also, take a look here. The positivity rate. You take a test in Indiana. What percentage are coming back positive? It's just below 10 percent. Trending up, a little bit, in recent days. Near 10 percent in Indiana. Down almost a flat line in New York.
Listen to the New York City school superintendent. He runs the largest school district, public school district, in the country. He says this number is what he'll keep an eye on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD CARRANZA, CHANCELLOR, NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: We are going to be looking, like hawks, at the numbers. And if the numbers of the positivity rate starts inching upward and if it gets to 3 percent, we will remote learn for the entire system. So we have a number of protocols that we have already worked through. And we're very conservative about it because it's a matter of life and death for our children and those that serve our children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Joining us now to discuss this challenge, the Indiana school superintendent, Jennifer McCormick.
Superintendent, grateful for your time. I know you're very busy.
So, you just heard the New York City commissioner there saying he is going to watch the positivity rate.
[08:20:02]
Some of your schools are open. What are you looking at and tracking? And let me just ask it, straight up, what's your biggest worry?
JENNIFER MCCORMICK, INDIANA SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: Yeah. So many of our schools have already started, we have several that have pushed it back till after labor day. But, of all that have started, only 41 of our districts are going to go 100 percent virtual.
So, having, just like you said, we're watching the positivity rates. We're watching the trends. We're watching, closely, the regional activity, as it is very different in some of our areas versus some of our urban, more populated areas.
So it is a challenge but we're watching things closely, along with many of the health departments.
KING: Is it a statewide standard? Or is it up to each, local school district to decide what the trigger is? You heard the New York City commissioner says 3 percent. We get to 3 percent positivity, you know, no more kids in the classroom.
Is that your decision, or the governor's decision? Or is that every school district?
MCCORMICK: It's interesting. Right now, we only have had one health department county, that was in the Indianapolis area, which is our largest district in Indiana that has set that mitigation threshold. Other health departments and districts are kind of left to their selves to set those thresholds and we have not seen that, to date. We have asked for that for statewide help and assistance from the governor's office. We feel it's obviously a medical issue that you are putting a lot of districts in difficult situations.
KING: If you look at polling. Look, this is -- and I -- I applaud you for what you're doing. There are people that disagree with what you do. Agree with what you do. Not my job.
I know how hard your job is right now as you go through this. You got parents saying it's nuts to open schools. You got parents saying it's nuts to keep schools closed.
If you look right here, 56 percent of parents believe it's unsafe to send kids back to school, 71 percent are uncomfortable with their kids in a full classroom, 16 percent think all schools will be fully in- person right now.
So, there's debate. We're a big country. That's -- those are national poll numbers.
What is your feedback from parents? Especially, parents in the districts where schools are already opened and, inevitably, you've had some cases.
MCCORMICK: You know, it's interesting. In the summer, in June, when we polled, many of our districts had 20 to 30 percent of our families that said they felt unsafe and were going to opt for the virtual option. Now, fast forward to the numbers aren't looking good and the trends are going up, that percentage is higher. So many districts are relying on that dual platform of parent choice.
But this week, our governor's office and our general assembly came out. And there is a little bit of squabble over reducing our funding if we don't open our doors. So that is a concern, when we are starting to hear those threats of funding and we're also getting that from D.C. and honestly, it's not helpful.
KING: Not helpful when you have politicians, essentially, trying to impose their will on you as opposed to letting you make this decision because that's why you're the superintendent. Am I reading that right?
MCCORMICK: That is correct. And also, you have a lot of health departments put in the middle of that. A lot of local superintendents put in the middle of that. I was a local superintendent. I would not appreciate the threat of money being held over my head during a pandemic.
KING: So, you said most of the local districts get to have the idea of when they might have to pull back. What about if you get cases in a school? Is it an automatic quarantine?
What's the number? Is it just kids in that classroom? Is it kids that could have been exposed in the hall? How do you do the contact tracing or the decision about, all right, this school has a case. We knew we were going to have some. Now, we do what?
MCCORMICK: Yeah. I commend our state health department, our local health departments. They have been extremely helpful in those type of decisions. You know, if one child or one adult or several children or several adults come up positive, what does that look like for contact tracing?
I will be honest. You know, that is reliant upon a testing system that gives you really quick, reliable results. And it, also, is reliant upon a lot of people participating in contact tracing.
That has probably been our biggest struggle, to date, for schools is the contact tracing piece. It is very -- it -- it requires a lot of people and participants to -- who are willing to help us out with that.
KING: It's a sad echo we've had through the months, testing and contact tracing. And now, our kids are going back to school and we still hear from people like yourself that it remains a problem.
Ms. McClintock, superintendent in schools in Indiana, Jennifer McClintock, thank you. Best of luck in the days and weeks and months ahead as you deal with this challenge.
MCCORMICK: Thank you so much.
KING: Thank you.
And up next, Joe Biden's big VP decision is at hand. Some rising Democratic stars in Michigan join us to assess the battleground stakes and the coronavirus impact on campaign 2020.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:28:57]
KING: Joe Biden makes a very consequential choice this week. And he will make it, facing additional pressure because of a comment some took as insulting or disrespectful to black voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Unlike the African-American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community, with incredibly different attitudes about different things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Five women are said to be atop Biden's running mate list. Senators Kamala Harris and Tammy Duckworth, Congresswoman Karen Bass, former national security adviser Susan Rice, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
With us to discuss this moment in the campaign and the fight against the coronavirus, Garlin Gilchrist, he's lieutenant governor of Michigan, and Mandela Barnes, lieutenant governor of Wisconsin.
Governor Barnes, let me start with you.
You're both young, African-American, rising starts in the Democrat you can party. [08:29:47]
[08:29:47]
When Joe Biden says something like that and then has to clean it up saying, "I did not mean to offend anybody. I recognize the diversity in the African-American community." What goes through your mind? Is it a problem? How big of a problem is it? LT. GOV. MANDELA BARNES (D-WI): So one thing I would say is that
unlike the President, at least Joe Biden is a person who acknowledges mistakes. If he says something wrong, he apologizes for it.
And you know, I wouldn't expect him to get things right 100 percent of the time. You know, Joe Biden is not necessarily a stranger to gaffes, but it's what you do in the face of it. It's how you respond to those instances when comments like those are made. Are you going to own up and be responsible for, you know, what came out of your mouth.
And that's the difference between Joe Biden -- well one of many differences between Joe Biden and the President, accepting the responsibility.
KING: And Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist, how do you respond -- how do you respond to it in the sense that we lived through 2016, we've seen what President Trump has said in recent days about it. He says he doesn't deserve any black votes. This President commenting on race, as I've said before, it's like hiring an arsonist to be the fire chief.
However, we do know that they in 2016 used digital ads and the like in an effort to try to convince the African-Americans, just don't vote. If you don't like Donald Trump, you shouldn't like Hillary Clinton either, just don't vote.
Is that a problem now for Biden?
LT. GOV. GARLIN GILCHRIST (D-MI): No, I think the vice president by, you know, one, stepping up and saying and taking responsibility for the comments, that's a great thing. What's even more important is that the vice president has put together a comprehensive agenda to respond to the needs of the black community and the people of color.
And so I think when people are doing this comparison, it's not a comparison. You know, Donald Trump has been a dangerous disaster for black people. Look no further than the actions that he took yesterday. And so he needs to step up.
KING: And so let me stick with you, Governor Gilchrist. I call you governor, that's the formal title when you talk to a lieutenant governor, but your boss, Governor Whitmer, is on the vice president's list.
We know from reporting, I know she won't confirm this, that she flew here to -- she flew to Delaware to meet with Joe Biden -- one of the finalists. Do you believe as he makes this choice, in some ways did the remarks he just made, I get the point, you both say he steps up like a man and apologized and cleaned it up. Do you believe he should pick a woman of color, or do you believe your governor would be a better choice?
GILCHRIST: I think that Joe Biden needs to make this very deep and personal decision based on who is going to be his best partner and who is going to help him implement an agenda for the American people, including people of color. People of color voted for Joe Biden because they know he's going to have an agenda (ph) that's responsive to them in the primary, and I expect that to continue in the general.
And the contrast is clear. So he needs to have the best partner to help him do that, regardless of who he chooses.
KING: Do you have a preference, Governor Barnes? Or are you saying this is Joe Biden's call, you're ok?
BARNES: This is a time like no other, where in a crisis like we've never been and I hope that we never experience again. So we're going to need a vice presidential candidate with a bold vision, one that is going to build on what Joe Biden (AUDIO GAP) on his "Build Back Better" plan and lay out that vision that's going to take us well into the future.
I think it's important for us to be as bold as we possibly can also in this moment and the candidate has a victory of taking on the big fights of who is going to be the vice presidential choice first and the best.
KING: So we know this campaign is going to play out in the context of the pandemic and you, gentlemen, have been kind enough to come on several times before to talk about the challenges in your states.
I want to close on that theme and I want to stick with you, Lieutenant Governor Barnes for a minute and look at Wisconsin right now. Wisconsin had gotten the numbers down a little bit, and then you're part of this summer surge. And you see right here your numbers are up again.
A lot of states in the Midwest are going through this right now. One of the things I saw in the research over the weekend is a lot of your local health officials in Wisconsin are complaining that number of tests is down because they say supplies are being diverted to other states.
Is that a fact? Six months in you still can't get the supplies you need to have adequate testing?
BARNES: Well, like you said, numbers were going down, then we saw numbers surge, so the picture is a little bit different right now. But more than anything, we need help from the federal government.
And that's been the case from the start. We need a plan from the federal government to keep out of this in the first place, to keep the United States out of the dire financial situation that we're in in the first place. But President Donald Trump hasn't responded.
(AUDIO GAP) playing politics in addition to the supplies issue, you can look at National Guard funding where some states are going to have to kick in 25 percent of the money to fund the National Guard to administer these tests while states like Florida and (INAUDIBLE) get 100 percent of funding.
And this (AUDIO GAP) Florida or Texas but this is an acknowledgment of Donald Trump's willingness to play politics with people's lives like he's always done. Donald Trump is a -AUDIO GAP) and we are seeing this in real-time as people become ill with this virus and people lose their lives.
KING: To you, Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist, same question. In the context OF if you look at the Michigan numbers -- again if you look at the middle of June you were getting down to a very good point then you see this flow trickle up. A plateau at the moment but still an area of concern. Children are going back to school, numbers going up like this.
[08:34:54]
KING: We learned in the reporting in "The Washington Post" today that the new White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is among those questioning masks, saying, "I don't see the science behind it."
I know in your state you had an episode this week where an elected official questioned the efficacy of masks and blamed a certain community for it. Walk us through that.
GILCHRIST: Well, it's just yet another chapter in the way-too-long book of Donald Trump's disastrous response and deadly response to COVID-19, or frankly lack thereof. The science on masks is clear. It is the simplest thing we can do. It's a seat belt to help protect people from dying and contracting coronavirus.
And that's why we've advocated a mask mandate here in the state of Michigan and Michiganders have largely stepped up and responded and done what they need to do. That's why our numbers are going down. But the continued failure of the national -- of the federal government -- of the Trump administration to step up for people is why we are here, why things have been creeping keeping back up.
But we are doing everything we can in Michigan, and the people of Michigan are stepping up and they're frankly rejecting the fact the federal government's failure is putting our communities in jeopardy.
And so we're doing everything we can at the state level to make sure that we can be prepared for the fall. I have, you know, second graders right now who -- and we're thinking about what happens for school in our state, but what we can do all of us across Michigan and across the country if we wear our masks, if we're careful, if we get tested and make sure that we can, you know, have the supplies and not have the federal government cut them off, we will be able to get to this pandemic until we get a vaccine or an antiviral treatment.
KING: Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist of Michigan, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes of Wisconsin -- gentlemen, appreciate you both again coming in. We'll continue the conversation. Best of luck in the days ahead.
Up next for us --
BARNES: Thank you.
KING: -- the path of the pandemic. The case count improves some, but a drop in testing has some experts worried new spikes are lurking.
[08:36:38]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: There is evidence of a plateau in national coronavirus case counts. But we're also going to hit five million total infections today in the United States. The death count continues to go up. Projections now that it could hit 300,000 by the beginning of December.
Let's go through the latest. And first again, I just want to start with this map -- 50 states, 50 plans, we often say about the reopenings. Just a couple weeks ago we had 38 states trending up. Only six states trending up on this Sunday. That means more cases this week than the previous week.
You see them here, Hawaii among them down there. Only six trending up. We have 19 states holding steady, 25 where this week's coronavirus numbers are lower than last week's coronavirus numbers. So that is the reason for some -- emphasis on "some" -- optimism.
But when you look at the case curve, you see we were down here, 17,000 cases -- 17,355 on June 1st but then began the summer surge up to a high just shy of 80,000 cases on July 16th. Now we're down to about 56,000 but still pretty stubborn high case count, daily case count right around 60,000.
So let's start right there and let's bring in our doctors to share their expertise with us.
Dr. Megan Ranney is an emergency room physician affiliated with Brown University. Dr. Ashish Jha the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.
Dr. Jha, to you first. We've talked about this for months now. At what point can we say we have this virus under control? 50,000 cases -- it's down from 77,000 but that is not control, right? That is -- if that's a plateau, it's a plateau at too high of a baseline?
DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Yes. Good morning, John. Thanks for having me on.
There are two parts of that. One is absolutely right, it's a plateau at too high of a baseline. It's still going to mean many, many hundreds, maybe a thousand Americans dying every day. So that's not ok.
The second is that we've had this real drop-off in testing. If you look at a state like Texas where cases have come down, testing has come down even more and their percent of their positive are rising. So I worry that some of it is just we're missing more cases than we were a couple of weeks ago because our testing infrastructure is really starting to buckle under pressure.
KING: Right. And let's show people that very play, Dr. Jha and Dr. Ranney, as we go through. Because you see the death curve right now, and we've all lived through this. Even as case counts go down, the death indicator is a lagging indicator.
So the death count stubbornly high, above a thousand -- look you go back more than a week now, it's getting close to 1,400 sometimes.
And then to Dr. Jha's point, the national positivity rate still very high. Remember New York is down around 1 percent now. That used to be the epicenter. The national positivity rate above 8 percent, meaning 8 percent of the people who take a test are coming back positive, way too high. It means you don't have the virus under control.
But to Dr. Jha's point, Dr. Ranney, 29 states -- 29 states said the testing rate was down last week compared to the week before. 29 states going down meaning fewer tests, and yet -- yet -- look at all these states. The clear overwhelming majority of states where the positivity rate is up. So you're taking fewer tests, more people are coming back positive. To Dr. Jha's point, a lot of coronavirus could be, quote, unquote, "hiding", correct?
DR. MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, LIFESPAN/BROWN UNIVERSITY: Absolutely. This mirrors what we saw in the early days of the pandemic where we were really only testing the really sick people that were coming into the hospital. Our positivity rates at that point were through the roof. We were only catching the sickest of the sick.
And we're seeing something similar now with these high positivity rates. It tells us that the asymptomatic or the minimally symptomatic aren't even showing up to get tested because they know they're going to have to wait a week or two weeks to get results. As we said before, that's almost pointless.
Add on to that, of course, also the tropical storm that affected many of our southern states this past week, including much of the northeast, that may also explain some of the drops in testing, but at the base of it, I think, is that people know that there is really no point to showing up at these drive-thru or walk-in testing centers, because they're not going to get actionable information, which is what they would be searching for.
It's on us to have a national strategy to create that testing structure that Dr. Jha talked about.
KING: And absent that national strategy or absent a competent testing apparatus structure and infrastructure across the country everyone says well then when maybe a vaccine, that would be our way out of this.
Dr. Jha, you had a conversation the other day with Dr. Anthony Fauci about this. Let's listen to a little.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE: I believe we'll get an effective vaccine, but we don't know if it's going to be 50 percent or 60 percent. Hopefully, I would 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)
KING: Translate that for laypeople who are saying, well, wait a minute, so we're going to have a vaccine and it may only help half of us? What is he trying to say there?
[08:44:55]
DR. JHA: What he's trying to say is don't think of the vaccine as a silver bullet, that somehow we get the vaccine, everything is over, it all goes back to normal. That's pretty unlikely.
He's been -- he's been pretty optimistic about a vaccine, as have I. They will make a big difference when they arrive and when we have the data that they're safe and effective and they become widely available, but the bottom line is they're not going to work for everybody. They're not they're not going to offer full protection for everyone.
And people have to understand that the pandemic, while benefiting from a vaccine when it's available, won't be over. We still have to maintain a certain amount of public health measures to get through this.
KING: A certain amount of public health measures to get through this, Dr. Ranney. And we learned this, if you pick up "The Washington Post" about the chief of staff Mark Meadows. During coronavirus meetings Meadows has repeatedly questioned the scientific consensus that wearing masks helps contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, officials said. I can't believe we're still having this conversation. But the floor is yours. Is the White House chief of staff correct or horribly wrong?
DR. RANNEY: The White House chief of staff is saying something that goes against all of the accumulated scientific evidence from the past six months. We've had study after study, both modeling studies and actual observations of communities that have put mask mandates in place. We've had studies where we take masks and try to filter the virus through them.
All of those point to the fact that masks, certainly surgical masks as well as many cloth masks, prevent the transmission of the virus. Not only that, but there is emerging evidence that if folks are all masked, it may not just prevent transmission, but it may also, if you're infected, it may lessen the degree of infection or the degree of severity of infection that you get.
And gosh, we just had these stories out of Georgia of kids going back to school without masks already. There are multiple kids and teachers infected. If those kids and teachers have been wearing masks, it would have prevented that.
For Meadows to continue to say that masks are not effective, this does a huge disservice to our nation.
KING: Science, science, science, science, science, science. Dr. Jha and Dr. Ranney, thanks again for coming on on a Sunday for helping us sort through this, the myth and the fiction and the like. We'll see you again soon, I'm sure.
Up next up for us, Cori Bush was once homeless. Well, she just beat a Democrat whose family held a house seat for 50 years and she thinks the old guards should take note.
[08:47:15]
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KING: Cori Bush is most likely coming to Congress with the most unlikely of resumes: once homeless, uninsured, a crime victim, and more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CORI BUSH (D), MISSOURI CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: It is historic that this year of all years we are sending a black working-class single mother.
CROWD: Yes, ma'am.
BUSH: -- who is (INAUDIBLE) from Ferguson all the way to the halls of Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That is a very happy Cori Bush after her stunning primary upset of the Democratic Congressman William Lacy Clay, who held the St. Louis area House seat for 20 years. Clay's father was the congressman for 30 years before that.
Cori Bush is with us this Sunday and we're grateful for your time. First, congratulations. It's a major upset of a figure who had the establishment on his side. I don't know if this is going to make you laugh or cry. But in doing some research I went on the Internet just to search your name. And the first thing that came up is Cori Bush, politician.
BUSH: Did it? Cori Bush, politician?
KING: So why do you think this happened? A lot of people, you know, understand there's a lot of energy, especially in the Democratic base, the communities of color for next generation, for a new generation.
We've seen, you know, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat an incumbent in 2018 who wasn't coming home enough. Wasn't keeping in touch with a district that was changing.
What is your biggest takeaway? If Speaker Pelosi is watching, if the Democratic nominee Joe Biden is watching, what do you think is the biggest takeaway, the democratic voters want what?
BUSH: An active leader, a leader that speaks to them, a leader that is going to be with the people. It makes a difference when you feel like someone is so above you that they won't come to the district, they won't spend much time with just the regular people.
You know, when the community is out in the streets protesting injustice, when the community is mourning or grieving, when the community is hurting because of a pandemic, because of a second pandemic hitting the community, people want to see their leaders show up and just be with them, not behind closed doors with, you know, big donors and, you know, special people.
They want to -- where are you, like, what about the regular people, the ones that vote you in? And that's who I've been the last several years, I'm on the ground.
KING: And so one of the things we've seen happen this week, you're now in the campaign where the President of the United States is going to call you part of the radical left. He's going to say you're part of the party that's tugging Joe Biden to the left.
Among the things he is now saying about Joe Biden and the, quote- unquote, "radical left", I want you to listen to the President and I ='ll get your reaction on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's going to do things that nobody ever would ever think even possible because he's following the radical left agenda. Take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the bible, hurt God. He's against God, he's against guns.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: You're an ordained minister. Is Joe Biden against God? Is the radical, quote-unquote, "radical left" against God?
BUSH: No. Not at all, you know. And I can't speak for everyone. But this particular person, if you want to call me the radical left, actually I think I'm just a Democrat.
But if you want to call me the radical left, you know, I'm not against God. That's why I'm sitting here right now because when you don't see me, often times I'm in my own personal prayer closet. That's how I made it to this point, you know.
So I'm not against God. As a matter of fact, if I get off of this stage, I can go preach in a church, you know, today. You know, so not against God at all, not against, you know, people having guns. But we have to make sure that that thing is done right because when I go to sleep at night I'm hearing gunshots all night long.
You know, when my children go to school -- do I want my children going to school with the possibility of them not coming home from school when all they did was they went to school, they went where they were supposed to be and they weren't protected? No.
[08:55:02] BUSH: So we have to work around figuring out what our gun laws should
be, you know. We have to stand up for our children. We have to stand up for our community.
But, you know, for us to say that we are against God, now he just went too far and he won't -- he won't pit us against humanity. This for me is about a love of humanity. So, you know, the President is wrong.
KING: We wanted to ask you that question to (ph) your passion. Quickly before I say good-bye, you won this primary. Did Joe Biden reach out to you? I'm just interested and you say you want an active, present leader. Did he reach out to you and say congratulations, let's work together?
BUSH: Not yet, but the phone lines are open.
KING: Well, that he hasn't is pretty stunning actually. So that's why I wanted to ask you the question. That tells you they've got a little work to do at Biden campaign headquarters.
Cori Bush, very much grateful for your time this morning. Best of luck in the campaign ahead.
BUSH: Thank you.
KING: We'll see how things play out.
And that's it for us on INSIDE POLITICS. Hope you can catch us week days as well. We're here at noon Eastern.
Up next, a very busy "STATE OF THE UNION". Dana Bash, in for Jake Tapper. Her guests include the Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow, the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. And the Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.
Thanks again for sharing your Sunday. Have a great day. Stay safe.
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