Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Poppy Harlow And Jim Sciutto 20200805

Is in the numbers. Ten times in the last two weeks the nation has seen more than 1,000 covid deaths per day. 1,400 dead in just the last 24 hours. And new reporting this morning sources familiar with the president s Oval Office Meeting with the Coronavirus Task force say that despite all of this, all of these deaths and the numbers, the president still does not grasp the severity of this pandemic. Well have more on that reporting in a moment. And no one in the world following the u. S. Example. Also the president continuing the strong push to open schools despite many schools already seeing set backs when they attempt to reopen. My view is the schools should open. This thing is going away. It will go away like things go away and my view is that schools should be open. If you look at children, children are almost i would almost say definitely but almost immune from this disease. Thats false. Science doesnt back him up, yet he repeats that falsehood. Children not immune to this virus. The state of kentucky report 18 children under the age of 5 got the virus. Well speak with a doctor about the president s false claims, what the science, what the medicine tells us. Lets start with Dianne Gallagher in georgia. Some schools have started to reopen, of course parts of the country reopenings have begun. What are they finding . What kind of setbacks are they running into . Much like across the rest of the country and in georgia, we are seeing different ways that the School Districts are trying to reopen. In nearby cherokee county, they started on monday, the first day of school. Theyre posting pictures from classrooms, from the school, on the first day of school. Monday. You can see most of the kids are Wearing Masks. Not a whole lot of social distancing in some of these photos, but look, a student who was there on the first day of school, a second grader, tested positive for covid19 the district announced on wednesday. Now, we dont know if that second grade classroom is in any of those photos that the School Posted on the facebook page. But that entire second grade classroom, 20 students and the teacher, now have to quarantine for 14 days. The teacher will be teaching virtually from their home. And that student testing positive being announced in the school just two days after school started. Thats been the concern of a lot of parents, a lot of the districts around the state. What if we go back to school in person and someone tests positive and people just have to go home. In marietta, jim and poppy, just since they started preplanning theyre doing virtual teaching but five of their employees have tested positive, just since july 27th. Dianne gallagher, thanks very much. Joining us now to discuss this and other facts, the chief medical doctor at harvard medical school. Tell us what we know about school and covid19, and its true they are far less likely to die from this. But are we discovering theyre more vulnerable than we believed as we see an increase in cases . Its a great question, jim. What we are learning and we are really just in a learning phase is that children are carrying the virus. As you say, they dont necessarily get sick at the rates thank yt adults do. We have seen a small number of pediatric cases do get a significant inflammatory disease that can be life threatening. But we have seen studies that have come out from the George Washington Medical Center in washington, d. C. , is that when they look at a you know, 1,000 children who have been tested for covid, theyre finding disproportionate rates of children particularly of black and latino children and this is a huge concern for reopening schools. I just wonder your reaction to hearing the president of the United States say on television across the country that children are essentially immune to this. I mean, for any parent that believes that, the Health Implications for their children. I would go as far as to say its an irresponsible statement. Children are not immune to coronavirus. We know that children can contract the virus, they can carry it. They can transmit it and they can also get sick from it. So it is a misstatement at best and something that, you know, should be frankly ignored. We need leadership that is honest about the risks that we face, that is honest about what we dont know about the virus. So that we can take the necessary precautions. We had cnn ron klain, he was the ebola czar under president obama under the response to the United States Ebola Outbreak and he spoke to chris cuomo last night and he made a remarkable statement about getting covid and dying from it in the u. S. Have a listen. You are more likely as an american to die from covid than you are in almost any other country. You know, there are more cases of new cases of covid today in paris, texas, than in paris, france. Doctor, is that a product just of the vast number of cases in this country, that clearly the outbreak is not under control, but is it also how we are able to treat this . In other words, if you get it, do you have a higher chance of dying from it here . Well, i think the issue really is that we are the most wellresourced nation in the world. We are less than 5 of the population of the world, yet we have over a quarter of the known covid19 cases in the world. And there is nothing special about how americans experience covid as compared to other countries other citizens of other countries. Were all human beings and when you have a high case count, youre going to have a significant mortality rate. That said, we as a nation have unfortunately failed in creating a National Strategy to control the virus. To contain it, to test for it and we have had really frankly mixed messages about how we protect ourselves, Wearing Masks and socially isolating. The end result is going to be what we are seeing. High case counts and high death rates in our country that was avoidable. If we could talk about the disparity among children for a moment, im sure you saw that it just came out in the last 24 hours from the journal of pediatric that theres a big testing site in washington, d. C. And they had a more than a thousand children tested and the results were startling. 30 of black children tested were positive for covid. 46 of hispanic children versus only 7. 3 of white children. When you see those numbers, it just it shows us what we have seen in adults as well, but among children how much more susceptible minority children are to this, whether its that theyre you know, exposure situations but what are the consequences of that . Its a question, poppy. I think what were seeing in that particular study as you say is not surprising when we look at the statistics in adults. Yeah. People who are black and Latino Latinx are getting it at greater rates and this shines a light on something that we have already known. Its exasperating the systemic inequalities in our society. People who are of color and people in poverty track together. And it is in fact people of color who disproportionately are represented as essential workers. They are the people working in the Food Processing plants. Theyre the people working in the Grocery Stores disproportionately and that results in the greater risk and they bring that risk home to theyre children and then those children can bring it to the schools. Yeah. Agricultural communities as well. Thanks very much. Thank you. We do have this breaking news this morning. New reporting in to cnn from sources inside the administration, that President Trumps Oval Office Meeting with the white house Coronavirus Task force how it went. Lets go live to the white house. Jim acosta, so what happened inside that room . Yeah, jim and poppy, we talked to a source familiar with the president s meeting in the oval office with the Coronavirus Task force. This was the first in depth, comprehensive meeting with members of that task force since april. And the source familiar with the meeting said that the president is still not demonstrating that he has a firm grasp on what is happening with this pandemic in the u. S. In the words of the source familiar with the meeting, quote, he still doesnt get it. He does not get it. One thing we should point out what happened inside this meeting according to this source, officials on the task force continued to have trouble relaying to the president just how troubling this pandemic is right now in this country. As some members of the task force tried to stress to the president the severity of the outbreak in the u. S. , according to this source familiar with the meeting the president was trying to change the subject throughout this meeting. He would Start Talking about Something Else according to this source familiar with the meeting. The other thing we should point out is that the president s mood according to this source familiar with the meeting was less jovial as this person was describing it compared to past Task Force Meetings with the president. This source said quote, his mood lately is not a happy mood. And one other difference this source noted is how the president invites and Vice President pence respond to the information theyre receiving from members of the task force according to this source familiar with the meeting, Vice President mike pence quote, gets it. But the source added that pence appears to be quote conflicted when he is having his interactions with the task force. Hes sending indications to members of the task force according to this source familiar with the meeting that he understands their concerns, understands the severity of the pandemic, but hes tempering his comments according to this source familiar with the meeting to make sure that he remains in lockstep with the president. One other thing we should point out the source said that there was a little tension between President Trump and dr. Deborah birx, the coordinator of the task force. The president has been highly critical of dr. Birx, but according to the source familiar with the meeting there was little of the tension left over in the meeting yesterday. So jim and poppy, it does not get more serious than when you have a source with the rare meeting inside the oval office with the president and saying that the source saying that the president still quote does not get it, he does not get it. He doesnt get it or doesnt want to get it. No desire to grasp the extend of it. Exactly. Thats right. And, you know, that is consistent with what we have heard for months now, jim and poppy. That is, you know, the president appears to be in denial when it comes to the severity of this pandemic. And, you know, i think that was demonstrated in his interview with fox friends. He continues to downplay the severity of the pandemic in this country. Thanks for the important reporting, jim, very much. Negotiators resume talks soon, hoping to reach a deal on a stimulus package by the end of this week. Lets hope. But every day that goes by without a deal millions of unemployed americans continue to suffer. Well have a live update ahead on where things stand. Get this. The Trump Campaign suing to stop nevada from expanding mailin voting but the president encouraging the very same mailin voting in florida. Ones got a democratic governor, one a republican one. Guess which one. And what caused the massive explosion that rocked beirut . 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And new adventures. You hope the more you give the less theyll miss. But even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past. They may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. Lets help protect them together. Because missing menb vaccination could mean missing out on a whole lot more. Ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination. Subut when we realized she wasn hebattling sensitive skin, we switched to new tide plus downy free. Its gentle on her skin, and dermatologist recommended. New tide pods plus downy free. Safe for sensitive skin with eczema and psoriasis. Welcome back. Florida Governor Ron Desantis is floating the possibility of reopening Nursing Homes to visitors to those with the antibodies. Rosa flores is joining us. You have the most vulnerable population in the Nursing Homes, the elderly. We dont know about the antibodies and how much it produces. Are Health Experts on board with this . You know, poppy, the cdc does not recommend the practice and its important to know that Governor Desantis has talked about various scenarios of allowing visitors back into Nursing Homes but nothing has materialized until now. Its also important to note that when it comes to his response to covid19, that is the one thing that he touts about, just about every press conference that he has. The fact that he stopped visitations early and that that decision that he made saved liv lives. Heres the reality. Of the more than 7,400 deaths in this state are linked to Nursing Homes. When you look at the number of deaths overall per day, those are trending upward in the state of florida. When you look at the number of daily cases in the state, those are downward, but florida is on the brink of hitting 5,000 cases in total and the Hospital System continues to be tested. This morning there are 52 icu hospitals across the state at capacity. This as we learn that five individuals who attended an event that was also attended by Governor Ron Desantis tested positive for covid19, poppy. Now, we asked the Governors Office and this and they said that the governor had no indication that they had any contact with the individuals who tested positive for covid19 and also that the governor is tested regularly for the coronavirus and that he has no symptoms at this time. Jim . Rosa flores, hes getting tested. Thanks so much. Ed lavandera is in texas. Those being treated at makeshift medical facilities to help take the pressure off the local hospitals. Ed, tell us how overwhelmed the Hospital System is there because thats a real measure of course not of how far the medical system is spread but how many are getting sick. Right. We talked about the Rio Grande Valley and what a crush of patients the Hospital Systems are experiencing down there and because of that, the Mcallen Convention center has been turned into the makeshift hospital with room for 250 patients. The governor of texas toured the facility yesterday and also announced that a second similar facility will be opened up in the neighboring town as well to continue to alleviate the number of patients who are putting pressure on the hospitals throughout the Rio Grande Valley. Texas reported another high day of coronavirus cases, more than 9,100 cases being reported yesterday. But overall, the trend has started to look a little bit more encouraging over the last seven days. This is the first day we have been over 9,000 cases in i think more than a week or so. Overall, things are starting to trend downward, but it has plateaued at a very high level. Jim and poppy . Yeah. It certainly has. At least we are seeing some of those positive indications. Ed, thank you very much for the reporting. Negotiators will be back at the table today to discuss a new hoped for stimulus package. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says they are making some progress. This is after a Top Democrats and senior members of the administration met for two hours yesterday. Lets go to our congressional reporter, lauren fox. Shes on capitol hill. What does some progress mean . I think i saw the last headlines was nancy pelosi said its 4. 3 trillion. Yeah. One big sign of whos going on behind the scenes they are actually trading proposals at this point. That is significant. They also agreed that Everybody Needs a deal. Heres what house Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday. We all have agreed that we need to have an agreement. And we will have an agreement. But were not going to do it at the expense of americas working families. We are making some progress, we are understanding each other better. And of course the deadline that they set for themselves is the end of this week. Thats just a couple of days when you consider that the senate usually leaves town on thursday afternoons. But there are significant sticking points. Yesterday, what were learning is that the white house offered a few concessions including extending that federal moratorium on evictions through mid december and that republicans offered to give democrats a 400 a week extension of the federal unemployment benefits. Democrats have argued they want it to stay at 600 but that shows a little bit of progress. Look, these negotiations despite the fact that everyone has been meeting for the last week and a half really have gone nowhere. So yesterday was a pretty significant step that theyre moving somewhere. Still a lot of work to do though. Yeah. Why the focus on the post office . There are concerns about deliberately undermining the post office to keep absentee plats from being counted. The Trump Campaign is suing nevada for the mailin voting there, but florida, encouraging it. Whats the difference . Well ask the governor of kentucky next. Tide pods childguard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. To close, twist until it clicks. Tide pods childguard packaging. only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol®. For fast pain relief. For bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. Just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. For 45 days. All right. So try to keep up with this. Overnight the Trump Campaign filed a lawsuit against the state of nevada after the state approved a plan to send absentee ballots to all active voters for the upcoming election. This as the president takes issue with mailin voting except in the home state his own home state of florida. Why . Because in his words, florida has a great republican governor. Joining us to discuss this is Kentucky Governor beshear. Thanks for having me. So the president approves mailin voting in florida and suing to block it in nevada where theres a democratic governor. Is this about seeking the election or here in kentucky we had the second largest turnout in our primary election. We did it through no excuse, absentee ballots. The ability to vote by mail. We did it by having early voting, and our agreement, how we came to that was a bipartisan agreement between a republican secretary of state and myself, democratic governor. These things shouldnt be political. Voting is one of the bedrocks if not the bedrock of our democracy and we need to make it easier, not harder to vote, especially during a Worldwide Health pandemic. I think we showed that through no excuse absentee ballots we can do it safely and we can have a great turnout without fraud. The as you mentioned, republican secretary of state in kentucky, he called the primary elections a nationally recognized success. Did you see evidence of widespread fraud . We did not see any evidence of widespread fraud and its because we did it right. We did it through a secure method. But i think were at the point in time with all of the different tools that we have that we can do this safely and without fraud. And again, it worked. We had more people vote in the primary than all but one primary in past. Why would we move backwards . This is the way were being to vote in the future. Its easy. Well have more people vote, thats good for democracy. What do you say to the secretary of state and other republicans in kentucky who dont want the same availability of mailin balloting in kentucky . Thats currently under discussion. We have gotten our first set of recommendations that includes a significant piece of absentee ballots, and it actually includes a longer period of time for early voting. So now im going to get a formal recommendation from the secretary of state and were going to sit down and work it out and im confident we can come to the agreement that will expand the availability of voting while making sure its safe in the middle of covid. I want as large of a turnout as possible, with everybody being healthy and safe. Yeah. You think thats something that everyone could agree on. I want to talk about covid19. Yesterday you said that there had been 18 new cases new cases including children under age 5. You said something last month and then i want to ask you something about it. I dont want to be a state that the doctor has to look at ten young people and they have ten ventilators and deciding who lives and who dies. The president said this morning that children are basically immune to this. Are you seeing that in kentucky . Well, were seeing a concerning trend in kentucky with more of our kids 18 and under, but more kids 5 and under coming down with the virus. And while kids seem more resilient, while they have significantly fewer negative outcomes there are still negative outcomes. The more kids who get the virus times whatever percentage have that negative outcome means were having kids being put in harms way and i dont just come at this as a governor, i come at this as a dad. I have a 10 and an 11yearold and their safety is so critical. We have to understand that kids are getting this virus. We dont understand all of the long term impacts of it. We look at mortality, but there are other potential long term impacts and we have got to protect our kids. Yeah. To your point, yes, its a smaller percentage than people who are older. I just wonder as you make a decision about reopening schools, do you believe its therefore unsafe to begin with in Person Instruction . When we look at in Person Instruction we have to look at the health of our children and also of our teachers, our administrators. You have people coming from the different counties that there work there, the people that work there, the people who stock the cafeterias. We have a lot of different interactions to think through. So i want to make sure were careful. Do i think theres a path for inPerson Instruction, yes, but you have to get control of the virus first. I recommended that we push back inPerson Instruction in the very least a couple weeks to make sure that we could get ahold of where we are right now. On may 20th you said that every state needs help with budget shortfalls and that states cannot go bankrupt. Is kentucky in danger of possibility going bankrupt without federal help . Kentucky is in danger of having the largest budget cuts in history. Were looking at 1. 1 billion short fall and that would result in the most significant cuts in my lifetime, but as which can go back in our history. It is absolutely essential in the next c. A. R. E. S. Act funding whether its the heroes ability or the heals act they do two things. State and local governments are in the same situation. There must be budget stabilization. In we did it during the Great Recession why would we not do it in the middle of the International Health pandemic where were facing greater difficulty and second, we have to continue to have that additional unemployment help. It is significantly helping our economy here and those two things are going to be the key in how long this recession lasts. I believe we can bounce back, but lets do the smart thing. Okay, great. Just very quickly, kentucky derby, already delayed r. The horses going to run . Well, we know the horses are going to run and we hope it will be an experience that can have some level of fans who are there watching it very closely. Churchill downs wants it to be a safe experience. Theyre watching it very closely too. And were doing to see especially after this week exactly where we are. We have a mask mandate in kentucky. Our folks are masking up. We call it mask up ky and we hope we can get to the place that we can do a lot of what we used to, but it requires all of us to put the mask on. Governor andy beshear, thank you very much. Thank you, jim. Well, now to the devastation in beirut, entire streets wiped out and hundreds of people are still missing this morning after that deadly explosion in the city. The latest on the rescue efforts and what happened, next. How about no no uh uh, no way come on, no no nnnnono only discover has no annual fee on any card. 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As we speak, a huge rescue effort is under way in beirut after that just massive explosion that witnesses say wiped out entire streets. Look at the new drone video. Goodness. Looks like dresden after bombing in world war ii. I mean, just shocking. Hundreds of people are still missing in that rubble there. At least 100 killed. Thousands injured. Officials feel the number of dead sadly will rise dramatically and you can imagine why looking at that. Yeah, its hard to see a city. Jim, you and i both spent time our senior correspondent, ben wedeman has lived there for years and joins us now. Your recounting of this is harrowing. You said its like nothing you ever felt before. Yeah. I have been in lebanon for the civil war, wars with israel. Political assassinations, but what happened yesterday, one massive explosion was something i have never seen before here and nobody else i have spoken with has either. At this point, in addition to the dead and the wounded, the mayor the governor of beirut is saying at least 300,000 people have been made homeless by this explosion. Were not far from the port where the explosion took place. Behind me is the lebanese state electricity company. Almost every window there has been knocked out. And when you walk down this street here, you see cars that have been smashed. Buildings that have simply collapsed and throughout the day, we have seen an incredible effort by hundreds probably thousands throughout beirut, volunteers, young people coming in to help the people who have been displaced, to move their property out. And others are helping just to clean up the streets. Clear out the rubble, and just try to get order in this city that is right now in complete disorder. We have got young people with brooms trying to clean up the street and of course, poppy, jim, there is continued demands on the government to get to the bottom of that explosion yesterday which supposedly was caused by the ignition of 2750 tons of a highly explosive substance that had apparently been in the port for years. Well see what that investigation comes up with. Ben, its a tragedy. I have a very close friend who lives there and she is just devastated. Were so glad youre okay, ben. Thank you very, very much. So Defense Department officials tell cnn theres no indication in the explosion that anything was planned, that there was a planned attack. No indication. Though the president called it that yesterday in a briefing. This was not a some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a seems to be according to them, they would know better than i would, but they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind. Yeah, its not clear what the president s referring to there. Three officials pointed out to cnn that if it had been an attack there would have been an increase of Protection Security for u. S. Assets, personnel, locations, in the region. That hasnt happened. Cnn National Security reporter ryan brown at the pentagon with more. What are officials there telling you . Well, jim, officially the pentagon is choosing not to comment on the president s comments referring everything back to the white house, but defense sources are telling us despite President Trump saying that it was the assessment of his generals that this was an attack, a bomb of some kind, every indication that the u. S. Military has received at this time indicates that it was an accident. That there was not an attack or an explosion. And that matches much more closely with what lebanese officials are saying about what took place with the storage of that explosive material. Multiple defense officials are telling cnn that theres no evidence at this time to indicate that there was any kind of attack, any kind of a bomb. Now of course, they will continue to assess this and its possible that new evidence will emerge. But despite President Trump saying it was the assessment of his generals, that this was an attack or some kind of bomb there doesnt seem to be anyone at the pentagon who agrees with that assessment. Jim and poppy . Ryan brown, thank you very much for that reporting. Arizona governor wants has been pushing for schools to reopen in person in less than two weeks. One superintendent in the state calls that plan a fantasy. Hes here to explain why. Try wayfair. You got this perfect. Youre welcome. I love it. Howd you do all this . Told ya wayfair. Lets talk dining tables. Yes blow it up. Wayfair youve got just what i need young woman yeah, thanks mom mother of course and i love these flowers young woman whispering hey, did you bring the. The condoms . 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Arizonas governor is ramping up his push to try to reopen schools physically in the next two weeks. Governor wants students back by august 17th. He is expected to meet with the president this afternoon. Our next guest is a superintendent in a Small Arizona town that calls the governors plan a, quote, fantasy and he writes this in a very moving washington op ed post. More than a quarter of our students live with their grandparents. These kids could easily catch the virus, spread it and bring it back home. Its not safe. Theres no way it can be safe. If you think anything else, im sorry, but its a fantasy. Kids will get sick or worse. Family members will die. Teachers will die. I am joined on the phone by Jeff Gregorich its about hundred miles east of phoenix. Good morning, superintendent. I appreciate you being with us. Good morning. Glad i could be here. I do not envy your position. Youve been a superintendent in 20 years. This is my choice, but im starting to wish that it wasnt. I dont feel qualified. To give people a sense of what youre going through, when you wrote this you hadnt received for the school, the plexiglas barriers for safety, you guys were cutting up shower curtains to add as protective measures for the students. I understand there is a Board Meeting tonight. Do you think you will open the doors to your school in less than two weeks . Im not going to recommend that we do. Well be losing some funding, but i think it is far more important that we keep the health and safety of our community, our children, our teachers, our staff and that weighs into the equation and im surely going to recommend that we wait until theres more data that supports opening the schools. Is it its up to you, right . Ultimately, youre going to be youre going to have to make a decision. You, yourself, say you dont think youre qualified to make. Its just such an impossible choice. Well, im not a Health Expert and most of our superintendents arent, and thats what makes this really a difficult and frustrating. We dont have any clear data that would support that we can open safely on the 17th. You know, in the foreseeable future, kids are kids can catch the covid. We know that, and they can transfer it to their families and many of our children live with their grandparents and many are being raised by their grandparents. Theres no one else if these children take it home and their grandparents were to pass away. Yeah. Its just too hard and were such a small, remote, rural community. Were close knit and it would be devastating to our families and it already has hit us hard with the loss of mrs. Byrd. Lets show people these images of her because you do bring up one of your beloved teachers of 38 years. Were looking at her fishing and her favorite thing to do and her name is Kimberly Chavez bird lopez. Three of them in the same room over the summer remotely teaching the children and you say they were doing everything right. They were Wearing Masks. They were staying six feet apart and still they contracted covid and this teacher died. Do you think more teachers will die if your School Begins in person . Yeah. Im going to say this, i hope no more teachers die or would have to die, but i feel that if we open schools that there are going to be some teachers that will die from covid and there will be some Instructional Staff and some bus drivers and cafeteria workers. That worries me very much. I wish i didnt feel that way, but having going through what ive lost with kim and they were trained to do everything right. I know. We did sorry to interrupt, we did reach out to the Governors Office of arizona and did get a response from them to specifically your comments and your op ed because the state is now offering a 5 increase in funding per student for opening the doors to schools, really trying to get you to do this and that matters to your district where 90 of your students rely on free or reduced lunch. So many, many are in great economic need heres what the Governors Office says, superintendents have asked for the tools and flexibility to be able to make datainformed decisions that are best for their students and families. The governors plan provides that while ensuring parents have options. The department of Health Services are working diligently for finalizing benchmarks for the safe return of inperson, teacherled instruction. Does the governors guidance to you so far provide everything you need . I just havent seen it. Ive seen nothing that would really make me feel comfortable sending kids back into the classroom at this time, and i have seen some of the efforts and i commend them for trying to come up with some guidance, but i havent seen anything that makes me comfortable with the guidance that ive seen so far from the from the state, i want to say. Okay. We are thinking about you. Good luck with the Board Meeting tonight. Again, as i said. I dont envy your position. Its such a tough one. Good luck, superintendent. Thank you. Of course. Byebye. Jim . We are getting new details from President Trumps closeddoor hearings from the Coronavirus Task force. The president still not grasping the severity of the pandemic and still doesnt have a plan. What happens when a wireless carrier puts its customers in charge . Well, the good news gets shared. And it gets rated 1 for customer satisfaction. But dont just take our word for it. Take theirs. Its your wireless. Your rules. Only with xfinity mobile. Call, click or visit a store today. All right. Its the top of the hour. Good morning, everyone. Im poppy harlow. And im jim sciutto. He still doesnt get it. Those are the words of a source familiar with President Trumps tuesday Oval Office Meeting with the white houses Coronavirus Task force. Those are the pictures there. It was his first meeting with that team since april. The president is still not demonstrating that he has a firm grasp of the severity of this pandemic. We will have more for you on that exclusive reporting in just a moment. Certainly consistent with the Public Comments weve heard from the president. Thats right. Take ea look this right now. In the United States, ten times in the