Transcripts For CNNW New Day With Alisyn Camerota And John Berman 20201006

210,000 people here. President trumps doctor says mr. Trump is not out of the woods yet. Of course its impossible to know how the president is really doing since neither his doctor nor his staff have been forth come organi coming or transparent. Have the president s lungs been damaged . Does he have pneumonia . And most important to people around him, when did he actually get sick . Why wont they tell us when he was last tested before his thursday night diagnosis . Its not clear that the white house is doing any Contact Tracing after that Amy Coney Barrett reception. We have new information about coronavirus vaccine. The New York Times reports Top White House officials are blocking new safety guidelines that the fda wrote. The fda wants these guidelines in place, but the white house is getting away because of the possibility is might make it more difficult to get a vaccine emergencyuse approval before election day. Also this morning, were just four weeks from election day, and look at this. A brandnew cnn poll which shows the former Vice President joe biden with a 16point lead over donald trump. Joining us now, cnn chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta, dana bash, and david gregory. And, sanjay, i could almost feel the anxiety from you reaching out over the airwaves when the president walked up into the balcony and took his mask off. What was the importance of that Public Health messaging . Well, you know, its really important for the public as were going into the fall that we i think people know how much of an impact masks can have. He coupled that with the idea of saying, look, dont fear the coronavirus. Dont fear covid. Basically, in some ways, signaling this idea that herd immunity is still a good strategy. You know, just let the virus go out there and infect people and dont fear it. It will be okay. I mean, that was sort of the messaging that was coming out. Symbolically dont need the mask, going to walk into a residence with other people around me who are wearing masks, theyre protect meg even though im the one with the coronavirus, theyre not protected from me necessarily and then im walking into the residence without a mask on. So its the basic, you know, if he was isolating in that room, perhaps. But that rooms going to have to be disinfected. Already the white house is a hot bed of viral activity. There were just so many things about that that went exactly the opposite of the way any Public Health person would sort of advise. Not the least of which him leaving the hospital in the first place. He didnt have somebody who went up to him and just said, hey, you know, ive had these conversations with patients where you just say, look, youre not going to like what im about to tell you, but you need to stay. Im worried about you. You should be worried about you. Your familys worried about you. We dont know how the next few days are going to go. You need to stay in the hospital right now. I know its not what you want to hear, but it is the best thing to do. Nobodys telling him this stuff and as a result all these other things are not happening. His health is potentially more in peril and the nations health, the Publics Health is more in peril. So, dana, that was optically dangerous what he did last night in that photo op, and then he sent out this absurd tweet about maybe im immune from coronavirus. I could just pull up the cocktail of treatments that hes on . So if youre immune, would you be on experimental antibody therapy treatment remdesivir, dexamethasone, taking vitamin d, et cetera, et cetera . This is one where its truly head slapping. He wants to project that hes fdr or whatever, fill in the blank of whatever leader, and yet he was taken to the hospital because he was so sick. Theres really no way to explain it other than the fact that he is a propagandist and he is somebody who has been successful his whole life in trying to bend reality to the way that he says that it is. This is a case where he is up against his most his toughest opponent in that, and that is the coronavirus. And theres no way to change that. As you said, he went to the hospital. You put up on the screen all of the drugs that he was he had the benefit and the luxury of being able to take because hes president of the United States, including that experimental treatment which dr. Fauci said last night to chris cuomo, he thinks, didnt have evidence, but thinks that that could have been a big reason why the president felt well enough to leave the hospital and walk up those stairs and stage that photo op that looked a lot more like something you would see in north korea with kim jongun than the United States of america with an elected president of the United States. David gregory, you worked in the white house as a White House Reporter as has dana. Weve seen pictures of people in hazmat suits scrubbing down the public spaces inside the white house. Thats the situation. The white house itself is a coronavirus hot spot. My god, david, look at that picture. Look at this. This is the white house in the United States of america in and this is the building that the president walked into last night without a mask. And he thinks thats strength . He thinks thats strength. He thinks hes the terminator. I mean, thats the bending of the arc in this mythic way, because the cold political reality is that hes up hes losing a campaign against someone who he piller rated joe biden for, quote unquote, spending time in his basement, and he ends up in the hospital with the coronavirus when his handling of the virus is very much issue number one in this campaign. So staying in the hospital had to be a nonstarter. And as sanjay has said over the past 12 to 24 hours to 48 hours, he does have a medical team led by his doctor who seems to be on board with the pr campaign which really hurts. So, yeah, thats the reality that hes, in his political mind, he can only convey strength in an over the top kind of way. As sanjay said, you know, we would all be much better served if the president said, look, im doing okay, im not out of the woods, but i but i can overcome this as other americans can and other americans have not been able to, but the countrys got to function so here are the steps were going to take to keep moving forward consistent with what we have to do. But he doesnt do that. And were in this situation where, you know, sanjay and i were on after dr. Fauci last night who is doing everything he can as the top Infectious Disease specialist in the world to combat this virus. And hes in a position where when hes on television, he has to avoid commenting on this outrageous behavior by the president and try to get people to focus on the need to wear masks at this point because were still spiking cases around 40,000 a day, which is unacceptable. We want to get on with life. Sanjay, the president s doctors and his staff have not been forthcoming with information, as john harwood called it yesterday, comically evasive his doctors have been in some of these press conferences. So what are your questions about the president s health this morning . Well, we still dont know. It president has knew plonpneum not. He has a respiratory infection, one of the big concerns is he would have pneumonia and that would put him in a different risk category in terms of how things might likely progress and what his likelihood of sort of recovery is. When was the last negative test . This is not just political intrigue, this besides sort of figuring out the Contact Tracing, but also again will give some idea of what his clinical course is likely to be going forward. Is he on blood thin centers i me thinners . Theres a bunch of medical questions that needs to be answered. Going back to friday is that these medical press briefings, theyre saying one thing but then theyll throw these other lines in there that are almost telegraphing a larger concern. So even yesterday, for example, theyre saying hes going home, hes doing well, hes not out of the woods. Okay. Well, thats some really important line because that basically means youre driving the car along okay and you have a roadblock up there. You need to turn. You need to make some sort of maneuver. You just cant keep going straight, something has to happen. The other thing is they said were in unchartered territory here, which is true, because the president son a cocktail of meds as you put up on the screen that probably no one or just a few people in the world have had this exact combination of medications. One of them is not even emergencyuse authorized, the monoclonal antibodies has very little data around it. For those reasons along, the doctors were saying hes 74, he has preexisting conditions, were not out of woods, unchartered territory, time go home that. Obviously doesnt make sense. So theyre sort of signaling that theres concern here and heres how the president is going to heres whats going to happen, the president is going to go home. Sanjay, david, dana, please stand by. We have many more questions for you. A new report creating new concerns about politics interfering with a vaccine. Safety guidelines from the fda, the white house is reportedly trying to block. Well explain. Insulin injections can make diabetes complicated. Omnipod delivers insulin through a discreet waterproof pod. To help simplify life. No more daily injections. Its gamechanging. And the wireless controller helps deliver the right amount of insulin. Plus take your insulin anywhere with a small tubeless pod. Covered by most insurance plans. Get started with a benefits check today. Go to omnipod. Com for risk information and instructions for use. Consult your Healthcare Provider before starting on omnipod. Simplify diabetes. Simplify life. Omnipod. This morning, there are signs the coronavirus pandemic in the United States is getting worse. Cases are rising in 22 states, falling in just four. More than concern about the approaching flu season. Back with us, dr. Sanjay gupta, dana bash and david gregory. Sanjay, i want to start with this news overnight in the New York Times that the white house has blocked proposed fda guidelines. Guidelines that the fda want that they have written for how a vaccine would receive emergencyuse approval. Basically the fda wants a twomonth waiting period between the time that participants in a vaccine study receive their last dose. The white house says not doing, we think we know better. What do you see here . Yeah, this is this is sort of been happening now for a while where the fda signaled these guidelines some time ago saying that they wanted to wait at least two months because thats if side effects occur, they usually occur within two months so that was the time period. As you may remember, last month President Trump said he didnt think that they necessarily would approve those. Now thats whats happened. These guidelines have to go through the office of management and budget and thats where they got stalled. We hear that the chief of staff mark meadows has said, look, were not going to approve these. So thats really concerning. And theres a couple things that i was talking to some people overnight about this. Theres a couple things. First of all, it is worth reminding people that this vaccine project has moved really, really fast. This is the moon shot of vaccines in terms of the speed. It will be under a year if it works and the quickest was four years before that. So thats really fast. But the safety protocols are critical to make sure that the public has kfrconfidence and it safe. Its kind of like if theres wa there was a moon shot, its got to be done in january, dont bother with the safety checks, go ahead and do it. Its how quickly they want to move without doing these safety checks. The other thing, we did reporting on this a couple weeks ago, there are safeguards in place. Even though the guidelines may not be adopted by the office of management and budget, the companies themselves may not submit data until the fda until they have that safety data. Then there are other commit these can g tees that can get involved. But it shows this interference coming from the white house on the fda process, which is really unfortunate. I think its part of whats created this crisis of confidence in the vaccine. Dana, its just politics. The president has said that he twan wants it by election day. How better cotelegraph what tul what the goals are here . It doesnt look like its working. If you look at the polls out this morning, joe biden is leading donald trump by 16 points, which is the largest gap that we have seen to date. And so i guess we could conclude that voters for selfpreservation are bigger than politics. They dont want to get something thats not ready. Thats exactly right. It you look deeper in the poll as you did with David Chalian last hour, joe biden is winning across the board except the economy where theyre basically within a margin of error. But on the coronavirus, biden has almost 60 and donald trump has 40 . So, i mean, thats not even close. Now, what donald trump has tried to do in politicizing this vaccine is trying to narrow that gap in a quick way before election day. But, it just doesnt seem feasible at all politically speaking, never mind the fact that, you know, there are people out there, i would say most people out there, who want to be confident that a vaccine that is approved by the fda is safe for them to take. And looking at stories about political people inside the white house trying to speed it along will make it even more frightening for people to say, wait a minute, as sanjay said there are is the fastest weve ever seen a vaccine process work and thats good, the technology is better, the science is better, all sicylinders are on every Pharmaceutical Company in the world. But, if this goes through and it is not safe, i mean, talk about a legacy problem for donald trump. So, its so shortsighted, but that is not surprising, i guess. You know, if you also look at what biden is doing in his remarks today, hes got such a big lead now nationally and in a number of states, states like arizona even, that hes trying to bring the country together. I think youre going to see his message focus more and more on the idea that in the response to the coronavirus we cant be so divided if were going to take real steps forward. Because what the president is doing, its kind of obvious, is continuing to divide the American People on how to respond to the virus, how seriously to take the virus. And its got the Public Health community so frustrated because its standing in the way of some of the gains that we can make. I mean, even this highly scrutinized, appropriately judge barrett ceremony at the white house outside, you know, im told by people who were there that they had a smaller gathering inside with the family without masks, inside before they even came outside. So youre taking. The question. Last night on our air, we had former defense secretary William Cohen who had been a republican senator from maine say there needs to be an intervention. Bob woodward said there needs to be an intervention. My concrete question to you is are you hearing anything from capitol hill from Senior Republicans who say weve got to step in. Weve got to figure out a way to stop this, maybe politically, but maybe for the Public Health of the nation . The short answer is no. It doesnt mean that there isnt deep concern about the nation, about the presidency, about americans and then probably not in this order about, their own political futures. Because, you know, a third of the senate is on the ballot along with the president , never mind the entire house of representatives. And when i say on ballot, thats a month from today, that is election day. But people are voting as we speak. And so, you know, they have theres a lot of fatigue which might sound odd because i dont know what most republicans are tired from since not many of them have spoken up about major issues over the past four years. But the fatigue is in just having to deal with this this guy at the top of the ticket and knowing that their own base back home, that everybody back home actually really still likes him. Now, that base is shrinking, as is evidenced in our poll today. But they are still grappling with the same political kind of problem, the push and pull that they have all along. It doesnt answer the question about why they should not why they havent just putting politics aside and saying, this is not right. But i dont know that we should expect anything to be different now than it was over the past four years. David gregory, dana bash, dr. Sanjay gupta, thank you all very much. Good to talk to you. While the president says hes feeling better after taking a full spectrum of experimental drugs to treat coronavirus. But what about the rest of us . Is there a lesson in his treatment that can help the hundreds of thousands of americans currently fighting the virus . An er doctor on the front lines tells us next. A live bookkeeper is helping customize quickbooks for me. Okay, youre all set up. Thanks that was my business gi, this ones casual. Get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks. Greetings mortal your journey requires liberty mutual. They customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Liberty power wow. That will save me lots of money. Youre insured this games boring. Lets get tacos. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. And sweetie can coloryou just be. Gentle with the pens. Okey. Okey. I know. Gentle. Gentle new projects means new project managers. You need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database so you can start hiring right away. Claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed. Com home. President trump is waking up at the white house this morning after spending three nights at Walter Reed Medical Center battling coronavirus. The president was treated with a range of experimental drugs that few others have access to. So what have we learned from the course of his illness . What options do the rest of us, the millions of americans who are watching this, what do we have . Lets bring in dr. Lorenzo palladino. Hes an associate professor of med zin at soony down state. I want to start with the timing. President trump went to the hospital basically as soon as he was have been told, i think explicitly, do not go to the hospital until basically you cant breathe. We have interviewed family members on new day repeatedly whose loved ones went to the hospital because they were very sick, were turned away, were told to go home, youre not sick enough and they died at home. Is one of the lessons here that we should go to the hospital sooner . Good morning. Thank you for having me. I think that the timing of and putting in context those statements is very important. Going to the hospital in the mid i will of the pandemic could have been dangerous, especially if you werent having symptoms and you wanted to just check if you had covid19. But if youre having the slightest bought of shortness of breath, the earlier we treat you the better. The hospitals now, at least mostly and in new york state i could speak for, its safe and its safe to go to the hospital, as long as youre social distancing and wearing the masks. Going to the hospital now is not the same as going to the hospital in late march or early april. Super helpful. We were told to stay out of the hospital because they were overrun. But now the second that you have any shortness of breath you should get to the hospital because you might be able to survive. Next question that we watched we might be able to glean from President Trumps treatment for the rest of us. Does Monoclonal Antibody therapy hes gotten, i know its not release and available to the public yet. But dr. Fauci said last night that he thinks based on his decades of experience, that might have been what turned it around for President Trump. Is there any way that more of us on compassionate use reasons should be trying that . Yes, i think so. And i agree with that statement. I think that the monoclonal antibodies that are not available to everybody probably did turn it around. President is not the first one to get it. Regeneron recently released data, 275 people they tested it on, it didnt have much side effects. We are getting, however, the general population similar treatment to what trump is getting other than the monoclonal antibodies. Were getting convalescent plasma. Theyre random antibodies less targeted that are made by a survivor and they donate the plasma and we get it. But the targeted antibodies that regeneron is going to have a lot more success. Really interesting and good to know. Next, remdesivir. Most people dont get it on day two of their symptoms, it has to be administered in the hospital. Should, from what youve seen in the emergency room, people be getting it earlier. Does that help turn the illness around . Absolutely. So remdesivir went through a little bit of kraes controverco there was a study done out of china showed there was no benefit to it, no mortality benefit, no ben foefit to decre in symptoms. It could cause liver inflammation and maybe even liver failure. Based on that, many people were hesitant to give it during the pandemic. However, after that a new england journal of medicine study came out that was done here in the United States that showed that there was a benefit. It decreased symptoms from 15 days to 11 days. And there was a decreased viral load its kind of a Monkey Wrench in the machinery for replication. Once you get remdesivir and the virus gets in a cell, its unable to make copies of itself because of it. You want to do that as early as possible. Once its made several copies, probably the damage is done. And thats probably the problem in a lot of the trials. In a lot of trials people got it at seven, ten, or greater days out. And theoretically, if you gave it on day one or two it would probably work better. Yeah. I think thats what happened. Im so im so interested to hear you say that. Now that youre in the emergency room, are you able to give remdesivir earlier to people . You have you changed that since march and april . Weve changed that since march and april. Weve given remdesivir to many of our patients. I want to ask you about i want to pull this up graphic that we have of all of the things that President Trump was given over the past four days. And the right side of the screen that youre about to see are sort of common pharmaceutical things that we can many of us can get over the counter, zinc, vitamin d, famotibine, thats antacid. Should people have those on hand and should people now prophylactically take vitamin d and that pep sid because we know that they might have a better chance of survival . Thats a difficult thing to say because theres not very Good Research. To be honest, theres not very Good Research on the things that are out there, including the things that the president got. As you can see, the convalescent plasma did not pass the im sorry, the Monoclonal Antibody didnt pass the fda yet. So the research is still out, but yet it was given to the president. Vitamin d, zinc, they have theoretical benefits, but i havent seen any studies that showed that they really do work. I dont think theres a downside to taking them and with the lockdown a lot of people are not getting to go outside, so its not a bad idea to get vitamin d if youre not getting much sun from being locked in all the time. Great point. Vitamin d cant hurt and it might be able to help. As long as you dont take too much of it. Okay, fair. Just whatever the stipulated dosage is on the bottle, people should take that every day. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Really appreciate you telling us where we are with what the rest of us could expect. Thank you. John. Want to remember some of the more than 210,000 americans lot of to coronavirus. First grade teacher olga was a veteran of elementary schools. She loved to dance. She did tiktok dances with her 14yearold granddaughter. Family members told the Chicago Sun Times she was a hilarious goof ball. 73yearold rebecca crier was a direct court judge, a survivor the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. She leaves behind a husband of 56 years, three children, and five grandchildren. Former Major League Outfielder Jay Johnstone played 20 scenes for eight teams starting in 1966. He was an elite pinch hitter and one of the pranksters of the era. He once locked Tommy Lasorda in a hotel room. He hit for the dodgers in game four of the 1981 world series that helped them beat the yankees in six games. He was 74 years old. May their memories be a blessing. Well be right back. Were carvana, the company who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100 online. Now weve created a brand new way for you to sell your car. Whether its a year old or a few years old, we want to buy your car. 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Get started with powerful internet and voice for 64. 90 a month, and ask how you can get one free year of amazon busines prime essentials on us. Call or go online today. Comcast business. This morning still so many questions about President Trumps coronavirus battle, just how bad was his condition when he arrived at walter reed. How did he get out of the hospital so fast . John avlon here to sort it out with what we now and what we dont. John. Hey, guys. Look, in the trump era a day say long time in politics, but even by this dizzying stand dard, mine the gap between these two states. Its been a very interesting journey. I learned a lot about covid. I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school. This isnt the lets read the book school. And i get it and i understand it. On sunday it seemed like trump might have learned something, even if it took personal experience to make him relate to more than 210,000 dead americans. Then came monday with trump tweeting, dont be afraid of covid. Dont let it dominate your life. I feel better than did i 20 years ago. Perhaps fortified with chemical courage, courtesy of steroids, trump defied medical norms and returned to the white house. His doctor admitted that hes not entirely out of the woods and that the president is still likely contagious. Make no mistake, the Trump White House is a covid19 hot spot. But theyre not doing Contact Tracing according to their own guidelines. Its far from the pandemic protocol theyve broken. From the beginning, the Trump White House has not been honest with the American People about covid19. Im not talking about trump calling it totally under control and praising chinas response telling bob woodward it was deadly stuff. According to source of the wall street journal, when trump found out an advise her covid, his impulse was obstruction, dont tell anyone. But a handful of white house officials did know about hope hicks diagnosis before trump exposed some 200 of his donors. We dont know when trumps last negative test occurred. His doctor says he dont want to look backward, which seems to be trump speak for telling the truth will get me in trouble. Trump has reportedly received a positive test when he told sean hannity he was still waiting. We were told the president had mild symptoms and in good spirits before he was airlifted to walter reed and put on oxygen. The next day, the doctor tried to put a positive spin on the situation while his chief of staff admitted that his vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning. Trumps reaction to someone telling the truth was furry. Who the f said that according to a source in the wall street journal . Then the president was bolt stered bolstered by a cocktail of drugs. He apparently didnt like the optics, so he decided to leave after three days and filmed a video saying. Maybe im immune, i dont know. Yeah, strongly suggesting he didnt learn so much after all. Promising that vaccines are coming momentarily by trying to overrule new guidelines for safety checks. But this is all more of the same. Donald trump doesnt care about the safety his staff or donors p. Doesnt care about anyone but himself. It doesnt look like hes going to be knocked out of that top spot anytime soon. Thats your react check. If youre taking a cocktail of ten different drugs, experimental drugs and vitamins, does that make you immune . It puts you in equal librium, youre immune before the crash and thats when things get odds. The absurd did ity ity of goe hospital and getting the best care and that made you immune. Developing this morning, a Texas Police Officer arrest and charged with murder in connection with the shooting a bra black man. Weve life in dallas. What do you know, ed . Reporter good morning. Saturday night according to the family of Jonathan Price and their lawyer, price had noticed at a gas station about an hours drive northeast of dallas a man and a woman engaged in a fight, a man striking a woman. Prices family says he intervened to break up that situation and thats when an officer arrived at the scene shortly after price was tased by officer sean lucas and shot. He died later at a hospital. Texas rangers, the state police force that is investigating this shooting, says that the officer attempted to detain price who resisted in a nonthreatening posture and then began walking away. Lee merit, the lawyer for Jonathan Prices family said the entire situation had been resolved before the officer arrived and that price had his arms raised and was trying to explain what was happening. The Texas Rangers in a Statement Last night said that the officers actions were, quote, not objectionably reasonable. Now, one of the things that the Texas Rangers statement that they put out last night detailing what happened does not say why the officer was trying to arrest price, how many times he was shot or where he was shot. So all of this all of these questions still remain out there. But this officer used his taser and then fired shots at Jonathan Price. And, as i said, he later daied n a hospital saturday night. Sean lucas, the wolf city Police Officer involved in the shooting was arrested monday night last night by Texas Rangers police, has been charged with murder and is being held on a 1 million bond. Lee merit, the attorney for the family says Jonathan Prices family is cautiously relieved this morning about this arrest. So many more questions still unanswered how to understand how all of this unfolded. It is a story that is still developing. John and alisyn. Absolutely, ed. We will all stay on this. Thank you very much for the reporting. Joe biden is reacting to the president s coronavirus recovery. Why he says mr. Trump is responsible for this. He said, dont let Covid Control your lives. Tell that to the 205,000 families who lost somebody. 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. It was the best day for stocks since mid summer yesterday as joe biden pulled further ahead in the polls and the president prepared to return to the white house. Cnns chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans joins us with more. Is that what sent the stocks up . As the polls widen the fears fade of a contested election, thats a big part of it, and also wall street is starting to become more comfortable with the notion of a joe biden win and even a blue wave in november. Contrary to the warnings of the president who says democrats will destroy the greatest economy in history that he has built, on twitter monday he wrote this, democrats would shut our economy and jobs down if they won in november, but, alisyn, Goldman Sachs disagrees. A goldman analyst wrote monday democrats gaining unified control of washington raises the possibility of a stimulus package of 2 trillion and long term spending on fewer, climate. They agree it would mean higher corporate taxes but it would mean easily fiscal policies, fewer trade tensions. Jpmorgan told gts clients a potential Biden Victory should not be seen as a negative for markets. What really matters is stimulus. A growing number of wall street analysts dont expect action until next year. The u. S. Is in a jobs crisis down 10. 7 million jobs since february, the latest round of stimulus has been allusive. House speaker nancy pelosi, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke for an hour on the phone monday they did not reach agreement. John, another call is planned for today on stimulus. Christine romans, millions of americans watching and waiting and hopes, maybe in vain. So new this morning, with just four weeks four weeks from today is election day and the message that joe biden were learning will use today is unity. That is what he will deliver when he goes to gettysburg. Significant, why . Gettysburg is in pennsylvania a swing state and it is the battlefield where president lincoln gave his historic beach. A cnn National Poll shows joe biden with a 16point lead. Joining us now cnn political commentator joe lack heart, former White House Press secretary for president clinton karen finney, former senior spokesperson for the clinton campaign. Friends, the poll speaks for itself so i dont want to dwell on that, it is what it is as President Trump might say. Joe, what i want to focus on is what you think the Biden Campaign should do now. We got a taste of it last night with joe biden at a town hall in florida talking about unity, talking about the need to wear masks, and today going to gettysburg to talk about unity. Is that the right message . It is the right message. Biden really only has one job over the last four weeks, which is to make people comfortable. The undecided with him as president. And you do that by drawing a contrast. So thats everything hes trying to do. It doesnt have to be a negative contrast. He doesnt have to say trump is bad because people know that, they see it every day. He can talk about masks, but i think the way he closes this campaign and i think its one of the reasons why they are more positive in their rotation on ads is just making sure that people see that contrast, see that, you know, you can do better in the white house, you dont have to have this chaos, we can have an economic plan, an Education Plan and thats what i think you will hear over the next four weeks. Karen, now that the president is back in the white house and basically declaring himself cured, are all bets off . I mean, is it time for joe biden to put the negative ads that he had pulled back on the air . Is it time for reporters to once again begin poking around in what we now know about President Trumps taxes . I mean, did the four the past four to five days not happen and we are just going back to where we were last week . I think well ramp up back into it. I mean, we still dont as youve been reporting this morning, we really dont know if the president is really out of the woods. I think to what joe said, there is a way to draw a contrast around showing what competent leadership looks like, calling on people to wear masks because it is patriotic, because it saves your life and it saves others lives and the irresponsibility of trumps behavior which we have seen from our poll and others that feeling are feeling and people are feeling divided and theyre feeling chaotic and theyre tired of t ive done a number of focus groups over the last several weeks and you hear it over and over and over again. People are just exhausted. So i think it was a calming voice speaking to that, it is very important. That doesnt mean underneath that you cant start to ramp back up on some of the sharper, shall we say, critiques. You know, its so interesting on masks because mask wearing is good Public Health. It will save lives. So the president s assault on masks, the most important thing is its bad Public Health and people will die if they Pay Attention to him, but, again, its just bad politics. Its not going to help him, and its so clear that it gives joe biden and the campaign a window. Just watch joe biden last night at this town hall. Listen. It was a little disconcerting to look out and see that his whole section no one had masks on when my wife was sitting further down, had a mask on, the people with us had masks on. All the tough guys say im not wearing a mask im not afraid. Be afraid for your husband, wife, son, daughter, neighbor, coworker, thats who youre protecting having this mask on and it should be viewed as a patriotic duty to protect those around you. Like i said, its good Public Health and its just easy politics. Joe, he was talking about the first president ial debate where the trump family proudly, like donald trump did last night, whipped their masks off when they walked into the debate hall. There they are all sitting, flaunting the no masks right there. I do have a question about the debates going forward. The Vice President president ial debate apparently will go on with a plexiglas divider, pump says he still wants to debate next week. Is this a good idea . What should the public responsiy to try to figure this out in a way that keeps everyone healthy . Yeah, listen, i think they need to do a better job than they did in the last debate where it was on the honor system. Debates are important. I personally think they should move the Vice President president ial debate to after the Vice President has reached a quarantine period, even if hes not quarantining. Its really irresponsible of the Vice President , but it appears these debates will go on. You know, another point, john, on the political strategy and good politics, the Trump Campaign has a strategy, they cant turn on a dime after seven months and say, oh, now we understand masks. Thats an admission of defeat. So what hes doing is hes speaking to his base. They are going to come out and vote for him and then they have an effort to suppress the vote and challenge mailin ballots in court. Thats their only path to victory right now and thats why in their minds what donald trump is doing makes some sense. Karen, i know you have strong feelings about the debate, so much so that youve written a letter because we now know it certainly appears that they violated the honor system. Since no one in the trump camp can tell us when he was last tested before he got that positive test, we dont know if it was a day earlier, we dont know if it was a week earlier, but for some reason they dont want to tell the public. So whats your thinking on what should happen now . Well, i think the Debate Commission needs to enforce the rules, as joe just mentioned and as we saw in ohio, they did not do that. You saw a doctor go around and try to offer masks to folks from the Trump Campaign and they refused. That is unacceptable. So myself and a group of other Women Leaders have written a letter to the commission calling on them to take this more seriously. We were pleased obviously that the plexiglas was announced, folks may know that the pence folks strongly opposed that measure, which is ridiculous because we also know that Vice President pence has been at several events where he was exposed to people who have now tested positive in the last couple of weeks and so in addition to having himself submit to some tests and be willing to make those results public, we want to see, again, those rules enforced and we want to make sure that were thinking, you know, again, its not just about Vice President mike pence and kamala harris. What about all the men and women who are working at that debate . What about, you know, your family and the staff who are working at that debate. What about protecting their health and their lives. So were trying to make a strong statement to the commission that theyve got to take this far more seriously than they did the last time. Karen finney, joe lockhart, thank you very much for being with us. New day continues right now. He may not entirely be out of the woods yet, the team and i agree that all our evaluations support the president s safe return home. He writes this tweet, says you dont have to father covid. We have to fear covid, it is a contagious, deadly disease. What is this macho thing im not going to wear a mask . Big deal. Does it hurt you . Be patriotic for gods sake. They live inside a different reality over at the white house because a deadly virus is circulating within the white wing. The 11th day in a hoe of increased hospitalizations week over week. Baseline number of cases per day is higher than i want to see it. Its stuck at 40,000. Announcer this is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world, this is new day