Transcripts For CNNW State Of The Union With Jake Tapper 20200920

Ill speak with democratic senator Amy Klobuchar and Top White House official marc short next. Plus, staggering toll. The u. S. Nears 200,000 coronavirus deaths. How did this happen, and how much worse will it get . Wearing a mask when you cant physically distance is absolutely critical. White House Coronavirus Task force member Admiral Brett Giroir joins me to discuss, ahead. Hello, im jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is remembering an american icon. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is dead at the age of 87. She was only the second woman appointed to the u. S. Supreme court. She spent her career fighting against discrimination on the basis of sex, becoming a hugely possible feminist figure later in life, affectionately called the notorious rbg. Now in death, her vacancy is already reshaping the president ial race and setting up an epic preelection class between parties on capitol hill, as Many Senate Republicans make it clear that their 2016 call to let the voters, not then president obama, decide who gets to fill an election Years Supreme Court vacancy, was not actually a principle, but rather a sound bite that is no longer operative now that a republican is in the white house. According to npr, ginsburg told her granddaughter just a few days before her death, quote, my most fervent wish is that i will not be replaced until a new president is installed, unquote. But President Trump is wasting no time announcing at a rally saturday night that he intends to nominate a woman as his pick in the coming week. And joining me now, former president bill clinton who appointed ginsburg to the court in 1993. Mr. President , thank you so much for taking the time today to remember thank you. Your friend. I want to play a clip from when you nominated her in 1993. Take a listen. I am proud to nominate for associate justice of the Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Throughout her life, she has repeatedly stood for the individual, the person less well off, the outsider in society, and has given those people greater hope by telling them that they have a place in our legal system. You have said that her 27 years on the court exceeded even your highest expectations when you appointed her. How so . Well, first of all, she was a force for equality for men as well as women, for example. She was consistent and she did it in a way that was levelheaded and on the level and respectful of different opinions and the other judges on the court. She was highly respected because she bent over backwards to work with the other judges when she could. And she stood up and was counted when she couldnt. And of course along the way she became kind of a cultural icon, which surprised even me i think. But she made people believe that she was doing her job and that whether they agreed or disagreed with her opinion, she was completely straight about it at a time when there is a lot of cynicism about things that arent on the level. So i think it meant something to her. She gave a speech a couple years ago to give a speech at my library, and we couldnt have it at the library. We had to move it to the place where we played basketball and hockey. And there were 15,000 people who got in and almost that many who tried to get in and couldnt. You considered several other individuals for the Supreme Court before you picked her. In his memoir, republican senator oren hatch claims credit for suggesting that you consider ginsburg. How did you eventually choose her . Well, first of all, we looked at 40 candidates. And then we got down to five, one of whom has been public, Governor Cuomo didnt want to be on the Supreme Court and didnt want to leave new york. But i thought nonjudges should be considered. And i also considered secretary bavit, the secretary of the interior who would have been a great judge. But we needed him where he was on the front lines of the conservation and environmental movement. I considered one judge i thought was the most brilliant judge on the federal bench who had Health Issues i was concerned about. And Justice Briar who i later was able to appoint to Supreme Court. But i really was interested in ruth ginsburg. And hillary had talked to me a lot about her work because she had been involved in the women lawyers association, the bar association, when we were in arkansas. So, anyway, we sneaked her in there on a sunday night and nobody knew it. I had a conversation of a lifetime with her. And i knew after we talked for ten minutes that i should appoint her. Do you remember anything about that conversation that you can share with us, just why she dazzled you so much . Yeah. Because, first of all, she was disarmingly straightforward. We hadnt been talking but a couple of minutes before i felt like we were just two friends having an honest conversation about american history, the s b constitution, and the law and how it affected real people. I was very, very determined that whoever i put on the court would be on the level and would see the people first and understand the human impact. And she really did. She had this uncanny ability to be very much in the weeds, if you will, of the intellectual legal arguments and yet never lose sight of the human impact of her decisions. She was confirmed 963, almost an unthinkable vote today. She was also very Close Friends with justice antonin scalia, virtually her polar opposite on the bench. Here they are in india riding an event. Yesterday scalias son relayed a story about a friend who saw him giving her roses for her birthday. They said name one 54 case where you got her vote for all these roses that youre giving her. And scalia replied, quote, some things are more important than votes. You, yourself, have become famously close with george h. W. Bush. Do you think this era is gone . Well, i hope not. President george w. Bush and i still run a Leadership Program together, and we talk all the time. I really value our friendship. I value the conversations we have. I think life can become kind of boring if everybody youre around thinks just like you do. And i thought it was funny. I think seeing scalia bonding over a lot of things including opera. Its nice to know that people are people in that they have other concerns. President trump has vowed to nominate a woman this week to fill that slot on the Supreme Court. Whats your reaction . Well, of course its superficially hypocritical, isnt it . Mitch mcconnell wouldnt give president obamas nominee a hearing ten months before the president s election. And that meant that we went a long time with eight judges on the court. This is what they do. They vote for senator mcconnell and President Trump. Their first value is power and theyre trying to fill the court with as many ideological judges as they can. But to be fair, there is a case to be made for the argument mcconnell made that in the middle of a president ial season you should give the voters a say. Thats what he said. When it was ten months away. But when the shoes on the other foot and he wants to judge, were fewer than 50 days away and that argument doesnt cut any mustard. So, its going to further excuse me, its going to further spread cynicism in our system. And, you know, he said he wouldnt do it. Its very interesting. Abraham lincoln and the republicans occasionally still claim had a similar situation. In early october Justice Roger tony died in 1864. And president lincoln wanted to appoint the then secretary of the treasury to the Supreme Court, but he did not do it until after the election. He said it was very close in the election and he shouldnt do it. And senator mcconnell said before he thought the people were entitled to a say. I dont know whats happened to make him stop trusting the American People, but apparently when its to his advantage, the people are not entitled to a say. So it is what it is. Its politics. But i think we should remember that. Mcconnell said what he said. Lindsey graham said it shouldnt happen. Senator grassley said it shouldnt happen. Lets see how he votes. Its a power play, and they think they can do it. The other interesting thing, they can do it because senator mcconnell made an agreement between the republicans and the Democratic Senators to end the filibuster for court of appeal judges. But keep it for Supreme Court judges. And the only reason they had to end it is mcconnell, he voted against everybody on the court of appeals. He didnt want the democrats to have any judges. There was no review. It was just whoever you put up im going to try to beat. But the minute President Trump was elected, he got rid of that agreement. That became history and all of a sudden we couldnt have a debate on a Supreme Court judge. And i think that was too bad because you want somebody who can do what Ruth Bader Ginsburg did, get 96 of the vote. Yeah. I just want to ask you, sir, before we go, democrats are saying that if there is this vote, if republicans do push the Trump Nominee through, that all options are on the table, and theyre even talking about potentially if obviously republicans lose the senate in the white house and do not win back the house, if democrats have control of everything, theyre talking about adding justices to the Supreme Court. What do you think of that idea . Well, the constitution doesnt proscribe a fixed number of judges to the Supreme Court. The last time it was tried, didnt work out so well when roosevelt was president. But i think my view is, first, im not in politics anymore, im going to let somebody else debate that. But, secondly, lets try to do this right now. We are really close to the election. And lets remember the example Abraham Lincoln set. And lets remember the commitments and the comments Mitch Mcconnell made. I think it would be good for senator mcconnell to make him feel better when he gets up in the morning if he proved that he wasnt being a hypocrite at the time and he just stuck with his position. I think all other republicans should be asked to do the same. But you cant keep a democracy if there is one set of rules for one group and another set for everybody else. All right. Former president we need to live under the same set of rules. Former president bill clinton and thats what go ahead, sir. Were honoring Justice Ginsburg today. I think thats the main thing she would say. Lets all live under the same set of rules and do whats fair for everybody. Former president bill clinton, thank you so much. Stay safe and say healthy. Best to your family. Take a listen to Justice Ginsburg explaining when she would be satisfied with the number of women justices on the high court. People ask me sometimes, when do you think it will be enough . Will there be enough women on the court . And my answer is when there are nine. Here in washington, senators are mourning the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg even as they prepare for what will almost assuredly be a nasty political battle over her seat on the court. Joining me now to discuss, minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar. Senator klobuchar, thank you so much for joining us on this morning. Thanks, jake. You said that Justice Ginsburg showed women like me that anything and everything was possible. What impact did ginsburg have on your career . She was an icon, a hero. And you always stand on the shoulders no matter how small her footprint was so huge. Because you saw a woman who literally was told, oh, you shouldnt go to law school. Then she goes and she graduates number one in her class. Oh, when these equal rights cases, she created the principles and the ideas and the theories of the case, they say, well, maybe a man should argue that before the Supreme Court. She says no, im going to do it. She goes on and creates landmark law when it comes to making sure women can go to work and be protected. Then, she gets on the Supreme Court herself, the second woman in the country that is appointed to the Supreme Court. And of course from there its history. She becomes an international icon. And i think for a lot of women, thats amazing too that in your 80s, you can have the name motorious rbg and your own hashtag to the point where my daughter, once we were at an event and there was a picture of the three of us taken together. My daughter was in college and she comes up to me, she goes, mom, its so cool to meet the notorious rbg and i hope you dont mind im putting this on my Facebook Page but im going to cut you out. [ laughter ] i think that is literally what she became. As i heard president clinton talk about how she had exceeded all expectations, i think were at a moment in time where our democracy and the people voting and where we are right now, we have to exceed expectations. And thats why this is so emotional for so many people. Yeah. And i hate to turn to the ugly business of politics. But its right in front of us. And you sit on the Senate Judiciary its not always ugly. Well, im anticipating. And you said on the Judiciary Committee which will be tasked with considering President Trumps nominee, senator majority Mitch Mcconnell said it will receive a vote. Is it fair to say that there really is nothing that democrats can do to stop this . First of all, i put it on my republican colleagues. Because they know whats at stake. People are literally voting in my state right now this weekend. And when you look at history as president clinton just described, the only time was when Abraham Lincoln was president. And she made the wise decision to allow the election to occur and then nominate. Health care is on the line, jake. There is going to be an oral argument on november 10th on the Affordable Care act, literally the decision for hundreds of millions of people about whether or not they will be kicked off their health care if they have a preexisting condition. Environmental rules as people cant even breathe some of the air out on the west coast. Those are on the line. The right to organize, that is on the line. So, it is coinciding with an election. So thats why whatever Mitch Mcconnell does right now, my republican colleagues understand that the voters are voting. And a number of them have already said that the next president , whoever wins, should be able to pick the justice. The people pick the president , the president picks the justice. That was the mcconnell rule and that is the precedent they set. But you dont have a plan other than appealing to the consciences of republican senators, or you dont have the ability to stop it other than i have heard floated the idea that some activists want Democratic Senators to block the government funding bill. Is that something that you would do . Right now, first of all, Ruth Bader Ginsburg just died. Secondly, while Mitch Mcconnell has said what he has said, these people arent beholden to him. Theyre beholden to their own integrity and own moral compasses. Yes, there are all kinds of things that we could look at for strategies, reforms in the future. All of that, yes, i have always said should be considered. But right now we have a number of republican senators that are going to have to look inside and make a decision for themselves, for their states there independently elected about how they are going to handle this. I read her last words. Justice guns buinsburg, my most fervent wish is that i not be replaced until a new president sin stalled. I want to ask you about what you said in 2016. You said the constitution is clear, the senate must consider the president s nominee and then choose whether to vote yes or no. I understand there is a big difference between the seat opening in february and a seat opening up 44 days before the president ial election. But there youre talking about the constitution if the constitution was clear then, is it still clear now . We are in modern history where literally just in the last time a justice was considered after someone died unexpectedly, justice scalia, a new rule was set per our colleagues. And as president clinton said, you cannot have one set of rules for a democratic president and another for the republicans. They set this precedent and they cant mess around and use raw political power right in the middle of an election. And i would say that is a major difference. Because people are voting right now. And people understand whats going on that they care about things like womens rights, that they care about things like being able to keep their health care. And so when my republican colleagues and some of them have already come out and said the right thing because they understand whats at stake here, that they dont want to join in with the president who is lying and lying and lying in terms of how hes going to handle a Supreme Court nomination, literally our democracy is at stake. I think Michelle Obama said it best when she said your life depends on it so you better vote. Well, speaking of that you talked about how the Supreme Court is going to hold arguments on the Affordable Care act november 10th. Even if Justice Roberts votes to uphold obamacare, it would be a 44 tie, and that would mean that the Lower Court Ruling is in place, which would strike down the entire law as unconstitutional. So, if there is a trump justice in there or if there isnt a trump justice in there, doesnt it seem as though obamacare is essentially dead . No. First of all, that case has been discredited and strongly criticized by people all over the spectrum as that case comes to the Supreme Court. Secondly, the justices could do many Different Things and i could take up your entire show with this in terms of how they handle the entire Affordable Care act. So i dont concede anything. But what i do know is the Affordable Care act has helped americans, so many of them have health care when they didnt before. They have the protection that if you have diabetes or if you have alzheimers that you are not going to be kicked off of your health insurance. That is a big deal. That is what is at stake. And i think what you translate here, and i think about the fact that this is Ruth Bader Ginsburgs seat, jake. This is her position. She never gave up. So when you ask me about rules in the future and all these things we can look at for reform that are very worthy to look at, i just look at the fact that she would not concede right now, she didnt concede when everyone told her a man should argue that case. She just kept going. And i think thats what you feel the spirit of all those people showing up at the Supreme Court, the outpouring of support, all the young people that are willing to show up and vote like theyve never before voted. And all the people that are afraid of four more years with this president than they are less safe than they were before he got into office. No. I think what we have going on in this country with 200,000 people dead, i think it is a literal revolution going on. People have had it with this guy. Thats why joe biden is leading in states that no one ever thought that he could win. But hes going to do it. Senator Amy Klobuchar, thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it. With weeks before a hugely consequential election, the president has a new focus, a new supreme Court Justice. Who might he pick . What will be the political consequences, if any . Joining me now the chief of staff to the Vice President marc short. Mr. Short, thanks so much for joining us. Can you give us any idea of a time line here will the president introduce a nominee this week . Does he want a confirmation vote before the election . I think that the president is prepared to make a nomination very soon. Weve had a couple nominations that provide the president a chance to interview a lot of candidates. Hes narrowed his list and he looks forward to fulfilling his obligation as president to make a nomination. As some of your guests have commented already this morning, the reality in history is that theres been 29 vacancies during a president ial Election Year. 29 times president s have put forward a nominee. The president s going to stick with his obligation to do that, he looks forward to making a nominee that i think the American People will be proud of. And its one of the reasons they elected donald trump to be president in 2016 was because he made the Supreme Court an essential part of his candidacy. You heard president clinton say that all this flipflopping by republicans on the issue of nominating a supreme Court Justice during an Election Year will only increase public cynicism. In 2016 then candidate trump was asked if he was okay with president obama nominating a replacement for justice antonin scalia, who passed away. I think its up to Mitch Mcconnell and everybody else to stop it. Its called delay, delay, delay. So the trump position for a democratic president was delay, delay, delay. But for him its urgent to confirm someone now. How do you push back against the impression voters have that there is no principle at stake here, be its just raw power . Its a pretty easy historical precedent. Of those 29 i laid out for you, 19 of those vacancies happened when the Majority Party was the same party of the president. Of those 19, nine out of ten were confirmed before election day, and another eight out of nine after election day in the lame duck period including john marshall. Take the separate scenario in which the party in control in the senate is a Different Party than the president. There are ten such vacancies. Only one out of ten was filled before election day. And you have to go back to the 1880s to find that example under Grover Clevelands presidency. When you have a party in power in the senate whose job it is to advise and consent and confirm the president s nominee, it continually has shown historically that that is the job of the president. And history shows its the president s obligation to make a nomination. When you have a party in a different power in the United States senate, those nominations have not moved know. Thats what leader mcconnell did in 2016. A lot of republicans werent talking about that in 2016. They were talking about the principle of were close to an election, lets let the voters decide. It isnt just President Trump changing his tune. Its virtually every senate republican. Take a listen to the man who is now the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham back in 2016. If there is a republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said lets make the president make that nomination and you can use my words against me and youd be absolutely right. Graham doesnt care anymore. He says hes going to move forward with the president s nominee anyway. I guess the bigger question i have is is there not a risk that this obvious hypocrisy may cost republicans in competitive races their seats being associated with it, might you be putting, say, senator Susan Collins or Senator Cory Gardner at risk . Jake, i reject the notion as hypocrisy. Historical precedent is when your partys in power, and consistently going back to george washington, the party has continued to confirm those nominees. Regarding the politics of this, the people in america elected donald trump in 2016 because he was so transparent and said heres who i would nominate. We still havent seen a list from joe biden. We welcome a list from joe biden who would show the American People heres who i would appoint to the Supreme Court. But as far as the politics of it, i think the American People wanted donald trump to be in a position to make these nominations, and its his obligation to do so. I would love to see a list from joe biden. Id also love to see President Trumps tax returns. Thats clever, jake. But the reality is we know that the president has gone through multiple Financial Disclosures that are more revealing than tax runs. He will continue to fill out those Financial Disclosures. Im glad you think its clever. But lets stick to this issue about ginsburg and the Supreme Court vacancy. Do you want a vote before the election . Is that important to the president . I think that, as you know, Justice Ginsburg was confirmed within 44 days of her domination. Today we sit 44 days out from election. So its certainly possible. But i think that the president s obligation is to make the nomination. According to npr, Justice Ginsburg dictated a message to her granddaughter that said my most fervent wish is that i will not be replaced until a new president is installed, unquote. Did the president ever consider honoring Justice Ginsburgs dying wish . You know, jake, i think that today we as a nation mourn the loss of Justice Ginsburg. Shes certainly a giant upon many shoulders and she blazed a trail for many women in the legal profession. But the decision to nominate does not lie with her. I know as well in the last couple months she gave an interview to npr in which she also counselled that she would oppose any sort of court backing. The reality is that this is the president s obligation to make a nomination and he will do so in the near future. The Supreme Court is poised to hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care act. Thats going to be one week after election day. Even if chief Justice Roberts votes with the three democratic appointed justices, a 44 tie on the court would leave a Lower Court Ruling in place striking down obamacare as unconstitutional. More than 20 million americans could lose their health insurance. There clearly is no replacement plan ready to become law despite promises since last year that one would be released imminently. I guess the question i have is how can the white house push this through even though it will obviously cause harm to millions of americans who will not have insurance, not have protections for preexisting conditions . Because there is no replacement for them. Jake, there would be possibilities to make sure that people with preexisting conditions have those guarantee. The president has stated multiple times he supports protection for people with preexisting conditions. And the reality is that obamacare i think was also on the ballot in 2016 because a lot of americans rejected the notion that they should be forced to purchase something they dont want. This president has helped make more insurance plans available on the Obamacare Exchanges to help make sure those prices stay down. But we reject the notion that people should be compelled to purchase something that they dont want. I think thats foundational to that case. Well, you know, its interesting because you keep talking about the 2016 Election Results as representing what the American People want. And, look, President Trump won according to the rules of the Electoral College, those are the rules we play by. But it doesnt reflect the will of the popular vote because the popular vote Hillary Clinton actually got 3 million more votes. So, i just wonder how you can keep invoking the results as representative of anything other than, you know, a legitimate victory in the Electoral College because it doesnt represent the will of the people according to a majority or at least a plurality want. I also think that the reality is that if this was purely a notion of popular vote, you would have seen Donald Trump Campaign a lot more in states like new york and california. But the reality was its not. So the president was campaigning based upon how do i make sure we get the most electoral votes. Marc short, thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it. I hope youre staying safe and healthy. What made Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg so notorious . Some of the women who knew her best join me ahead. Plus, the u. S. Is on track to hit 200,000 coronavirus deaths very shortly. And experts do not expect to see any slowdown any time soon. A member of the white House Coronavirus Task force will join me next. 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Imminently, 200,000 deaths in the u. S. From the coronavirus. Its an unthinkable and tragic loss of life, and it does not appear that the pace will be slowing any time soon. Joining me now a member of the white House Coronavirus Task force Admiral Brett Giroir. Were now on the cusp of reaching 200,000 coronavirus deaths in the u. S. I want you to take a listen to what President Trump said on march 29th about that number. If we can hold that down as were saying to 100,000, its a horrible number. Maybe even less, but to 100,000 so we have between 100 and 200,000, we all together have done a very good job. Forgetting for a second the bizarreness of the claim that 1 to 200,000 deaths is a good job, given that its the highest number of deaths in the world. Were about to pass this metric. Bill gates said this has been a mismanaged situation in every way. Why . So, thank you for having me on, jake. Look, every death is a tragedy. I am a pediatric icu physician. I have worked with patients who have died and their families every single day. Thats why were working every day to reduce that. Where we are right now, we know so much more than we did early on. From the peaks in early july and late july, the number of cases are down by 41 . The number of people on an icu are down 62 . Number of deaths are down almost 30 . But we have to stay strong and do the things that could decrease the spread. Wearing a mask when we cant physically distance. Avoiding crowds. Hygiene and with smart testing we can flatten the curve and slow the spread. Again, we are working every day. We do have a formula to reduce the deaths, reduce the cases. But we all have to be disciplined and diligent to make sure we obey that every single day. When President Trump holds a rally and there are no masks required and no social distancing, is that the example that youre talking about when you talk about everybody needing to do their part to bring the numbers down . I think we have 40,000 new cases a day. We just hit 200,000 deaths, the largest number of any country in the world. How is this not a failure, and how is President Trump leading us out of it in the right way according to your own words . So, let me just answer the two parts of that question. And thank you for that. Number one, i want people to understand that we do have a number of cases. Its about 35 or 36,000 per day averaged over seven days. That number is reduced by about 41 . And the reason why i want to emphasize that is to make sure that people are empowered to know that they can slow the spread and change the course. They can save lives by doing the things we talk about, wearing a mask. And on the second point, it doesnt matter. Biology is independent of politics. If you cannot physically distance, all the docs, all the Public Health experts, all of us are really unanimous that its important to wear a mask when you can not physically distance, avoid the indoor crowded space, wash your hands, combined with smart testing. And testing is a very important component of this. And thats the way that we reduced the spread. Flatten the curve and reduce mortality. This will not be over until we get a vaccine thats widely available. What about the rallies . Dave matthews isnt touring this year because of the risk to his fans. But President Trump is doing these rallies. The people are not wearing masks. These are super spreader events potentially. So, again, i just want to repeat what i said. Biology is independent of politics. Dont tell me, tell President Trump. We always encourage the wearing of masks because it is a very important its a critical step to prevent the spread. And we want people to understand that this needs to be echoed from the local, from the state, from the public and certainly all of us on the task force want to make sure that people understand that every week we supply governors with very specific recommendations down to a county level of how to slow the spread. And, again, this is one of the most important things we can do. We are very encouraged by a vaccine. We have new treatments that if you do get ill, you are much more likely to have a great outcome. But right now prevention is certainly the most important step in wearing a mask, avoiding crowds, especially indoor spaces very important. President trump said friday, quote, we expect to have enough vaccines for every american by april, unquote. In terms of the time line for a vaccine that is proven to work and be safe, he has been contradicted by his own doctors, the cdc director dr. Redfield said it would come late second quarter, Third Quarter next year. The head of operation warp speed Moncef Slaoui said late 2021. Im so pleased you asked me that because i think theres been a lot of misunderstanding here. And i think everybody is right. But theyre talking about different aspects. In front of the senate from redfield and i said a vaccine that would be available in hundreds of millions of doses would not likely happen until mid 2021. President trump said that some projections according to manufacturing if things go as planned we could have as many as 100 million doses by the end of this year. That is correct. What i want to say and i said in front of the senate and as well as other media, is that for my perspective, even a few million doses early in november or december, if we have 5 or 10 of the population that we can vaccinate, we can get 80 or 90 of the benefit. For example, if we could vaccinate workers in Nursing Homes, we could protect the elderly and the vulnerable from disease, that would make an enormous impact on mortalities. If we could vaccinate our teachers and those with preexisting conditions or those surrounding those people. I think this has been misunderstood. I think dr. Redfields correct. The president is correct in the segment that he spoke about. But what i do want to say is that vaccine as early as possible even in a few million doses will be a godsend in terms of outcomes, hospitalizations, morbidity and death. Well, i think that you and dr. Redfield are correct and Moncef Slaoui are correct. But President Trump said we are essentially there, meaning were essentially there in terms of having a safe efficacious vaccine. And i know that the government is paying for hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines, anticipating that one of them is going to work. But you will agree with me that as of right now, even though there are three in stage three trials, we do not have a safe, efficacious vaccine ready to go, right . The availability of a vaccine depends on one thing only, and that is the evidence and the science. We have to wait till the trials demonstrate that a vaccine is safe and effective. There are all kinds of safeguards to make sure that this is an independent scientificallybased decision, there is an independent data and safety monitoring board. Until that happens you cant even start the process. So right now we do not have a safe and effective vaccine. The evidence and the data will drive that. I cant predict that. It depends on how safe and effective the vaccine is and how many cases of coronavirus are actually in the study population. Purely based on evidence and data. And i just want to assure the American People that when a vaccine is authorized by the fda, it will be based on science and data. If im prioritized, i will be in line, if my granddaughters prioritized, she will be in line. We can have confidence that when that happens, it will be safe and effective. But not before. We have to let the evidence and the data drive it. Lets talk about testing because thats your area. On july 14th you said, quote, we are going to be over a million tests very soon. Thats not even a question. Actually, the average number of coronavirus tests in the last seven days is 778,000 a day, not a million a day. What happened . So, this month we have the availability of about 90 million tests, and about half of those will be point of care. Were ring fencing Nursing Homes. We just purchased 150 million of 15minute tests that are cardbased that were distributing to Nursing Homes and soon to the state. So the availability is there. We want to encourage more testing. Part of this is because the number of people in hospitals are down, the number of cases are actually down from july and august. So, when you start saying one person has it and you Contact Trace eight or ten so the numbers go down, but we do want to encourage more testing. We have sent surge sites, federal surge sites to 19 different cities, primarily focusing on the younger population that could be asymptomatic because we know theyre very important in the spread of this infection. Were going to continue to surmg, were going to continue to support testing. And again every week we send countylevel recommendations to states. We want to work with them to increase that. We do need more testing, particularly in the outbreak areas that we identify on a weekly basis. As a parent i thought that by september we would be up to speed where kids could go back to school and the students and the faculty and the staff and all the support workers could maybe get tested once a week so we know it will be safe for the kids and their teachers to be there. Testing is not up to that level. There are more than 56 million k12 students in the United States. Why are we not there . Why can my kids not get tested . So many kids are suffering because they have to be at home studying remotely. You and your administration know the cost this is bearing on these families. Why do we not have testing for schools . So, two answers to that. Number one, i want to be clear that testing every student every week is not necessary to bring children back to school. And, in fact, almost no state has that in their plan. Its very important if a child gets sick to test them, to contacttrace around that, and to perhaps do some baseline surveillance testing. We do have that kind of testing available. And, again, the bindex now, 150 million that we just purchased, we will start distributing those to states. What schools need to do, the most important thing is, number one, reduce the Community Spread. When we reduce the virus in the community, thats a very important step to getting children back to school. Secondly, the kinds of things weve just been talking about, Children Wear a mask. Theres physical distancing, theres all those things that keep them safe. It is absolutely possible and likely and beneficial to children to have them physically present when we can lower the Community Spread and implement those measures associated with smart testing. And smart testing, again, is not testing every student every week. The sick, the Contact Trace and a baseline of surveillance. Maybe thats 5 or 10 or 15 a week. Were there and working with the states to implement that. Thank you for your time. I want to say before you go thank you, jake. And you wont comment on this, the most powerful person in this country is constantly undermining your message about mask wearing. One of the reasons spread continues is because people are not respecting the words youre saying, words i think are very important. Thank you for being with us today, admiral. I appreciate it. I want to turn back on to the life and legacy of supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Coauthor of the great book notorious rbg. Let me say to all of you, my condolences. As important as she was to so many millions of americans, i know she personally meant something to all three of you. Nina, let me start with you. Your relationship to Justice Ginsburg goes back five decades. It all started with a phone call. Tell us about the phone call and the friendship. My assignment was to cover the Supreme Court, which i knew nothing of it. I started reading this brief which was the first case the Supreme Court held that the state couldnt discriminate against women arbitrarily in its loss, but i didnt really understand that because it involved the 14th amendment, passed after the civil war, when women didnt even have the right to vote. I went to a phone booth in the Supreme Court press room in those days when we had phone booths and i called her up because she was an author of the brief. She was a professor at rutgers and i asked her this question. An hour later i staggered out of that phone booth like a goose primed for foi gras. We met at a conference, we never agreed on what the conference was about but it was boring, so we wont shopping. Thats wonderful. Joan, the Supreme Court is famously secretive. Justices take their privacy seriously, but you had several opportunities to meet with ginsburg year after year where she was alltoo happy to share her time, her thoughts. How unusual was that level of access and why do you think she was always so comfortable candidly speaking her mind. Sometimes it even got her in trouble. It did. You know, i think she she had a message. She was quite generous about her colleagues. I first went to see her when i was writing the biography of Sandra Day Oconnor, the first woman on the court. The thing we dont think of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in these terms, she had a vivid way of speaking and she would tell me anecdote after anecdote of her experiences with justices oconnor and her good friend antonin scalia, who i also wrote about. I think she wanted to bring me the human dimension of these people we might not have seen otherwise. I would have to say, she was very generous about how she thought of her colleagues. She was cheeky in her sense of humor. Not brazen but cheeky. One of the early tales she told me about Justice Oconnor is when Ruth Bader Ginsburg went on in 1993 and then chief rehnquist assigned her a complicated case, and Justice Ginsburg went to Sandra Day Oconnor and said, how can he do this to me . Its so complicated. She said, ruth, you write it, you do it and wait for your next assignment. Justice ginsburg said to me, that was so sandra. She was wonderful to the very end, even when she was so open about President Donald Trump and some other colleagues. She became a liberal pop icon culture, as bill clinton referenced through saturday night live skits and her viral workout videos and the notorious rbg, which you helped popularize. Supreme Court Justices dont typically get that popularity from the public. What did she make of this, given it was so late in life . She liked to say she and the notorious b. I. G. Were both from brooklyn, even in the beginning she had to ask her clerks who arent as notorious. Joan and nina have spoke about how much she saw her work explaining the works of the court and feminism. Notorious rbg was flattering and she enjoyed connecting with younger generations but it was a broader project of helping people understand about what it was the court was doing. When i thought about what young people saw in her, not just young women, but young men, people of all generations, it was who she was and what she stood for. She stood for more than just middle class white women getting jobs. It was a broad vision of gender equality and reproductive freedom, which is unfortunately still unfinished. In her life and in her Juris Prudence as a lawyer, standing for that was something she liked. What impact do you think ginsburg leaves on the institution of the court itself . She really was an institutionalist. And i think that in her fear as was that if she died, which happened, of course, she said on the last days of her life, my fervent wish is that i not be replaced until a new president is installed. By that she meant whoever won the election because she feared for the institution. If there was the kind of firestorm you see unfolding now, and she was very much against Court Packing plans, expanding the number of people on the court, she said nine was the right number, but she foresaw that if there was too much politicaling in the middle of an election, it would have a bound rebound effect and that thats what worried her. And she loved her colleagues. She did everything she knew how to make her interaction with them. You see it in their statements, how personal their statements are after her death. Justice suter said he loved her to pieces. Justice thomas said he couldnt imagine a more a better colleague. And how much she would be missed. And that is what she brought to the court and thats what she wanted to be able to continue. And i think she was very and probably justifiably worried about. Erin, we talked about senator klobuchar and mark short the idea that obamacare hangs in the balance, but roe v. Wade, obviously, does as well. You wrote in new York Magazine this weekend that her passing risks work undone. You also write something i thought was very interesting that ginsburg continued to, quote, critique roe, which permitted abortion rights, she continued to critique it as poorly sweeping until the end. Tell us about that. Justice ginsburgs greatest wish was reproductive freedom be protected in all of its manifestations. She brought a case on behalf of the woman that the state was trying to force to have an abortion. She hoped that would be the case to ensure reproductive freedom. She was a champion of abortion rights. She wanted for womens reproductive freedom to be grounded in equality as opposed to all the different ways the court found it. She also thought the court was not the only leaver for social change. Yes, she was a institutionalist but she wanted all levers to work, including congress, and she was inspired by the Womens Movement that took to the streets. She thought there was all different roles. Her role as a litigator and as a judge, but the fact that people were hitting the streets make her work in the 70s easier. Yes, she did think roe went too far and didnt have the right reasoning but ultimately what she wanted was a world in which all people could pursue her destinies, regardless if they were men or women or if they had a child or wanted them. She had a sense of always pushing and learning. The last time i saw her earlier this year, it had to be it was on a topic of civil procedure and how important it was to fundamental liberty. She typed up a quote from Felix Frankfurter she brought to her interview and she clutched that piece of paper. She said she had been so excited to go look this up again. There was something about her that was still had a school girl youthful enthusiasm about everything. Whether it meant the underpinnings of roe or just her own learning experience. She was always she was always in the game 100 . Thank you. Fareed zakaria starts now. This is gps, the Global Public square. Welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world. Im Fareed Zakaria coming to you live from new york. Today on the show trump and his powerful friends. What is behind his relationships with the likes of putin, kim, xi, and erdogan . The legendary Journalist Bob Woodward on what he learned while reporting his new