Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20200817

President trump steps up his attacks on mailin voting. Ill talk about all of this and a lot more with the president s Senior Adviser and soninlaw Jared Kushner. And were just hours away from what will be a truly historic virtual democratic president ial convention that will officially make joe biden its president ial candidate. Lets get some more on the breaking pandemic news first. Cnns nick watt is in los angeles for us. Some pretty surprising, very blunt remarks from dr. Deborah birx. Reporter wolf, it was basically an admission that we did not do lockdown well enough. She says she wishes that we had looked like italy where people werent allowed out of their houses. But she says americans dont react well to that type of prohibition. Comparison of how the two countries are doing. On friday italy reported three deaths from covid19. On friday the u. S. Reported 1,342. A College Party in georgia, cant see any masks. Not a lot of distance. Crowds also snapped outside student bars in alabama. And four covid clusters uncovered this weekend at unc chapel hill where classes resumed one week ago. Unc will now, from wednesday, shift to onlineonly for all undergraduates. Youre going to get cases at colleges. Theres no question about it. The question is whether you can stop it at five cases or have 500 cases. Reporter the death toll in the u. S. Just passed a staggering 170,000. Covid is now the number three cause of death in the u. S. Reporter but k12, florida is mandating schools offer inperson teaching. One principal who already lost three current and former staff to covid is asking parents to keep kids home. The last thing that i want is to have another employee, or even worse, a child to become either seriously ill or possibly experience a fatal case of covid19. Reporter young people are not immune. Infection rates among under 18s Rose Steadily from march through july, says the cdc. Meanwhile, more evidence that minority communities are hardest hit, a study just found that, for example, in ohio, 13 of people are black, but 31. 8 of hospitalized Covid Patients were black. In virginia, less than 10 of people are latin x. But more than 36 of hospitalized Covid Patients were latin x. But in those crucial vaccine trials, only 10 of volunteers are black or latin x. Those people do need to be included in the trials. Historically, though, people of color, black americans have not been included in trials because of these legacies of unethical experimentation and people having very legitimate reasons, distrusting the medical establishment. Reporter and the latest on testing, experts have long said we should be doing 5 million a day. Heres President Trump late april. Were going to be there very soon. Reporter but we have never achieved even onefifth of that 5 million goal. Were probably missing eight out of ten people who are contagious. Reporter and since july, the average number of tests every day is actually falling. Supplies arent being shipped to places that could test. I think its part of a strategy not to count how many people are infected. Reporter but a newly authorized quick and cheap saliva test could be a game changer. We think this can give sameday results in most situations. Reporter now, that test could be crucial for schools and colleges trying to reopen. And that news from unc chapel hill is pretty devastating. Their experiment with at least some inperson teaching lasted just one week. Now, wolf, for undergraduates, they are going online only, remote only from wednesday. Like so many College Campuses across the country. Nick watt reporting for us. Thank you very much. Lets go to the white house right now. Our White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins is joining us. Ill be talking with the president s Senior Adviser Jared Kushner in a few moments. But you can update us on the very latest first. Reporter well, right now, wolf, we are looking at whats going to happen next monday when the postmaster general louis dejoy is going to go for the House Oversight committee for a hearing where democrats say they want to know whats behind these big changes that hes making at the post office, changes that they are questioning the timing of, given the fact that its a pandemic and we are just months out from the election. And the president himself is complaining about the timing of that hearing asking why its going to happen during the Republican Convention instead of during the Democratic Convention this week. A showdown is brewing in washington tonight as House Speaker nancy pelosi is calling back members from recess to block Major Post Office changes that President Trump is defending. And i also want to have a post office that runs without losing billio losing millions and millions of dollars a year. Reporter the changes were put in place by a gop megadonor with no experience at the post office. He wants to, quote, make the post office great again. I have encouraged everybody speed up the mail, not slow the mail. Reporter but democrats want to hear from dejoy himself. Hes agreed to testify next monday shortly after lawmakers return to washington to vote on legislation that would block his new policies for the time being. Its now being 100 undermined by the postmaster general, a political hack appointee of donald trump. Reporter democrats are proposing a bill that would include 25 billion in funding for the Postal Service and require it to keep current delivery standards in place through the end of the year. This is a con game by pelosi and schumer. Reporter dejoy became postmaster in june and cut costs that said will make the post office more financially stable. But eliminating overtime and banning workers to making extra trips has caused delays and backlogs. The Postal Service has also been criticized for plans to remove more than 600 shorting machines in dozens of cities. Im saying that sorting machines between now and the election will not be taken off line. Reporter meanwhile, the president has continued to sow misinformation, tweeting today that dropboxes for mail ballots could cause a, quote, rigged election even though theyve been used for years without widespread problems. President trump gave a shoutout to mike lindell, a booster of his and the ceo of my pillow. When i sleep well, im using his pillow. Reporter lindell recently pitched the president on a botanical extract he claims can treat covid19. There are no Peer Reviewed studies showing so, but lindell told cnn the president was, quote, enthusiastic about the idea, even though the product comes from a toxic plant and hasnt been approved by the fda. Is it something that people are talking about very strongly . Well look at it. Reporter today a new cnn poll of polls shows that 51 of registered voters nationwide back joe biden, while 42 are behind trump. But for a former Trump Administration official, its not even close. The former chief of staff to the department of Homeland Security secretary myles taylor endorsed biden today. For me after two and a half years of that administration was terrifying. We would go in to try to talk to him about a pressing National Security issue, cyber attack, terrorism threat. He wasnt interested in those things. The president wanted to disploit the department of Homeland Security for his own political purposes. Reporter in that video miles taylor also cited an instance where they will on a video with fema during those california wildfires. He said the president told him to cut off assistance because he didnt think the state made up his political base. He said the president wanted to do things that were not only impossible regarding the border. And the president didnt want to be told they were illegal. Miles said he is not a democrat but hes supporting joe biden because he says he believes that he would not make the same mistakes that President Trump has. Kaitlan collins reporting from the white house, thank you very much. So lets get some more on all of this. The assistant Senior Adviser to the president Jared Kushner is joining us. Jared, thank you so much for joining us. I first want to offer our deepest condolences to you and your family for the loss of the president s brother robert. May he rest in peace. Thank you very much, wolf. Its an honor to be with you. Well, thank you for joining us. We have a lot to discuss. Youre involved in all sorts of areas including coronavirus, the president ial election, the middle east, of course. Let me start with what we just heard from dr. Deborah birx, a woman you know well, the White House Coronavirus response coordinator. She now says she wished our lockdown here in the United States had looked like italys lockdown where people essentially werent allowed out of their houses. Do you agree with her . So i dont know the content in which dr. Birx said that. The president put forward 15 days to stop the spread. This was done at the time to make sure we had enough Hospital Capacity and supplies to make sure we didnt end up like italy where there were people dying in gurneys and waiting rooms. President trump made sure that we had enough ventilators, used the defense production act. We now are on track to have over 200,000 ventilators produced this year. And no american who needed a ventilator didnt get a ventilator. I think weve done much better than italy in regards to how we handled this. And right now i think were making great progress on a vaccine. We had the fastest vaccine to go to a phase three trial. We have six candidates that were producing. So hopefully well get to the phase very soon where we have the view oaccine out there and able to clean up the aftermath of what this Global Pandemic has caused not only to america but to the rest of the world. I will just point out, jared, that the United States has been averaging about a thousand deaths a day over these past several weeks. Italy has been averaging about three deaths a day over these past few weeks. Theyre clearly on a much better track than we are. I want to play a clip. This is a prediction you made back in april about the u. S. Recovery. I want you to listen, i want to get your response. Listen to this. I think youll see by june a lot of the country should be back to normal. And the hope is that by july the countrys really rocking again. And federal government rose to the challenge, and this is a Great Success story. So were passed july obviously. More than 170,000 americans are now dead from this pandemic over the past five or six months. Are 170,000 dead americans, would you still report, suggest that this has been a Success Story . Yes. Look, there was a lot of challenges. This has been a Global Pandemic, a lot of unprecedented challenges. The first phase of it people didnt know what to expect. A lot of it was happening in different states. The president was able to rush the supplies that we needed. Now were in the middle phase where were using all the knowledge we have right now to deal with strategically how do we learn from what we had and protect the vulnerable. Right now were rushing resources to the Nursing Homes. There were a lot of Nursing Homes that were left unprotected early on by different governors in different states. Right now were making sure that were doubling and tripling down on the Nursing Homes. If you look at the economy, which is what i was referring to, we were in a position where the entire economy was locked down and President Trump passed the first stimulus. He had a lot of interventions. Our economy contracted by much less than our european counterparts who may have done Different Things in different ways. And what weve been able to do is have a very strong rebound. So, i do think that, again, were getting the vaccine, were making great progress. This pandemic will pass. This is a pandemic that was not the fault of democrats or republicans. It came over from china. It hit us like it hit the rest of the world. Weve done our best. The case fatality rate has dropped tremendously. Weve developed a lot of therapeutics. If you get the virus today, the risk of dying is much less than it was five months ago. Weve continued to operate but were astilling americans to live their lives obviously with some restrictions. The president strongly encouraged people to wear masks, socially distance, wash their hands, practice good hygiene. But we have to keep americas economy going because you dont want to end up on the other side of this with a economy that cant be rebuilt. The president has invoked the defense production act many times. Weve started bringing jobs back from china and other places overseas. Were manufacturing hundreds of millions of masks and all kinds of ppe. Were bringing a lot of the essential drugs back on shore. This has been a big challenge for america. Its been a big challenge for everyone in the world. But President Trumps leadership has definitely brought us to a place where were able to get through it as strongly as possible, given the tremendous challenges we face. A thousand americans dying every day is not a success, right . Well, look, you want to keep that number to be as low as possible. One american dying every day is too much. But if you look at where we were back in april, we had 2,500 americans dying a day. And, again, it was because the virus was spreading out of control. We didnt have a lot of knowledge of who would face this. But if you look at the case fatality rate, obviously its gone down. So the people who are most vulnerable are people who are over 70, people who are in Nursing Homes, people who have comorbidities. Again, we could talk about the virus. I came on today to talk about the president s historic middle east peace deal, which was the first peace deal in the region in the last 26 years. I believe you were at the last one which was with jordan. But at some point im hoping well get a chance to talk about that today. I was there when jordan signed a Peace Agreement. I covered the israeli egyptian Peace Agreement back in 1979 when i was a young reporter. This is the third agreement. Were going to discuss that. But let me get some other news of the day because youre involved in all these issues. As far as mailin voting, the slowdowns at the u. S. Postal service, the House Speaker nancy pelosi describes all of this as a campaign by the president to, quote, im quoting her now, to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters. Youre involved in the president ial campaign on behalf of your fatherinlaw. How do you respond to that . I will say theres no such thing as a slow news day in the trump white house. Well get through all these issues. The president s just been very clear. He wants a Fair Election. I have a friend in new jersey that just got married. His wife has got two ballots, one in her new name, one in her old name. There are things like absentee ballot which have been done for many, many years. But five months before an election or now three months before an election, its really a tough time to change the processes for how we do these things. So the president just wants a Fair Election so that americans can confidence in the election. He feels like hes doing quite well. We are in much better shape than we were in 2016. I will say that after three years last campaign the president was saying im going to do this, im going to do that. He has three years of results, whereas in washington you have a lot of people who have done nothing but provide empty promises for a long time. President trump has solved a lot of the problems. Weve had more problems in this country thanks to this pandemic. But its furtherered our resolve, and were very confident that well be able to bring our economy and our country back to stronger than ever before. Before we get to the middle east, a quick question about politics. The Democratic National conventions starting tonight. A former top official within the Trump Administration miles taylor with the department of Homeland Security, as you heard, has just come out and endorsed joe biden. Hes taken direct aim at the president saying, and im quoting him now, the president was one of the most unfocused and undisciplined Senior Executives i have ever encountered. I came away completely equipped based on firsthand experience that the president was ill equipped and wouldnt become equipped to do his job effectively. And he added whats worse was actively he says the president was doing damage to our National Security. Thats obviously a very damning indictment. So i want to get your reaction. Look, miles was a nice kid. He worked here for a couple of years. But i will say that it makes a lot of sense to me that hes endorsing joe biden when he was working at the department of Homeland Security, no wall was built and the border was wide open. Thats why the president changed up the team there. Again, President Trump unlike politicians demands results, and he put in a new team. I think this week were going to pass 300 miles in terms of border wall. The numbers are down dramatically. Our southern border is more secure than its ever been which means were stopping human smugglers. We are stopping a lot of drugs from coming into the country. If you cant make it, he demands results. Hes a very tough boss. But hes a very focused boss and he demands results and clearly he wasnt up to the task. Lets talk about this historic Peace Agreement between israel and the United Arab Emirates. You were very much involved in helping to put that together. This is really an historic and important step for the region. But where does it leave the palestinians . You really made me work for this one to get to this point. I will say. So let me just talk about the deal for a second. President trump had the first Peace Agreement in the last 26 years between israel and the United Arab Emirates. It was a major breakthrough over the last three years, President Trump has been heavily criticized by a lot of the conventional thinkers for not approaching this file in the way that its traditionally been done. And by doing things differently, he was able to achieve a result that hasnt been achieved before. So, its a tremendous credit to him to american leadership, and obviously brings a lot of hopefulness to the region. To your question on the palestinians, i think the palestinians have an incredible opportunity. Thanks to President Trumps leadership he put out a vision for peace which was 180page document. We laid out a whole economic plan for how you can double their gdp, create a million new jobs and reduce their poverty rate by 50 . Its actually not that hard. Its only 5 million people. We can execute it. I think i spoke with you in my last interview when i was in bahrain when we laid that out. President trump got israel to agree to a palestinian state and is the first president to get israel to agree to a map. What theyve lost is the veto over what happens in the middle east when President Trump put that plan out everyone in the middle east saw that President Trump was actually serious about making peace and he was the first president that earned the trust of israel and was able to get them to offer these concessions to the palestinians that were in writing, that were legitimate, that were very detailed. So, that happened. That showed the rest of the region that israel and President Trump were serious about moving forward, which created the breakthrough for what weve accomplished here today. Look, i feel very badly for the palestinian people. I think theyve been used as pawns in the middle east for a long time, as you know very well. I do hope that their leadership will see the opportunities that can be possible. Theyve lost their veto but they still have their telephone. President trump is a dealmaker. If they pick up the phone, were ready to engage with them. And i do think that we can finalize this issue so that we can bring the middle east forward. Jared, can you assure the palestinian leadership that if they too come back to the table, sit down with the israelis, the United States will support whats called a twostate solution israel and a new state of palestine . Ill do even better for you, wolf. If you go on the internet, you can find the plan that we put out. It was an 180page detailed plan. The problem with politicians is its very easy to posture or use words that have ambiguous meaning. I always find that if you want to get a deal done. And ive been involved in some very successful deals for the administration, whether it be the opec plus oil deal or the usmca trade deal, which was the largest trade deal in the history of the world. Weve laid out 180page deal proposal that anyone could go online. Its translated into arabic and they can read it. And thats exactly where we think the starting point should be for negotiation. Israel has agreed to negotiate on that basis. The palestinian leadership rejected that plan before it even came out before they knew what was in it. Its a twostate solution. There is a map. Its the first time there was ever a map. And we need to resolve this issue. One last point i just want to make is that one of the big significant things about this breakthrough with United Arab Emirates is theres been a myth in the arab world that muslims are not able to pray at the mosque. Its been used for hundreds of years to rile up the populous to say that the mosque is under attack. Under this agreement muslims throughout the world will be able to travel from abu dhabi or tel aviv and be able to pray at the mosque peacefully. This hopefully will leave the israelin Palestinian Conflict based on a lot of bad policy, a couple wars and hopefully we can wrap it up, move it forward so that the region can go and achieve its full potential. Can you assure the palestinians that the Trump Administration will sort a twostate solution, israel and palestine . Yes. Again, if you look at what weve put forward, weve put out our vision. The president has endorsed that. And, again, President Trump has the trust. If you look at the last administration, especially after the terrible iran deal, a lot of americas traditional allies were very alienated. President trump contrary to what people said, he hasnt started wars, hes making peace and been able to regain the trust of what hasnt been our traditional allies. And his strong diplomacy has helped him achieve a breakthrough that politicians have not been able to achieve in decades. So, again, i am very hopeful over the last three years i think i was one of the only optimistic people about what was possible in the middle east. But what im feeling from the last couple days is that there are a lot more people who are optimistic as well. So, im very hopeful that its an exciting time ahead, and this is all really thanks to President Trumps unconventional dealmaking style. But his very unique leadership. Jared kushner, thanks for spending some time with us. Youre always welcome to come back here to our situation room. Thanks very much for joining us. Thanks very much, wolf. An honor to be with you. The breaking news here in the situation room continues next with more on the surprising remarks by dr. Deborah birx saying she wishes the u. S. Lockdown had been like italys where people couldnt leave their homes. And were also just getting excerpts from the speech on Michelle Obama will deliver tonight as the historic virtual Democratic Party Convention Gets Underway just a few hours from now. [ ] looking to repair dry, damaged hair without weighing it down . Try pantene daily moisture renewal conditioner. Its colorsafe formula uses smart conditioners to microtarget damage helping to repair hair without weighing it down. 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Deborah birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator on lockdowns. And what she wished the u. S. Had done. Let me play the clip what she just said. Listen to this. I wish that when we went into lockdown we looked like italy. But when italy locked down, i mean, people werent allowed out of their houses. And they couldnt come out but once every two weeks to buy groceries for one hour. They had to have a certificate that said they were allowed. Americans dont react well to that kind of prohibition. So, sanjay, what do you make of that rather blunt assessment by dr. Birx . Well, you know, if we had done that at that time, even for a few weeks, wolf, wed be in a very, very different position right now. So, shes right. The models have sort of demonstrated that. We saw whats happened in italy, and, frankly, the European Union as a whole in terms of their numbers versus our numbers. So the infection continued to spread. If you go back and look at just how locked down were we in the United States, probably 50 of where italy was. On a more optimistic note weve learned a lot about this virus. We know, for example, that if 95 of the country just simply wore masks at this point, it would start to bend this curb downward and save tens of thousands of lives. Were not anywhere close to where italy was, and were not even doing across the board the more basic things like universal mask wearing, not even in some campuses and schools. The numbers if you compare the numbers in europe and the numbers here in the United States or south korea, for that matter, its really shocking to try to make those comparisons. As you know, sanjay, the university of North Carolina chapel hill this weekend identified four clusters of coronavirus cases on their campus. And they have now Just Announced theyre suspending inperson learning. Do you expect were only going to see much more of these kinds of announcements on College Campuses Going Forward . Yes. We will, wolf. This is a strange time i think as somebody whos just been covering this reporting on it for some time. I think strange for Public Health epidemiologists. What were watching is basically what many can see as a preordained situation. There is a virus that is spreading. There are a thousand time more cases now than when we decided to try and shut things down in this country. So, theres 170,000 people who have died and we say, hey, lets start to open up schools again, College Campuses again. Wolf, it doesnt make any sense. The only thing that i think we dont know is at what point these schools start to shut down again. The virus is still spreading. This is not the time to open up. And i dont know if i sound like a crazy person saying that or not, but that is the truth. So, its just at what point are you willing to accept this at this point and what is the cost that youre willing to pay . More people will become infected. More people will become hospitalized. And more people will die as a result of these decisions. That is the nature of this virus. The virus has been the one constant in all of this. We dont have this under control yet. This is not the time to be opening. We will see whats happened in North Carolina. And there may be some bright spots where well say, hey, look, we went several weeks or several months without infections. But that doesnt mean that the virus has become any less contagious or this is any less of a program. You dont sound like a crazy person to me. The new chemical being discussed as a, quote, potential coronavirus therapeutic that the creator of my pillow says the president is, quote, enthusiastic about. What exactly, if anything, what do we know about this . Wolf, we dont know anything really about this in connection with coronavirus. We do know that this particular plant, the oleander plant can be quite toxic to people. In fact, its been used as a poison. Its what the book white oleander, if anyones ever read that book or seen that movie, thats what its based on, po izonning people. Were talking about potentially toxic substances being used as a therapeutic. Were not talking about the important things in terms of moving us forward here. I would not use this substance. It has not been tested. Theres nothing to suggest that it would cowork and it could ha people especially when it comes to their hearts. Thank you very much, dr. Sanjay gupta, always helping us understand whats going on. Theres more break news coming up here in the situation room. President trump will give his Republican National Convention Acceptance Speech from the white house. 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Com education. More breaking news coming into the situation room. President trump has just made it official he has now publicly confirming he will be accepting the republican president ial nomination for a second term from the white house. He said so in remarks just now out in wisconsin, a key battleground state. Lets dig deeper with our chief political analyst gloria borger. Hes gotten legal clearance for it. And i think this is a president who wants to remind people that he lives in the white house. I do think there is sort of a political problem here for this, which is if you are campaigning as the outsider, even though youre inside the white house as the person who came to washington to bring change and make things better, and then you are giving your speech at the white house, i think is kind of a mixed message. And i remember that his chief of staff mark meadows said i want him to give this speech as far away from the white house as he possibly can. And i think he was right about that. I think there is sort of a note it strikes to the American Public, which is you are not an incumbent for life, you are not president for life. And this is everyones house, democrats and republicans, and perhaps its just not the right place to do it. It is an extraordinary development. But then again, abby, this is a pretty extraordinary season. Absolutely. I think its just one of many things that has been going on in recent months that i think would be unthinkable just a few months ago. The president probably himself wants to do this speech elsewhere. He wants to be in these large rallies as much as he possibly can. But he has been restricted by this virus. And i think that what were going to see with this white house acceptance speech is the president trying to cloak himself in the presidency in the same way that you would see him doing a fox news interview at the Lincoln Memorial or going to Mount Rushmore for the fourth of july. They want to remind the American Public that this is the job that he has. But as gloria says, it is a little bit of a mixed message. And i do think that for President Trump he is going to have to figure out how to not sort of seem as if he is sullying the office. If this is a message thats being done in the west wing in the oval office, youre going to expect that message to also have quite a bit of red meat in it. It is very unusual, wolf, to have that kind of sharply partisan attacks being lobbed from the white house. And that is almost certainly what we will see from President Trump next week. So the optics of that i think are going to be very interesting. And well see how the American People respond. The Democratic Convention this week the Republican Convention next week. Gloria, we just received an excerpt from the former first lady Michelle Obama as a keynote speaker, a major speaker tonight at the start of the convention. Heres a little excerpt that they have just released. And he will govern as someone whos lived a life that the rest of us can recognize. When he was a kid, joes father lost his job. When he was a young senator, joe lost his wife and his baby daughter. And when he was Vice President , he lost his beloved son. So joe knows the anguish of sitting at a table with an empty chair, which is why he gives his time so freely to grieving parents. Joe knows what its like to struggle, which is why he gives his personal phone number to kids overcoming a stutter of their own. His life is a testament to getting back up. And he is going to channel that same grit and passion to pick us all up, to help us heal and guide us forward. So, gloria, what do you think . What does that tell you about the focus of tonight and the next few days . Look, she is an extraordinary character witness for joe biden not only because she knows him personally. Obviously, her husband having served with him for indigent eight years but she knows the personal struggles biden went through particularly when beau died. And what she is talking about is talking about the greatest distinction between joe biden and donald trump, which is the question of empathy. Someone ive spoken to about his empathy or used to work for him said to me its his super power. That is, i think, what Michelle Obama is addressing here. And in terms that people can really understand as they are suffering, as they are losing members of their family, and as they are losing income and Everything Else in the middle of a pandemic. So, i think what they are trying to do is say this is joe biden and he is not what we have right now. Gloria, thank you. Abbi, thanks to you as well. Coming up, the dnc chair tom perez on whats gone into making a Virtual Convention into a real statement for his partys nominee. There you see tom. Well discuss when we come back. Achoo . Do your sneezes turn heads . Try zyrtec. It starts working hard at hour one. And works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Zyrtec muddle no more. She always wanted her smile to shine. Now, she uses a capful of therabreath healthy smile oral rinse to give her the healthy, sparkly smile she always wanted. crowd cheering therabreath, its a better mouthwash. At walmart, target and other fine stores. A busy night shaping up here in washington. We have more breaking news. Cnns just learned the secret Services Code name for the presumptive Vice President ial nominee kamala harris, a Law Enforcement official telling cnn the code name is pioneer. Joining us now the person overseeing the convention that kicks off just hours from now, the Democratic National Committee Chair tom perez. Tom, thanks so much for joining us. And as you and our viewers know, this is perhaps the most Unconventional Convention weve witnessed in our history. How confident are you that your party, the Democratic Party, will be able to generate the same kind of enthusiasm, the same kind of energy weve come to expect from a week as big as this one is for the democratic and it starts with what happened last week. We made history with kamala harris, and that energy was just all over the map. All over the country. And that energy is carrying into this week. This is, as you pointed out, an Unconventional Convention. This is anchored in milwaukee where i currently sit, but it is a convention across america. People will see not only the recognizable figures like Michelle Obama and the clip of which you just showed but they will hear from ordinary americans doing extraordinary things. Give us your stories. We have been planning for this for months. We have an a plus team putting this together. You will hear from remarkable people and the paramedic down in florida who is saving lives. He is a dreamer. We want people to know that this is a convention about everything that we have as a country and party and nation. It is about uniting america. You will see people all over the spectrum united in their support for joe biden and kamala harris. There are certainly a lot of notable speeches this week. Tonight we will had hear from the former first lady, Michelle Obama. We remember her words in 2016 when she said when they go low, we go high. It became a refrain on the campaign trail. I think she will be a character witness for joe biden as gloria pointed out. T the president , the Vice President , the first lady and second lady were not only a team of governance but they grew as friends and had each others backs. There are few people that know joe biden better than Michelle Obama, and i think the nation will see insights about joe bidens character that i think will be inspiring. We want a commander in chief who has empathy and compassion and who understands the struggles of people. And this president is incapable of struggling every day americans. That is why he sits there and does nothing as people run out of Unemployment Insurance and he continues to do away with coverage for people with preexisting conditions. That is what we will see tonight from Michelle Obama. A character reference of empathy, compassion, results, judgment, leadership. That is what it is about. We are also going to hear from the former ohio governor, john kasich, a former president ial candidate. It is pretty unusual, isnt it, that we will be hearing from the republican on the first night of the convention in a big speech . Our party is all about welcoming everyone. This is not simply a convention for democrats. This is a convention for everyone in america that wants a president who is truly inclusive. A president who will fight for everyone. I disagree with the governor on so many issues like the right to form a union and womens reproductive health, but i agree with him wholeheartedly on the issue at hand which is that our democracy is on fire. This president has totally obliterated the guard rails of our democracy and this is a moment for people to put country over party. John kasich is not the only republican who will speak this week. Joe biden practices the politics of a riddition beats subtractio every day of the week. We are a convention about uniting america and we are a convention for everyone. We will have extensive live coverage of the convention which begins later tonight and the Republican Convention next week. Thanks for joining us. Good luck this week. Thank you very much. The postmaster general of the United States agrees to testify before Congress Amid accusations that the Trump Administration is trying to hamstring the u. S. Postal service as President Trump steps up his attacks on mailin voting. 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Learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse Mortgage Loan to cover expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve your portfolio, and so much more. Look, reverse mortgages arent for everyone but i think ive been round long enough to know whats what. Im proud to be part of aag, i trust em, i think you can too. Trust aag for the best reverse mortgage solutions. Call now so you can. Retire better californias economic challenges are deepening. Frontline workers stretched too thin. Our nurses and medical professionals in a battle to save lives. Our schools, in a struggle to safely reopen, needing money for masks and ppe, and to ensure social distancing. And the costs to our economy, to our state budget . Mounting every day. We need to provide revenues now, to solve the problems we know are coming. This is cnn breaking news. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I am wolf blitzer in the situation news. A stunning acknowledgment from the White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator, dr. Deborah birx. She said she wished the United States enacted a stricter lockdown procedure similar to the one in italy where people were not allowed to leave the house without a certificate. Now the death toll stands at 170,000 with 5. 5 million confirmed coronavirus cases. But testing is actually trending downward in at least 15 states despite the urgent need for more testing. Also breaking, the postmaster general of the United States has agreed to testify before the House Oversight committee one week from today as President Trump wraps up his baseless attacks against mailin voting and we are hours