Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20

First lets go to our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta. Jim, the president s North Carolina rally begins very soon. So what more are you learning . Another very important day. Reporter thats right, wolf. President trump is claiming hes done a, quote, good job, great job on the coronavirus, he says, as the number of dead in the u. S. From covid19 has reached approximately 190,000 people. The president s wishes for a vaccine by election, though, just got a dose of reality as dr. Anthony fauci just said, that is unlikely. The president is also doing damage control after revelations that he used crude language to describe fallen u. S. Service members. As it turns out, there is video from 2016 that appears to show mr. Trump describing military commanders as, quote, losers. In the meantime, Trump Supporters you were just showing this picture a few moments ago. Theyre gaths ring in North Carolina right now for a campaign speech. We can show you that video if we have it available to us. There it is. People packed into this event venue down in winstonsalem, North Carolina. As you can see, there is little social distancing and not many masks in sight. With the number of dead from the coronavirus soaring past 190,000 lives lost and the november election just eight weeks away, President Trump is patting himself on the back for his response to the pandemic. Weve done a great job with covid. Weve done a great job with the chinese virus, a great job. Whether its ventilators or whether its vaccines, which youll be seeing very soon, or therapeutics, weve done a great job. Reporter with his campaign burning through cash, the president is toying with the idea of pumping 100 million of his own money into his reelection bid, he says, to combat what he sees as negative covid19 coverage. Mr. Trump tweeted his campaign was forced to spend in order to counter the reporting about the way we handled it. We and are doing a great job. I put it up personally, like i did in the primaries last time. In the 2016 primaries, i put up a lot of money. If i have to, ill do it here. Reporter another shot in the arm, the president is seeking a Coronavirus Vaccine before election day, but one of his top health experts, dr. Anthony fauci, says it may not happen before then. The idea that were going to have a vaccine by november 3rd, how realistic . Its unlikely that well have a definitive answer at that time. More likely by the end of the year. Reporter the president has been bothered by a recent report in the atlantic confirmed by cnn and other news outlets that he referred to u. S. War dead as suckers and losers during a 2018 trip to france. Mr. Trump botched his own cleanup on that story by trashing his own generals at the pentagon. Because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those Wonderful Companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make Everything Else stay happy. Reporter as it turns out, in 2016, thencandidate trump blasted u. S. Military commanders as losers, accusing generals of giving away their battle plans against isis. Whatever happened to the element of surprise . The element of surprise. What a group of losers we have. And now its a very tough battle. Theyre dug in. Its much tougher than they thought. Reporter mr. Trump continues to claim Democrat Joe Biden doesnt have the stamina to serve as president. We have a radical left group going around. These people, theres something wrong with them. There really is. Theres something wrong with them. And joe doesnt have the strength. Reporter but biden is jabbing back, pointing to mr. Trumps slow descent down a ramp at a west point commencement earlier this year. Look at how he steps, and look how i step. Watch how i run up ramps, and he stumbles down ramps, okay . Come on. Reporter the democratic nominee just found an unlikely ally in former trump personal attorney michael cohen, who claims in a new book that the president has made numerous racially offensive remarks. If he asked me if i had known of any country thats run by a black thats not an shole, and i said, well, how about america, to which he gave me the proverbial fyou. Reporter as for the president s speech in North Carolina this evening, a top gop official in that state is calling on the president to wear a mask for the appearance. The president is not likely to do that. He has been mocking joe biden, even reporters for Wearing Masks in recent days. Thats despite the fact that mr. Trump once touted mask use as patriotic. The president just wrapped up an event in florida where there were few masks in sight. As you were just showing that video in winstonsalem, North Carolina, people packed into that venue there, nonsocial distancing, not Wearing Masks tonight. Thats really, really disturbing indeed and potentially very, very dangerous. Jim acosta reporting, thank you. Now to the breaking news on the coronavirus crisis. Our National Correspondent erica hill is joining us. Erica, the u. S. Is nearing another horrible milestone. Reporter yeah, that we are. Were staring down 190,000 deaths in this country, wolf. I also want to update you on some breaking news coming into us here. Were just learning that astrazeneca is pausing its Clinical Trials of its vaccine because of what they say is an unexplained illness in one of the volunteers. So astrazeneca, again, was working on this vaccine with the university of oxford. So they have put these trials on hold at the moment as they review the safety. I should point out too, as our medical unit would tell you, it is not uncommon to pause a clinical trial. They of course need to see what the reason is, see if it is in fact this trial vaccine that could be causing that adverse reaction in a participant in the uk. Obviously well keep a close eye on this wolf. Astrazeneca is one of the nine pharmaceutical Companies Issuing a rare statement where theyre pledging theyll follow the science and not politics as they move forward. Buses, backpacks, masks, back to school in the age of covid. My daughter is thriving to be around other people. Its going to be great to see them. Reporter 16 of the nations Largest School districts start today. Of those, 14, including chicago, will begin the year online. As we said from day one, were going to be guided by what the Public Health numbers tell us. Reporter the first day in hartford, connecticut, postponed after the city was hit with a cyberattack. This was, however, the most extensive and significant attack that the city has been subject to certainly in the last five years. Reporter cases still rising at colleges nationwide. The university of tennessee warning more drastic measures may be needed and calling out fraternities. Fraternity leaders communicating to houses, how to have parties and avoid being caught. Telling Fraternity Members not to get tested. Actively working to avoid isolation and quarantine is reckless, and it will further spread this virus. Reporter West Virginia University Just suspended more than two dozen students for covidrelated violations and moved classes online. Deaths in the u. S. Approaching 190,000. New cases over the past week are Holding Steady in nearly half the states. 15 posting a decline. But among the 11 seeing an increase, the states in red, two former hot spots arizona and florida, where new cases are up 20 in the last week. New york city announcing it will now stop buses from states required to quarantine upon arrival to ensure compliance. The officers will literally be going on the buses. This is so important to keeping us safe. Reporter travelers from 35 states and territories must quarantine for 14 days when arriving in the tristate area. This is a virus that is still among us. It ebbs and flows. Reporter new ads trying to recrew more diverse volunteers for vaccine trials. Someone like you who wants things to go back to normal. Reporter as nine pharmaceutical Companies Working on those vaccines issue a rare joint pledge in the face of mounting political pressure from the president. Were going to have a vaccine very soon, maybe even before a very special date. You know what date im talking about. We will develop our products, our vaccines, using the highest ethical standards and the most scientific processes. Reporter dr. Fauci stressing a vaccine without public trust wont be effective. Weve got to regain the trust of the community about when we Say Something is safe and effective, they can be confident that it is safe and effective. And thats the reason why we have to be very transparent with the data. Reporter the key to controlling this virus, according to a new blog post from 11 directors at the nih, the National Institutes of health, its testing, wolf. They say that more testing needs to be done. Asymptomatic and symptomatic people. Noting that if you think youve been in contact with someone who has the virus, you should be tested. That of course directly contradicts the revised guidance we have from the cdc. But the post also notes that testing and contact traces are just some much measures that can be taken and are essential to safely getting people back to work and to getting kids back to school, wolf. Erica hill reporting for us from new york. Thank you. Joining us now, dr. Zeke emanuel, the former Health Policy adviser to president obama. Hes now the vice provost of global initiatives at the university of pennsylvania and also an adviser to the Joe Biden Covid task force. Dr. Emanuel also just led a team of global experts in proposing what they call an ethical framework for distributing a Coronavirus Vaccine worldwide. Dr. Emanuel, thank you so much for joining us. Were now learning the Coronavirus Vaccine study from the drug Maker Astrazeneca is now on hold due to a suspected serious adverse reaction in a participant over in the United Kingdom at oxford university, which is cooperating in this study. Health officials have warned that Vaccine Development is complicated. Nothing is guaranteed. How concerning is this news to you . Well, it is concerning, and it does tell you that predicting a date by which were going to have results and were going to introduce a vaccine is foolhardy because nature takes its course. And part of nature taking its course are unexpected adverse events that you need to understand and learn about before you can continue to enroll patients in a trial to make sure that its not the Covid Vaccine thats causing this. And similarly, you know, you can only get results when people get exposed to covid and people come down with covid, and you dont know how frequently thats going to happen because a lot depends upon how much covid there is in the community, how exposed people are. And so we just learned that, you know, no one controls the timeline on these Vaccine Developments due to adverse events and exposure to the virus. And so were at the mercy of nature here. So walk us through what happens now in this Astrazeneca Oxford University Clinical trial. What happens now that they put this pause out there . Well, theyre going to investigate whether they think this adverse event is caused by the vaccine that this person got or whether it just happens to be some other illness that they might have got concomitantly. Obviously everyone who has gotten a vaccine will continue to be monitored for getting covid and getting any other side effects, and they wont restart until theyre confident that this is not that this serious adverse event has not been caused by the Covid Vaccine. So thats the determination theyre going to have to make. You know, you can be sure theyre working extremely hard to identify what this person was injected with and whether these are consistent symptoms with getting a vaccine. In your new paper, dr. Emanuel, you note that once a safe and effective vaccine is developed, it will be scarce. What do you recommend to ensure vaccines are fairly distributed around the world . So, wolf, theres two questions. One is distributed fairly among countries, and the other is distributed fairly within the United States. It will be scarce worldwide, and it will be scarce in the United States. We were focused on distributing it among countries. Everyone says it should be fair and equitable, but no one says what that means. One of the things we are clear is it doesnt mean giving to every country to cover 3 of the population of that country. That is not an ethical policy. You send a vaccine where its needed, not the countries where theyve controlled the viral outbreak. So sending a vaccine to, say, taiwan or new zealand probably isnt going to be the best thing for controlling the covid outbreak. We have to look at where the hot spots are. And our first goal is to reduce premature deaths. So we look at where will the vaccine make the biggest difference in reducing premature deaths . And then the second goal is to reduce the Economic Impact unemployment, poverty, education suspension, and where will the vaccine make that biggest impact . And thats how you should distribute the vaccine. And we think its very important to follow this ethical framework. A really, really important study. Thank you so much, dr. Emanuel for doing this work. Lets hope theres a safe and effective vaccine coming forward soon. It is so, so critical. Thanks so much for joining us. Couldnt agree more with you, wolf. We need that vaccine, and we need it soon. But we need is safely. Its got to be safe and effective. Thank you. Just ahead, the New York Times columnist and bestselling author Thomas Friedman is standing by to join us live. We have lots to discuss. Among other things, ill get his reaction to the devastating allegations that President Trump privately called fallen american troops suckers and losers. Hi, im pat and im 75 years old. We live in the mountains so i like to walk. Im really busy in my life; im always doing something. Im not a person thats going to sit too long. In the morning, i wake up and the first thing i do is go to my art studio. A couple came up and handed me a brochure on prevagen. Ive been taking prevagen for about four years. I feel a little bit brighter and my mind just feels sharper. I would recommend it to anyone. It absolutely works. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Tempurpedics mission truly transformative sleep. So, no more tossing and turning. Because only tempurpedics proprietary material adapts and responds to your body so you get deep, uninterrupted sleep. Take advantage of our best offer of the year, with savings up to 500. I kgsz cuss s. Were following multiple breaking stories here in the the situation room, including a lack of social distancing and masks just ahead of President Trumps rally in North Carolina later tonight. Lets talk about whats going on in the campaign and more. Joining us now, Thomas Friedman, the New York Times Foreign Affairs columnist, awardwinning author, including his historic, truly great bestseller on the middle east entitled from beirut to jerusalem. Still selling after all these years. Tom, thanks so much for joining us. Were what, now, just eight weeks, 55 days or so from election day. As we saw in 2016, anything can happen in these final few weeks. What do you expect the remainder of this unprecedented campaign, this campaign season, what do you expect it will hold . You know, wolf, i think what weve learned in the last week or so is that trump has discovered that the issues he wanted to beat on, china, bidens son, you know, ukraine, none of those were working. But i do think he feels that he may be able to make headway particularly with suburban voters and suburban women, who hes lost ground with, on the law and order issue. And i think its too soon to tell, but early polls indicate he hasnt been yet, but i would wait on that. But i think he sees that as the one wedge issue that he can really pound democrats on, and i think what youre going to see is theyre just going to double down on that theme. Democrats you know, your cities are going to be unsafe. Your suburbs will be unsafe if the democrats win. Yeah, i suspect youre right. In the last hour i spoke to the Atlantics Jeffrey Goldberg about his amazing reporting about the president s disparaging remarks about the u. S. Military. As you know, theres been some pressure. For those who are speaking out off the record to now come on the record, attach their names to their comments. I want you to listen to what Jeffrey Goldberg told me in the last hour. Then well discuss. There is some hesitation to go out and become partisan in any way. Theres also a countervailing feeling on the part of some people that this is not a normal situation. I think that theres a lot of internal, lets say, and external pressure on various people to make statements of some sort before the election. So what do you think, tom . Well, you know, jeffs a great reporter, and i certainly trust his reporting, first of all. Secondly, i would say hes absolutely right. You know, o