Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20

Airborne transmission, now saying that guidance was posted in error. And were also following the battle over filling the seat of the late u. S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. President trump saying moments ago hed much rather the senate vote on his nominee before the november 3rd election. Were going to talk about all of the breaking news this hour with my oneonone interview with a veteran journalist bob woodward. Well discuss all of these issues live. Thats coming up. First though, more on the breaking pandemic news. Our National Correspondent athena jones is working the story for us from new york. The country is about to mark a truly terrible milestone. Reporter hi, wolf. Thats right, a terrible milestone of 200,000 lives lost to covid19. But were also seeing an uptick in new cases. That highlights what our doctors and experts have been telling us for weeks, months, really, that there is no national strategy. And without one you can tamp down the virus in one state and it pops up in another. So no state is safe because the virus knows no borders. Its like a balloon. You squeeze it in one place and it pops in another. With emay be in for a very apocalyptic fall. Reporter 200,000 lives lost to coronavirus, signs the much feared fall surge in cases is already here. If you look at whats happening around the country right now, theres an unmistakable spike in new infections. Reporter new covid19 cases topping 40,000 a day on average with new daily infections now rising in 28 states, up more than 50 in eight states. Wisconsin, idaho, and south dakota all reporting covid test positivity rates above 16 . Its happening because were forcing schools to reopen in areas of high transmission, forcing colleges to reopen. And we dont have the leadership nationally telling people to wear masks and to social distance and do all the things we need to do. Reporter the startling trend coming as the cdc issues and then removes from its website new guidance showing just how contagious coronavirus is. The agency noting it can spread through the air in tiny droplets or aerosols, not just when someone talks, sneezes or coughs, but even when they simply breathe. Highlighting restaurants, fitness places and classes as risks. Its extremely confusing, and that type of whiplash, especially without an explanation directly from the cdc creates confusion and unfortunately leads to lack of trust in the cdc overall. Reporter meanwhile on the vaccine front, the white houses testing czar brett giroir arguing. Vaccine as early as possible even in a few million doses will be a godsend in terms of outcomes, hospitalizations, morbidity and deaths. Reporter bill gates still warning of a long road ahead even after a vaccine is approved. If the vaccine approvals come by early next year, as i expect, then by next summer, u. S. Will be starting to go back to normal, and by the end of the year, our activities can be fairly normal if were also helping these other countries. At the end of the epidemic best case is probably 2022. Reporter all this as the influential model from the university of washington now lowering its forecast for total u. S. Covid deaths by january 1st to just under 380,000. Down from more than 415,000 last week, citing steeper than expected declines in deaths in several states. But the model still predicts more than 3,000 deaths a day by the end of december and says a universal mask mandate could keep total deaths to around 163,000 by new years day. And i should note that that new forecast is really a range, just like they talk about how many lives could be saved if there was a universal mask mandate. They also show that if current mandates are eased, the number of projected deaths soars to more than 440,000 by january 1st. Thank you very much. Lets go to the white house right now. Our chief White House Correspondent jim acostas standing by. The president spoke about the Supreme Court vacancy just a few moments ago as he was leaving the white house. Update our viewers. Thats right, wolf. President trump just told reporters he would like to see the seat left by the late Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg filled before election day. The president said hes already spoken with some of the contenders on his short list and will continue to do so over the coming days as the president and Senate Republican leaders plot strategy for replacing ginsburg. The u. S. Is on the verge of passing 200,000 deaths even as the u. S. Is leading the world in covid19 deaths, the president is giving his administration a, quote, a plus for his handling of the virus. In a stunning departure from reality, President Trump is giving himself the best possible grade for his handling of the coronavirus, even as the u. S. Death toll has now reached a heartbreaking 200,000 lives lost, still more than any other country. The president is insisting the u. S. Is somehow nearing the end of the pandemic when there is no basis for saying that. In the job itself we take an aplus. Were rounding the corner. With or without a vaccine, they hate it when i say that, but thats the way it is. Were rounding the corner on the pandemic and weve done a phenomenal job, not just a good job. Reporter the president is increasingly isolated in his own echo chamber when it comes to the virus, with advisers telling the public covid19 is under control. The usa is in much better position thankfully. Weve regained control of the virus. Both the cases and the fatalities. Reporter but thats not true. Economic adviser larry kudlow said something in february. We have contained this, i wont say air tight but pretty close to air tight. Reporter Democrat Joe Biden is trying to convince voters its time for a new president to crush the virus. Trumpianiced. The virus was too big for him. He just wasnt up to it. He froze. Reporter with 43 days until the election, the president is hoping to galvanize conservatives. Id rather have it before the election. Reporter mr. Trump is dismissing ginsburgs dying wish that her seat be filled not until the end of the 2020 election. Reporter democratic congressman adam schiff fired back, mr. President , this is low, even for you. Sources tell cnn the top two favorites for the open seat appear to be judges Amy Coney Barrett and barbara lagoa. Lagoa would give mr. Trump the chance to place a latino on the high court. But the issue puts republicans in a tight spot. Now some of those same lawmakers face accusations of hypocrisy. I want you to use my words against me. 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 let the next president make the nomination. And you can use my words against me and youd be absolutely right. Reporter democratic Vice President ial nominee Kamala Harris argues the solution is to wait. Whoevers elected to be making a decision about who sits on the United States Supreme Court, period. Reporter besides abortion rights, a new more conservative Supreme Court could also strike down obamacare, even though the president has yet to produce his own Health Care Plan. I do want to say we are going to be introducing a tremendous Health Care Plan hopefully prior to the end of the month. Its just about completed now. Reporter now selecting a new supreme Court Justice before the election could be risky for the president. A gop source close to the process said some aides to the president and some republican lawmakers worry that ramming through a new justice could backfire with voters costing the party both the white house and the senate at the same time as this source put it, as much as Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell is fixated on the Supreme Court, he cares about his majority in the senate much more than that. Wolf . Stakes clearly are enormous right now. Jim acosta at the white house, thank you very much. Lets discuss all of this with the journalist bob woodward, his new book about the Trump Presidency is entitled rage, a very important bombshell book and a true bestseller already. I want to get to coronavirus first, which is so awful. The death toll now about to reach 200,000 americans in only seven months. President trump gives himself an aplus for his response. You had this exchange with him back in july. Let me play it. So, what grade do you give yourself on the virus for the last six, seven months . Other than the public relations, which is impossible because its a fake media, fake. Theyre fake. I know you disagree. Yeah, i do. Other than the fact that ive been able to so whats the grade, sir . I give ourselves an a. But the grade is incomplete, and ill tell you why. If we come up with the vaccines and therapeutics, then i give myself an aplus. Now, bob, nearly 60,000 americans have died between that interview you had and today. But he still gives himself an aplus. In fact, more people have died in the United States over these past seven months than any other country in the world. So what is he talking about . Well, quite frankly, wolf, its embarrassing. Its so sad. Anyone who has touched this, anyone who had the responsibility, and he had the largest responsibility in our country, as i discovered in my reporting for the book. It was january 28th. Let me take you to that moment. His National Security adviser Robert Obrien said to him something absolutely stunning. The virus is going to be the biggest National Security threat to your presidency. The deputy pottinger backed him up. He had been a reporter in china for seven years during the 2003 sars epidemic. And developed sources and he had gone back to his sources as the White House Deputy National Security adviser, and he had the best medical sources possible. I happen to know who one of them is. And it was laid out to the president that the situation with the virus was a coming pandemic. It was going to be like the 1918 spanish flu pandemic. 675,000 people died in that pandemic. In the United States. Millions more died overseas. In the United States, yeah. 50 Million People, all the details were laid out to the president. He understood, he asked questions. Pottinger told all of this to tony fauci, the expert on this. As i report in the book, fauci thought that pottinger was being extreme and was not really credible on this. And then when the pandemic exploded in march, i quote fauci saying, oh, my god, matt was right. So, this is the president sits in this unique position of getting topsecret National Security Intelligence Briefings and briefings from the doctors separately. Hes the only person who has the whole picture. Its very clear from what he told me, he understood it. We played the tape of this conversation. And for him to say two months ago that he gets an a or an aplus. And then now hes saying he gets an aplus, that is so tragic. That is a failure on his part to exercise the two pillars of responsibility a president has, first to protect the people. He told me, thats the job of the president. Number two, to tell the truth to the people. He failed on that. It is one of the most it is going to, in history, be one of the moments and episodes where the presidency failed. And he goes further. Because in your last interview with the president , and he was speaking on the record and you taped those conversations. The last interview you did with him in august, he said, and im quoting now, nothing more could have been done. Did you get any insight into why the president believes that nothing more, a lot more couldve been done . We know hes laser focusing right now on a vaccine. Hes dismissing some of the resources that have been around all these months wearing a mask, testing, social distancing. How can he say nothing more could have been done . Well, what is very clear to me, and it was in march when he told me, i always play it down, i always play it down because i dont want to create a panic. The saddest part of this, wolf, is that he does not understand the people he governs. If you tell the American People the truth, as Franklin Roosevelt did, say, two days after pearl harbor, one of his famous fireside chats, you should play it on the air because it is mind blowing because roosevelt said all the news is bad, im telling you the worst, you, the American People, and i know you will not lose heart. I know you realize that this is a moment where our very existence as a country is in doubt. This is in december 1941. And we know what the American People did. And roosevelt led us to victory in that war in so many ways. Trump thinks that somehow people the American People are going to panic. I think its just the opposite. And we saw even in 9 11 in this century when george w. Bush stood up and said, weve been hit, were going to hit them back, the American Public rallied around him, the congress did. It was one of the glorious moments in american history. Glorious moment by being truthful. After the centers for Disease Control and prevention updated its guidance on friday to acknowledge airborne transmission of the coronavirus, all of a sudden it backtracked today, saying that that had been posted in error. But heres what the president told you more than seven months ago. Let me play the exchange. And so what was president xi saying yesterday . We were talking mostly about the virus. I think hes going to have it in good shape, but its a very tricky situation. It goes through air, bob. Thats always tougher than the touch. The touch you dont have to touch things, but the air, you just breathe the air and thats how its passed. And so thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. Its also more deadly than even your strenuous flus. People dont realize we lose 25,000, 30 thousand people a year here. Who would ever think that . This is more deadly. This is 5 versus 1 and less than 1 . This is deadly stuff. So, are you concerned, bob, by the messaging or perhaps, shall i say, the lack of messaging coming out of the cdc right now . This is extraordinary. They say one thing on friday and then all of a sudden they say the opposite. Again, who knows whats happening. But it has been a constant theme in all of this that airborne transmission is the problem with this virus. Ive talked to some of the leading experts in this country, including dr. Fauci. And it is why robert redfield, who heads the cdc this week, testified that its the mask thats more important than some sort of vaccine. So, airborne transmission is the issue again. Last week, trump was trying to meddle with what dr. Redfield said. I know dr. Redfield. This is a man whos devoted his life to medicine, to protecting the country. His organization is responsible to determine the causes of these Health Threats in our country, and hes done talked to anyone over decades, a magnificent job. And then the president comes out and says i talked to redfield and he was confused, he didnt know what he was talking about. Unfortunately, as people know and people who know redfield, said thats absurd. Redfield was under oath and talking and he held the mask up and said this is something this is, in a sense, your path out of this pandemic. And here the president calls and says dr. Redfield was confused. It was totally extraordinary for the president of the United States to publicly rebuke the director of the centers for Disease Control and prevention as he did with dr. Redfield. A few days later he publicly rebuked christopher wray, the fbi director for suggesting that russia is directly trying to interfere in the 2020 president ial election. The president rebuked him as well. Were going to get to that. But on the coronavirus, bob, youve been reporting on President Trump from the start of this pandemic. Now as we head into the fall, cases once again seem to be heading in the wrong direction. Based on what youve seen, what youve heard in reporting for your amazing book, what is your biggest fear for this fall and winter . That the train is moving. And as the doctors have said, dr. Fauci and others, said, look, we are going to collide with, and theres going to be a convergence with the regular flu. And so were going to have more and more cases, the hospitals could be clogged, and this is the real fact here that is so embarrassing to our country, so sad for our country. We have a president who will not even say lets everyone wear a mask. He still says its optional, oh, it would be a nice thing to do. Suppose youre somebody, wolf, out there who average person and you have kids. Should i send them to school . Can i go to the Grocery Store . What are the rules . And we have a president running around as he told me, he said i always downplayed the virus. And then last week hes saying he upplayed it. I dont know what that word is. I get the idea. Its not in the scrabble dictionary. And so s and so is he downplaying . Is he upplaying . First he said its a political hit job. Then on fox news he was asked, is the book accurate . And trump said, oh, its okay, its fine. And then he starts running around saying, oh, i said some great things in this book. Thats because i let him have his say 20 of the book are quotes from him. He allowed me, to his credit, to my good fortune, to interview him repeatedly. He wo