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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But what the Democrats want, they want, they're slow rolling it. All they're really interested in is bailout money for radical left governors and radial left mayors like in Portland and places that are so badly run, Chicago, New York City. You see what's going on over there. Bailout cities and states who have been poorly run and spent a fortune doing it. They want a trillion dollars and we are really not interested in that. OK. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go! UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on, guys. TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you, Jim, very much. Thank you. TRUMP: Thank you. BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right. I want to bring in our experts to talk about this but just a quick fact-check on what the president said about Hydroxychloroquine because he was not accurate at all there, touting a study that's been discredited. Touting a doctor who has touted studies not randomized or controlled. So just do not take what he said as any sort of medical advice because it's very contrary to what experts overwhelmingly say. I want to bring in Jim Acosta, who is at the White House. Jim, you were there at that event with the president. JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I was. And we tried to ask him about why there's so many members of the Coronavirus Task Force now contradicting him on almost a regular basis now when it comes to Hydroxychloroquine or just a widespread nature of the coronavirus here in the U.S. Dr. Deborah Birx was on with Dana Bash yesterday with "STATE OF THE UNION," talking about this. Essentially, saying that the reason why the virus is spreading so quickly around the country is because it is now seeped into both urban and rural areas, that essentially can't escape it. And I tried to pin the president on that and, as you saw, Brianna, he retreats to some of the same talking points. And we should note Admiral Giroir, who is on the task force, was on one of the Sunday talk shows yesterday questioning the effectiveness of the Hydroxychloroquine, a drug that the president has touted time and time again, how the president is citing studies that have been discredited by very senior and respected members of the public health community. But this, I think, all comes out of and stems from the president, for the first time, really taking aim at Dr. Birx who, who up until just over the weekend, had really been sort of a team player, not really questioning the president's statements publicly. That seemed to change over the weekend. And I think that question about why there are members of the task force contradicting him -- it's not just Dr. Fauci anymore. You heard the president talking about Dr. Fauci. He tends to treat Dr. Fauci as a punching bag from time to time. And not just Dr. Fauci contradicting the president anymore. It's other members of the task force. And I think, it shows, Brianna, that some of the members of this task force are thinking of themselves. You know, we can't just stand idly by and let the president put bad information out there to the American people. And I think that is why you're seeing some of these other members of the task force contradicting him. I tried to ask the president about that. You also heard the president make some news about TikTok, saying if the very popular social media platform with teenagers and so on is not sold to Microsoft or some other acceptable company by September 15th that he is going to pull the plug on the social media platform in the U.S. But as you know, Brianna -- you cover this as much as I do -- the president makes threats but doesn't always follow through them on -- Brianna? KEILAR: Yes, that was interesting. He said they better buy basically the whole thing and not 30 percent, Microsoft or another company, he said. All right. You said he uses Dr. Fauci as a punching bag. He did that again and also misrepresenting the things that Dr. Fauci has said. But he also trying to start with some good news there about vaccines and therapeutics. So on that, I want to bring Dr. Paul Offit, who is the director of the Vacation Center. He's a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, as well. Doctor, if you can speak to that, he said good news coming on therapeutics, which we have heard good news on that, good news coming on vaccines. DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR OF THE VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER & PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: Well, We don't know that yet. You have to give credit to the administration for one thing. We only had the strain that causes this infection COVID-19 in January. And now I really do think by the middle of next year, maybe a year and a half, we can have a vaccine, which to some extent is shown to be safe and effective. What the administration that's been done right is that they've basically taken the risk out of it for pharmaceutical companies. The pharmaceutical companies would never have mass produced a vaccine without first showing that it worked and is safe. That's what this administration had done. That's great. And what they should do is not blow it at the end, which is to say we can't let the phase three trials finish up and show they're effective at some level before we release them. Because if we do that and release them before they're ready and before we know enough to say that they're, at some level, safe and effective, then that will shake the fragile vaccine confidence in this country. KEILAR: Doctor, I look forward to the day I don't have to do a fact- check again on Hydroxychloroquine. But unfortunately, today is not that day. Because the president touting it again. He said that it has tremendous support with doctors but is politically toxic because people don't want him to be right about it. He pointed out that he's used it himself, which is odd because, of course, it is not a prophylactic. It's not recommended for treating COVID or for being a prophylactic for COVID. Fact-check his allegations there that this is something that's really good for treating coronavirus. OFFIT: It's perfectly reasonable to raise the question: Could this particular drug treat COVID-19? It's an answerable question and it's answered in a scientific venue. The way you answer it is you take people who are similarly ill with this virus and either treat half with Hydroxychloroquine and then don't treat the other half and see what happens. It is the scientific method. You have had three studies to show you're not better off with that drug than didn't receive it and, frankly, you were worse off because you were likely to get cardiac toxicities, meaning arrhythmias. I can only imagine that President Trump either doesn't understand the scientific method or he has disdain for it. It is the scientific method that brought us into the Age of Darkness into the Age of Enlightenment. He shouldn't want us to go back to the Age of Darkness so quickly. KEILAR: And to that point, look, this is a new virus. Everyone is searching for answers. And it's evolving as we get it. But one of the studies, and this is the study that they will point to, which is the Henry Ford study. It was observational. And it also treated patients with steroids, which we know is an effective treatment for many patients when it comes to coronavirus. And he also highlighted a doctor from Yale, who we now know has been touting studies, including one study that's discredited it, and others not randomized or controlled. Why is it important to not focus on -- you know, what sounds great, a doctor of Yale, but read the fine print, it is not. OFFIT: Yes. The beauty of science is it doesn't matter what you believe. You have to -- doesn't matter what Donald Trump says or I say. The only thing that matters is the data. And you do an observation study, and you introduce bias. The only way to know if a drug works is to randomly assign it to a group and another and make sure they're alike in terms of illness and see what happens. It never is of value to say this person thinks this, this person thinks that. Just do the study and then the data will tell you whether it works or doesn't work. KEILAR: Yes. Doctor, thank you so much. Your expertise is so needed and appreciated. Back to you, Jim Acosta, at the White House. The president also made news, tell us, calling for someone to be fired. Tell us about this. ACOSTA: Yes. This is an issue that he's been harping on over time. It didn't just come up today. But the head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the president said, is making too much money. The president was going around the room, before he took our questions, talking to employees of the Tennessee Valley Authority who are complaining that they are being replaced by foreign workers. And the president, again and again, railed against the head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, saying that he makes $8 million a year and so on, and threatened in the remarks, during these remarks, if the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority does not replace this CEO, that he will replace the board. And it was during these remarks, that the chief of staff, Mark Meadows, for the White House, came into the room, handed the president a note card. And the president said he read it and claimed that it said something to the effect of a message coming from the TVA CEO saying that they're going to try to rectify the problems that have been brought up by the White House. So the president is calling for the ouster of the Tennessee Valley Authority. It is another example of the president trying to throw his weight around inside the federal bureaucracy. But in this case, and in east Tennessee, other areas where there are TVA workers, there isn't a whole lot of sympathy for the head of the Tennessee Valley Authority. And one thing other thing we should point out, this event got politicized toward the very end. There was a woman in the room who, at one point, referred to former Vice President Joe Biden as "Slow Biden." She appeared to be there for the TVA event. And the president picked up on that and went after the former vice president. So this was another one of those examples, Brianna, where an official White House event gets politicized, turned into a campaign event on the taxpayers' dime -- Brianna? KEILAR: Who was the guest of the president who said that? ACOSTA: You know, I need to look this up in my notes. KEILAR: Yes. ACOSTA: I just came out of the pool spray. But it is a representative from an organization who does not want to see outsourcing of U.S. workers in the U.S. It's in my pool notes and I'll see if I can find it for you and send it to you. Brianna, this happened at the very end. Sarah Blackwell, who works with Protect U.S. Workers, made this remark at the end. She described herself as a nationalist. And there was a bit of that vibe in the room as well, where the president tapping into some of the sentiment that he likes to tap into from time to time, talking about foreign workers replacing jobs, taking the U.S. jobs of U.S. workers -- Brianna? KEILAR: Jim, sorry. I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I was just curious. ACOSTA: No problem. KEILAR: I know you just rolled out of this pool event. Thank you, Jim Acosta, from the White House. ACOSTA: No problem. You've got it. Sure. KEILAR: If you travel to a hotspot, you assume you're infected. That is the new warning as we look at the map of the latest outbreaks. Plus, an investigation under way after dozens gather without masks at a party for first responders. And the daughter of a Republican congressman infected with COVID says her father ignored medical advice.

Trump Holds Press Conference; Dr. Paul Offit Discusses Trump Saying Good News On Therapeutics, Vaccines, Trump Again Touting Hydroxychloroquine; Trump Calls For Firing Of Head Of Tennessee Valley Authority; Birx: U.S. In "New Phase" Of Pandemic, More Widespread Cases

Trump hält Pressekonferenz ab; Dr. Paul Offit erörtert, dass Trump gute Nachrichten über Therapeutika und Impfstoffe verkündet; Trump wirbt erneut für Hydroxychloroquin; Trump fordert die Entlassung des Leiters der Tennessee Valley Authority; Birx: USA in \"neuer Phase\" der Pandemie, mehr weit verbreitete Fälle

特朗普举行新闻发布会；保罗·奥菲特博士谈论关于特朗普称在治疗方法和疫苗上传来好消息、特朗普再次兜售羟氯喹；特朗普要求解雇田纳西流域管理局局长；比尔克斯：美国处于大流行的“新阶段”，更多的病例蔓延。

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. enters a new phase fighting coronavirus. Cases are more spread across the country, but the number of new cases is finally trending down. BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And, Isaias now expected to become a hurricane later today. The storm set to make a mess on the entire east coast this week. We'll take you live along the Florida coast. ROMANS: Yes, hurricane season in the middle of a pandemic. Good morning, this is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. Hi, Boris. SANCHEZ: Hi, Christine. I'm Boris Sanchez in for Laura Jarrett. A pleasure to see you this week, Christine. ROMANS: Nice to see you, Boris. All right, let's talk about this. America and the opportunity -- another opportunity, perhaps, to slow the pandemic. The biggest question, will citizens and the government get it right this time? New cases down or steady across most of the country. The two-week average is down about eight percent. Cases only rising in a handful of states, many where the numbers were already low. And the number of Americans in hospital beds, that number is now trending lower. But a big part of this is numbers heading down in states that desperately needed to turn a corner. COVID-related deaths, very much a lagging indicator, are still up in 30 states and the CDC is now forecasting 173,000 deaths by August 22nd. That's 1,000 deaths per day for almost three weeks. White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, says the fight against the pandemic has entered a new phase. DR. DEBORAH BIRX, RESPONSE COORDINATOR, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: I think the federal government reset about five to six weeks ago when we saw this starting to happen across the south. This epidemic, right now, is different and it's wide -- it's more widespread and it's both rural and urban. We've gone to very specific state and local city-by-city, county-by-county showing out which counties and which cities are under a particular threat and what mitigation has to be done. SANCHEZ: Look, by any measure, it was a very rough July. The U.S. saw nearly two million new coronavirus cases. California now above 500,000 with Florida, as you can see, not far behind. Dr. Birx says Americans traveling this summer need to be mindful and if you choose to vacation in a hotspot, you need to assume that you're infected. Another member of the task force who oversees testing says the easiest way to stop the virus and keep the economy open is simply to wear a mask. ADM. BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT AND HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: We have to have like 85 or 90 percent of individuals wearing a mask and avoiding crowds. That essentially gives you the same outcome as a complete shutdown. And why do I say that? Well, theoretically, we can go through the models but look at Arizona, look at Florida, Texas, Louisiana. These measures are being implemented and that changes it. ROMANS: But not every state is following guidelines. South Dakota, one of 11 states now adding cases, still plans to host the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally. That's a quarter of a million people expected. Trouble for schools as they reopen, especially in Indiana. Students at Elwood Junior-Senior High now have to go remote after staff members there tested positive for COVID-19. And one student at Greenfield Central Junior High tested positive on the very first day of school. Other students who came in close contact were notified but the building will remain open. SANCHEZ: And at this hour, Tropical Storm Isaias is surging toward the east coast. It is expected to become a hurricane later today. It is packing punishing winds and a storm surge that could make for a very challenging week. A hurricane watch is in effect for parts of the Carolina coast, with tropical storm warnings and watches from Florida all the way to Long Island. Here's meteorologist Pedram Javaheri. Pedram, do we have a timetable now on when this might make landfall? PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, within about 12 to 18 hours. Sometime later tonight -- this evening into tonight is where the best possibility is for this landfall to occur somewhere along the border of South and North Carolina. It could be a hurricane category one. That's, in fact, the latest update, as you noted there, from the National Hurricane Center, saying this has the potential to strengthen a little bit more, and it really doesn't take much. It currently sits at a strong tropical storm. It only needs about four miles per hour more in wind speed --sustained wind speed -- to push it up to category one. And it looks like it will get there as it moves over the warm waters of the Gulfstream. But here we go -- this is the timing. We think, again, 10:00-11:00 p.m. on approach just north of Charleston. Winds would be sustained around, say, 75 to 80 miles per hour. And then beyond this landfall through the Carolinas, it really picks up its forward progression and speed. And you'll notice by Tuesday evening it is pushing right through portions of New York with 40 to 60 mile per hour winds possible. It would potentially still be a tropical storm as it works its way across parts of New England and then quickly loses tropical characteristics before it moves into the Canadian Maritimes. But we know with those winds of anywhere from, say, 55 to about 65 and 70 miles per hour, this is certainly going to leave some power outages along portions of the east coast. And, in fact, the power outage forecast kind of highlights the areas in orange and red. Those are the widespread areas of coverage where outages are expected right along the immediate coast -- much of the state of New Jersey and certainly parts of New York. That includes areas around New York City where power outages could be very much a probability there within the next 24 to 36 hours. But notice the storm surge also a big story -- as much as two to four feet about what is normal high tide. And Monday is the astronomical high tide for the entire month because today is a full moon. And, of course, you take a look across Charleston, an area very much prone to flooding, high tide occurs at around 9:00 p.m. That will be a little over six feet there. In Wilmington, around 10:30 p.m., at about five feet. So an additional two to four feet storm surge added to the top of this number here really could bring water into parts of these communities. And we know, again, Charleston well-known for seeing flooding and this tropical system certainly not going to make much of a difference when it comes to bringing in another round of water into this region. SANCHEZ: Yes. If you know that area, Pedram, as you noted, just about any storm poses a threat of flooding, so this is something that could potentially be serious. Pedram Javaheri, thanks so much. ROMANS: All right. This storm poses a twin threat with the pandemic that changes the emergency response. Let's go live now to Daytona Beach, Florida and bring in CNN's Natasha Chen. Good morning, Natasha. NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. We are just getting a little bit of moisture now compared to 30 minutes ago when I last spoke with you, but there were some squalls that we experienced overnight. As you've been discussing, the storm has been passing us -- just behind us, offshore, and is making its way slowly northward to the Carolinas. But the people here have been very prepared for this storm as well as the entire hurricane season, given that we are in the middle of a pandemic. There have been county testing sites that temporarily closed for a few days -- they're expected to reopen soon -- because of this storm, even though some private testing sites have remained open. And we talked to the Emergency Management director about the fact that they're going to have more shelters on standby because each of the shelters will have reduced capacity when they're giving families more space to socially distance. And when people go into shelters they will have to wear masks. They will have to go through temperature checks. Luckily, they didn't have to use the shelters much. They opened some Sunday morning but then closed them back down in the afternoon when not a whole lot of people showed up. Here's a bit of the conversation I had with the Emergency Management director standing in a war room that is typically filled with people. JIM JUDGE, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR, VOLUSIA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC PROTECTION: We're looking at the evacuations and the transportation, and then solving the problems that are going to come up. Because now, we've got to get on a computer, get on a phone to be able to get ahold of people to do those things -- when I can walk across the room and solve that problem immediately. It may take a little bit longer. CHEN: And he also said that he had consulted with his counterparts in Corpus Christie, Texas to figure out how they handled an earlier storm in this season and also during the pandemic. So people are definitely preparing for this and consulting with others who have gone through his experience. But it's something that they're prepared for in the coming months as well because hurricane season is far from over, Christine. ROMANS: Far from over and a pandemic still here. All right, thanks so much, Natasha Chen in Daytona Beach. About 25 million Americans lost a key lifeline. That extra $600 a week in enhanced unemployment benefits expired last week. Some Republicans argue the money is a disincentive for people to go back to work. Some people, especially the retail industry, were actually earning more in their wages there. Neel Kashkari is the president of the Minneapolis Fed. He said no, that is not the case right now. NEEL KASHKARI, PRESIDENT, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF MINNEAPOLIS: Not right now. Not when 20 million people are out of work relative to February. There's just so many fewer jobs than there are workers available. At some point, it will be an issue. But right now, it's simply not a factor in the macroeconomy that we have in the U.S. because we have so many millions of Americans out of work. ROMANS: Yes, at some point it could be an issue, but not now. Look, in normal times we debate this -- whether jobless benefits keep some people -- some people on the sidelines instead of working. These are not normal times. Over this summer, one-third of the labor market has filed for unemployment benefits. The problem is a lack of jobs to go back to until the virus is contained. Economists at Bank of America say taking away that extra money amounts to $18 billion every week out of the pockets of jobless people and therefore, out of the economy. Now, that includes money to pay rent. Programs to stop evictions have either expired or run out of money. As many as 23 million renters are at risk of losing their homes by the fall, Boris. SANCHEZ: A terrible situation. ROMANS: It really is. SANCHEZ: Yes. So, his nomination for a senior role at the Pentagon fails, but the president managed to get him a top job anyway. Don't go anywhere. EARLY START continues after a quick break.

New Coronavirus Cases Level Off But Death Rate Is High Across The U.S.; Isaias Forecast To Become A Hurricane Again Today

Neue Coronavirus-Fälle haben sich abgeschwächt, aber die Sterblichkeitsrate ist in den USA hoch; Isaias wird heute wieder zum Hurrikan

新的冠状病毒病例趋于稳定，但全美的死亡率很高；预测今天伊萨亚斯将再次成为飓风

BERMAN: A dire new warning from one of the top members of the White House coronavirus task force. BIRX: We are in a new phase. And that's why I really wanted to make it clear to the American people. It's why we started putting out governor reports, directly to the health officials and the governors, in every single state. Because we could see that each thing had to be tailored. This epidemic right now is different, and it's wide -- it's more widespread. And it's both rural and urban. BERMAN: Joining us now, William Haseltine. He's the chair and president of Access International, Health International, author of "A Family Guide to COVID." Professor, thanks so much for being with us. Dr. Deborah Birx in this interview with Dana over the weekend said we're in a new phase of this pandemic and said that the administration pivoted about five or six weeks ago. They adjusted to this new phase. Well, if that's true, given where we are today and what we're seeing, what does it say about the quality of the new plan that they took five or six weeks ago? WILLIAM HASELTINE, AUTHOR, "A FAMILY GUIDE TO COVID": Well, regardless of what plans people have made, this epidemic is now out of control. And it's out of control mostly because of our own behavior. People have not taken the consistent warnings of our health officials seriously. They are gathering in private and in public places, without adequate protection. They're ignoring the advice. And the virus doesn't care what people would like. It does what it can do and takes advantage of our behavior. These viruses evolved over a long period of time to be adapted to the way we behave. If we congregate, they will spread. HILL: If we congregate. So Dr. Birx also saying, it's not the super spreading individuals, but these super spreading events. We hear that from Dr. Birx. And then we heard Admiral Giroir saying, if everybody just wears a mask and social distances, we're not going to have to worry about another lockdown. There is a slight gap in those two responses that we're hearing from both of these officials on the task force. What really needs to be done at this point, because to John's point, I'm not sure what the reset was five to six weeks ago. HASELTINE: You have to do more than just wear masks and keep social distance. You have to minimize your contact with as many people as possible. And if you do have to work, you have to assure that the workplace is safe and you can work safely of at a distance and protected, while you work. Those are the two most important things that you can do, in addition to wearing masks and keeping your 6-foot distance. Just don't meet many people. Meet as few people as you can. It's not that complicated, but it is hard to do psychologically. It's hard to do sociologically, and it's extremely hard to do for young people who have a biological necessity to get together. BERMAN: I was listening really carefully and closely to the interview with Dr. Birx, and it really did seem as if her level of concern had amped up substantially over the last few weeks. And some of the things she was suggesting were more severe or stricter than we've heard before. For instance, Professor, she said that people should consider wearing masks at home. Now, she said, that's if you live with someone who's older or vulnerable, or who has a co-morbidity. Still, that was the first time I ever heard her say quite so publicly, consider wearing masks at home. What do you make of that? HASELTINE: Well, it is clear that one of the major ways this virus is transmitted is in family groups. If one member of the family gets infected, the others can be infected, and we can now trace that very accurately. We can see that, in fact, young children are efficient infectors of an entire family. That's not a surprise, because we all know that's true for cold viruses. And we always have to remember, this is a cold virus with a very bad consequence. But it is, at essence, everything that we know about colds, we know about this virus. Young kids may not get so sick, but they give it to the adults, and one adult will give it to another. So family and small-unit transmission is a major factor here. And you've got to be careful within families, as well as in -- outside the -- outside the house. HILL: As we look at some of the numbers from July, the U.S. Added almost 2 million cases in July. But the average for deaths, too, that number really stood out to me. At the beginning of the month, it was about 500 a day, on average. At the end of the month, 1,000 a day on average. And we know that deaths lag at least two to four weeks. Moving forward, what are we looking at? HASELTINE: Well, we're looking at an enormous crisis that's out of control. And I think what you're hearing in the voices of our leading public health officials is extreme worry that they don't see an end in sight to this. That is the issue that they're looking at. And no matter how fast we may get a vaccine, it's not going to be in time to stop some really devastating events in terms of rising number of deaths. I'd like to make another point. And that is, we count the dead, but we don't count the wounded. Every day, every week that goes by, we understand the long-term consequences of those who are infected, even the asymptomatic. There's now evidence that people who are asymptomatic, even though they don't know they've been infected, have their total activity degraded. Either you're an elite athlete and you've been asymptomatic, your performance is degraded, or you're a young person and you can't do the kind of work you did before. That's minor compared to the 20 percent of people who are sick who are going to have heart disease, lung disease, and cognitive dysfunction for the rest of their life. BERMAN: Professor -- HASELTINE: These are serious -- BERMAN: It is very serious. And thank you for bringing that up. I know you watch vaccine development and track the timing very carefully, and you have for your whole career. "The New York Times" has an article this morning about voices raising concern that the administration might put a political deadline or speed up the process for political reasons. And there's a quote and it has to do with Jared Kushner, obviously, the president's son-in-law. It says, "Jared Kushner, who is helping steer the re-election campaign from the White House, is a regular participant in meetings of a board formed to oversee the vaccine effort. They ask regularly about October, a date that hangs over the effort. Trump campaign advisers privately call a pre-election vaccine, quote, 'the holy grail'." What concerns do you have about the politicization of this? HASELTINE: Well, I've been concerned about this from the very beginning, not only in the United States, but elsewhere. And we've actually seen that come to pass. We've seen the Chinese approve a vaccine for their military and civil servants. And it cannot have been quality tested for safety or efficacy. We've seen the same thing now in Russia. And I think that there is no reason to suspect that that same political pressure is being brought to bear on every aspect of vaccine development. I haven't worked in vaccines for many, many years, as have many people in the same business that I'm in. And it will not be possible to assure the safety of a vaccine by the end of this year. All you have to do is listen to the CEO of Merck, Ken Tracer, who's been very specific about the fact that it cannot be done this year. Yes, we can have a vaccine that has some efficacy and has some safety profile, but it is not going to stop this epidemic in time for the election. BERMAN: Professor Haseltine, we always appreciate your insight. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. HASELTINE: You're welcome. Thank you. BERMAN: All right. Talks set to resume a little bit later today between the White House and Congress over extending economic relief for millions of Americans, Americans who have been depending on these expanded unemployment benefits. They have expired. Is there any chance they'll see this money again soon?

NYT: Scientists Worry About Political Influence Over Vaccine Project

NYT: Wissenschaftler sorgen sich um politischen Einfluss auf das Impfstoffprojekt

纽约时报：科学家担心政治对疫苗项目的影响

BERMAN: New questions this morning about Major League Baseball's 2020 season after at least two St. Louis Cardinals players tested positive for coronavirus. St. Louis is now the second team dealing with an outbreak in a season that's barely a week old. Joining me now is Zachary Binney. He's an epidemiologist who specializes in sports. Professor, thanks so much for being with us. We know about two Cardinals so far. I know there's some other testing we're waiting to hear back from. But how concerned should we be, now what we've seen with the Marlins and now the Cardinals? How concerned should we be that baseball just doesn't have this under control? ZACHARY BINNEY, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF QUANTITATIVE THEORY, OXFORD COLLEGE AT EMORY UNIVERSITY: Yes, so it's a little confusing exactly what's happening on the Cardinals, but I think we have enough information from various reports to conclude that they have a big, ongoing outbreak and that you have to assume that anybody in their traveling party could be infected. And so they really shouldn't be playing right now, which is what you're seeing. In terms of how concerned we should be, I mean we've seen two large outbreaks now on the Marlins and the Cardinals. So, you know, one could be a fluke, but two is a pattern. So you'd have to be worried that this could happen again and again. Major League Baseball is currently investigating what exactly happened on the Marlins to lead to such a big outbreak. And, you know, they're going to try to figure out if that's something that can be fixed moving forward to avoid continued outbreaks or not. And we're just going to have to see. But I am worried because Major League Baseball is the first real big league that tried to come back outside of a bubble. We've seen several leagues, the National Women's Soccer League, Major League Soccer, the NBA, WNBA and NHL, all come back successfully in bubbles. We've seen non-bubble plans work in other countries where the virus is more out of control. But when you try to come back outside of a bubble here with people living at home with their families, in their communities, contacting people who may be viral cases, you see it leaking in and causing outbreaks, I'm sorry to say. BERMAN: Yes, other countries, soccer in Europe, for instance, they did go back and play with no bubbles. But the big difference there was that the cases overall in the community were way lower. So when baseball is trying to do it here, it's a completely different situation. Now bubble versus non-bubble. Obviously a lot of basketball and hockey fans out there watching those sports right now, they are in a bubble. That seems a lot safer to you? BINNEY: Yes, based on the pattern that we've seen so far, bubble plans seem to be working here. Non-bubble plans work OK in Europe and Asia. But non-bubble plans, when you try to run them here, lead to, as we've seen in Major League Baseball, large outbreaks on the Marlins and the Cardinals and maybe more to come. We'll have to see. And also, in Major League Soccer, just before teams entered the bubble, you saw large outbreaks on Dallas and Nashville when players were living at home with their families. And if you're living in a community with a lot of viral cases, odds are you're going to get some cases leaking into the league. And then if you're not very careful and spending a lot of time indoors together in, say, hotels, clubhouses, dugouts, we've seen that the virus can move through quite rapidly. BERMAN: Of course people should know that the NFL, they're going to hit training camp soon. They're not in a bubble either. So you have a lot of players in an NFL team, they'll be playing, no bubble. A little different than baseball in that there's only one game a week so, in theory, maybe they can be more controlled than baseball players are. But my question, as a parent of two young soccer players, you know, my wife keeps on asking me, she sees what's happening in baseball. She says, these guys are under strict controls in the Marlins and Cardinals and who knows what the next team is are still coming down with it. How come it's OK for us to send our kids to soccer practice? What should I be telling her? BINNEY: John, that's a fabulous question. So, first of all, let me say, on the NFL front, you would have to be worried because they're essentially trying to run Major League Baseball's playbook but with more people, meaning more chances for the virus to get into the league and more contact, meaning more chances for it to spread around. On the youth side, we've seen outbreaks trace back to, say, summer football workouts at several places around the country and in college teams as well. So that's a concern. But to all the parents out there trying to decide how to get your kids back into youth sports, let me give you some really concrete advice. Look for lower risk rather than higher risk options. And that really applies to anything in life right now. But here are three dimensions you can use to identify safer sporting activities for your kids. Number one, is it indoors or outdoors? Outdoors is better. Number two, how many people are involved? Fewer is better. Number three, how much contact is there? Less is better. So great options would be like golf, tennis, track, cross country, great options. Some more intermediate risk options might be like soccer and baseball and softball. Some of the higher risk options would be basketball and tackle football. Maybe instead of tackle football you could go to flag football, which would be lower risk because of the less contact and maybe work on some fundamentals and skills this year. If that's something you're open to, it's definitely something I would consider. BERMAN: I've got to let you go. I have time for one yes or no question here. Baseball, will it finish the season? BINNEY: We don't know. BERMAN: It ultimately may not be a medical decision, which is concerning in and of itself. Look, Zach Binney, Professor, thanks so much for being with us. BINNEY: Absolutely. My pleasure. Thank you. BERMAN: Erica. HILL: So many American's are now dealing with the painful economic reality of this pandemic. CNN has reporters across the country covering the latest. PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN REPORTER: I'm Paul Vercammen in southern California. Tension on the streets as people worry about how to make ends meet. The government's $600 supplemental paycheck has gone away. Then there's fear of evictions. And outside the church -- the Unitarian Church in Koreatown, you can see a line, 1,500 people walked up to get a box of food, 500 boxes went out to other people in the community. The event's organizer called it just surreal and said this is an example of failed government. POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Polo Sandoval in New York where we are monitoring increasing Covid numbers in the state of Arkansas, now seeing a 10 percent positivity rate for new cases. This weekend Governor Asa Hutchinson told CNN that he has no plans to shut down bars or restaurants even after his state surpassed 43,000 total cases. The governor defended current mandates, including mask wearing and limited capacity in certain establishments. He also told CNN that they have not seen any correlation between the recent increase and the recent lifting of restrictions. KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kyung Lah in Los Angeles, where the Department of Public Health is investigating this indoor party at a Hollywood bar held, says the bar, for first responders. Now, CNN observed dozens of people there with no masks, no social distancing observed. Now, California's bars, if they are serving indoors, have been ordered closed in order to try to contain the Covid crisis in the state. In a statement, L.A.'s public health department says that there are no exceptions to this indoor ban usage ban and that this is, quote, exactly the situation that puts our entire community at unnecessary risk. BERMAN: Our thanks to all our reporters. I have to say, what -- like the definition of bizarre irony. HILL: Meaning that it was a first responders' party? BERMAN: Yes, an indoor HILL: I had the same thought. Yes. Yes. BERMAN: I mean at least they're there, I suppose, for when there's a need -- HILL: And, listen, we should celebrate all the hard work that they are doing, especially in the midst of a pandemic, but a party, a large gathering, probably not the best plan right now. BERMAN: All right. Well, our thanks to them for what they have been doing. Maybe they ought to think twice about the party. Erica Hill, thank you so much for coming in today. HILL: Always a pleasure. BERMAN: A pleasure to see you. The White House coronavirus coordinator says we are now in a new phase of the pandemic. What does that mean? CNN's coverage continues, next.

Coronavirus Resurgence Moving into Midwestern States; MLB Season in Doubt; Coronavirus Pandemic Update from around the Country.

Wiederauftreten des Coronavirus in den Staaten des Mittleren Westens; MLB-Saison in Frage gestellt; Neue Nachrichten über Coronavirus-Pandemie aus dem ganzen Land.

冠状病毒死灰复燃入侵中西部各州；MLB季节的疑问；全国各地冠状病毒大流行情况更新。

CHURCH: Well, Vietnam has been praised for effectively curbing its coronavirus outbreak but now the country is struggling to contain a recent wave of infections. Most have been linked to the resort city of Da Nang, which confirmed another 10 cases on Tuesday. Now as the outbreak grows, the popular tourist spot is quickly becoming a ghost town. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout has our report. KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Vietnam, like other countries in Asia reported its very first COVID-19 case in late January. But with proactive border closures, aggressive testing, contact tracing and quarantine measures the country quickly became a model for successful containment of the virus. The low numbers were impressive. Fewer than 500 confirmed cases of the virus. No locally transmitted cases reported in the last three months and no deaths. But all that changed in late July. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Patient 428, has died. Cause of death is hypertension, heart failure, pneumonia, ischemia and COVID-19. LU STOUT: The new outbreak, appearing to have started in the popular tourist destination of Dan Nang and spread quickly to neighboring Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Quang Nam. Months of near normal life of reopen restaurants, bars, schools and resumed tourism within its own borders ground to a halt. The Vietnamese government, now trying once again to employ the aggressive measures it took at the start of the global outbreak. Immediately sending 80,000 local tourist home from Dan Nang. The beach is now closed. The streets once again eerily empty with lockdowns in place and returned mandatory widespread testing and contact tracing. The government has also enlisted several hundred military students to help test all 1.1 million residents of Dan Nang. Some medical officials say they believe the strain of the virus is a more contagious one, although not necessarily more deadly. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The number of people, that have returned to Dan Nang to Hanoi, as well as (inaudible) is very large. So the risk of an outbreak is huge. We are also aware that the situation of this outbreak is very complicated. LU STOUT: Authorities have yet to find the origin point of the new cases. No matter what the cause. Vietnam is now scrambling to try and figure out just how the virus reemerged after nearly 100 days while standing at the precipice of widespread transmission. An outcome that looks more possible, with each passing day. Kristie Lu Stout, CNN Hong Kong. CHURCH: And finally, a restaurant in Cairo is serving up some socially distant meals by way of a robot waiter, who has a tie and apron, but no human touch as your food is delivered to the table. The robots manufacturer said, they retooled the robot when the coronavirus hit Egypt, for service jobs like this, to lessen the spread of germs. Customers seemed to like the idea. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Regarding the robot, it's a very good idea given the circumstances that we are in right now, everyone is afraid. Almost no one leaves their home. People in restaurants have become much less. So I think this is a good idea at a restaurant. Instead of having another human being come near you, there is a robot. CHURCH: No word if anyone has left any tips, will keep an eye on that. And you're watching CNN Newsroom, I am Rosemary Church I will be back in just a moment.

Vietnam Tourist Spots Becomes A Ghost Town; Socially Distance Service In Egypt.

Vietnamesische Touristenorte werden zu Geisterstädten; Sozialer Ferndienst in Ägypten.

越南旅游景点成鬼城；埃及社会远程服务。

CURNOW: Australian officials have announced new restrictions in the city of Melbourne in the effort to contain the growing outbreak there. Starting at midnight on Wednesday, local time, the city is expected to close some nonessential industries, including retail and manufacturing businesses. This of course, comes after the state of Victoria imposed some of its strictest lockdown measures ever. Anna Coren is live in Hong Kong with all of this. Of course, Anna, you are an Aussie so you no doubt have been keeping tabs on what is happening back home. Talk us through the situation there now. ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Robyn, the Victorian government needs to bring the number of daily infections down. They have been averaging around 500 a day for the last month. That is not sustainable. The situation in Victoria is clearly out of control. The premier, Daniel Andrews, has introduced these stage 4 restrictions, a further lockdown to what Melburnians have been going through for the past month, extending it by another six weeks but with much harsher measures. He made the announcement today, another 439 new cases and 11 deaths, all of those in aged care facilities. We know that there has been major outbreaks of coronavirus in these aged care facilities. The premier acknowledged that this is going to cause a great deal of pain, financial hardship and it is also going to hurt the state's economic recovery as well as the country's economic recovery. But doing anything less was not an option. COREN (voice-over): Eerie, empty, lifeless streets in the center of Australia's second largest city, scenes unheard of in Melbourne even during the pandemic's first wave. But COVID-19 has returned with a vengeance. Victoria's capital is now under a six-week curfew with even tougher restrictions, as authorities desperately try to get this deadly outbreak under control. SCOTT MORRISON, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: This has been another heartbreaking day for Victorians, which means it's a heartbreaking day for all Australians. I know that, across Victoria, many today, frankly, would have reached breaking point trying to come to terms with what has happened in this state. COREN (voice-over): It's the first time in Australia's peacetime history that citizens have had to face such a harsh lockdown. Melbourne's 5 million residents have spent the past month under stage 3 restrictions but the number of daily infections just continue to soar. Too many people were flouting the rules, refusing to heed medical advice. The government said more than 50 percent of sick people who'd been tested, awaiting results, were still going to work while one in four who had tested positive were not self-isolating. As of this week, stage four restrictions are in place. Curfew will be imposed from 8:00 pm to 5:00 am. All non-essential businesses will be closed, along with schools and child care centers. And only one member of each household will be allowed to leave the house each day to buy groceries. DANIEL ANDREWS, VICTORIA PREMIER: This is a very tough day. And there are many more of those to come before we get to the other side of this. But these are the decisions that have to be made. That's why I've made them. We have a plan. We have a clear strategy. It'll only work out if everybody plays their part. COREN (voice-over): For Melburnians, who've been playing their part and doing the right thing, the premier's announcement was a slap in the face. MEREDITH FRASER, MELBOURNE RESIDENT: Six weeks is no mean task. It's a really long time when you add it onto the four that we've already had. So it's not just financial; it's mental and I think that is what hasn't been given the spotlight. COREN (voice-over): Financial assistance will be provided to businesses that must now shut their doors until mid-September. The prime minister also offering a disaster payment of just over $1,000 U.S. to every Victorian who tests positive, saying there is no economic reason for people who are infected to not self-isolate for 14 days. While the economic impact is terrifying. So is the human toll, with the majority of deaths in Victoria occurring in aged care facilities. ANDREWS: There is no stage 5, this has to work. Otherwise, we will have to devise a set a rules that will even further limit people's movement. COREN (voice-over): A move at the moment that's unthinkable for residents at the epicenter of Australia's most deadly coronavirus outbreak. COREN: Now Robyn, the premier has also announced harsher penalties as of today. The on-the-spot fines, which were roughly $1000 U.S., have now jumped to $4,500. These are designed for people who are refusing to self isolate, those who have tested positive for the virus, who are meant to stay home for 14 days but are continuing to go about their normal days. The premier said that, of the 3,000 people who had tested positive, who should have been at home when they were door-knocked by the military and health officials, 800 of them, more than 800 of them, were not home. He said this behavior is unacceptable. And he said that some Melburnians have just shown appalling behavior over the last couple of months. Some have assaulted police officers when they have been told to put on face masks. Others have blatantly refused to give their details. Police said they had to smash in the car windows of one particular person because they refused to hand over these details. The premier said that everybody has to be on board to try and beat this deadly virus -- Robyn. CURNOW: Goodness, thanks for that, Anna Coren there live. Appreciate it, Anna. As the coronavirus continues to spread, a big moment for both parents and educators around the world. They have been anticipating this; schools are beginning to reopen in many areas. For some public schools, just outside of Atlanta where we are, COVID- 19 is already a problem. Nearly 300 staffers there have been tested positive or exposed to the virus, we understand. America's top infectious disease expert says that there is a way to know if it is OK to reopen schools. FAUCI: If the infection rate is so low that there is very little chance of there being infections spread, then you should feel OK about doing it but making sure that you do the things that are necessary to prevent spread. Try and get the early months in because, when you get into the fall and winter, there may be more cases that make it more difficult. CURNOW: The first schools in Germany have reopened in the country's northeast in a state with the lowest number of infections. Children will be split into age groups and their school hours will be staggered. Staff, we know, will be offered free COVID tests as well. Officials in Mexico plan to start schools online in three weeks but as journalist Stefano Pozzebon explains, online classes pose a big problem in a region where many, many kids just don't have access to the Internet. STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The return to schools, the return of kids into the classrooms, is an issue that is common for every country in Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina. With the region being currently the biggest hot spot of COVID-19 and with growing rates accelerating both here in Colombia where I am now but also in neighboring Brazil and in Mexico, a little further north, the return for the kids to the classroom seems further and further away. Most countries, like Mexico and Venezuela, for example, are still in summer recess but official ministries all across the regions have to come up with contingency plan and to start the new school year online unless the kids will stay at home. And not only through a computer, which in a region that is famous for the logistical difficulties and bad telecom connectivity, can prove an even bigger challenge than elsewhere in the world -- for CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota. CURNOW: For more now on the challenges of reopening schools, I'm joined by Harold Olin. He's a superintendent in the U.S. state of Indiana, a school superintendent. Sir, good to see you. I understand that on your first day back at school, one of the students tested positive for COVID, another reminder that this is not going to be a smooth ride. HAROLD OLIN, SUPERINTENDENT, GREENFIELD-CENTRAL SCHOOLS: No, it's not going to be easy. We certainly think about the preparations we have tried to make in our state over the last three months in preparation for this day. We want to control the variables we can control in our school. There is another responsibility there, that our parents need to make sure that they are putting their students, their children, through a self check before they send them to school. The particular student you're referencing actually had had a test taken a few days ago. Before getting the results of that test, the student came to school and so we got a surprise phone call from the health department notifying us that that student had indeed tested positive for COVID-19. So it really put us in a position where we immediately had to jump into the protocols that we have been writing for the last couple months. COREN: This is going to be about preparations in schools but also about how families deal with it. In many ways, are you looking for families to have some sort of code of conduct with the schools? And making these decisions based on the community and the students, not just their family units? OLIN: We're just really trying to educate our community, educating, first of all, the parents and then the students. The things that we look for, we require our staff members to go through a self screening every day. We ask families to do the same thing. We are going to have to find ways to put that in front of families more regularly in terms of, if you have COVID symptoms, if you've been around somebody that has been tested as positive, if you have been tested and don't have your results, stay away from school until you are safe, you are healthy to be in the school. So it is unfortunate that it happened on our first day. I think the alarm that that triggered, not only in our community but in surrounding communities, hopefully will pay dividends in the long run. The fortunate thing is through the protocols we had in place, we meet with all the student from class and isolated individual, we checked seating charts to find out who exactly is in a close proximity to the infected student, determining which ones had been within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes. Then, of course, that did mean we had to make some unfortunate phone calls to some families that evening to let them know that their child would be quarantined for 14 days. Fortunately for us here, in Indiana, our district in particular, we do have one-to-one devices so we can have virtual learning; 85 percent of our families just choose -- have made the choice to send their kids to school rather than having that virtual option. CURNOW: That is a conversation that many parents and students across the world are having. How important do you think it is for kids to go to school when you measure the risk and reward ratio, particular when it comes to teenagers? I know that many pediatricians that I've spoken to have said that it's actually so much more important in many ways for kids' mental health to be at school even though they potentially are facing a coronavirus risk. OLIN: I think you bring up a great point. There are inherent risks to many things that we do, whether that is driving a vehicle or coming to school in the middle of this global pandemic. As a professional educator, I do believe that the best education that we can provide to students is onsite, not only for the academic side but, as you referenced, meeting the social and emotional learning needs that our students have. For some students, that is having food security; for others, that's having some guidance counseling that they are going to receive at school. Students definitely do best in that environment. Although I think we are getting much better in the virtual environment, for my own money, my own children, I have a junior in high school. She is on site. I have a wife that teaches, as well, and we have made that decision with our family. But all families aren't there, and we want to make sure that decision with our family. But all families aren't there, and we want to make sure that we're meeting the needs of people all over the spectrum, whatever their level of comfort is. ROBYN CURNOW, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: OK. Thank you very much for turning us. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks for having me. CURNOW: And unlike the rest of the world, North Korea says it has not (ph) cases of coronavirus but that a vaccine is in development. The implications of those claims, that's ahead.

Australian State of Victoria Declares State of Disaster; Mexico to Start Schools Online in Three Weeks; Indiana Student Sent Home from School with COVID-19

Australischer Bundesstaat Victoria ruft Katastrophenzustand aus; Mexiko will Schulen in drei Wochen online schalten; Schüler aus Indiana wird mit COVID-19 von der Schule verwiesen

澳大利亚维多利亚州宣布进入灾难状态；墨西哥将在三周内启动学校线上课程；印第安纳州一名学生因感染新冠病毒被送回家。

JOHN KING, CNN INSIDE POLITICS: Thanks for joining us today. I hope to see you back here this time tomorrow. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a good afternoon BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN RIGHT NOW: I'm Brianna Keilar and I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. The president of the United States says it is what it is when it coming to Americans dying from the virus, more than 155,000 Americans. And he once again has pushed lies, conspiracies and falsely says that the virus is under control in a cloud of delusion that is hurting the nation's response to the coronavirus. We will play the interview in a moment and discuss. But, first, let's begin with what matters first and foremost, the public health crisis. These are the trends. As the rate of Florida's new case numbers goes down, the state still has 45 hospitals that have no room in their ICUs. In Arizona, the state logged more than 2,000 new hospitalizations on Monday and the state's top education official says it's still not safe for kids there to go back to school in person. Then there are states that are going in the wrong direction, states like Arkansas and West Virginia and Kentucky, which had been trending in the right direction. They are now reporting more than 600 hospitalizations in one day. They hadn't seen a day like that in more than a week. Remember, we were warned about the spread into rural areas. We heard that from Dr. Birx. For that bit of truth, President Trump called her pathetic. And now we are hearing that she is troubled by the Trump attack but it's just another in a long line of Trump attacks on health experts. Also today, lawmakers are said to be nowhere near a deal on the second round of stimulus relief as millions of Americans suffer. Speaker Nancy Pelosi tells CNN the price tag that she is willing to settle for is $3.4 trillion. That's the reality of where we are right now, which really doesn't match up with where President Trump insisted we are. We heard a lot from the president in a new wide-ranging interview with Axios, a lot about the pandemic and his work on controlling the virus, as he put it, and a lot of other subjects. But let's start with the president talking about coronavirus testing. DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We have tested more people than any other country, than all of Europe put together times two. We have tested more people than anybody ever thought of. India has 1.4 billion. They've done 11 million tests. We've done 55. It will be close to have 60 million tests. And there are those that say, you can test too much. You do know that. JONATHAN SWAN, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: Who says that? TRUMP: Just read the manuals. Read the books. SWAN: Manuals? What manuals? TRUMP: Read the books. Read books. SWAN: What books? TRUMP: What testing does -- SWAN: Wait a minute, I'm sorry -- TRUMP: Let me explain. What testing does, it shows cases. It shows where there may be cases. Other countries test -- you know, when they test, they test when somebody is sick. That's when they test. And I'm not saying they are right or wrong. Nobody has done it like we've done it. We've gotten absolutely no credit for it. KEILAR: Dr. Jonathan Reiner is a Professor of Medicine at George Washington University. He's a CNN Medical Analyst. Doctor, thank you so much for being with us. Is that a thing, can you test too much? DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: No, you can't test too much. Well, just ask the White House now. They are looking to test more to protect the president and that same strategy to protect the country is what just about every public health expert is suggesting. We are not doing enough testing in the country. If you look at the positivity rate at the U.S. as a whole, it is about 7.8 percent right now. It needs to be much lower, down to 1 to 2 percent before we'll really have this crisis under control. So we need to test more and more and more. KEILAR: And the president -- it was interesting -- brought -- and we have seen this before. He brought charts and graphs to talk about deaths in America. Let's watch. TRUMP: If you look at death -- SWAN: Yes, it's going up again, daily death. TRUMP: Take a look at some of these charts. SWAN: I'd love to. TRUMP: Okay? We're going to look. SWAN: Let's look. TRUMP: And if you look at death -- SWAN: Yes, it started to go up again. TRUMP: Here is one. Well, right here, United States is lowest in numerous categories. We're lower than the world -- SWAN: Lower than the world? TRUMP: We're lower than Europe -- SWAN: In what? TRUMP: Take a look, right here. Here is case death. SWAN: Oh, you're doing death as a proportion of cases. I'm talking about death as a proportion of population. That's where the U.S. is really bad, much worse than South Korea, Germany, et cetera. TRUMP: You can't do that. You have to -- SWAN: Why can't I do that? TRUMP: You have to go by where -- look, here is the United States. You have to go by the cases. The cases of death -- SWAN: Why not as a proportion of population? TRUMP: When we have somebody -- what it says is, when you have somebody that has -- where there's a case -- SWAN: Oh, okay. TRUMP: -- the people that live from those cases. SWAN: It's surely a relevant statistic to say if the U.S. has X population and X percentage of death of that population versus South Korea -- [13:04] TRUMP: No, you have to go by the cases. KEILAR: What did you think of that moment? REINER: Yes, really disgraceful. The U.S. has by far the largest number of deaths in the world. And if you look at even on a per capita basis, the U.S. has about 480 deaths per million population. If you look at countries like Germany, it's 110. Japan, it's 8. So any way you look at it, we have an unacceptable number of deaths in the United States. And although it had dropped, you know, towards the end of the spring, it has risen again to almost 1,000 deaths per day. So, really unacceptable. The president was talking about case fatality rates. No one really knows what the case fatality rate is because no one knows what the denominator is. No one knows what the true number of cases is. And, frankly, any success on keeping the mortality rate for individual cases low goes to my brothers and sisters on the frontlines in hospitals around the United States who have run into the fire in an effort to put this inferno out. It really has very little to do with this administration. KEILAR: We are hearing from them. It is like they're building the boat they're riding in as they cross the river. It is a monumental task. And they're doing the best they can. The president was asked about his message to his followers. Let's listen. SWAN: Here's the question. I have covered you for a long time. I have gone to your rallies. I have talked to your people. They love you. They listen to you, every word you say, they hang on ear (ph) to it. They don't listen to me or the media or Fauci. They think we're fake news. They want to get their advice from you. And so when they hear you say, everything is under control, don't worry about wearing masks, I mean, these people -- many of them are older people. TRUMP: It is under control. SWAN: It's giving them a false sense of security. TRUMP: I think it's under control. I'll I tell you what -- SWAN: How? 1,000 Americans are dying a day. TRUMP: They're dying. That's true. And it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it. This is a horrible plague that beset us. SWAN: You really this is as much as we can control, 1,000 deaths a day? TRUMP: I like to know if somebody -- first of all, we have done a great job. We have gotten the governors everything they needed. SWAN: Mr. president, you changed your message this week in terms of you canceled the Jacksonville convention, you said wear a mask, you're saying that it's going to get worse before it gets better. It's not something you'd like to say. I remember you said that. The people -- TRUMP: Not get worse like the original flow. You understand that? But -- SWAN: I hope not. TRUMP: Now, you look, Arizona is going down. SWAN: If I could just finish my question. TRUMP: Texas is going down and Florida is going down. SWAN: The question is are you going to, even some of your own aides wonder, whether you would stick to that message until Election Day, whether in a week or two you won't say, right, we have got to reopen again, we can't do this stuff anymore, that you get bored of talking about the virus and go back to that sort of cheerleading? TRUMP: I never get bored of talking about this. It is too big a thing. KEILAR: What did you think when he said, it is what it is, as he was talking about the number of people dying? Is it what it is? REINER: Really painful, you know? I've lost family to coronavirus. My closest friends have lost family to coronavirus. And soon, just about every American is going to be separated maybe by only one from knowing somebody who has lost -- been lost to coronavirus. It is what it is makes it seem like we are powerless. Just about every other industrialized country around the world has had success in suppressing this virus because their leadership has been willing to do the hard things and then stick with it. This president has not. This president was super slow to test widely, very, very slow. This president, only about a week ago, was willing to be photographed in public wearing a mask. This president actually has no national policy for testing. He's outsourced this to the states. And now, he throws his hands up says, it is what it is? It's incredibly distressing. Our greatest failing in handling this pandemic has been the lack of leadership, you know? Many of the governors or several of the governors, certainly both Republican and Democrat, have risen to the challenge. But it would have been much more effective if we had a national strategy, a strategy for opening, a strategy for testing, a strategy for social distancing and mask wearing, a requirement for everyone in this country. And now, the president says it is what it is, as if there was nothing that could be done. KEILAR: Dr. Reiner, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. REINER: My pleasure. KEILAR: The president was also asked about other subjects, like Russian bounties on American soldiers. But it was his answer on the late congressman, John Lewis, that is really raising eyebrows. It seemed simple, right? Say something nice about an American hero. But here is what we heard instead. SWAN: How do you think history will remember John Lewis? TRUMP: I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know. I don't know John Lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration. He chose -- I don't -- I never met John Lewis, actually, I don't believe. SWAN: Do you find him impressive? TRUMP: I can't say one way or the other. I find a lot of people impressive. I find many people not impressive, but no. but I didn't know him. SWAN: Do you find his story impressive? TRUMP: He didn't come to my inauguration. He didn't come to my state of the union speeches, and that's okay. That's his right. And, again, nobody has done more for black Americans than I have. He should have come. I think he made a big mistake. SWAN: Taking your relationship with him out of it, do you find his story impressive, what he's done for this country? TRUMP: He was a person that devoted a lot of energy and a lot of heart to civil rights, but there were many others also. SWAN: There's a petition to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, as the John Lewis Bridge. Would you support that idea? TRUMP: I would have no objection to it if they'd like to do it? SWAN: It is a good idea? TRUMP: We have no objection to it, whatsoever. KEILAR: Reverend Raphael Warnock is the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. He's also a Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia. Reverend, thank you so much for being with us today. You presided over Congressman Lewis' funeral last week. It was a beautiful service for what was really a loss for the country. And I wonder what your reaction to the president's remarks, what's your reaction? REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK, SENIOR PASTOR, EBENEZER BAPTIST CHURCH: Well, thank you so much. It's good to be here with you. John Lewis, by every definition of the word, is an American hero. He is the embodiment of what patriotism looks like. What we have seen in this president is narcissism masquerading for patriotism. It is a sad response but I have to say I'm not terribly surprised. KEILAR: Now, John Lewis did not go to the president's inauguration. He also did not go to George W. Bush's inauguration. This would not be something that's particularly unusual here in recent years and yet you saw the former president, President Bush speaking at Lewis' funeral. What do you make of that allegation from President Trump? WARNOCK: Yes, it was a grand moment in American history to have President Clinton and President Bush and President Obama all in the same House of God acknowledging the extraordinary contribution that this man has made to our great country. He is the embodiment of patriotism. As you point out, he didn't come to George Bush's inauguration. And the sad thing about Donald Trump we are seeing it in this moment but in ways that are much more consequential that somehow he thinks public service is about him. I think public service is about the people you're trying to serve. And his second line of the response was he didn't come to my inauguration. I mean, is an inauguration a coronation or is it a statement about one's commitment to doing the work that the people have honored you by electing you to do? And so, sadly, we are seeing it in this moment, but it's much more consequential for something like, say, the coronavirus, whereas wearing a mask and doing the things that are necessary, admitting that the problem is as deadly and as tragic as it is. Why can't he do those things? Because he's calculated that is not good politics for him. And that's a sad situation and it's consequential for the American people. KEILAR: I want to play the president's comments about his support for the African-American community. TRUMP: I did more for the black community than anybody with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln, whether you like it or not. People say that's -- SWAN: You believe you did more than Lyndon Johnson, who passed the Civil Rights Act? TRUMP: Yes. SWAN: How? How possibly did you -- TRUMP: Because I had criminal justice reform then, I got prison reform. SWAN: Lyndon Johnson -- TRUMP: I've done things -- well -- SWAN: He passed the Civil Rights Act. TRUMP: How has it worked out? If you take a look at what Lyndon Johnson did, how has it worked out? SWAN: Do you think the Civil Rights Act was a mistake? TRUMP: Because, frankly, it took a long time but for African- Americans -- SWAN: But you think that was a mistake? TRUMP: -- under my administration, Jonathan, under my administration, African-Americans were doing better than they had ever done in the history of this country. So I did a lot, job numbers, all the money, they had money, they were getting great -- their percentages was up. Their housing ownership was up. They did better than they have ever done. KEILAR: He -- and you can speak to this as a leader of the African- American community in your community. He is questioning the Civil Rights Act. What do you make of that? WARNOCK: Says the president who, in his emergence as a political figure, rode in on a terrible conspiracy around birtherism, denying the legitimacy of Barack Obama and he was the most prominent and effective spokesperson for this conspiracy, it's a way of saying that you don't belong, you are not one of us. And that's a familiar and painful tone that we have heard over and again in the African-American community. And as he came down that escalator, that we shall never forget, he came down, attacking communities of color. This is par for the course for Trump. And I think even as he refuses to say something nice about Congressman Lewis, part of that is his narcissism. Sadly, I think part of it may be a kind of calculation that he is playing to the most extreme xenophobic parts of his base that says how dare a man of color be who John Lewis is. But I'm not particularly worried about what Donald Trump has to say about John Lewis. John Lewis has been vindicated by history. He is a hero of Bloody Sunday. And when the history of the 20thcentury is written again and again, he will stand as President Obama said, as one of the founding fathers of the new emerging America. The good news is that there is a coalition of conscience, multiracial coalition, people who get it. And they're pouring out into American streets and once again heeding this call, the call he made on the day of his funeral that a new generation would rise up, reclaim the American promise of democracy and equality that embraces all. That's the good news. The United States of America is bigger and stronger than Donald Trump. And once he's unelected, we'll continue to move forward. KEILAR: Reverend, thank you so much for being with us, Reverend Raphael Warnock. WARNOCK: Good to be with you. KEILAR: A new study is showing that fewer patients are being diagnosed with cancer during the pandemic. Hear why. Plus, I'll speak with a teacher who is retiring early citing health risks and she will tell us who she thinks is to blame. And New York City's health commissioner quits in the middle of a pandemic after tensions with Mayor Bill de Blasio. This is CNN's special live coverage.

Trump on 155,000 Americans Dying of Virus, It Is What It Is; Trump Dismisses John Lewis' Legacy, He Didn't Come to My Inauguration

Trump über 155.000 Amerikaner, die am Virus sterben: "Es ist, was es ist"; Trump lehnt John Lewis' Vermächtnis ab: "Er kam nicht zu meiner Amtseinführung".

特朗普谈15.5万美国人死于病毒，事实就是事实；特朗普不会瞻仰约翰·刘易斯的遗体，他没有来我的就职典礼

KING: Dr. Deborah Birx is described as stung by President Trump's Twitter attack. Well, today she will likely be in the company of others who know that feeling quite well. The White House Coronavirus Task Force is meeting this afternoon. Dr. Anthony Fauci and the CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield are among those who like Birx now have angered the President with their candid assessments of the Coronavirus crisis. Pathetic is the term the President used to attack Dr. Birx. After she said the virus is in a new phase and spreading more and more in rural America. With me now to discuss CNN's Kaitlan Collins and White House Reporter for "The Washington Post" Josh Dawsey. Kaitlan, let's start with you. Let's listen to the President yesterday at the briefing describing how I met with Dr. Birx, we'll be fine. TRUMP: I told Dr. Birx I think we are doing very well. She was in my office a little while ago. She's a person I have a lot of respect for. I think Nancy Pelosi's treated her very badly, very, very badly, very nasty. KING: Nancy Pelosi has said she doesn't trust her. The President called her pathetic because he was not happy that she said that the virus is spreading and that she said in places where it is spreading in some places where it is spreading you're going to have to keep schools closed. KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. John, basically he argued that he thought the reason she was saying that, giving that pretty blunt assessment of how the outbreaks look in the U.S. is as a direct response to Nancy Pelosi criticizing her and saying that she was enabling the President to spread misinformation. And we're told by sources that Dr. Birx was stung by that comment about her where the President calling her performance pathetic. She had basically been warned that this is something that could happen. Of course everyone has seen what has happened with the President and Dr. Fauci and the President contradicting several other officials in the administration. But one thing we were told that the President was bothered by was not just what she said about the COVID spread in the United States but also that she said she had tremendous respect for Speaker Pelosi when she was asked about those direct criticisms that she's lobbed at her. And so it is really anyone's guess how this goes from here? How this progresses because she does have a job here in the west wing. She is someone that briefs the President regularly but it does show how the President isn't just disagreeing with Dr. Fauci. He is also disagreeing with the Coordinator of the Task Force and even the testing chief as well, disagreeing with him over Hydroxychloroquine. KING: And Josh, to that point one of my favorite moments yesterday reacting to this was Chuck Grassley, is the longest serving Republican Senator on Capitol Hill, a little bit of Zen from Senator Grassley. He said just on TV the President took exception to some interview Dr. Birx said. I hope the President knows she is a scientist and not a politician. You might disagree use love, not anger. Little Zen as I said from Senator Grassley there which is important. KING: The President shouldn't be fighting with his own people. Doubly important or triply important just because of the moment we're at. 13 weeks from today is the election. The President if he is going to be reelected needs to prove to voters that whatever you think of what he has done up to this point that he has a handle on this. And when you see all these infighting on his team will they have a consistent communication strategy more importantly a consistent public health strategy going forward when they can't agree on so much? JOSH DAWSEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, as Kaitlan said, the President has repudiated his public health experts when they delivered news that he saw contrary depending more sunny and more optimistic tone. You have a number of folks in the White House, John, who have not wanted to talk about Coronavirus for several weeks. And eventually they've became convincing the President had to do more briefings and had to talk about it because his poll numbers had slipped so far. What's frustrating to many of the advisers around the President is political fortunes is that they thought they had 90 days or so to really come back. They're behind in most key battle ground states. And they want to come back and beat Joe Biden and every day they're fighting with Deborah Birx, they're fighting with Dr. Fauci or fighting among each other on the Coronavirus. They're not prosecuting Joe Biden in the way they want to and trying to convince voters that they should not like Joe Biden that you should pick Trump instead. And last week or two weeks ago I guess you saw several days of news stories about his battle with Dr. Fauci or Peter Navarro op-ed, the White House putting down an op-ed research. Now you have the President disagreeing with his other main Coronavirus expert, basically the President is trying to paint a picture that things are going well. And those things are improving that all of the data is trending in the right way. The economy will turn around and when people say things contrary to that they often find themselves on the back end of a tweet. KING: Well, the people who are living this every day out in the real America they get it because if you want to see a stunning number for this President, we've looked at a lot of stunning poll numbers in recent days that show 90 days out Joe Biden has a lead. But look at this one. This is from Gallup. Are you satisfied with the way things are going in the country? Only 20 percent of Republicans say they're satisfied. Look back at August 2019, 6 in 10 Republicans said that a year ago, only 20 percent of Republicans 12 percent of independents and 7 percent of Democrats. Kaitlan, why this is so significant to me is it if you were asking anybody, Biden versus Trump question, or a Presidential approval question? You put the President's name or you put the political party in it, a lot of Americans will go back to their tribal instinct when they answer the question. Are you satisfied with the way the country is going? A much more generic question that number there, only 20 percent of Republicans think they're satisfied with the way the country is going. If you are an incumbent, you are in a deep ditch. COLLINS: Yes. He only has three months to fix this and some people do not feel optimistic that he is going to be able to turn this around and turn the trajectory around from where he is now. Because you can ask the question about President Trump versus Joe Biden but President Trump is the one who is in office and he is the one presiding over this. And people saw what happened when they tried to go get tested initially and they were told that they could not unless they were symptomatic and now even people are still having trouble getting a and if they even get one then they have to wait several days to get results. People see that and people are out of work and 115,000 Americans are dead so that is something that people are thinking of and that's going to be an issue for them. And so as much as the President has tried to make this about Joe Biden and his age and his health or about these cultural battles that he is tried so hard to put at the front and center of this. The Coronavirus pandemic is still what is incredibly important to voters and it is what they're going to be considering. And the Trump Campaign knows that and that's why I think it is so notable they're even talking about their advertising over the last few days. We looked at this tracker and has said that for the entire month of July the Trump Campaign did not run a single ad that mentioned the pandemic. So that gives you an indication of not only where the campaign sees how voters are rejecting the President's handling of it but the fact that the President doesn't want to focus on that. He is not running on his response to that but he is going to likely be judged on it. KING: That Gallup number, you look at - if you look at Gallup number if you're the President you got a ditch you better dig yourself out of quickly if you want to win. Josh Dawsey and Kaitlan Collins I appreciate that very much. Now to a new court document that suggests that President's potential legal troubles also go well beyond hush money payments to alleged mistresses. The Manhattan District Attorney Monday argued in a new federal court filing that the President's accountants should have to comply for a subpoena for eight years of the President's tracks returns. Part of the DA's argument that's financial records are vital to investigations, plural. Joining me now to discuss the significance of that our Crime and Justice Reporter Shimon Prokupecz. Investigations plural Shimon, take us inside what that means? SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Certainly this document I think gives us a better look inside what those investigations involve. There was always these questions, I was puzzled why were prosecutors wanting to go so far back to 2011 looking at Donald Trump's tax records, his tax returns and the documents that were used by the accounting firm to make these tax documents? PROKUPECZ: What we learned yesterday was that this investigation is - goes far beyond the hush money payments of course, that we're all familiar with and what prosecutors say in the documents that they filed yesterday is that there are bank fraud perhaps allegations here. And they write specifically that they're looking at what they believe are substantially related to "Among other things alleged insurance and bank fraud" by the Trump Organization and its officers. So they're looking deep into very clear that they're looking deep into the Trump Organization. Trump's attorneys have been arguing that this subpoena is asking for too much. It's going too far, it is unfair. In many ways what we hear from the President himself, how this is harassment? Well, prosecutors have an answer for that and they're saying it's based on a lot of their information is based on some of the public records that are out there, news reports that have been out there that have been looking into the President's finances. And what they write is that there are public reports of possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization. Again, and they're arguing that there was nothing improper for them to seek this information as part of their investigation going back eight years and looking for these documents from the accounting firm. Of course the President's attorneys have been arguing that they're going too far, that they're trying to go too far back in all of this. The other thing John important to note of course is that Michael Cohen is a witness for the prosecution. He is met with them many times here at the Manhattan's D.A.'s office. And the other thing is that Federal Judge, Judge Marrero has already decided on a lot of these issues that the President's attorneys are arguing that this is unfair, that they're going too far. So it could be that we could see a decision here very soon and perhaps this can move a lot quicker than we all think. KING: We'll watch that one as well one of the many important bouncing balls. We need to keep an eye on. Shimon Prokupecz I appreciate the legal update there. Up next, running out of time, school districts across the country facing a dilemma on whether and how to reopen?

Trump Says He Has "A Lot Of Respect" For Birx After Attacking Her; Court Filing Suggests Wide-Ranging Investigations Into Trump.

Trump sagt, er habe \"eine Menge Respekt\" für Birx, nachdem er sie angegriffen hat; Gerichtsakten deuten auf weitreichende Ermittlungen gegen Trump hin.

特朗普称，虽然他攻击了伯克斯，但他“非常尊重”她；法庭文件中建议对特朗普进行广泛调查。

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST (voice-over): This hour, are the kids going to be all right? COVID has forced them out of school in almost every country on Earth and the impact could be devastating. Plus -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The Spanish people are witnessing some unsettling news. It disturbs all of us, including me. I'm thankful the royal household is distancing itself from this unsettling and disturbing news. ANDERSON (voice-over): Just where is Spain's former king? No one seems to know after he left the country following a scandal. ANDERSON (voice-over): Then -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just ANDERSON (voice-over): Return to sender. Why the U.S. donation to Brazil has been pretty much untouched. ANDERSON: Tonight, to reopen or not to reopen. A billion kids are out of school because of the pandemic in what is being billed as an educational catastrophe. We are connecting the world, struggling to learn. I'm Becky Anderson. Hello and welcome to CONNECT THE WORLD. It's well known that education changes everything and it is the great equalizer. But the top voice at the U.N. says the world is now facing a generational catastrophe because COVID-19 has entered the world's classrooms. Even secretary-general Antonio Guterres said more than a billion children are missing out on education because schools in more than 160 countries are closed. He also stresses remote learning, even for those lucky enough to access it, sometimes just isn't good enough. Well, now, after months of bleak pandemic news, you may be suffering from numbers fatigue. I get it. So does the U.N. chief. So he's quick to point out a billion children not learning means global inequality will be even worse. He says that the students have got to get back into the classroom safely. America's top expert on infectious diseases is saying much the same thing to the U.S. DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The default position should be to try as best as you possibly can to open up the schools for in-person learning. Having said that, there's a big however there. And the however is, the primary consideration should be the safety, the health and the welfare of the children. ANDERSON: Well, the United Nations is calling this a defining moment. Antonio Guterres said the decisions that governments take now will have lasting impact, not just on the kids but on the development prospects of countries for decades to come. We have a global team of coverage of the COVID classroom crisis, with Fred Pleitgen in Berlin, Matt Rivers in Mexico City and Elliott Gotkine is in Jerusalem, David McKenzie for you this hour in Johannesburg. Let's start in Germany, where schools have started to reopen in the northeast region in the state with the lowest number of infections. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is standing by for us in Berlin. Fred, what is the situation and how does that state plan to reopen? FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Becky, it's still a bit of a state of uncertainty here as Germany starts to reopen some of the schools. I'm standing in front of one of the main schools in central Berlin, where, a week from now, they are going to start having in- classroom lessons once again. As you noted, right now it's the northeastern part of Germany that started reopening and it really is something that shows just how uncertain the times are right now here in Germany, where the classes started yesterday. And just a couple of hours after the classes started, the education minister of the state came out and said, look, we have changed our minds. We now believe that children should wear masks when they're in the classroom. So they're going to put out a new law to mandate masks there. That's also something that's mandated here in Berlin. One of the things that's interesting about Germany, is it's the federal system. PLEITGEN: So every state decides for itself how it wants to deal with the pandemic and how it wants to bring schools back. The foundation for that, however, is the fundamentals of the pandemic control that are in place here in Germany. Distancing first and foremost, very important; and then where distancing is not possible, for instance, in a setting inside the school, masks are very important. There's variations of that and then, of course, sanitizing as well. The masks have really become something that's become a debate here in Germany because a lot of states are saying, look, we want the children to wear masks when they come to school. However, the vast majority of states are saying that the masks should only be worn in communal areas, in the hallways, when the children go to the bathroom, when they're in the public hall outside of the school. There's only one state which is Germany's largest state that also says that older children need to wear them when they're in class as well. So as you can see, here in Germany, there's a variety of different ways of trying to go about this. Most of them have the mask wearing but it's also very much still a work in progress and a learning curve here in progress. Of course that's something where the German government has said they realize that this is a very difficult undertaking for the states to do. They do believe however they're in a very good position. First and foremost, they want to keep the children safe coming to the schools here, coming to the some of the schools in Germany already. They do believe, Becky, that it's something they can do. ANDERSON: Yes. We are considering this hour, what is at stake for the children? What's at stake for parents? And the bigger issue and question here is what is at stake for governments as they try to balance this delicate strategy between, you know, health crisis, economic crisis, a crisis for the children of a country? PLEITGEN: Yes, absolutely. And a lot is at stake for the German government, for other governments as well. And essentially what they're saying is that, right now, it's a very difficult situation for Germany, just like it is for many of the other countries that are involved here as well. They're trying to start up the schools as the pandemic is on the rise here again. In this country, they have had increasing number of cases. They also have a lot of travelers coming back to Germany who have been abroad and some have brought COVID-19 with them. So it's a very difficult situation for them and they know right now that, if they don't do this the right way, they could have a very large spike in cases once again here in Germany. And it's certainly something that's of concern to parents. It's of concern to the government. It's of concern to the general public as well. This is something very, very closely monitored here in Germany. ANDERSON: To reopen or not to reopen, that is the story in Germany. CNN caught up with a few parents in the United Kingdom, who think it's time to get the kids back into the classroom. Have a listen. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd like them to go back as soon as possible. So get back to work. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it would be nice to like see friends again. I guess and be taught by teachers and not just be taught on screen. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obviously it's a concern but they'll put as much safety in place as they can, whether it's masks, washing, sanitizing, smaller courtrooms, outdoor lessons. I think we have to just adapt and evolve and make the best we can. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Each school has a log, is keeping a log voluntary of all the children and parents who have had anything to do with the coronavirus, the antibody testing or the other tests. And so I'm fine with where he's going. Contact tracing as a whole in the greater society, I don't think is up to scratch at all at the moment. ANDERSON: OK. That's a snapshot of the story in Europe for you. Let's get to Latin America now, one of the pandemic's epicenters. While most countries in the region have closed schools to prevent further spread of the virus, Mexico's education minister has announced a new plan for remote learning. Matt Rivers is in Mexico City. What's the plan there, Matt? MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for Mexico's more than 30 million students, Becky, they will be going back to school in a remote way in a few weeks from now starting on August 21st. The ideal scenario would be that students here go back to online learning. But when you consider what's happening in Mexico, in terms of the ability of different families across this country, where poverty levels are extremely high, a lot of families simply don't have access to online learning. What the government is doing here is they're -- they have signed agreements with the major TV carriers to produce 24 hours a day, seven days a week, educational programming that students would be expected to watch. They say that, depending on the hour, it will apply to different grades. RIVERS: But Mexico's government is saying, look, we are aware of the fact that not all of our students have access to broadband connection that would allow them to interact with teachers on Zoom or some other platform. So they'll provide the television service because they say 94 percent of all households in Mexico have access to a TV. As for the remaining 6 percent, they're going to do radio programs. There's a lot of remote indigenous communities in Mexico that don't have TVs. So they're going to produce radio programs there. What you're seeing here is the Mexican government saying, look, we are not ready to reopen. And that makes sense, when you consider that it was on Saturday, Becky, that Mexico set its most recent daily newly confirmed case record, with nearly 10,000 cases recorded, if you look at the seven-day average in terms of newly confirmed cases. It's as high as it has ever been. So this is an admission from Mexico's government that they don't have the outbreak under control, at least well enough to allow students to go back because they say the science is not settled as to whether children are potential spreaders. They don't want to put teachers at risk. They don't want to put families at risk. But they also recognize that this is not the best case scenario, this is just what they can do in a country where broadband Internet is not widely available. ANDERSON: Matt's on the story in Mexico. Thank you. South African schools are in the middle of a month-long break as it suffers the fifth largest COVID-19 outbreak in the world but the continent has seen firsthand how shutting schools affects its children, in West Africa during the Ebola outbreak. CNN's David McKenzie has more. DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in South Africa, schools are closed for at least a month. The president said it would be because they don't want schools like this to be a transmission site for COVID-19. So there is nobody in this school right now. The problem is the U.N. says this could have a massive impact on education on the continent. They predict this. But we have already seen proof in West Africa during the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Many, many millions of students were out of school for months. Studies showed it led to a rise in teenage pregnancy. And it meant that many students couldn't go back to school when it was all over. The harsh reality is that pandemics like this really affect the poorest and the most vulnerable, say the U.N. Here in South Africa, it's no different. Students, more than 9 million of them, depend on school feeding programs. Those programs were stopped when schools closed down. The government had to be taken to court by a charity just to keep the feeding programs going -- David McKenzie, CNN, Johannesburg. ANDERSON: So politicians, governments, school leaders making some tough decisions at present. Israel, a prime example but perhaps for all of the wrong reasons. It was one of the first places to go back to school in May. But even though the virus seemed under control, new cases of coronavirus began to cropping up in the schools. Soon more than 22,000 children and teachers were under quarantine and it's estimated that about half the cases in Israel in June could be traced to a school outbreak. Journalist Elliott Gotkine is joining us from Jerusalem. He's outside the Israeli high school that had one of the worst COVID outbreaks. So Elliott, one medical advisor said other countries should not do what we have done. What went wrong? ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Yes, pretty sobering advice from an adviser there. I think Israel has gone from teacher's pet to near bottom of the class in terms of the handling of the coronavirus pandemic. It's widely believed to be the rapid reopening of the economy and, of course, the reopening of schools. We were under a lockdown for two months. No schools and the economy was locked down. And then at the beginning of May, the schools began to reopen, the smaller children were going back. They had to wear masks, I speak from experience with my own kids going to school. The parents had to sign forms confirming that children were not suffering from any symptoms. They had to have windows open for ventilation. They reduced the class sizes. It's not abnormal to find 30-35 children in a class so they kind of reduced the numbers. And that's how things went for a couple of weeks. And then when the new government was signed in the middle of May, schools reopened for real. Older grades came back. And although there was still hand washing and making sure that people were wearing the masks and the like, for example, there was a heat wave when the children went back. GOTKINE: So the government, under pressure from parents, enacted a mask holiday for four days. And it's believed that led to some of the spread. As far as the school behind me goes, it's quite well known because the president, Reuven Rivlin, went there; Benjamin Netanyahu's son went there. And this school alone had something like 150 students come down with coronavirus and something like 25 members of staff. And they, of course, went back to their homes, to their neighborhoods, to communities and it spread further there. So this school after being reopened after the lockdown was then closed again. Then it reopened. And when I spoke to the head of the parents' committee, I said, look, what happened? His response was simply, we got unlucky. ANDERSON: Fascinating response. And certainly what school authorities around the world at present will be considering what to do to ensure that they are not unlucky as that school was going forward. Will kids be going back to school in Israel after the summer? GOTKINE: That's certainly the plan. September the 1st is the date and that seems, as far as the government is saying, to be set in stone. There will, of course, be a number of precautions. It won't be business as usual. So the youngest grades, one and two, will go back as normal. Grades three and four will be split. As I said before, class sizes are quite large so it will be ensure there's 18 per class. Grades five and above will only go to school around two days a week and the rest will be done online. But when again, when I'm speaking to parents of students, they're very keen to see kids go back because Israelis on average have more children than any other developed country. And both parents tend to work. So more than three children on average per couple. Both parents tend to work. So if the schools don't reopen, you can't have the economy reopen, either, because the parents can't go back to work. If you ask the parents, they feel the potential damage to the children is greater than the potential damage to their health if they come down with coronavirus. ANDERSON: Elliott's in Jerusalem. Thank you. Two new studies suggest COVID-19 testing and contact tracing might be key to getting schools opened. Researchers in Britain found that if enough people were tested, the positive cases were isolated and their contacts were identified and tested, a second wave of the outbreak would be prevented. But that would mean at least 59 percent to 87 percent of people showing symptoms would need to get tested. And in Australia researchers followed schools and day cares that stayed open between late January and early April. Some of the students and staff did catch the coronavirus but there was no significant spread of thorough -- because of thorough contact tracing. Both studies were published Monday in "The Lancet: Child and Adolescent Health" issue. We have connected you with around the world coverage of what's going on in the classroom crisis, from Berlin to Mexico City, Jerusalem to Johannesburg and more as we move through the next couple of hours. Well, now, Spain's former king, Juan Carlos, has suddenly left his own country, leaving only a note. No one is officially saying where he has gone. The latest from Madrid up next. Plus, the army comes in and finally ramps up. Australia's state of Victoria cracks down after numerous lockdown breaches.

U.N. Chief Warns of "Generational Catastrophe" on Education; Germany Reopening Some Schools; Mexico Announces Plan for School; Israel Dealing with Outbreaks after Schools Reopen

UN-Chef warnt vor \"Generationenkatastrophe\" im Bildungsbereich; Deutschland öffnet einige Schulen wieder; Mexiko kündigt Plan für die Schule an; Israel kämpft mit Ausbrüchen nach Wiedereröffnung der Schulen

联合国秘书长警告教育领域“世代灾难”，德国重开部分学校；墨西哥公布建校计划；以色列应对学校开学后爆发的疫情。

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Hi, everybody. I'm Chris Cuomo. And welcome to PRIME TIME. We are two hours this week. I'm in for D. Lemon. This president went from everything is all under control to this is going to disappear, to 156,000-plus dead. Well, it is what it is. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Right now, I think it's under control. I'll tell you what. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How? A thousand Americans are dying a day. TRUMP: They are dying. That's true. And it is what it is. CUOMO: It is. It is what it is. It is a pandemic that you are not doing enough about on purpose, inaction on purpose. By now, we know that this is happening because it is what it is, and he is who he is. And that is somebody who won't admit that he screwed up, who won't say that now he has to do it differently. He doesn't want to address the pandemic because he warned that it was going to go away. Don't worry about it. Then what did he say? Well, it's going to get worse before it got better. So, what are you going to do about it? Nothing. And instead of acting, he is distracting. Listen. TRUMP: We are continuing to monitor and monitor particular hotspots across the south, southwest and the west. And we are seeing indications that are strong mitigation efforts are working very well actually. CUOMO: Look, he's reading it because he doesn't know what he is talking about, and that suggestion is just wrong. It is at odds with reality and for the reality. Here's Erica Hill. JAY VARKEY, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Our national response to this pandemic should be a national embarrassment. TRUMP: It's under control as much as you can control it. VARKEY: The data that comes from the White House Task Force backs up exactly what Dr. Birx said. There is uncontrolled spread in over 32 states in the country. ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Six months into this pandemic, the virus is not under control despite the president's claims, cases surging in southern Illinois. GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): The data can tell you if you are winning or losing against the virus. Unfortunately, right now, the virus is winning in Jackson County. HILL: Early gains giving way to spikes in San Francisco. FELIX CASTILLO, BUS DRIVER, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC TRANSIT: People pretty much filing complacency, they weren't scared anymore of what was going on. HILL: And while there are some bright spots, California's positivity rate is declining and 14 states, including Arizona and Florida are seeing a dip in new cases over the past week. Of the 28 states in yellow, those holding steady, many are plateauing at a very high level. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICIES: I think these new levels are going to make what we've had already to seem like, boy, I wish we were back in the old days. HILL: Deaths which lag by at least two to four are rising in these 27 states, Arkansas and West Virginia seeing record hospitalizations. Atlanta's Georgia World Congress Center now a surge hospital again. MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D), ATLANTA, GA: It saddens me that we are still headed in the wrong direction so many months after we had an opportunity to get on the other side of COVID-19. HILL: In Georgia's largest school district, 260 employees can't work because they've either tested positive or been exposed to the virus. Two new studies suggest testing and contact tracing are still lacking, are the key to reopening schools. KELLEY FISHER, KINDERGARTEN TEACHER: We don't want to endanger one student, one teacher, one support professional, one community member. HILL: Teachers in one Phoenix district calling on the governor to issue statewide safety mandates as Arizona's top education official warns it's unlikely any school in that state will be able to reopen safely for in-person or hybrid learning. AMY COMPTON-PHILLIPS, CHIEF CLINICAL OFFICER AND EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, PROVIDENCE ST. JOSEPH HEALTH: If you look at the facts, the U.S. has about 4 percent of the world's population and about a quarter of the cases, 25 percent of cases. We definitely have a problem here in the U.S. HILL: Chris, something else to think about, Goldman Sachs economist are pointed to parents as the next group of workers who could stand to lose their jobs knowing that single parents, those with young children at home and parents who can't work from work are most at risk to not be able to work. And pre-pandemic, we should point about a 3rd of the U.S. workforce had children at home. Chris? CUOMO: Erica, very important perspective. Thank you very much. We're in a jam, right? So many of the people who watch this show are parents. And you know, one of the bonds we have we have is that I'm living at the same where you are, I don't know what I'm going to do with my kids, I don't know what I'm going to do. I know that the schools are trying to figure out. I don't like the hybrid model, why? I see that as a worse of both worlds. I get that we all want our kids back in school. So do I. Find a way to do it. Find a space, find a way to do it safely and find a way to get the rapid test, and then I'll put my kids in the school. But why would I want my kids in the school so that they can be exposed to a group setting where they don't really know who is sick and who isn't? And I don't buy this fever thing either. Why? A lot of things can give you a fever. You can have COVID and not have a fever, there's no smell, no taste then? That's a good piece of science that they've been developing that that helps us know. So, I'm going to send them there, I'm going to send her there, they are going to be exposed, they are going to come home, now I can't have my mother around, now I've got to worry about my in-laws and then I still have to deal with my wife not being able to do what she wants to do work wise because I get it easy, right? I'm lucky because I have to come here and do this. But we're still going to have the kids at home and have to play that Zoom B.S. again where they won't let you see the lesson but you got to help the kid with the plan and the kid doesn't know what they're doing? And what if your kids not a self-starter, which is 90 percent of our kids. All of this could have been avoided, and still could be avoided if this president would put his arms around the problem instead of pushing it away and covering his eyes. Get us the rapid tests. Do what the U.K. did, and so, instead, we get this. SWAN: The figure I look at is death. And death is going up now. TRUMP: OK. SWAN: That's a 1,000 a day. TRUMP: If you look at deaths -- SWAN: Yes, it's going up again, daily deaths. TRUMP: Take a look at some of these charts. OK? SWAN: I'd love to. TRUMP: We're going to look. SWAN: Let's look. TRUMP: And if you look at deaths -- SWAN: Yes, start to go up again. TRUMP: This one, well, right here, the United States is lowest in numerous categories, we're lower than the world -- SWAN: Lowers than the world? What does that mean? TRUMP: Lower than Europe. SWAN: In what? TRUMP: Look. SWAN: In what? TRUMP: Take a look. Right here. These are case deaths. SWAN: You're doing deaths as a proportion of cases. I'm talking about deaths as a proportion of population. That's why the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, et cetera. TRUMP: You can't do that. SWAN: Why can't I do that? TRUMP: You have to go by -- you have to go by where -- look, here is the United States, you have to go by the cases. The cases are there. SWAN: Why not as a proportion of population? TRUMP: When we have somebody, what it says is when you have somebody that has that where there's a case -- SWAN: OK. TRUMP: -- the people that live from those cases. SWAN: Sure. It shows a relevance statistic to say if the U.S. has x population and x percentage of death of that population -- TRUMP: No, but you have to go by the cases. CUOMO: -- versus South Korea. Well look at South Korea, for example, 51 million population, 300 deaths. It's like, it's crazy compared to -- TRUMP: You don't know that. SWAN: I do. It's on the -- TRUMP: You don't know that. SWAN: You think they are faking their statistics, South Korea? TRUMP: I won't get into that. CUOMO: Let's bring in Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. Look, I'm not going to burn you with the politics. Here's the problem. OK? Is that, he is spending time distracting from the reality instead of addressing it. I don't even get the political play. I know, Ashish, this isn't your deal, but he's got time to put his arms around this and get as where the U.K. is right now with testing, which creates a solution for the angry gym owners who were on the show, a solution for the angry parents like me who don't want to send my kids back this way. And hate this hybrid model that's like the worst of both in my opinion. What is the reality of -- he says today. You know, we played this game yesterday, I want to play it again. Yes, we want to get to where the U.K. is. How big a deal is it? ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: How big a deal what the U.K. is doing? CUOMO: How big a deal is it for us to get where they are? JHA: Chris, here's the story. And again, thank you for having me back on. CUOMO: Always. JHA: Look, we are -- we are in trouble not just because we haven't built the testing infrastructure we need, but we also don't have a serious federal response anymore. Testing is actually falling and half the states across the country were worse off now than we were two weeks ago. The only piece of good news in all of this is that today, seven state governors basically announced that they are going to go it alone. They're going to go without the federal government and they are going to go through their own testing and build up their own testing infrastructure. And I think states are giving up at this point on the federal government -- CUOMO: What does it do to have seven of them bond together? Why is that -- why is that helpful? JHA: It's helpful because with seven of them coming together, you start getting the kind of market size you need to be able to go to companies and say, look, if you ramp up and we'll help you ramp up, we will be here to purchase your product. This is what the federal government should have done four months ago. They could've gone to companies and said build up your things and we will pay for it, they didn't. And now the states are doing it. We're going to have, I think other states join in. And states are being -- CUOMO: Is it fair to say, Ashish, that's the way it should have always been and the blame is on the president or the federal government, it's on the states for not figuring this out sooner? JHA: No, there are two reasons why we should have gone with the federal response first, and I guess you could argue that the states maybe should have just given up a little bit earlier, but look, the money sits with the federal government, they have the purse. They also have a bunch of powers that states don't, right? They have the DPA, the Defense Production Act. And so, while states can do this, I think everybody acknowledges this is plan B. This is the second-best choice. I think at this point it's really incontrovertible that look, the ideal would've been the federal government doing it. They couldn't, or they didn't. So now the states are pulling it out. JHA: Let's talk brother to brother for a second here with schools. JHA: Yes. CUOMO: I can't in good conscience -- now look, it's not my job to do this anyway, but you know, we become proxies sometimes, they see me talking to people like you and know what they're talking about and they think that somehow by osmosis I may know something. I can't tell people in good conscience to send their kids back to school. I don't even know if I'm going to do it. This hybrid thing sounds stupid to me, that we will only put in there sometimes. To me, it's like, so you are only going to put my kids' hand and fire sometimes? If they are exposed to a classroom and you can't case, then whether it's one week a month or four weeks a month, it's too much. And obviously, at home has all these logistical issues and problems that are academic, let's keep that away, that's not public health per se, but you know, I guess it's better than going every week in terms of exposure. But at the same day though, you have the same problem, Ashish, that if you can't count cases, then you are not ready to have kids in those places? JHA: Yes. So, I am a big believer in testing in schools as one of the ways of counting cases as you say and of -- CUOMO: They say they can't. JHA: -- opting another layer of protection. CUOMO: They say they can't get the tests that give you the quick response and they can't get the lab access to get quick turnaround. JHA: Yes. So, there are two things here, one is -- first of all, and also, schools don't have the money. So Congress has to put in the money for schools to do this and, then yes, like it would've been helpful if the federal government had ramped up these rapid test. You know, the White House gets a daily test with 15-minute turnaround, can you imagine if our kids were just as important as the folks who visit the White House? If we had done the things to get to rapid testing in American schools, we could open now. My argument is, if it's not safe to open now, start online, work really, really hard to build up the capacity to do rapid testing, when it becomes available, when you have case numbers low in your community then you go to in-person teaching. It's not my ideal choice but it is better than risking it when it's not ready and it's better than giving up altogether. So that has been my suggestion and advice to schools, superintendents, and mayors across the country. CUOMO: Because that's what they say to you, right, is we can't do the testing, we're afraid. JHA: Yes. CUOMO: And that they don't have enough space. JHA: The testing is a really -- CUOMO: They talk square footage too, but I got to tell you that bothers me also, Ashish. And this is a little bit of a dovetail into your area and politics. You know, then you know this already, but in 1918 they did a better job at teaching kids in outdoor spaces, putting up tents, doing out, they did that with the courts. We haven't done any of that. We haven't innovated anything here. JHA: Yes. CUOMO: Why? JHA: Why, just because I feel like, there are two reasons. One is, first of all, I think we have way over politicized this. I think there are too many politicians starting from the top who have made this a political issue. I think that's really frustrating to me. The second is I do think people are not being creative enough. And I've been saying to folks, like look at your public libraries, your status space, look at other -- CUOMO: Movie theaters, churches, armories, community centers, nobody is doing any of them. JHA: Exactly. Right. Go outside look in much of the country, September, October, you can do it outside or maybe with space sitters even in November, but the point is you can be outside for a good chunk of the fall. Let's do that, we know that's safer. But it will require real leadership, if it's not coming from the federal government it's going to have -- it's going to have to come from states, from governors, and then mayors and school superintendents are going to have to do it. Again, they're not used to fighting a pandemic but they will have to learn how to do this, and there are a lot of us in the public health world were ready to help, we want to help schools, we want to help teachers. We want to help school superintendents figure this out and get going. CUOMO: Weak people make hard times, and that's where we are now. We are not thinking. We are not thinking like some people who want to survive, who want to get ahead of this who want to beat it and it really is going to be the tale of this administration and really this period in our history. Dr. Ashish Jha, thanks for being along for the ride and thanks for keeping it straight and what the possibilities are. JHA: Thanks, Chris. CUOMO: All right. Be well. So, look, it matters that the president says things about historical figures, about other presidents, about institutions that change our society like the Civil Rights Act. It matters because it is a window into what he is about as a person. Now he says the pandemic is what it is, he's right. Hold on. And he is who he is. He trashed John Lewis again. Why? A week after his funeral, he trashed LBJ. He diminished the significance of the Civil Rights Act, he said all you have that work out. What? And he dismissed the wildly unequal numbers of black people killed by police all in one interview. So, what does that interview mean to somebody who was an advocate and an ardent supporter, an implementer of the Black Lives Matter movement? Angela Rye, I'm going to help her jaw back off the floor into her face so that she can speak, next.

Governors In Unison To Combat Virus Spread

Gouverneure kämpfen gemeinsam gegen die Virusausbreitung

州长们齐心协力抗击病毒传播。

DAVID HART, LOST HIS HUSBAND, DR. JOSEPH COSTA, TO COVID-19: Get off your ass. Drive 20 blocks and spend 15 minutes in ICU with a COVID patient who is dying. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. death toll levels rarely seen since May but the president remains disconnected from the magnitude of the crisis. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind. BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, Trump making a very serious claim about a deadly blast in Beirut, though defense officials are contradicting that claim. ROMANS: And breaking overnight, the latest effort to cast doubt on voting by mail. The Trump administration is suing a state that just made it easier. Welcome to our viewers in the United States. and around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. Hi, Boris. SANCHEZ: Hi, Christine. I'm Boris Sanchez, in for Laura Jarrett. It is Wednesday, August 5th, 5:00 a.m. in New York. And the days just keep flying by, Christine. We're now just 90 days to November 3rd and the election. ROMANS: Three months out. All right. Meantime, President Trump's "it is what is it" approach to the pandemic is divorced from reality as the country struggles with any real progress containing the virus. RON KLAIJN, FORMER EBOLA CZAR UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: You are more likely as an American to die from COVID than you are than any other country. You know, there are more cases, new cases of COVID today in Paris, Texas, than in Paris, France. More cases of COVID in the smallest state in the country than the entire country of Spain. ROMANS: Now, the president attended a White House coronavirus task force meeting for the first time since April. CNN has learned other members of the task force agree with the assessment of its coordinator that COVID-19 has become, quote, extraordinarily widespread and the level of concern in the task force does not match the president's rosy assessment. SANCHEZ: Some 1400 families lost loved ones yesterday, the third highest total since Memorial Day. The U.S. death count keeps trending upward, nearly 157,000 Americans are dead. There is a promising trend just five states have a significant number of new cases reported week over week but experts warn the backlog in testing may mean that the full extent we're seeing may not be detected. DR. LEANA WEN, FORMER BALTIMORE HEALTH COMMISSIONER: We don't have near enough testing. It's quite possible the rest of the states look like they are doing okay actually have ongoing community spread that we're just not picking up. ROMANS: Thirty-three states have seen increases in their retail of positive tests. Mississippi, the nation's worst at 23 percent. State health officer issued a mandate for those with the virus to self- isolate or face jail time. And Mississippi's governor ordering a two week mask mandate and delaying the start in person classes in some hot spots. GOV. TATE REEVES (R), MISSISSIPPI: We have seen over the last several weeks that when people participate and wear masks, it helps. We must pump the brakes in hardest hit areas. SANCHEZ: Remember families are losing loved ones day after day. The president saying it is what it is. That's outrage many family members including David Hart whose husband, Dr. Joseph Acosta, died of COVID after treating patients in Baltimore. HART: Can you imagine my husband Joe walked into a room of COVID patients and said it is what it is and just shoved their beds into the corner and walked out? I mean, I still can't process that. It is what is it -- it is unbelievable. I mean, I want to say to the president, get off your ass, drive 20 blocks, and spend 15 minutes in ICU with a COVID patient who is dying. Do that. SANCHEZ: Schools across the country are now facing hard choices and a ticking clock. They are trying to balance the safety of children and older teachers at the same time that many parents are working at home or out of work. No country has successfully re-opened its schools with the virus, as widespread as it is, in the United States right now. ROMANS: CNN affiliate WXIA in Georgia reported that some students in one county are being told they must show up for school in person until an online spot opens up. Nationwide, Clorox says consumers will continue to see a shortage of wipes and other disinfecting products into 2021 because of overwhelming demand. And New York City's iconic Rockettes cancelled their show this holiday season, first time since the Christmas tradition debuted back in 1933. SANCHEZ: In the absence of national health, a bipartisan group of seven governors are joining forces on a multistate testing strategy. Maryland's Republican governor, Larry Hogan, negotiating the deal with the Rockefeller Foundation. Maryland, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina plan to purchase 3.5 million fast acting antigen test, quicker results mean quicker isolation for people who can spread the virus without knowing it. More state and the local governments can join this deal soon. ROMANS: Wow. At least 100 people killed, 4,000 injured in a gigantic explosion. Right there in central Beirut. The blast so huge it caused 3.3 magnitude earthquake and could be felt hundred of miles away. President Trump says he has been briefed by U.S. military intelligence. TRUMP: This was not a -- some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a -- seems to be, according to them, they would know better than I would, but seems to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind. ROMANS: A bomb, an attack. One big problem, three Defense Department officials directly contradict that claim, telling CNN they see no evidence of an attack. It is a major national security issue and the commander-in-chief says an attack is behind a vicious explosion in the Middle East. Let's bring in CNN's Jomana Karadsheh. And, Jomana, what are you hearing from the region? Are there any officials or leaders who are echoing the president's take that this was an attack and not some sort of an industrial accident? JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'll tell you, Christine, so many people were shocked to hear that President Trump's statement so publicly, so early on after that blast in Beirut. Some here in this region would go as far as saying it was quite irresponsible of the U.S. president, basically, to pour gasoline on the fire. This is a region that's rife with conspiracy theories. You know, there's tension in Lebanon and across this region. And we understand from State Department officials, officials raised concerns of the president's use of the word "attack." Now, Lebanese authorities are still investigating what happened, what caused this massive blast. They are looking at a storage facility where 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate were stored. Lots of questions about why such a flammable explosive material would be stored for years, apparently, according to the Lebanese prime minister in the heart of the Lebanese capital. I can tell you that Beirut is a city devastated. This is a city that has seen civil war, wars over the years, terror attacks. But it has seen nothing like this. By all accounts this was a catastrophic blast, entire neighborhoods that have been he decimated by this blast. According to health officials there at least 100 people so far have been confirmed killed. More than 4,000 others injured. But officials are warning the death toll, the casualty figures are going to rise. There are still hundreds of people who are unaccounted for. They are missing. Their family members frantically searching for them in hospitals, posting their photos on social media, trying to fine them and the charity, Save the Children, warning that there are children unaccounted for. Of course, the situation at the hospitals is quite catastrophic. They're already struggling to deal with the country's financial crisis. The COVID crisis, with a surge in recent days. Hospitals were reaching capacity, and then this. They had to deal with thousands of patients being brought into the hospitals and Lebanon is appealing for help. Lots of countries sending aid and field hospitals right now, Christine. ROMANS: All right. Jomana Karadsheh, managing that story for us in Istanbul, thank you so much, Jomana. SANCHEZ: Breaking overnight, the Trump campaign making good on one of the president's tweets filing a lawsuit against Nevada after the battleground state approved a plan to sent absentee ballots to all active voters. That represents a major expansion of mail in voting made to make voting easier. But something the lawsuit calls it problematic. It's all part of the Trump administration's attempt to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the upcoming election and now after months of trying to undermine voting by mail, an epic rationalization from the president. He's now encouraging it but only in one state where he thinks it's going to help him in November. TRUMP: Florida's got a great Republican governor and it had a great Republican governor. Scott -- Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, two great governors. And over a long period of time, they've been able to get the absentee ballots done extremely professionally. Florida is different from other states. SANCHEZ: So he thinks it will boost his chance it's perfectly legitimate, right? One senior Republican aide tells CNN that Florida Republicans have been pressuring the president to endorse the state's vote by mail system. President Trump himself has even voted absentee in Florida, according to the aide. A high vote turnout is key for Republicans winning in November. ROMANS: All right. Ten minutes past the hour. Negotiators want a stimulus deal by the end of the week. The economy needs a deal. The impasse a growing insult to struggling Americans.

U.S. Death Toll Climbs As Trump Minimizes Crisis; Defense Officials Contradict Trump Claim; Trump Campaign Sues Nevada Over Mail Ballots

Die Zahl der US-Todesopfer steigt, während Trump die Krise herunterspielt; Verteidigungsbeamte widersprechen Trump Behauptung; Trump-Kampagne verklagt Nevada wegen Briefwahlstimmen

特朗普淡化危机，美国死亡人数却持续上升；国防部官员反驳特朗普的说法；特朗普竞选团队就邮寄选票起诉内华达州

CHURCH: There is growing hope that a coronavirus vaccine can soon be on the horizon. The top U.S. infectious diseases expert says tens of millions of vaccine doses will likely be available by early next year. And Dr. Anthony Fauci says, if we do have a vaccine the virus it will no longer be a pandemic capable of immobilizing the world and destroying economies. But says, he doesn't think COVID-19 will ever truly be eradicated because it's so highly transmissible. The U.S. President doesn't seem to agree. TRUMP: It's going away now. It'll go away. Things go away. Absolutely. It's no doubt in my mind it will go away. Please, go ahead. Hopefully sooner rather than later. CHURCH: Well, Mr. Trump's claim came on the same day the U.S. recorded more than 33,000 new cases. And with states battling to slow the spread of COVID-19, schools are debating whether to reopen. Sara Sidner has our report. DR. TOM FRIEDEN, FORMER DIRECTOR, U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: The virus is winning and the American people are losing. SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The coronavirus teaching us a terrible lesson as some schools begin filling with students. In- person learning already disrupted in Cherokee County, Georgia after a second-grade student tested positive within the first couple of days. Students and a teacher in that class now home for a 14-day quarantine. In Georgia's largest school system, 260 school employees staying home due to positive tests for exposure to the virus. ASHLEY NEWMAN, FORMER TEACHER: This is a community issue and we need to find a way to be able to get through to the higher ups and help them see that if the teachers aren't safe, then the students aren't safe and then the community is not safe. SIDNER: Dr. Anthony Fauci says if in-person learning happens, one way to mitigate the danger -- DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Keep the windows open. That to me when you're dealing with a respiratory virus, its simplicity is so, so obvious. SIDNER: But in the third largest school district in the country, Chicago public school officials announcing the danger is too high to reopen. LORI LIGHTFOOT, CHICAGO MAYOR: The fact of the matter is we are seeing an increase in cases. Combined with the trends that we are seeing, the decision to start remotely makes sense for a district of CPS's size and diversity. SIDNER: An American academy of pediatrics study revealing, minority children had much greater rates of infections than their white counterparts. In a study of 1,000 students, 30 percent of black children and 46.4 percent of Hispanic children tested positive for the virus, compared to 7.3 percent of white children. Across the country, a small hope. 45 of 50 states are seeing new case rates steadying or declining. But the death toll is still rising. Nearly 1,400 people reported dead in one day. FRIEDEN: We need to focus on what's happening. 1,400 dead in one day is just a toll that is unacceptable and we need to up our game. SIDNER: New York City's mayor announcing vehicle quarantine checkpoints after numbers show 20 percent of all new COVID-19 cases in the city are coming from out of state travelers. BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: The checkpoints I think are going to send a very powerful message that this quarantine law is serious. SIDNER: In Jackson, Mississippi, a different move to try to slow the spread, a nightly curfew for 5-day period announced by its mayor. (on camera): And we're seeing in the first week of school just how disruptive coronavirus can be. Now we've learned that three more schools in that same Georgia district have had one student who tested positive now have other people testing positive. Meaning that more than 60 students have to be guaranteed in that district. And we've also learned that in Mississippi, they have seen several people test positive in one of their school districts, meaning more than 100 people have to be quarantined there. Sara Sidner, CNN, Los Angeles. CHURCH: So let's talk more now with Dr. Robin Moore, an emergency physician in Miami. Thank you for talking with us. DR. ROBIN MOORE, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Thank you for having me. CHURCH: So Florida has become the second state to top 500,000 cases after California and it's recording more than 200 deaths a day. Those are frightening numbers. What's been your experience at the hospital? MOORE: We're definitely overwhelmed at the hospital. I actually work at two hospitals here in South Florida, one in Miami, one just north of Miami. And both hospitals are pretty near full capacity. It becomes dangerous because our ICUs are full. Many of our ventilators are already being used. And it becomes difficult for us in the emergency department because new patients are coming in and we don't have any place to put them. We are being completely overcrowded and there's no way to treat our new patients. CHURCH: How are your nurses and the other doctors coping with all of this? MOORE: The nurses I feel are the most overworked and we're trying to keep morale up but they're definitely working super hard. Also, a lot of our staff have actually fallen ill due to COVID. So that's become an extremely difficult challenge for us trying to cover the shifts, as many of our colleagues around us have fallen ill as well. So they're working long hours. We're actually bringing in help from other states. We've got a lot of traveling nurses that have come in to help out because we're so overwhelmed that we're becoming unable to treat new patients as they come in. CHURCH: You know, that is certainly terrifying. And what about your PPE levels? MOORE: So we simply don't have enough N-95 masks to get a new one every day. So we either where the same mask for a few days or most of us as doctors have actually purchased our own respirator masks to wear every day that are more protective even than the N-95 masks. We try to gown up on a patient that's higher risk or where we have to do procedures. And of course, we wash our hands constantly, using gloves constantly. And we're trying to keep ourselves safe and our patients safe. CHURCH: And what are you finding -- with the patients coming in, what is the main story here? Are you looking at older people, younger people? What's the demographic? MOORE: I'm seeing all ages. But of course the sicker patients tend to be the ones that have a lot of co-morbidities, heart disease, diabetes, overweight and those that are older. So we're seeing a lot of our nursing home patients come in. They are very ill from this. They seem to be the ones that are most devastatingly impacted from COVID. But we are seeing an entire range of ages. But fortunately the younger, healthier people don't seem to be as severely impacted. CHURCH: Right, and the U.S. just saw its highest one-day death toll in two months. And yet President Trump said at his briefing Wednesday, that the pandemic will just go away. But he still didn't offer any national plan for testing or masks. How will it just go away without a national plan? MOORE: I don't see that it's going away right now. We're still seeing cases day by day by day. We're still completely overwhelmed. If we were a little bit more overwhelmed than we are right now, I think we'd be in complete chaos. I actually went to New York and helped them in April and in May as a doctor there. We aren't as bad as they were in the hospitals there, but we're still seeing a huge number of new patients coming in every day. So this isn't going away. Right now we're still in the crisis. We're right in the middle of the crisis. CHURCH: Right, and the President also defended his statement that children are virtually immune to the virus and said that's why all schools need to be open for in-person learning. Using science as our guide there, should schools open when cases are surging? And are kids virtually immune as Mr. Trump keeps insisting? MOORE: Well, it's not my place to choose those schools open or close. But I can at least say as a doctor I have seen COVID in children. Fortunately, I've not seen any severe cases in any of the children. It's just been a handful of cases that I have seen. But obviously, they're not completely immune. They can fall ill to COVID as well. And the other thing is that they can still spread the infection to their mother at home, their grandmother at home, for our patients that are, you know, that are sick that have comorbidities. So it's who they're going to bring it home to is the other concern. CHURCH: Right, and we've seen some states banding together in an effort to establish a plan to increase rapid testing. And we know now that Florida has opened up two new rapid testing sites in Miami-Dade with results back in 15 minutes. That is great progress. How big a difference do you think that might make to your area? MOORE: Oh, I think it's going to be a great change because a lot of people just need to know whether they are or aren't infected so they can help guarantee themselves to prevent the spread, further the spread. We aren't able to offer the out-patient testing in our hospitals so when young people come, we advise them to go to the outreach testing centers. And luckily there are more ones that are opening now so we that we can find out who is infected and those people can stay quarantine truly at home and help to lessen the spread. CHURCH: Dr. Robin Moore, thank you so much for talking with us and for everything you do there at the hospital. We appreciate it. MOORE: Thank you. CHURCH: And still to come, we will have more on our top story out of Beirut and how the tragic blast is expected to have a devastating impact on Lebanon's already shaky economy.

Fauci Expects Millions of Vaccine Doses by Early 2021; Students and Staff Test Positive as Schools Reopen; Florida Hospitals Struggle to Keep Up as COVID-19 Cases Rise.

Fauci erwartet bis Anfang 2021 Millionen von Impfstoffdosen; Schüler und Mitarbeiter bei Wiedereröffnung der Schulen positiv getestet; Krankenhäuser in Florida kämpfen darum, mit der Zunahme der COVID-19-Fälle Schritt zu halten.

福奇预计到2021年初实现数百万次疫苗接种；学校重新开学，学生和工作人员测试呈阳性；佛罗里达州医院难以跟上新冠病例上升速度。

KEILAR: We have breaking news out of New York. The state is suing two dissolve the National Rifle Association, the announcement stemming from an 18-month investigation that uncovered widespread fraud. LETITIA JAMES, NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: Just a few minutes ago, my office filed a lawsuit against the National Rifle Association to dissolve the organization in its entirety for years of self-dealing and illegal conduct that violate New York's charities law and undermine its own mission. KEILAR: Our Crime and Justice Correspondent, Shimon Prokupecz, is with us now. Shimon, just walk us through this alleged fraud and tell us how the NRA is responding here. SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And this is a pretty big deal, Brianna, when you think about the NRA, which has been around since 1871. The attorney general here, the New York State attorney general, basically calling for it to no longer exist. She says in her court papers and in press conference here just a short time ago that there's been widespread fraud throughout the organization. As a none-for-profit, as a charity organization, they have to file documents with the attorney general here in New York State, which she says they have not done properly. What they have found during their investigation that the leader of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, used millions and millions of dollars, she said, as a way to line his own pockets. He used it on travel, personal expenses for travel and meals, creating this slush fund at the NRA to line his own pockets. She also talked about how friends of the leader of the group were given lucrative positions, were given contracts. She went on to say that they didn't properly file documents, tax documents, so there is some concern about IRS violations. She is going to be sending information to the IRS She also just and described that how, for years, this organization just did not file documents, just continued on fraud, and that is why they started their investigation and they started looking into the group. The thing and one of the questions is criminal charges. She says, the attorney general, it's not for her to bring criminal charges but it is something that she can ultimately recommend to someone like the Manhattan district attorney. The NRA, just a short time ago, released a statement and let me go ahead and read that to you. They're calling it a baseless sort of vendetta, a baseless, political attack, premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment. They say that this is all tied to the 2020 election cycle, that this is a political vendetta. And, of course, they're going to fight this.

New York Sues to Dissolve NRA, Alleges Widespread Fraud.

New York klagt gegen die Auflösung der NRA und wirft ihr weit verbreiteten Betrug vor.

纽约起诉解散全国步枪协会，指控其存在广泛的欺诈行为。

KEILAR: Former first lady, Michelle Obama, said on her podcast Wednesday that she's suffering from low-grade depression and singled out what she called the Trump administration's hypocrisy to be partly to blame. MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES (voice-over): These are not -- they are not fulfilling times, spiritually. You know? So, I know that I am dealing with some form of low-grade depression. Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife. And just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it day in and day out is dispiriting. KEILAR: I want to discuss this with CNN's Abby Phillip. Abby, I think this is so important to listen to it because you can hear her tone of voice. She's being blunt. And it is rare to hear a first lady be so blunt like this. What inspired her to share this? ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is all part of Michelle Obama's coming out in the post presidency, where she's taking control of her own narrative. Brianna, what we see in this conversation is Michelle sitting down with Michele Norris, one of her closest friends. And they're really getting candid on how they are coping with the pandemic. And she talks about how she has, at certain points, stopped being able to go to the gym to work out. And that was the point where Michele Norris said, wow, you haven't been going to the gym. Because, as we know, Michelle Obama is known for her physical fitness. When she was in the White House, was a regular in the gym. And she said, yes, this is part of how it's been a struggle for me to deal with racial injustice, to deal with the pandemic, the physical isolation of it all, and the weight of all of these things happening. So, they get very candid on all these different issues. And you can hear it in her voice the way in which it is, as she said, it has been difficult. But she said there's been times when she's had allowed herself to have a week where things are not normal. And she sort of gives in to it and be forgiving of herself for that. I think it's something perhaps all of us, during this pandemic, can identify with. KEILAR: That week where you phone it in, I think we're aware of that kind of week. PHILLIP: For most of us, it's more than a week. KEILAR: I don't know who you're talking about, Abby. KEILAR: But also, when you listen to this podcast, I think it goes to the point of just how personal the Obamas must be taking the Trump presidency, right? Long before President Trump was ever a candidate, he was questioning whether President Obama was American. So you get a sense of how personal this is for the former first lady. PHILLIP: No question about it. There are not that many times when we've seen Michelle Obama candidly critique the Trump administration. The other time was in her book, talking about how she would, quote, "Never forgive President Trump for putting her family in danger by peddling the racist Birther conspiracy theory." And here again, you hear her talking about the hypocrisy of the administration, her frustration with its handling of the pandemic, but also her frustration with how the administration has and has not responded to the protests in the wake of George Floyd's killing. This is Michelle Obama being willing to say it. And I think we've also heard President Obama being way more outspoken in the last few months about what they're seeing happening in the country and how they're really dissatisfied with it. It's not something you often hear her do because I think she's been pretty circumspect in when she speaks out about her disagreements with the administration. KEILAR: Abby, it's great to see you. I would never know that you, of all people, phone anything in. So it gives me comfort that you say -- you indicate that you do a little bit. PHILLIP: Absolutely. And sometimes I haven't seen a gym in more than a week. Let's put it that way. KEILAR: Abby Phillip, amen. Thank you so much. Hi, there. I'm Brianna Keilar. It is the top of the hour. And we're starting with breaking news out of Ohio. The president arrived in Cleveland moments ago. And he was supposed to be greeted by Ohio's governor but that didn't happen because Governor Mike DeWine tested positive for the coronavirus. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The governor oh Ohio, DeWine, just tested positive, just here. And we want to wish him the best. He'll be fine. I guess he's going for a secondary test. I just said I look forward to seeing the governor. They said, sir, he just tested positive. KEILAR: So a president who says testing is overrated, that maybe the U.S. tests too much, is now, it appears, saved from possible infection by one of those same tests. CNN's Ryan Nobles is in Cedarville, Ohio. Ryan, tell us, what more do we know? RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna this came as a surprise. This is something that is done for anyone that comes in close contact with the president of the United States. They're giving one of these rapid COVID tests to make sure they don't have the infection before they come in close contact with the president. Governor DeWine was with a group of dignitaries from Ohio scheduled to meet the president on the tarmac in Cleveland and his test came back positive. So he immediately went back to his home in Cedarville, Ohio. He said he's going to quarantine for 14 days. And as President Trump mentioned, he is going to get a second test to confirm this was, indeed, a true positive.

Michelle Obama: I'm Depressed over Injustice, Trump's Hypocrisy; Ohio Governor Tests Positive Hours Before Scheduled to Meet Trump.

Michelle Obama: Ich bin deprimiert über Ungerechtigkeit, Trumps Heuchelei; Gouverneur von Ohio wird positiv getestet, Stunden bevor er sich mit Trump treffen soll.

米歇尔·奥巴马称，自己患有轻度抑郁，因为世道不公。特朗普太虚伪了；俄亥俄州州长在与特朗普会面前进行核酸检测，测试结果呈阳性。

FAUCI: If you get a vaccine that has a moderate to high degree of efficacy, and you combine with that prudent public health measures, we could put this behind us. I don't think we're going to eradicate this from the planet. CAMEROTA: All right. So that was Dr. Anthony Fauci, saying it is unlikely the coronavirus will ever fully disappear, even with a vaccine and proper safety measures. His comments follow President Trump again claiming the virus will just, quote, "go away." Let's bring in Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Hotez, great to see you. I don't know if President Trump has a great track record on predicting when the virus is going to go away. He thought it was going to magically go away in April. So I don't think we need to put much stock in him thinking that it's going to go away. But the fact that Dr. Fauci says, it will be with us virtually forever, I mean, how does that change how we approach it now? DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Yes, I mean, Tony's absolutely right. Dr. Fauci absolutely right. This is -- Remember, this -- Alisyn, this is our third major coronavirus epidemic, pandemic of the 21st Century. We had SARS 1 in 2003, then MERS in 2012, now COVID-19. We're going to also, in addition to COVID-19 being around for a long time, we're also going to have other coronavirus infections. So one of the things in our lab we're doing is we're working to develop a universal coronavirus vaccine, so we don't have to keep chasing down brand-new coronaviruses as they emerge. So we have a COVID-19 vaccine that we're accelerating for India and elsewhere, but also, now, we're looking at this universal coronavirus vaccine, because this is a new normal for us, and we have to confront it. And the president is -- just doesn't seem prepared for that. BERMAN: So Dr. Hotez, Deborah Birx issued this warning overnight to a group of cities. I don't know if we still have the map for that. But it includes the whole Central Valley of California, but then cities like Detroit; Washington, D.C.; Boston; Kansas City, Omaha. You can see, it's all over the country here. New areas of concern. What do you think she sees, and how close or what is to keep those cities from becoming the next Miami or Houston? HOTEZ: You're absolutely right, John. She sees what I see, which is that over the last seven days, the United States still leads the world in the number of new coronavirus cases. And the United States still leads the world in coronavirus deaths. And the week before that, we led, and the week before that, and so on and so forth. So this is still -- Tony used the word "smoldering." I would -- you know, I understand what he means, but it's really still a raging forest fire, especially right now in the southeast, in part of the United States. And we're trying to open up schools in the middle of a raging forest fire in many parts of the country, and we can't do that. So we're going to have to come to terms with developing containment strategies for all the states. Many states are already there; we don't have to do much. But others have a lot of work to do. And until we do this, we're just -- people use different metaphors. Some use the word whack-a-mole. We're just knocking one down, and it pops up elsewhere. But it's beyond that now. This is a raging forest fire, and we need to contain it. CAMEROTA: And Dr. Hotez, we do keep getting mixed messages about what's happening in the Sun Belt and in Texas where you are. Is -- are things getting marginally better there? HOTEZ: Things are stuck, at least in Houston, for instance. So people say, Hey, we've plateaued. Yes, we've plateaued at a hundred miles an hour. We -- we have 1,700 new cases a day. Those are confirmed cases. And what that really means is 5,000 to 6,000 new cases a day. Now, the hospitalizations seem to be going down or at least plateauing now. So that's potentially good news. But you still can't open schools in the Houston Independent School District when you have 1,700 confirmed new cases a day. So it's -- things are plateauing in the Sun Belt, but at a very high level. And the big question that we're all asking is whether now, you know, enforcing masks and the social distancing, closing the bars, whether that's still going to be enough, because you still can't open schools when you have that high level of transmission, or whether you still have to go to shut-down in many of our southern states. And this idea of a containment strategy. Some states, fine, it's business as usual. Others, we may have to go to shut-down for a few weeks. And the point is, if we could bring our whole nation down to that same reset point, then we can open up schools safely. Teachers can feel safe going back to work. And staff and bus drivers and even opening up colleges, maybe even having sporting events. But we can't persuade the White House to bite the bullet and really do this for the whole nation and lead a federal strategy. And it's very frustrating. BERMAN: I don't think you can convince any governor at this point to shut down again. It just doesn't seem like any governor is even considering that at this point. And on the issue of smoldering, I actually don't think you and Dr. Fauci are far apart here. Because I think -- HOTEZ: No, no. We agree. You guys, you know, it's just a bit of a nuance in the word. We -- Tony and I totally agree. BERMAN: Smoldergate. Let's call it smoldergate. Let's play the sound right here from Dr. Fauci, because I want you to expand on this point a little bit. FAUCI: As long as you have any member of society, any demographic group who's not seriously trying to get to the end game of suppressing this, it will continue to smolder and smolder and smolder. BERMAN: See, he says smolder in a very threatening way. HOTEZ: Yes. BERMAN: You're actually saying it's not threatening enough. But what I think Dr. Fauci is saying something he has said consistently, which is, we have never in this country suppressed the virus enough. We didn't do it in May and June, which is why we saw this huge resurgence. And I think he's saying, we better make damned well sure we do it now, which is when you're saying. That it's not just enough to stall at 100 miles an hour. HOTEZ: Absolutely. We're -- we're totally in alignment. And we've got to do this. And the problem is, you can't just -- we can't do it as we've been doing it. It's been a failed strategy so far. The strategy so far says, put the states in the lead. Let the states figure it out and the federal government will provide the backup FEMA support, the PPE, the manufacturing. It doesn't work. We need the federal government out in front. We need the full horsepower of the Centers for Disease Control put directives to the states what to do to bring us all to containment mode. And until we do that, the deaths will continue to mount. We'll be at 160,000 deaths in a few days. We'll be at 170,000 deaths the week after that. The Institute for Health Metrics says we'll be at 230,000 deaths by the end of October, and we'll be at 300,000 deaths by the end of 2020. We'll double the number of deaths. And we've got to stop it. Because it's gone beyond even just a public health problem. People feel scared. And they should feel scared. Teachers are worried. Teachers don't want to go to work under those kinds of circumstances. And we should not make them go to work. Remember, in terms of deaths, right, we heard from meadows, the president's chief of staff saying, it's only people under 75, but 20 percent of the death occur from people under the age of 65. All of these schoolteachers, 45, 50 years old, their health is at risk. And if they try to go back to work in communities where there's lots of transmission, some will get sick, and some will be hospitalized and that will be incredibly destabilizing and the the whole thing will fall apart. And there seems to be this tone deafness to the White House about all of this. And not understanding that it's in their hands to fix this, and only they can fix it. And if they continue to do as they're doing, the -- whether we smolder or we have a raging forest fire, this thing is still going to continue. BERMAN: Dr. Peter Hotez, thank you very much for being with us this morning. Appreciate it, as always. HOTEZ: Thank you. BERMAN: We should note Dr. Anthony Fauci will join us live on NEW DAY coming up in about half an hour. CAMEROTA: We are looking forward to that. Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter taking action to remove a video of the president talking about children and coronavirus. What was it that was so misleading and so offensive that they finally took this action? That's next.

Dr. Fauci Warns COVID-19 May Never Be Eradicated

Dr. Fauci warnt davor, dass COVID-19 möglicherweise nie ausgerottet wird

福奇博士警告：新冠病毒可能永远不会被根除

CURNOW: New numbers from Johns Hopkins, more than 160,000 people in the U.S. have now died from the coronavirus. And some researchers say that number could nearly double by the end of the year. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation is predicting nearly 300,000 U.S. deaths by December, but they say tens of thousands of lives could be saved if 95 percent of Americans consistently wear masks. Now, the CDC is urging people to avoid masks with volts or vents like these. Take a look at this because many of you might be wearing these in good faith. That's because the point is actually to stop respiratory droplets from spreading in the air and these vents don't help. Meanwhile, the U.S. President says he's hopeful about a vaccine. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said that a vaccine could be ready around November 3rd. Are you optimistic that that will happen? And will that give you a boost in the election? DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On the vaccine? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. TRUMP: I am. I'm optimistic that it'll be probably around that date. I believe we'll have the vaccine before the end of the year, certainly. But around that date, yes, I think so. CURNOW: The top U.S. infectious disease doctor says it's time for the country to get serious in order to lower infection rates by November. Martin Savidge has this report. Martin. DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: This is a predictor of trouble ahead. MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Experts worry about the percentage of positive test results in the country, on the rise in 33 states. In a private call with state and local officials, White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx outlining areas in danger. DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE RESPONSE COORDINATOR: We are concerned that both Baltimore and Atlanta remain at a very high level. Kansas City, Portland, Omaha, and of course what we talked about in the Central Valley. SAVIDGE (voice-over): The nation's top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci warning even a small uptick, a fraction of a percent is a problem. FAUCI: It's a clear indication that you are getting an uptick in cases which inevitably, as we've seen in the southern states, leads to surges and then you get hospitalizations, and then you get deaths. SAVIDGE (voice-over): Louisiana and Mississippi topped the list of states with the highest per capita rate. Dr. Fauci says it's still possible to get coronavirus down to manageable levels by the November election if people do the right things like wear masks. Across the country, states, cities even sports are cracking down on people doing the wrong things. The governor of Rhode Island is asking residents to report people gathering in large numbers not wearing masks. And in Los Angeles County were infections among young people 18 to 29 have nearly quadrupled since June. The mayor of Los Angeles, he's authorizing the city to shut up water and power to properties where big parties are held. Health officials are appealing to young people to be the solution, not the problem. FAUCI: Don't be the weak link in the chain. Be a very strong part of the chain of ultimately getting us down. SAVIDGE (voice-over): Major League Baseball also cracking down after COVID outbreaks on two teams. New rules threaten players with suspension for failing to wear a mask at all times when not on the field and requires that surgical or N95 masks be worn while players are on buses and airplanes. Cloth masks are not allowed. When on the road, players and coaches also have to get permission before leaving the hotel. And college football could face its own challenges. MARK EMMERT, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION: I think it's going to be very dependent upon what we do as Americans. You know, the trend lines right now of course are very challenging. In some parts of the country, they're awful. SAVIDGE (voice-over): Martin Savidge, CNN, Atlanta. CURNOW: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez is an internal medicine and viral specialist, joins me now from Los Angeles. Dr. Rodriguez, good to see you again. So what do you make of this latest projection that up to 300,000 people could die by December here in the U.S.? It's mind- boggling. DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: It is mind-boggling. And it's, at least, accurate, if not a little bit under what may happen. Listen, we've been having at least 1,000 cases over the past week, and that continues for the next 120, 150 days, which takes us to December, we will easily unfortunately hit 300,000. My concern is that we are starting then to go into the winter months and all projections are that it could be worse during that time. So the time to make a difference was actually yesterday. But today is second best to really start wearing your mask and making, you know, a dent in this upkeep that we have in cases. CURNOW: Yes. It is just an uptick on those graphs. It's daunting to look at. I want to talk about, you know -- there's studies coming out of everywhere at the moment and it's difficult to figure out which ones you really want to pay attention to. We're hearing one coming out of Hong Kong, which says the coronavirus infection appears to suppress the function of these important immune system cells. I mean, do we know that already that this is preventing the body from fighting off infection? And what do you -- what new are you learning from that particular study? RODRIGUEZ: Well, what we're learning is that a specific type of white blood cell called the T lymphocyte. Now, there are many, it's very complicated. There are many different types of white blood cells. This is the type of cell that makes antibodies, this is the type of cells that sometimes remembers that you've had an infection and keeps it as a memory and helps fight it. If someone has weakened T-cells, which by the way, is what the HIV virus attacks, then maybe they cannot mount a response. So we're getting a lot of information fast and furious. We're seeing -- we're appearing to know where the virus is attacking and what responsive causes and we shouldn't right now in too much on this because it is just one step in a huge ladder that's going to eventually tell us how the virus attacks, who would attacks the most. And if we know that, we can then maybe find out what population might be at greater risk. So this is just one piece of a puzzle that is quickly becoming evidence. CURNOW: And also importantly how to treat it. RODRIGUEZ: Yes. CURNOW: I know we just heard our reporter talk about school closures and that sort of thing. I know this is a question that's been felt across the world. A British official, you know, I heard said that school should be the last to close and the first to open. Parents are agonizing about the school reopenings particularly here in the U.S. But I find it interesting that, you know, a place like Georgia, tattoo parlors, beauty salons, bowling alleys are all open. So you can take your kids to a concert at Billy Bob's Texas Honky Tonk. I kid you not with 1,000 people, you know, all gathering watching a concert, but you can't take your kids to school. And there seems to be a disconnect between what is important. Shouldn't clubs and pubs be closed and schools be open? RODRIGUEZ: Actually, right now, I think that right now they should all be closed, to be honest. CURNOW: Everything? RODRIGUEZ: Yes, I do. Because we don't really know enough but I think you absolutely hit on a very important point. There is a disconnect. And part of the disconnect is that some people's freedom, quote unquote, they defined it as being able to do what they want and have fun. And children are sacred, obviously. And we don't want them to be at risk. But this is the problem here in the U.S. We need to be consistent with our policies across the board. Closed spaces, not good, great number of people, not good, whether that's in a school or in a bar. We need to be consistent. You hit it right on the head. CURNOW: OK. Dr. Rodriguez, always good to speak to you. Thanks for your expertise and all the work you're doing as well. Appreciate it. RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. CURNOW: So just ahead, we will go back to Beirut for more on the blast and its aftermath. And we'll get the story behind this video from a Greek Orthodox Church. Stay with us for that.

White House Advisers Urge The Public To Wear Masks; New Model: U.S. Death Toll Could Reach 300,000 By December

Berater des Weißen Hauses fordern die Öffentlichkeit auf, Masken zu tragen; Neues Modell: Die Zahl der Todesfälle in den USA könnte bis Dezember 300.000 erreichen

白宫顾问力劝公众佩戴口罩；新的模型预测结果显示：美国死亡人数可能在12月达到30万

KEILAR: You have heard of the expression, "Do as I say, not as I do." Well, a leading evangelical voice is apologizing for something that he did that's an apparent violation of the honor code he holds his students to. Jerry Falwell Jr posted a photo of himself in unzipped pants with one arm around a woman and then holding a glass with what he described as, quote, black water." Falwell explained in a radio interview that it was all in good fun. JERRY FALWELL JR, PRESIDENT, LIBERTY UNIVERSITY (voice-over): You know, it was weird because she was pregnant and couldn't get her pants zipped. And I was like, trying to like -- I had on a pair of jeans I haven't worn in a long time and I couldn't get mine zipped either. So -- and so I just put my belly out like hers and it was just -- she's my wife's assistant and she is a sweetheart. And I should have never put up a photo and embarrassed her because -- anyway, I have apologized to everybody. And I promised my kids I'm going to try to be a better. I'm going to try to be a good boy from here on out. KEILAR: Well, that apology may not be enough. Falwell is the head of Liberty University, which maintains a strict code of ethics, banning lewd lyrics, sexual conduct and immodest dress, among other things. And this isn't the first time that Falwell Jr has caused a scandal. He was urged to step down after making a black-face joke. One member of university's the advisory board, Congressman Mark Walker, tweeted that he was appalled by Falwell's behavior and is calling on him to resign. And Congressman Walker is joining me right now. Sir, thanks for coming on to talk about this. You are calling for him to resign. Tell us why. REP. MARK WALKER (R-NC): Brianna, I just think there's a code that leaders have to live by, especially when you're leading the largest Christian evangelical university in the country. Now, Jerry Jr deserves a lot of credit for building Liberty University to what it is today. But there's a pattern of behavior not becoming to what the school's code of conduct is. On the property itself, Jonathan Falwell, heads where his father was. Even if you listen to his comments on the radio show, he apologized for embarrassing the young lady. He did not apologize to the thousands of alumni, the students, faculty and many others who hold Liberty University in a high esteem. KEILAR: I mean, why do you think there's this pattern of behavior? What do you think is going on here? WALKER: It's very troubling. I was a pastor for 16 years myself before running for the United States Congress almost seven years ago. I don't want to speculate. I don't know his heart. I don't know if there are other things going on. Over the last two or three years, it has come to the forefront. And as a pastor, as I was referencing, every meeting I try to have, I try to have a redemptive element that runs through it. I hope that's how they will talk to Jerry Jr. We cannot look the other way with this behavior where you have a strict code, one I don't disagree with in many cases, but you're out here promoting, talking, and being smug about. Even the Instagram post that I'm going to try to be a better boy from here on. There's no penitent heart in that. And I would hope that he could do better. I'm not here to try to attack him. But I am saying this is not the design of the university or his founding father, who, literally, blood, sweat, and tears, created this on the side of a mountain. KEILAR: Falwell, of course, is a big supporter of President Trump's. Are you worried at all that his actions could hurt the president's evangelical support? WALKER: I don't think so. Evangelicals are independent in their thinking process when it comes to their churches, whether it's universities, in this case, schools, whatever it might be. I don't think there's any factor in that at all. I just think as a former pastor, and evangelical, someone who taught as an instructor on the campus of Liberty University. I felt it was time to address it, not from a harsh or attack vendetta, but something I believe he has reached a place where he needs people around him to help guide him through the season of life. KEILAR: I want to ask you about something the president said, especially -- I think this is something that, with your perspective as a man of faith and a former pastor and Republican, that I think I really want to get your insight on. This is an attack he made on Joe Biden. TRUMP: He's following the radical left agenda. No religion. No anything. Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He's against God. He's against guns. He's against the Bible. Essentially, against religion. But against the Bible. Joe Biden and the radical Democrats are against fracking. They're against guns. And they're against the Bible, essentially. They're against God. If Joe Biden were to become president, they want to crush religious liberty. They don't want religion. KEILAR: I think we all know Joe Biden is a man of faith. I'm sure you have disagreements with him on that. But just on the president attacking his faith, what do you think of those remarks? WALKER: Well, I think of the scripture -- I believe it comes from the book of Proverbs -- that says, man looks on the outside, God looks in the heart. We don't know someone's heart. We do have some ability to look at one's actions. I heard Senator Reid say that's a very personal matter. It is to some degree. But we're also commanded to go and preach, make disciples across the world. So, I do believe there should be some fruit. If you're going to talk the talk, you must walk the walk. But specifically, as far as going after somebody, as far as their faith and level of it, it's something that's not in my wheelhouse or something I'm not comfortable with. Yet, at the same time, if you're going to have zero problem when it comes to the level of abortions that we see in this country, and some other, what we would call moral things from our perspective, I think you can push back a little bit and say this lifestyle doesn't match what you're talking about when it comes to your faith. But as far as knowing what's inside someone's heart, I believe only All Mighty God knows that. KEILAR: There are a number of moral issues. And you talk about talking the talk and walking the walk. Couldn't you make the same criticism or raise the same questions about President Trump and his actions? WALKER: I don't believe there's any questions that, when it comes to someone with a background such as the president's, you could certainly make a case this is someone who has not led the most moral life. But unlike the chancellor of the president of a Christian university, it is the people that get to make that decision every four years in November to be able to say, do we want someone who has am sweet or kind or gentle or moral personality, if you will, or do we want someone able to get us from point A to point B. And I think there's much evidence to support the argument that, for the first three years, three years, two months, three years, three months, that the president did exactly that. When it comes to our economy, when it comes to criminal justice reform, there's much to celebrate. I think that's where the American people are and were. We'll see what they say this November. But it's not necessarily the moral content that makes a good leader. Would you like both? Certainly, always. But I think the success in getting things done is what most of the American people are looking for in an elected official. KEILAR: Congressman Mark Walker, I really appreciate you coming on. Thanks for joining us. WALKER: A privilege. Thank you. KEILAR: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is authorizing all New York school districts to reopen for in-person learning. The numbers that he says are driving his decision. And what's the plan if numbers spike? Plus, as Dr. Fauci says, the country's division is holding the coronavirus response back. We're going to look at how some Americans view the pandemic and how that depends really on what they watch.

Rep. Mark Walker, (R-NC), Discusses His Call for Jerry Falwell Jr to Resign from Liberty University After Posting Photo with Pants Unzipped, Trump's Comment that Biden Will "Hurt God".

Rep. Mark Walker, (R-NC), bespricht seine Forderung nach dem Rücktritt von Jerry Falwell Jr von der Liberty University, nachdem er ein Foto von sich selbst mit geöffneter Hose veröffentlicht hat. Trumps Kommentar, dass Biden „Gott verletzen“ wird.

众议员马克·沃克（北卡罗来纳州共和党）讨论了他希望小杰瑞·法威尔从利伯缇大学辞职的要求，因为他在网上发布的照片中裤子拉链没拉好，特朗普评论拜登将“伤害上帝”。

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: In a major reversal, a Georgia high school that suspended a student after she took this photo of a crowded hallway and shared it on social media, has reversed the suspension, the student's mother tells CNN. That student, Hannah Watters, says she took the photo because CDC guidelines were not being followed and she was concerned for everyone's safety. The school superintendent says that picture was taken out of context. CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro joins us now. Evan, I do not know how a photo can be taken out of context. Seems to show what's going on. But you tell us what's going on here. EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think we're learning something about the power of civil disobedience in this enterprise. Hannah Watters called her photo "good and necessary trouble." She knew it may run afoul of the rules, but it was worthwhile to do it. Everyone wants to see what the inside of school is going to be like in the fall. It showed a crowded hallway with kids not wearing very many masks and she thought that was damaging. The official at the school originally said that, look, yes, as you said, this is taken out of context, a five-minute period between classes. But they also told parents that this isn't a very good photo. And we're trying to make changes to the way we're doing things. So, in the battle between Hannah Watters and the school system, she appears to have won. At first, they said, OK, this is bad, but it did violate the rules, so you're suspended. And her mother telling CNN the suspension will be lifted and nothing on Hannah Watters' record. In my opinion, this is a story about a COVID hero -- Brianna? KEILAR: And I think we thought they were standing that close all day in school. I think we're pretty clear this is them moving through the hallway there. Evan, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. And 250,000 people are expected to attend a motorcycle rally in South Dakota this weekend despite concerns from health officials. I'll speak to one hotel owner about precautions he's taking. Plus, just in, a new study suggests that heart attack victims may be dying because of coronavirus fears. The Providence Heart Institute says people have stayed away from emergency rooms with acute heart attack symptoms and that many have died as a result. Stand by for more.

Student's Suspension Reversed over Picture of Crowded Hallways

Aufhebung der Suspendierung eines Schülers wegen eines Bildes von überfüllten Gängen

拥挤的走廊景像是对学生停学状态的大逆转

BLITZER: We're learning more about what kind of masks we all should be wearing. CNN's Brian Todd is working the story for us. Brian, I understand it's a new guidance on masks from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What are you learning? BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is new guidance, Wolf. Public health experts tonight are really streamlining the advice they're giving Americans on what kind of masks we should be wearing. And they say there's never been a more important time to listen to that advice. TODD (voice-over): For months, America's top health officials and experts have pounded home the message, we have to wear masks to combat this pandemic. Tonight, the U.S. government says not just any mask will do. The CDC says we should not wear masks with one way vents or valves. A trainer of frontline medical personnel wearing protective gear shows us why. GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER, GLOBAL BIORISK ADVISORY COUNCIL: Mask with valves have a one way valve. And this doesn't work. Because what happens, and we've known this for a long time, when I breathe out, that valve only opens and allows that air to escape from me, which could infect you. TODD (voice-over): Public health experts say those top of the line N95 surgical masks should not be worn by members of the public, should be reserved for frontline health care workers. So just what kind of masks should the rest of us be wearing? MACGREGOR-SKINNER: It should be really tightly woven fabric, bed sheets make ideal facial masks because they can be claimed and the woven material is really tight. So again, anything like that works well. Anything that's -- any material that stretches does not make a good mask because it'll allow those respiratory drops to escape. TODD (voice-over): Are there enough top of the line masks for doctors and nurses on the front lines? For weeks, the Trump administration has been telling us there are, saying this about personal protective equipment. MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: PPE, we hear remains very strong. TODD (voice-over): But nurses, governors, other frontline workers across the country have said they're struggling to get enough masks and other supplies. MACGREGOR-SKINNER: The shortage is real. In a number of hospitals, nursing homes, long-term care facilities that I work in every day, yes, they're struggling. They're struggling with supply chain issues. TODD (voice-over): So, the FDA has now loosened its requirements for companies to get emergency authorization for masks and other gear. This all comes as new studies and projections drive home the point, mask wearing is simply a matter of life and death at this moment in the pandemic. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington now forecasts America's death toll from coronavirus could reach nearly 300,000 by December 1st. But if 95 percent of people in the U.S. were masks, that number could drop by about 70,000 fewer deaths. PROF. WILLIAM HANAGE, EPIDEMIOLOGIST, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: It is unquestionable that if you deny the virus the opportunity to transmit, that slows the pandemic down. If you deny it enough opportunities to transmit, it will go extinct. So everything that you can do to stop giving it the opportunity to infect another human being is extremely helpful. Masks are a large part of that. TODD (voice-over): And frontline professionals are now saying, enough, enough of people refusing to wear masks or simply not remembering or caring enough to take the precaution. DR. DESMOND CARSON, EMERGENCY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN: As a very little effort, minimal effort to minimize loss of life. It's just -- it's ridiculous. It's disrespectful. It's inhumane. We're human beings. TODD: Medical experts do can see there's been way too much confusion over the wearing of masks, different guidelines over which masks to wear, how to wear them even whether to wear them at all. But one expert points out, hey, this is a pandemic, even our top experts are going to make mistakes sometimes. What's important, he says, is that our medical leaders are transparent with us on what they're learning, when they're learning it. And it's very important, he says, that we listen to them, especially regarding mask wearing. Wolf. BLITZER: Yes, it's critically important that everyone when they go outside, just wear a mask, you'll save people's lives and you might save your own life at the same time. Brian Todd, thank you very much. There's more breaking news, we're following the U.S. now inching closer and closer to 5 million known coronavirus cases as the death toll climbs. But testing declines in more than two dozen states.

CDC Warns Not To Wear Masks With Vents Or Valves.

CDC warnt davor, Masken mit Belüftungsöffnungen oder Ventilen zu tragen.

疾控中心警告不要戴有通气口或阀门的口罩。

BRUNHUBER: U.S. politicians are heading into another weekend without a deal on the next package for coronavirus relief. Talks between Democrats and Republicans stalled Friday, with President Trump laying out potential executive actions if Congress doesn't reach an agreement. Friday, Mr. Trump, again, blamed Democrats for the stalemate. He said his executive orders would include a payroll tax deferment and extend unemployment benefits. But Congress controls the company's finances. So, well, can he legally do it? Here's what he said. QUESTION: Are you concerned about the legality of these executive orders? TRUMP: Not at all. No. Somebody -- well, you always get sued. I mean, everything you do, you get sued. I was sued on the travel ban and we won. I was sued on a lot of things and we won. So we'll see. Yes, probably, we get sued. But people feel that we can do it. RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Any other year and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is a novelty. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything is cool. You guys should come out. YOUNG: A pilgrimage. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We came 2,000 miles to work. YOUNG: A celebration. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just the happiest people in the world. YOUNG: But this year, some fear it could be deadly, 250,000 people expected to crowd a town of 7,000, making it the largest public gathering since the start of the pandemic. LAURA ARMSTRONG, PRESIDENT, RAPID CITY COMMON COUNCIL: They're not going to be able to handle any kind of social distancing. There is a significant amount of alcohol involved. It's a huge party. YOUNG: Total coronavirus cases are low but rising in South Dakota. The state's testing positivity rate is between 8 percent and 9 percent. The WHO recommends locations at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days before opening but South Dakota never closed so the rally isn't breaking any laws. ROD WOODRUFF, OWNER, BUFFALO CHIP CAMPGROUND: I always look up here as being false evidence appearing real and I think that's what has happened. YOUNG: Rod Woodruff owns the Buffalo Chip Campground with 600 acres. He says there's plenty of room for social distancing and common sense. WOODRUFF: Ride free, take risks. That's our motto, right? That doesn't mean you don't calculate them. These people calculate their risk every time they get on a motorcycle. YOUNG: A city survey of Sturgis residents found 60 percent wanted the rally cancelled at this time but city leaders say bikers were coming anyway. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't care if it's closed down. I'm going. They can all kiss my YOUNG: So the city council allowed it with fewer official events but no mask requirement. For those afraid to leave home, the city will deliver supplies. MAYOR MARK CARSTENSEN (R-SD), STURGIS: We've been doing that the entire time. We're actually expanding the program during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. They include anything that can be bought in Sturgis basically. GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R-SD): Our economy benefits when people come and visit us. YOUNG: South Dakota's Republican Governor Kristi Noem welcomes the crowd and says events like the Independence Day celebration out in Mount Rushmore proved the state isn't drastically affected by large gatherings. NOEM: So we know we can have these events and give people information, let them protect their health but still enjoy their way of life. YOUNG: That's what vendors like Ted Smith want to hear. He came all the way from Florida. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't do work in Florida. It's no shows. It's no bike shows. They've all cancelled them out. YOUNG: But others worry that 250,000 people crowding bars and restaurants could spread the virus and sent it home to others. ARMSTRONG: They can infect our Native American populations, our law enforcement and potentially our bar staff. YOUNG: And the people we talked to said they believe the mask requirements are just political nonsense and they plan to not wear them throughout the weekend. They plan to social distance because there's a lot of space out here and they feel they're going to be safe -- Ryan Young, CNN, Sturgis, South Dakota. BRUNHUBER: Well, it's the issue on the mind of almost every parent in the U.S., children returning to school. Now the nation's largest school district has outlined its plan for the fall semester. New York City will offer hybrid learning, where both in-person and remote learning options will be available. Some will have various safety precautions like thermometers, hand sanitizer and more cleanings. Testing will be required for staff and be available for students and their families. There's also a plan for the worst case scenario. MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: I want to hold New York City Schools to a very tough standard. And that is that 3 percent standard over a seven-day period. If our average goes above 3 percent infection, in New York City, we would not open schools if it happens during the school year. We would close them. But with 1.1 million school kids and three-quarters of our families who've said they want their kids back in school, they want that support. They want their kids to do better educationally, then they can do it remotely. They want everything that goes with school, the social development, the mental health services, physical health services, food, to honor our obligations to do our very best for parents and families. BRUNHUBER: Obviously not all schools can offer a hybrid model. More than half of the 100 U.S.' largest school districts will be starting online. This means more than 7 million students will be learning virtually so many parents are having to put their jobs on hold to stay home. CNN's Bianna Golodryga reports. SARAH PARRA, TEACHER: It didn't really make sense for me to go to work and pay somebody else to be home with my own kids. BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the first time in four years, Sarah Parra won't be able to meet her new class of preschool students when the school year begins at Smyrna First Baptist school just outside of Atlanta. PARRA: I'm constantly thinking about my students and what they need. So it's going to be hard. GOLODRYGA (voice-over): Instead, she'll be teaching and taking care of her own young children. When the Cobb County School District announced that the school year will begin online, Parra was forced to rethink her working life. PARRA: We have always organized our finances to where we could live off of one salary. GOLODRYGA (voice-over): Pre-COVID, women made up half of the U.S. workforce. But as noted in a recent report from Goldman Sachs, that participation rate is directly tied to accessible childcare. With millions of children starting the school year virtually, coupled with fewer daycare options, an enormous number of Americans are now forced to come up with childcare solutions before they can return to work. PARRA: When I'm home, I'm a wife and I'm a mother. And I feel like it's -- a teacher is just another part of my identity. And that's really what's going to be missing. GOLODRYGA (voice-over): It turns out, many of those solutions involve working moms putting their careers on hold. JOSEPH ALLEN, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT SCIENCE, HARVARD: There are enormous societal and individual costs to school closures that are not being discussed. It has to be a absolute priority to get kids back to school for their own good and also to get the economy re-going. GOLODRYGA (voice-over): Piedad Sanchez had to leave the cleaning company she worked for in order to take care of her three children ranging in age from eight to 11. PIEDAD SANCHEZ, WORKING MOM: I had to quit because at this time, for me, my kids are more important. We're more tight with the money. GOLODRYGA (voice-over): Sanchez is also investing her time within her own community, helping families navigate language barriers to online learning, which is disproportionately set back Hispanic students. SANCHEZ: They may be don't understand the language, but I help them. GOLODRYGA (voice-over): As Congress continues to debate another stimulus bill, the school and childcare crisis is one of the few areas that has bipartisan support. For moms like Piedad and Sarah, it's too late. SANCHEZ: There is no option, because I have to maybe ask somebody come to watch them but there is not an option for me. PARRA: They can't hold my place for me for when school goes back, which makes it a little unsettling not having an end date for all of this. GOLODRYGA (voice-over): Bianna Golodryga, CNN, New York. BRUNHUBER: That's such a tough situation for so many people. After the break, we've got the latest from Beirut, including the story of a married couple whose apartment overlooked the port. The blast knocked them out cold and could have killed them but they're among the survivors. We'll have more after the break. Plus, new developments in the deadly Air India crash as officials recover the plane's flight data recorder.

Stimulus Talks Break Down on Capitol Hill; Riders Gather in South Dakota for 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally; Georgia School District Quarantines 260 Students and Eight Teachers after First Week of School

Stimulierungsgespräche auf dem Capitol Hill gescheitert; Motorradfahrer versammeln sich in South Dakota zur 80. Sturgis Motorcycle Rally; Schulbezirk in Georgia stellt 260 Schüler und acht Lehrer nach der ersten Schulwoche unter Quarantäne

刺激计划谈判在国会山破裂；骑手们聚集在南达科他州参加第80届斯图吉斯摩托车拉力赛；乔治亚学区在开学第一周后隔离了260名学生和8名教师

SANCHEZ: President Trump's announced new executive actions after Congress failed to a pass a new stimulus bill as tens of millions of Americans suffer from the economic catastrophe caused by the coronavirus. The president circumvented Congress by enacting a payroll tax deferment and reducing weekly unemployment benefits from $600 to $400 of which states are going to have to kick in a $100. The president's actions also included protections for 40 million Americans facing evictions across the country, but there's no clear time line of how soon this will help will reach those that need it most. With me now, former long time democratic U.S. senator from California, Barbara Boxer. Senator, thanks so much for joining us tonight. BARBARA BOXER (D), FORMER U.S. SENATOR FOR CALIFORNIA: Thank you. SANCHEZ: After the president -- of course. After the president announced his executive actions late today on stimulus relief, Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Schumer called his announcement weak and narrow. What would you say to Americans that say that at least the president did something while Congress remains gridlocked? BOXER: The president doesn't know how to be a president. Thanks to the people of California I've served for a very long time in the Congress and House and Senate for 34 years combined. Five presidents. Now this president had an opportunity to do the good thing, the right thing, to walk into a negotiation. He says he knows the art of the deal. Where was he? He sends I call them the M&M brothers, Mnuchin and Meadows who don't really want a deal and they can't deliver a deal. You know, Meadows is from the tea party. He doesn't believe the government should do anything. So the president took this moment and instead of doing his job that he's supposed to do, he turned it into one big mess. And everything you said about what he did I would question because I think that it's really -- he was stealing money from the social security trust fund and Medicare trust fund to pay for stuff, from FEMA. It's just one big mess. That's why there's no deal. SANCHEZ: And Senator, I'm curious as far as Democrats go, do you believe they made the right decision by walking away from a negotiating table over funding for state and local governments. Republicans not wanting to give them a trillion dollars. But, again, Americans sitting down at home facing unemployment, facing hunger, they're going to hear from Republicans saying they wanted to do something -- some thing, some form of help but Democrats didn't. BOXER: The Democrats did not walk away. The Democrats who had passed a bill weeks and weeks ago, OK, $3 trillion bill. Yes, to make sure that our heroes get the PPE, to make sure that state and local government, they're the ones who are carrying this whole fight against COVID, the president walked away from that. He doesn't even want to help them out. They're going to start laying people off. The schools, the president said, oh, you must reopen. And the Democrats have money in there for the schools. So what did they do? I was almost going to say Chuck and Nancy because that's what the president calls it. Speaker Pelosi and Democratic Leader Schumer they said, OK, we'll go down, we'll drop down a trillion dollars, meet us halfway, and they said no. And therefore people are going to be suffering. It's as simple as that. I do not see what the president did as really being effective. He didn't even extend because he's not allowed to extend the unemployment money. He setup a new program. It's a mess. As you point out the states have to provide money when he's not giving the states any money. So I think he just wanted to stamp his feet and he wanted people like you with all due respect to say to people like me why do the Democrats walk away? A, the president never walked in, B, the Democrats didn't walked away. And they're still available. They're still ready to go. SANCHEZ: To be fair we ask tough questions of everyone, senator. I do -- BOXER: It's all fair. It's a fair question. But it's just what the Republicans want the people to believe that the Democrats walked away when they did not walk away. People are hungry. People are hurting, people are sick and dying. And we need to do something to help the people not just some flimflam, quick, you know, quick thing so people think everything is going to be great. So I'm proud of the Democrats. Look, they're going to make a deal if they can make a deal. Believe me, they will. SANCHEZ: Senator Boxer, I want to turn now and pivot to the 2020 election and Joe Biden's search for a running mate. In March you said that he should listen to Congressman Jim Clyburn on this after he said he wants Biden to pick an African-American woman. We see Senator Kamala Harris right at the top of that list. I've spoken to people who say the good money is on her, the smart money is on her. She's a senator from California, as are you. Should she be the pick? BOXER: My seat it was a great election, yes. When I left the Senate she won that seat. I think I have no idea who is going to be picked, and I do think Jim Clyburn should be very, very involved with the pick. Because, look, as Joe Biden often says you stick with people who brought you to the dance. And with that, Jim Clyburn, you know, wow, he wouldn't have made it. And so Jim just stood up, he was a character witness and people listened. And they voted for Joe who was one of the nicest, most wonderful, compassionate people -- the opposite of Trump who doesn't seem to care or have one soft spot in his heart for anybody but himself. Really. SANCHEZ: You dance with the one who brought you and former Senator Barbara Boxer, we're glad you came out to the dance floor to be with us on this Saturday night. Thank you very much for your time. BOXER: Of course. SANCHEZ: The United States is home to some of the top medical experts in the world but a new study ranks the country's response to the pandemic in the bottom six of all countries. What went wrong? We'll discuss next.

Biden Narrows Down VP List With Convention Just Days Away

Biden schränkt die VP-Liste ein, da die Convention nur noch wenige Tage entfernt ist

距国会召开仅几天前，拜登缩短副总统候选人名单

ACOSTA: A bike rally is drawing tens of thousands of people to a small town in South Dakota for what doctors warn could turn into a coronavirus super spreader event. The Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is happening right now. That's despite the majority of town residents opposing it. The event is expected to draw, get this, 250,000 visitors over the next week. CNN's Ryan Young is there right now. Ryan, we've watching you all day long for days now reporting on this. We are concerned about you. I hope you're staying safe. Obviously you've got the mask on there. But it looks like a lot of other folks out there are not wearing masks and not really adhering to social distancing guidelines? RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Absolutely. Look, we've been here for the last few days and for the most part everyone has been pretty open. They've wanted to share their thought process about why they decided to come here. One, they didn't want to miss this massive rally. The other thing that people wanted to express to us is a lot of people just like the guy who just walked by a second ago, basically he thought the fact that I was wearing a mask didn't make any sense. He's like, there's no way that this can stop COVID-19. So you have a lot of varying opinions here. Met a lot of scientists who basically are telling us they don't believe in COVID-19. That's one side. There are other people who said, look, it's their freedom of choice. They can decide to do whatever they want to do. But I want to show you this video from down the street. It is packed here. That's the only way to explain this. If you've ever gone to one of these rallies, the bars are packed here, the restaurants are packed here. And quite honestly people are having a good time. This had been -- if someone's picked up emotions over the last few months of being stuck on the inside, they weren't going to miss this. And you have people coming from all across the country to be here. And we've seen them from as far away as Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Utah, people who want to be out and about. They said they love this country and they decided to be here. In fact, take a listen to this couple that traveled here for three days from California. GARRETT MILLER, TRAVELED FROM CALIFORNIA TO ATTEND RALLY: I'm not worried about it at all. We're from California so you've got to wear masks everywhere you go. So honestly, this is kind of refreshing coming out and not have to worry about it. SIA MILLER, TRAVELLED FROM CALIFORNIA TO ATTEND RALLY: I feel comfortable not wearing it. So it's good. YOUNG: And Jim, look, you've experienced this before. People often see us with the cameras and the mic, and they want to express their opinion about things. No different here. People riding up. They want to tell us that look, they believe some of this stuff that we've been saying for months is junk science. Take a look from above and look at the crowd and see all motorcycles that are lined up on this street. This multiplies itself over and over again. When you look at the overall case numbers for the state it's below 10,000 so a lot of people feel assured of that. They also point to the president having that rally here on July 4th and they say, look, there were some firework display, without a super spreader event. So there's no reason to go back and forth with people when they believe what they believe. Of course, there are people who are health officials who are concerned. Now this is an economic giant for the area. So there are some smaller businesses that are concerned about this. They've actually closed their doors, but there's others who are banking on the next few days to fill their registers with money, because obviously it's been a very tough year for small businesses across America. So a shot in the arm like this is unbelievable. And I can tell you, as you drive down the streets here it is just packed in terms of motorcycle after motorcycle after motorcycle, and on ACOSTA: Well, we're glad you're wearing one, Ryan, and we hope you continue to do so. We know you'll continue to do so. And for anybody who's talking to Ryan Young out there, please be polite. He is a great guy and a great reporter. Ryan Young, in South Dakota, thanks so much. We appreciate it. Good talking to you. Up next, as Americans cast their ballots beginning next month, what are officials doing to make sure they're vote is safe. Your weekend presidential brief is next and you are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Masks Not Required At South Dakota Biker Rally Expected To Draw 250,000 People

Bei der Biker-Rallye in South Dakota sind keine Masken erforderlich, von denen 250,000 Menschen erwartet werden

南达科他州摩托车拉力赛无需佩戴口罩，预计将吸引250000人

COOPER: American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association has published a startling new report. They say that there has been a 90 percent increase of new Coronavirus cases in children, over a four-week period, that ended last Thursday, the exact number 179,990, almost 180,000. President Trump said the report did not give him pause about reopening schools, said once again, that children "Don't catch it easily." A short time later, ABC News aired an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci. He was asked about whether masks should be mandated in schools. DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: There should be universal wearing of masks. There should be, the extent possible, social distancing, avoiding crowds. Outdoors always better than indoors, and be in a situation where you continually have the capability of washing your hands and cleaning up with sanitizers. COOPER: Dr. Tina Hartert of Vanderbilt University Medical Center joins us now, who's also working on the NIA - excuse me, working with the NIH on the study of the Coronavirus, in U.S. households. And William Haseltine, former Professor at Harvard Medical School and Author of "A Covid Back To School Guide." Professor Haseltine, when you hear Dr. Fauci say unequivocally there should be universal mask wearing at schools, I'm wondering what you make of that? It makes sense? WILLIAM HASELTINE, CHAIR AND PRESIDENT, ACCESS HEALTH INTERNATIONAL, FORMER PROFESSOR, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL, AUTHOR, "A COVID BACK TO SCHOOL GUIDE": It makes a lot of sense. We know that children can be infected. Children can infect others, and children can contract very serious disease. I think when we talk about children, we have to say, children from zero to five, they are highly infectious to other people. It turns out, they have 1,000 times more virus in their nose than you need to infect. So, they're very, very contagious. And that-- COOPER: So, when the President says that that children, don't pass it on, in the same way that adults do, that's just not correct? HASELTINE: In fact, it's correct, only in the opposite sense. It's very likely that small children pass it on much more efficiently. Then have you children in the ages of six to 12, they're the ones who are most likely to get the lethal effects of all the kids. They're the ones that get the lethal effects. The peak is about age seven to eight. Then you have children who are 13 to 19, they're still in school, and they're just like adults. If you look at the number of people, who are now hospitalized, the bulk of people who are now hospitalized, they're from 15 to 60. So, they're just adults. So, children are at risk, they should wear masks. COOPER: Dr. Hartert, we mentioned the new American Academy of Pediatrics report which found a 90 percent increase in the number of COVID cases among kids over the last four weeks. I'm wondering if you're surprised by those numbers. And what do you think accounts for them? Is it that testing is now - more kids are actually getting tested, and also more kids are now coming in contact with other people, whereas before they were more isolated? DR. TINA HARTERT, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Yes, I think it's both of those things. I think we previously didn't test people, if they had no symptoms, and we know children are much more likely to be asymptomatics. They're also much more likely not to be tested. And I think, as we've lifted restrictions, in different places, and more children are infected, we're both testing more, and children are becoming infected more often. COOPER: Professor Haseltine, when you hear about that rise, should that have implications on the reopening of schools? HASELTINE: Absolutely, it should. And so should the story of the Georgia camp, so should the schools that have already opened. We know that children can transmit this virus to each other at all ages and do. And I think that the doctor was right when she said that we now have a situation where we are measuring the children more, and more children are getting out. During the first part of this pandemic, some adults got out, but far fewer children interacted with each other. Now, we're going to maximize, we're going to put 50 million more kids in close contact. I think you're waiting for a second fire to erupt. You're pouring fuel on a raging fire. COOPER: Dr. Hartert, you're working on a study with NIH researchers that will track the rate of Coronavirus spread, among kids and families. I think it's in 2,000 households across the U.S. What do you - what's the - what's the importance of that? What do you expect to find? HARTERT: Right. So, this is the HEROS study, which is an NIH-led study of, as you mentioned, nearly 2,000 households with children and their families. So, we're studying children, the infection in children, the role of asymptomatic infection, transmission within the households, and also the role of allergies and asthma, particularly among children, about which we know very little, at this point. COOPER: And there's - so there's a lot about COVID and children that we still don't know? HARTERT: No, that's correct. I would say the role of children in transmission is uncertain. We know that children are infected with this virus. We know children transmit this virus. I think that the studies to date don't tell us the same stories, so you will hear, in the media, several small epidemiologic studies reported and studies about shedding a virus. And when we don't have studies that are telling us the same story, I think, it means that we're really still uncertain about children's spread. But I think we shouldn't ignore decades' worth of research about the very important role children play in spreading pretty much every other respiratory virus. So, I think, until we have better data, we really should say that the role of children, in transmitting virus is still uncertain. They certainly transmit it. How important their transmission is, compared to adults, I think, is not known, to this point. COOPER: And Professor Haseltine, it seems like we are - obviously, this is all happening to everybody at the same time, so there's no previous studies that have been done, so we're learning about this, as we go. But just as you're starting to see longer-term effects, in adults, who have had COVID cardiac incidents, neurological incidents, I'm wondering if there's concern that that could be the case with children as well, we just haven't had the length of time to see it. HASELTINE: You're right - you're right, Anderson, that children that do get sick get very sick, and very often have disease of the brain. They have heart disease. They may have aneurysms. That's ballooning of the arteries. I'd like to go back to something about the children's transmission, just for a second, and to point out that, Coronaviruses we know about. This is a Coronavirus. We've been living with them. They give us colds. And there's every reason to suspect that this virus, even though it can kill you, behaves pretty much like a cold virus, in terms of transmission. Who drives colds? Children drive colds. Who drives flu? As the doctor had said, flu is driven by young children in households. And that's true of almost all respiratory diseases, including the colds and including the colds that are caused by Coronaviruses. And this is one of those cousins. It even uses the same receptor, in the nasal passages, as one of the cold viruses. It just happens to be a cold virus that also kills. COOPER: Professor William Haseltine, as always, thank you. Dr. Tina Hartert, it's great to have you on the program, thank you, and good luck with your work. We appreciate it. One of the best hopes in helping stopping the spread, maybe those infected who weren't sickened at all, why are asymptomatic cases so critical to helping end this? Two scientists actively working to crack that code, next.

Report: 90 Percent Increase In COVID-19 Cases Among U.S. Children Over Last Four Weeks

Bericht: 90-prozentige Zunahme der COVID-19-Fälle bei US-Kindern in den letzten vier Wochen

报告：美国儿童2019冠状病毒疾病增加90%例

SCIUTTO: This just in to CNN, Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson has subpoenaed the director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, as part of the Republican-led committee's probe into the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation, and the appointment of the special counsel, Robert Mueller. The subpoena demands that Wray provide all records related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. We're going to continue to follow that story. Of course, it comes as U.S. intelligence has warned that Russia is interfering in this coming election, right now, to benefit Donald Trump. Well, a reality check on President Trump's claim that we will have a vaccine for coronavirus by Election Day -- note the timing. CNN has obtained a document from the biotech firm Moderna. That's the first company which is conducting so-called Phase Three vaccine trials. That document reveals that thousands more people need to be recruited for this study. Poppy, that's just the way vaccine trials work. HARLOW: Sure. And it's why, you know, they're not always very fast. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now. Good morning ,Elizabeth. Can you tell us what else critical is in this document? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is an e- mail that CNN obtained, an internal e-mail from Moderna to its investigators at 89 sites across the country. And, you know, President Trump has said he is optimistic -- that's the word he used -- that he would get a vaccine by Election Day. But these numbers that we found really call that into question. One researcher said no way. Other researchers we talked to -- these are outside researchers -- said this is not going to happen. So let's -- get out your calendar, get out your calculator. Let's take a look at these dates and at these numbers. What the e-mail said is that between July 27th and August 7th -- so the first two weeks of the trial -- they gave shots to 4,536 participants, but they need 30,000. Now, Moderna expects to finish their first round of shots sometime in September -- they haven't said when during that month -- but they have to give a second dose 28 days later. So even if Moderna does pick up the pace -- and by all accounts they likely will, this is the beginning and it will get faster, the enrollment will get faster. But even if they do pick up the pace, you have to wait 28 days, give the second round of shots, wait about two weeks until the vaccine kicks in, because it doesn't kick in immediately. Then wait for these people to go sort of out into the world and, you know, get exposed to the virus and maybe or maybe not get infected. So the -- and so the vaccinologists that we talked to said there's just no way that that can happen by Election Day. Now, one note, which is that Pfizer started their Phase Three just after Moderna did. They've offered up a much more optimistic timeline. They say that they think they can go to the FDA in October to get either a yea or nay to put their vaccine on the market. But the same experts we talked to said they think that is incredibly unrealistic. They just don't see how that can happen -- Jim, Poppy. SCIUTTO: So even Dr. Fauci, of course, in measured voice throughout this, has said consistently for the last several weeks that it is possible to have a workable, tested vaccine as soon as December, perhaps into early January next year. Is that still a reliable timeline from the folks you speak with? COHEN: Yes, that's about the same timeline that they're saying. They are saying, first quarter of next year, one researcher -- Dr. Peter Hotez, who is, you know, on our air, you know, frequently, said maybe we will have a glimmer of information by Inauguration Day. That was sort of his outlook, that maybe by Inauguration Day we would have a feeling for yes this vaccine works or this vaccine doesn't work. But he didn't think we'd have even a glimmer any time before then. SCIUTTO: Follow the science, that's what you do, that's what we always try to do on this broadcast. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much. Breaking news just in to CNN, CNN affiliates are reporting the multiple people are trapped after a major house explosion in a neighborhood north -- goodness gracious, look at those pictures -- northeast of Baltimore. HARLOW: Oh my gosh. Wow. We are seeing these images -- to our viewers -- just for the first time, as you are as well. Alexandra Field joins us with more. Do we know what happened? Do we know if anyone was in the house? ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely stunning images, Poppy and Jim. We are hearing from the firefighters' union in Baltimore that there were several people trapped, including children. We know that there are rescue operations and search operations that are getting under way now. Not clear how many houses may have been exploded. You can certainly see profound devastation there, totally unclear what could have caused the explosion at this point. We do know that emergency responders are of course heading there to help and conduct those rescue operations. We're also hearing that city officials are being briefed on the situation. Of course, all of this developing. We'll bring you more as soon as we have it, but just take a look at those pictures. This is truly just a horrific sight in this residential part of Baltimore. HARLOW: Gosh. Alex, please keep us posted. Thank you for that reporting. Violent clashes between protestors and police after the man dubbed "Europe's last dictator" wins in a landslide re-election. We'll bring you the facts on that election, next.

Trump Claims Coronavirus Vaccine Ready by Election Day

Trump behauptet, dass der Impfstoff gegen das Coronavirus bis zum Wahltag bereit ist

特朗普称冠状病毒疫苗在选举日前准备就绪

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: A backlash for the president now has him backtracking a bit on the idea of forcing states to help pay unemployment benefits which he had proposed over the weekend. The president tried to circumvent Congress with executive actions the Democrats and even some Republicans are calling legally questionable and a case of executive overreach. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now, Dr. Ashish Jha. He's the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. Dr. Jha, thank you very much for being with us this morning. Five million cases, a million more in the last 17 days, 100,000 children diagnosed in the last two weeks of July. What do these numbers tell you this morning? DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Good morning, and thank you for having me on. What they tell me is that the pandemic rages in the United States, that we remain the global hot spot. While we have somewhat again flattened things in the last couple of weeks, we're still generating 50,000 to 70,000 new cases a day, 1,000 Americans are dying every day. This is all wholly preventable, and my only plea to my fellow Americans is we have to not become immune to this level of suffering, and we have to take more action. HILL: I think that's such a great point, that we can't become immune to the level of suffering, that we can't become immune to the numbers, because at some point that's easy to do, and we know there's fatigue out there. It's been out there for weeks if not months. People are tired of having to go through some of these measures. But the reality is, Dr. Jha, if we don't continue with them, it will become far worse. That's the potential. JHA: It is absolutely, and especially as we head into the fall months, and people are going to be spending more time indoors, the flu season will arrive. I had a chance to talk to Dr. Fauci on Friday, and he said that if we do the basic public health measures that we've been talking about we can go into the fall in pretty good shape. Alternatively, we can continue to ignore a lot of them, and we can have a really awful fall and winter. And obviously we all know which one we'd prefer, but we do have to act. BERMAN: You want a case study in this? Let's go to Georgia. Let's go to the North Paulding school district in Georgia, the high school there where a student last week put out this picture of the hallways, a crowded hallway where you can see people clearly not social distancing, a lot of the students there not wearing masks. And the thing is that masks were not required in that school. There was no mask order in that school. Social distancing, by the way, the school said social distancing would not be possible in some cases. So when you're talking about doing things the wrong way, this may be a case study in that. And this morning, Dr. Jha, we're learning that six students and three staff members there have tested positive for coronavirus. So what does that tell you? JHA: Yes, so what it tells me is that if we just sort of act irresponsibly, if we just act like the virus isn't there and we go for it and try to tough it out, it won't work. You can't tough it out with this virus, right. So Georgia is in no shape to open its public schools in most of the state. Their virus levels are too high. And then the idea that you would possibly do this without getting kids to wear a mask. And the issues around crowded hallways at the time of class transitions, stagger class transitions. It's not that hard. It just feels like we're not even trying, and we're just going for it as though life were normal. It's not normal. We're in a pandemic and people have to act responsibly. HILL: David Gregory is also with us. It's not normal, and it's not normal to ignore the reality of what is happening, but that is what we are seeing consistently from the president, David. We saw these executive actions over the weekend, but they are not addressing the virus itself, which is what has us in this position. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised at this point because this is what the messaging has been. That being said, when we look at the number this is morning, David, how can that continue to be the message if we're ever going to get past this? DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, and the immediate problem that's dealt with there is that you've got this paralysis in Washington now about how to continue to help people who are going through this. So separate from the response, which has been failing and faltering and inconsistent, now getting help to people who need it is not happening, and not going to happen through these executive actions. You've heard in one small example whether states are in position to offer more immediate relief, checks to people, whether they can do it out of their own coffers because of their own depleted funds where they would have to take it from some kind of emergency response fund. It's totally unclear, and of course, the president doesn't have the power of the purse. That's Congress, which is why a broader deal is actually necessary. And just to piggyback on the point about schools, our kids are getting ready to go back to school, so many of them going back remotely, and those that aren't, and when we have examples like Georgia, it really sets everything back, because I agree, there has to be a big effort about how to get kids back to school safely, and schools have to find a way to get to yes. It's so important that kids don't have nothing to look forward to. We're having so much lost time and we have to put more resources and more effort into how to do it safely. BERMAN: But David, I know that you are keenly interested and passionate about schools finding a way to get to yes. But let's just put the picture up. I don't know that you can see it on your monitor now, but I know you have seen it, the picture of the crowded hallways in the Paulding high school system where there was no mask order in place, where they didn't say that social distancing was a requirement there. So something like this, a picture like this I know you find very frustrating. GREGORY: Very frustrating, and just stupid. I mean, that's not -- what have you been doing all summer? This is my real problem with so much of our response as citizens, which is just do the right thing. Do the thing that we know we're supposed to do. And schools, I have done this work on certain independent schools that happen to be boarding schools, where they're putting measures in place that's easier at a boarding school than at a day school, easier at independent private school than it would be at a public school, but many of the schools are following each other. We should remember, though, a lot of the alarm bells are among teachers who don't want to go into these environments. There are schools who put together good staggered plans about how to reduce the number of students who are there, that they might only be there a couple of days a week. We ought to be giving more of an opportunity for that to happen, particularly in areas where the infection rate is lower. And again, I think there's a lot of fear that pervades these school districts, public school districts that extends into all schools, where they're saying, hey, let's just hold on and wait to see what happens. HILL: It's interesting what you say. I spoke with a teacher over the weekend from Gwinnett County, which is the largest school district in the state of Georgia. She recently resigned because her request to work from home, which she said was initially offered, that request wasn't granted. But one of the things that she said to me, Dr. Jha, is she really sees that this entire process for bringing kids back to school, and staff back to school, has been completely politicized in her view. Not just in her county, she can speak to that best, but in other areas as well. And I think what we're seeing out of North Paulding also really speaks that that. We learn that Hannah Watters, who put this picture out, has now said she's getting threats because she put this picture out. JHA: It's shocking to me that we have -- our political leaders have decided to politicize our kids' lives and well-being. That's what the governor is doing, that's what a lot of federal leaders are doing. It is stunning the kind of, in my mind, the lack of any sense of moral compass here. Look, we all desperately need our kids to get back to school. We all need to get back to school safely. That's not debated. And instead of working hard to do that, we are punishing kids who are putting up pictures that things are unsafe. We're putting them at risk, and we just don't seem to want to seem to do the hard work. There is a science here. We can get kids back in safely, I believe we can. I think the science is pretty clear that we can. Lots of other countries have. But they haven't done it willy-nilly. They've actually done it by putting in the work that is necessary. Why America can't do that is baffling to me and really disappointing in terms of our political leaders. BERMAN: Dr. Jha -- one second, David, just one second. I just want to get, Doctor, the medical take on the 97,000 children testing positive the last two weeks of July. What does that tell you? JHA: It just is a reminder that kids are not immune, right. And we know that they're less likely to get sick, but they're not immune from this disease. And so when politicians say kids are essentially immune, no they're not. They do get infected. The good news is they don't get as sick as adults. And to me, it's just a reminder that we have to do this carefully and thoughtfully as opposed to saying kids are immune, let's get everybody back in. It's not going to work. BERMAN: Sorry, David, go ahead. GREGORY: I just think the politics, Dr. Jha, is also working the other way. There's school districts, school heads, county officials who are playing politics, too, who say, well, Trump wants to us get back into school. We're not going. And that's to your point what's so unfortunate about how politicized this has become. We see it on both ends, and what's getting sacrificed are good practices to get kids back into schools safely, and for teachers to be there safely. And it's difficult for teachers as well, because if they have kids who are no longer going to be in school or are going to be working remotely, then how are they supposed to come to work and school? It shouldn't be done at the last minute, push it through, and now we get set back. Every time we have a case like this in Georgia, we get set back because other teachers, other schools, so many of them follow each other, say oh no, we can't do this now. BERMAN: David Gregory, Dr. Jha, again, thank you so much for being with us this morning. Appreciate your time. JHA: Thank you. BERMAN: Erica? HILL: Breaking overnight, a heavy police presence on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago this morning after looters vandalized businesses overnight. Police are now swarming that area. We have learned shots have been fired. CNN's Polo Sandoval is live in Chicago right now with those breaking details. What led to all of this, Polo? POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, on what should be a busy Monday morning, instead a very eerie feeling in downtown Chicago. All you can see and hear, really the iconic draw bridges that were lifted and the bells coming from those bridges, authorities specifically closing those to try to contain this outbreak of violence we saw play out. And then what you see all throughout parts of downtown Chicago are these scenes. In this case this is an Apple store right in front of the Chicago river, you can see the glass was shattered here and looters making their way in just a couple of hours ago, and all you can hear is a store alarm that remains here. Police not having a chance to actually even make it here yet. So what we saw was shortly after midnight, we saw these large groups of people basically go across parts of downtown Chicago, many storefronts, many stores were vandalized. There was even a point where there was a confrontation between police and looters. Shots were fired. We do know that police were not injured. But according to police investigators, those police were responding to a looting incident and then were shot at. They then returned fire. Right now, it's unclear if anybody was actually injured there. But the big question here, what's behind this? To answer that you really have to look back at what we saw play out not only in this city but really across large American cities in outbreaks of violence in response to recent police shootings. Does that apply here? We know that there was a shooting incident in Chicago over the weekend, a police-involved shooting incident, but we won't hear from police for another hour or so, and that, Erica, is when we may get a little bit more clarity. But for now, it is relatively contained. But I can tell you, Erica, a lot of people who work and live in the downtown Chicago area are basically turning to those work from home plans, again, because getting into downtown Chicago is certainly not very easy right now. HILL: Polo, continue to keep us updated. We'll stay on top of it. Thank you so much. Former Vice President Joe Biden could be now just days away from announcing the woman he has chosen to be his running mate. So who is on the short list? We discuss next.

Nearly 100,000 Children Diagnosed with Coronavirus in Last Two Weeks of July; Schools Struggling to Reopen Amid Continuing Coronavirus Pandemic; Looting Takes Place in Chicago.

Fast 100.000 Kinder wurden in den letzten zwei Juliwochen mit dem Coronavirus diagnostiziert; Schulen kämpfen um die Wiedereröffnung inmitten der anhaltenden Coronavirus-Pandemie; In Chicago kommt es zu Plünderungen.

7月最后两周，近10万名儿童被诊断感染新冠病毒；在新型冠状病毒大流行持续之际，学校难以重新开学；芝加哥发生抢劫事件。

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: More than 20 million coronavirus cases have now been recorded across the globe, a quarter of them here in America. And it isn't slowing down anytime soon in the U.S. There has been a 90 percent jump in cases among children in just the last four weeks. But President Trump still isn't convinced it's a big deal for them. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They don't get very sick, they don't catch it easily, and they don't get very sick, and according to the people that I spoke into, they don't transport it or transfer it to other people or certainly not very easily. So yes, I think schools have to open. We want to get our economy going. CHURCH: Well that is definitely not the view of Dr. Sean O'Leary, the vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on infectious diseases. He spoke to Anderson Cooper earlier. SEAN O'LEARY, VICE CHAIR, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS COMMITTEE ON INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It's not fair to say that this virus is completely benign in children. We have had 90 deaths in children in the U.S. already in just a few months, right. Every year we worry about influenza in children, and there are roughly around a 100 deaths in children from Influenza every year, but when we look at, you know, just this short segment, short-- the small percentage overall of children that have been infected in across the U.S. this is not -- we can't say that it's completely benign in children. CHURCH: And as the pandemic rages on without a national plan in place, some U.S. schools have already reopened, without masks mandates and other safety precautions. CNN's Athena Jones reports on the impact of the risk they are taking. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just act like the virus isn't there and we kind of go for it and try to tough it out. It won't work. ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Public health experts warned this would happen and now it has. Schools in states with high rates of COVID-19 infections opening up too quickly without the proper precautions and suffering the consequences as new cases pile up. The Georgia High School made famous in this viral photo now temporarily closed after nine students and employees tested positive. The school where masks are not required holding classes remotely while it undergoes a deep cleaning. At least 16 schools in Cherokee County, Georgia have reported COVID cases among students or staff underlining the challenge of holding in-person classes in a state with the highest number of COVID cases per capita in the country. DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: The reason all this is happening is because we haven't controlled the virus spread in the community. JONES: The lack of a mask mandate in most Georgia schools and concerns about crowding prompting fear among teachers and families. BETH MOORE (D) GEORGIA STATE HOUSE: I have over 200 e-mails over the course of less than 48 hours from teachers, students, parents, staff members at school, all with really the same message that schools in Georgia are not prepared to go back to face-to-face instruction right now. JONES: The trouble with schools coming as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children Hospital Association, say nearly 100,000 children in the U.S. tested positive for COVID in just the last two weeks of July. With COVID positivity rates rising in 35 states compared to last week, there are new concerns in places like Idaho, Indiana and Illinois where Chicago's mayor tweeted this image of a crowded beach. In California, CNN affiliate KABC captured tense moments outside a church holding an indoor service Sunday in defiance of a judge's order. Average daily deaths nationwide have topped 1,000 for the past two weeks and several states are seeing record hospitalizations. Meanwhile, college football is hanging in the balance. Multiple sports outlets reporting leaders of the Power Five Sports Conferences are in discussions about postponing the season due to COVID concerns, a move the mid-American conference announced over the weekend. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is crushing decision to be made by our membership. It was a decision that was made based on the advice of our medical experts. JONES: Athena Jones, CNN, New York. CHURCH: Joining me now is Annette Fernandez, a teacher in Daytona, Florida, preparing to go back to in-person teaching at her elementary school. Thank you so much for talking with us. ANNETTE FERNANDEZ, TEACHER DAYTONA, FLORIDA: Thank you for having me. CHURCH: Now your story broke my heart, you set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for a portable sink, because your students don't have access to running water in your portable classroom. How is this even possible in the richest nation in the world? FERNANDEZ: Yes. It is possible. We have 12 portables right now, and the portables do not have access to water and sink for handwashing. And I think that the portables or temporary classrooms from you know, maybe years ago and we are just still working from them. And so, I came up with this idea, because it will literally take so much -- it'll take away so much of our instructional time. Just to stand and make sure that everybody walks over to a bathroom that is not close to our room just to wash our hands. And so, I thought it would be safer for our children to have a sink in the classroom, where they can wash their hands. CHURCH: You are true hero for doing this. I mean, so many American teachers do dip into their own pockets to provide supplies and this is going far and beyond. FERNANDEZ: Thank you. CHURCH: So you will return to school for in person teaching at the end of August. What are your biggest concerns about that right now? FERNANDEZ: My biggest concern number one is myself becoming sick and bring it home to my family. But I am also truly concerned about my students. I don't think that, we have thought it through. If my students get sick I don't think that I can live with myself. I don't think that, you know, if one of my kids got sick and something devastating happened, how could I come back to the classroom after this? And so my biggest goal is to do whatever it is I can to keep them safe. CHURCH: Yes, incredible, and I know a lot of our viewers watching this from overseas would be shocked to hear this playing out in so many schools across America. Nearly 97 percent of the students of your school live in poverty. FERNANDEZ: Correct. CHURCH: About 75 percent are black, 7.42 percent are Hispanic. Why do you think these students have been forgotten in the middle of a pandemic? Particular given studies show that these children are more vulnerable to this virus than white kids. FERNANDEZ: I think, one of the biggest issues is that we do not have people from our community that are representing us when these decisions are made. And so, we lack the representation for these communities. CHURCH: And I did want to ask you, because you have to go back to school, and that is a requirement there in Florida. But you would not have a virtual learning as an alternative anyway, because presumably these students wouldn't have access to the Wi-Fi and the devices required to do that. FERNANDEZ: That is correct, currently I believe our district does not have the technology to provide for all students. This is correct. CHURCH: Annette Fernandez, thank you so much for talking with us and for doing what you've done. You are an incredible teacher. Thank you. FERNANDEZ: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. CHURCH: Well, U.S. health Secretary Alex Azar is the most senior U.S. official to visit Taiwan in decades and much to the annoyance of mainland China, he has met with the territories foreign minister. Earlier Azar praised Taiwan for its response to the coronavirus pandemic. And in an exclusive interview with CNN Paula Hancocks, he compared it to the way the U.S. has manage the crisis. ALEX AZAR, U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: In terms of the president's historic response to the coronavirus crises a noble, unprecedented pandemic. We have actually been able to manage to ensure that the disease burden did not exceed our health system capacity. No American died because of a lack of a ventilator or a lack of an ICU bed, and that is a critical factor in terms of how we engaged in mitigation steps to keep as we say the curve within capacity. That was the core strategy initially, to delay and flatten the curve to keep the burden within the system's capacity. PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So what would you say to critics of the Trump administration who say your visit here, three months before an election is political? AZAR: My visit here is about supporting Taiwan and supporting Taiwan in the international public health community. My visit is about health it's, about the health of the people of Taiwan. It's about the health of the (inaudible) of the American people and it's about the health of the people of the world. And the way we protect that is by entities around the world being transparent, cooperative, collaborative, compliant with the international health regulations. And Taiwan has been a model of that. CHURCH: All right. Returning now to Lebanon and the anger that stern to violence following last week's devastating explosion, the protesters demanding the government to resign has gotten their wish. But Ben Wedeman reports, the political turmoil is far from not over. BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Prime Minister Hassan Diab announces the resignation of his government. Less than a week after the catastrophic explosion in Beirut's port that many here likened to an atomic bomb. Since then, the capital has been rocked by protests and clashes. The anger focused not so much on the Diab's government, as it is against the failure of the Lebanese state writ large. And adding insult to injury, the government represented by the security forces appeared to sit on its hands as Beirut residents dug out of the rubble. Did anyone from the state come here, I asked Siam Tikyam who was injured in the blasts. Frankly the word that you said, and I won't say it is not present in the dictionary, it by which Siam means the state, does not exist in the Lebanese dictionary. The blast was just the latest of Lebanon's calamities. The economy is in free fall, the local currency, the lira, has lost much of its value. Unemployment has skyrocketed, while the World Bank projects that half the population, will fall below the poverty line this year. Prime Minister Diab promised he would address all these problems, but his promises proved empty. He promised to fight corruption but the system of corruption he said in his speech is bigger than the state. Negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for bailout went nowhere. As Lebanese leader bickered among themselves and failed to commit fundamental reforms. And with Hezbollah a major backer of his cabinet, western and Arab Gulf governments, were hesitant to provide either aid or political cover. It now falls to the same sectarian power brokers who formed the Arabs government to form the next one. And as the famous saying goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In closing, Diab who now takes over as caretaker Prime Minister, appealed three times to God to protect Lebanon. In Lebanon at this point, it needs all the help they can get. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Beirut. CHURCH: Drama inside the White House press room, why Donald Trump was whisked away by Secret Service agents in the middle of a briefing. We'll explain.

Florida Teachers Prepare to Head Back to the In-Person Schooling; U.S. Health Secretary Goes One-On-One with CNN From Taiwan

Lehrer in Florida bereiten sich auf die Rückkehr zum persönlichen Unterricht vor; US-Gesundheitsminister spricht mit CNN aus Taiwan

佛罗里达州教师准备重返线下授课；美国卫生部长与CNN台湾记者进行一对一谈话

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM, and I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead, there are now more than 20 million cases of the coronavirus in the world. A quarter of those in the United States, and yet the U.S. President is urging the country to go back to normal. Also ahead, President Trump is forced to temporarily leave a White House briefing after a shooting nearby. The details on what happened. And a hurricane-like storm sweeps through the U.S. Midwest, leaving more than a million without power. Good to have you with us. Well we have reached another significant and somber milestone in the battle against the coronavirus. The number of confirmed cases worldwide has now surpassed 20 million. And even though the U.S. has 4 percent of the world's population, it has one quarter of the world's cases at just over 5 million. While Americans struggle to deal with this pandemic, the Trump administration insists additional unemployment insurance will be ready to go out in most states within the next two weeks. But how this will work is just a little murky. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says he hasn't spoken with Democrats since talks on coronavirus relief broke down last week, but he's ready if they call. And we're now learning the Trump administration is weighing restrictions on the U.S./Mexico border, citing virus concerns. A source tells CNN the administration is considering ways to restrict entry that could include American citizens and legal permanent residents. CNN reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and CDC officials for more information, and they declined to comment. Well, this virus mayhem is presenting huge challenges for schools and parents. A new report shows a sharp spike in the number of children with COVID-19 in the U.S. In the past four weeks, there's been a 90 percent increase that is according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association. CNN has been tracking the reopening plans for the country's 101 largest school districts. So far, more than half are only offering online instruction. Others have come up with hybrid plans, and a few are undecided. Kyung Lah shows us the debate of a reopening that's raging right alongside the virus. KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Florida teachers protest back-to-school in person, at least 12 counties in the Sunshine State returned to the classroom this week, nine of them with positivity rates higher than the CDC's recommended mark for reopening. Next door, in Georgia, the governor today applauded its first week back to school in many counties. GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): This week went real well, other than a couple virtual photos. LAH: That's despite hundreds of public-school students and faculty quarantined, testing positive after returning for in-person classes. That includes this high school northwest of Atlanta in this viral image, now temporarily moved to online learning after nine reported cases. MICHELLE SALAS, PARENT, NORTH PAULDING HIGH SCHOOL: It's like a really bad experiment, you know. We're trying to find some kind of fluency. But they're using my kids and the kids that my kids grew up with as bate. Lah: The number paint a stark picture for the back to school season. The American Academy of Pediatric says nearly 100,000 children tested positive for COVID in the last two weeks of July. A 40 percent increase in child cases. COVID continues to rise in these eight states in red. The death toll flat. The U.S. averaging 1,000 dying every day. In Illinois cases are up sharply. Chicago's mayor closed a lakefront beach after seeing this packed area. In Texas, where the state's positivity rate remains above 20 percent, some churches are now worshipping outdoors. And then there was the Sturgis, South Dakota, motorcycle rally, which brought about 250,000 people to this small town. On fears of contracting COVID and taking it home? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hell, no, we're going to get it sooner or later. LAH: The reality of the virus is sinking into college football. The first major conference postponed its season, the Mid-American. JON STEINBRECHER, COMMISSIONER, MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE: It was not a decision that was made lightly. It was not a decision that was made quickly, and it was a decision that was made based on the advice of our medical experts. LAH: As the top leagues meet over the future of the fall season, the President urged college football resume. KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He is very much would like to see college football safely resume their sport. LAH (on camera): This push by the President to get football started in the fall is part of the administration's overall effort to get students back in the classroom. Primary, secondary, and even college age. Students back into the physical classroom despite all the questions about the safety of those decisions. Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles. CHURCH: Joining me now is Annette Fernandez, a teacher in Daytona, Florida, preparing to go back to in-person teaching at her elementary school. Thank you so much for talking with us. ANNETTE FERNANDEZ, TEACHER, TURIE T. SMALL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Thank you for having me. CHURCH: Now your story broke my heart you. Set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for a portable sink because your students don't have access to running water in your portable classroom. How is this even possible in the richest nation in the world? FERNANDEZ: Yes, it is possible. We have 12 portables right now, and the portables don't have access to water and sinks for hand washing. I think that the portables were temporary classrooms from, you know, maybe years ago, and we're just still working from them. And so I came up with this idea because it will literally take away so much of our instructional time just to stand and make sure that everybody walks over to a bathroom that is not close to our room just to wash our hands. And so I thought it would be safer for our children to have a sink in the classroom where they can wash their hands. CHURCH: You are a true hero for doing this. I mean, so many American teachers -- FERNANDEZ: Thank you. CHURCH: -- do dip into their own pockets to provide supplies. And this is going far and beyond. So you will return to school for in-person teaching at the end of August. FERNANDEZ: Correct. CHURCH: What are your biggest concerns about that right now? FERNANDEZ: My biggest concern, number one, is myself becoming sick and bringing it home to my family. But I'm also truly concerned about my students. I don't think that we've thought it through. If my students get sick, I don't think that I can -- I can live with myself. I don't think that, you know, if one of my kids got sick and something devastating happened, how could I come back to the classroom after this? And so, my biggest goal is to do whatever it is I can to keep them safe. CHURCH: Yes, incredible. And a lot of our viewers watching this from overseas would be shocked to hear this playing out in so many schools across America. Nearly 97 percent of the students at your school live in poverty. FERNANDEZ: Correct. CHURCH: About 75 percent are black. 7.42 percent are Hispanic. Why do you think these students have been forgotten in the middle of a pandemic, particularly given studies show that these children are more vulnerable to this virus than white kids? FERNANDEZ: I think one of the biggest issues is we don't have people from our community that are representing us when these decisions are made. And so we lack the representation for these communities. CHURCH: And thankfully, you exceeded your goal to buy a portable sink for your own classroom. Now your aim is to buy sinks for the other portable classrooms -- FERNANDEZ: Yes. CHURCH: -- at your school. How likely is it that you'll raise those funds, and what will be the ramifications if you don't? FERNANDEZ: I am not sure. This is the first time I've ever done a GoFundMe, and so I'm super new to it. But I've raised enough to buy two. So I have another teacher in line, and I'm ready to order for her. But if I can raise more, then I'll provide more. CHURCH: Well done. And I did want to ask you because you have to go back to school. That's a requirement there in Florida, but you wouldn't have virtual learning as an alternative anyway, because presumably, these student wouldn't have access to the Wi-Fi and the devices required to do that. FERNANDEZ: That is correct. Currently I believe our district does not have the technology to provide for all students. This is correct. CHURCH: Annette Fernandez, thank you so much for talking with us. FERNANDEZ: Thank you. CHURCH: And for doing what you've done. You're an incredible teacher. FERNANDEZ: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. CHURCH: And while the world desperately waits for a COVID-19 vaccine, the head of the Food and Drug Administration says the U.S. will not cut corners to approve a drug. Dr. Stephen Hahn also insists that safety will not be compromised. He made those public remarks on Monday. Some health experts have questioned whether the FDA might rush a vaccine to the marketplace before it's ready. The President of the American Medical Association is also speaking out on this issue. Dr. Susan Bailey was on CNN earlier. DR. SUSAN BAILEY, PRESIDENT OF AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: It takes time to recruit people to enter these studies. And with the vaccines, after they get the first dose, they have to get another booster several weeks later. And then you have to see if they catch COVID-19 in their communities. And that just takes time to do. And if you don't have adequate data comparing the placebo group with the group that got vaccine, you're not going to be able to tell whether the vaccine works or not. It's just that simple. And these things take time. CHURCH: A CNN poll conducted back in May found that one-third of Americans would not try to get vaccinated, even if a drug was widely available and low cost. Well, we have new details on an officer-involved shooting outside the White House Monday. We're told a 51-year-old man approached Secret Service claiming he had a weapon. He then ran toward an officer, who shot the suspect. Law enforcement sources tell CNN the man turned out to be unarmed, but the incident was alarming enough the security to whisk President Trump away from his daily coronavirus briefing. And CNN's Boris Sanchez has more. BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly an unplanned, if not unprecedented interruption during the President's press briefing today with reporters. He was speaking about the coronavirus pandemic when a Secret Service agent stopped him mid-sentence and said, sir, we have to leave the room. The president saying OK and following that Secret Service agent out of the press briefing room. The White House was put on lockdown for approximately 10 minutes. The President we later learned was taken to the Oval Office. He told reporters that he asks if he could return to the press briefing room to finish his coronavirus pandemic briefing, he was told that as soon as the scene was clear, he could. Now the President eventually returning and confirming that the White House was put on lockdown. He was taken out of the room because there was a shooting just outside the White House grounds. Now the Secret Service confirming that one of their law enforcement agents opened fired on a person, that person transported to a hospital. The President revealing that he didn't have very many details on the person's condition or even the basis for the altercation. He said it may not have had anything to do with me. And the President was asked by reporters if he was rattled by the incident. He asked quote, do I look rattled. He eventually pivoted to the purpose of that briefing, talking about the American economy, his Democratic rival Joe Biden, and then getting into his attacks on mail- in voting and Democrats in general. Now the President summarizing, what again was a seemingly unprecedented by telling reporters simply things happen. Boris Sanchez, CNN at the White House. CHURCH: Lebanon's people are outraged the government has resigned, but that may not mean the end of protests on the streets of Beirut. We'll explain.

Debate Over Reopening Schools Rages Alongside COVID-19; Average of 1,000 Americans Dying Daily from Virus; Florida Teachers Prepare to Head Back to the Classroom; FDA Won't Cut Corners to Approve a COVID- 19 Vaccine; Shooting Near White House Disrupts Press Briefing

Debatte über die Wiedereröffnung von Schulen tobt neben COVID-19; Durchschnittlich 1,000 Amerikaner sterben täglich an Viren; Florida-Lehrer bereiten sich darauf vor, ins Klassenzimmer zurückzukehren; FDA wird keine Abstriche bei der Zulassung eines COVID-19-Impfstoffs machen; Schießerei in der Nähe des Weißen Hauses stört Pressekonferenz

与2019冠状病毒疾病有关的重新开学辩论，平均每天有1000名美国人死于病毒；佛罗里达州的教师准备返回教室；FDA不会偷工减料批准新冠疫苗；白宫附近的枪击事件打乱了新闻发布会

HARLOW: All right. So the heated debate about reopening schools and classrooms is now being fueled by a new reality. Several schools in states, including Georgia and Mississippi, that opened their classrooms this week are, this week, already shut down under quarantine because a student or teacher tested positive. SCIUTTO: And it is a debate because even folks like Dr. Fauci have said that in areas where the outbreak is under control, this can be done safely with restrictions. CNN Senior Global Affairs Analyst and fellow parent, Bianna Golodryga, she's been following all of this. Bianna, it's complex. The CDC laid out clear guidelines. Some districts aren't following them, but some districts that are still making a decision not have in-person schooling. What's happening out there? I mean, is there any rhyme or reason to it? BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Look, we should have a plan, we should a set of guidelines that parents across the country can follow. Unfortunately, we don't. You talk about some of those early guidelines from the CDC, they're pretty simple. Wear a mask and social distance. Though we don't seem to be seeing a lot of that. And it was really interesting for me to see the governor Georgia yesterday. He talked schools reopening. And this is what he said, quote, this week went real well other than a couple of photos. Now, of course, we know what those photos produced, right? Kids in masks in hallways being jammed together, many of them not wearing masks. And, of course, subsequently, we've seen a resurgence of cases pop up in Georgia. But it's not just Georgia that's opening up schools for in- person classes. GOLODRYGA: 9 out of 12 Florida counties are expected today start face-to-face instruction this week despite the state having a coronavirus positivity rate hovering around 15 percent. GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): Yes, that's about six weeks from now. GOLODRYGA: Kentucky's governor now recommending that schools wait until late September to begin in-person classes. This follows multiple states opening schools only to see some shut down days later after reported cases of coronavirus, as well as a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and Children's Hospital Association, stating that there has been a 90 percent increase in the number of COVID-19 cases among U.S. children over the last four weeks. School districts across the country continue to evaluate whether they are adequately prepared to reopen for in-person classes. DENEEN DRY, NURSE IN BUCKS COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, PENNSYLVANIA: I don't I'm going to be prepared until it happens. GOLODRYGA: Among those concerned, some school nurses like Deneen Dry, who will be on the frontlines of COVID when she returns to work in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. DRY: This will be and is unchartered waters for our schools, something that we've never had to face. Tnd the uncertainty is frightening. GOLODRYGA: As of Monday, the state's third largest school district announced that they will be starting the year fully online. It's just the latest district to make that decision. Of the 101 largest school districts in the country, over half are planning for online-only instruction in the fall. That's more than 7 million students starting the school year virtually. Of the 25 largest districts, so far, all but six have announced an online start. One of the few that will be open for face-to-face instruction at least part of the week, the nation's largest school district. MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): First day of school is a magical day. GOLODRYGA: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the majority of families in public schools say they are planning to send their kids back. DE BLASIO: We must do it safely. We can do it safely. We've set very stringent standards. We have to meet those standards. GOLODRYGA: Only a quarter so far opting for only online learning, yet even remote learning is not without potential health risks and frustration, as demonstrated by this video from Mansfield, Texas, showing parents waiting in long lines to pick up their children's devices. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no way two people can serve the whole of Mansfield. It was just ridiculous. GOLODRYGA: Once again, an example of a school and a school district not being prepared for the onslaught of parents coming in to pick up devices. And, Jim and Poppy, we should note that in Mississippi, that's another state that has reopened, the state health official said that 22 different schools have reported cases so far. Of the 34 cases, 19 were among students, 15 were with employees. We've seen a lot of school districts across the country also ask for rapid testing, the latest being Florida. You know what all of this requires? This requires money. And yet we still see that deadlock in Washington. Of course, these schools could use that money ASAP. SCIUTTO: money and a plan and a commitment, right, from this administration. Bianna Golodryga, thanks very much. Is time running out to get a handle on the pandemic in the U.S. before a crucial point and that's the beginning of the flu season? We're going to speak to an expert, next.

Coronavirus Cases Surge Among U.S. Children as Schools Reopen

Neuinfektionen nehmen bei US-Kindern zu, wenn die Schulen wieder geöffnet werden

随着学校重新开放，美国儿童冠状病毒感染病例激增

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow. JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto. This morning, we're learning about a surge of infections among children here in the United States. A new report shows a 90 percent increase in COVID-19 infections in kids just over the last four weeks. A small number but still alarming number. 90 children have died from the virus over several months. Still, President Trump is downplaying the risk to children as he pushes for schools to reopen. Really demands they do. Again falsely claiming they don't get very sick from the virus, that they don't catch it easily and that they don't transmit it easily to other people. That's just not true. Overnight here on CNN a top health expert had this warning. WILLIAM HASELTINE, FORMER PROFESSOR AT HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: And there's every reason to suspect that this virus, even though it can kill you, behaves pretty much like a cold virus in terms of transmission. Who drives colds? Children drive colds. HARLOW: Wow. In one Georgia school district, more than 800 of the students and 42 employees are quarantined this morning. 50 students and staff have tested positive since schools reopened last week. Also this morning in Russia, Vladimir Putin is claiming that Russia has the world's first coronavirus vaccine, dubbing it Sputnik V. A live report from Moscow is just ahead in a moment. We'll cover all of the angles this morning. Let's get to CNN's Nick Valencia in Georgia. Good morning, Nick. Hundreds, I mean, 800 students. NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. HARLOW: And dozens of staff in that one school or one district now quarantined? VALENCIA: Yes. And you would think with numbers like that, Poppy, there would be more concern, but when we visited the county over the weekend, we found a general cavalier attitude towards the virus. We met up with local activist Jamie Chambers who's been very vocal about his concern of the virus spreading in schools and continuing to spread throughout the community. And when we met him up at the park, there were nearly a dozen children playing on the playground like any normal Sunday. Four to five sets of parents, none of them wearing masks. It's scenes like that, Chambers says, which keeps him up at night. JAMIE CHAMBERS, COMMUNITY ACTIVIST: I would think objectively anyone looking at this would see it as a disaster. You've got quarantines happening all in different schools all the time, which means entire classrooms or partial classrooms are suddenly vanishing. What's ultimately going to happen is it's going to spread out all throughout our area and there's going to be a lot of people who are in danger because of it. VALENCIA: And let's stick to the numbers just really quick. At the end of the week, first five days of classes there was 478 students and teachers in quarantine. By the start of classes today, that number had nearly doubled to over 800. Now to be fair, we did reach out to the school's superintendent Brian Hightower for Cherokee County. They declined an interview. A spokeswoman for the district said that their communication efforts are focusing on communicating with the parents. Chambers, though, who you just heard from there, is one of those parents. He's taken his kids out of school. Virtual learning is the course that they've decided on, partly of the attitude I mentioned earlier, of how people are treating the virus. People can be categorized to two categories, the believers and nonbelievers. That includes school administrators. One principal, a parent told me, told her that she's shielded by God so she doesn't need a mask -- Jim and Poppy. SCIUTTO: God would have you wear a mask. I mean, it's in the science. Nick Valencia, thanks very much. HARLOW: Let's go to our Matthew Chance, he joins us in Moscow this morning. Russia's president Vladimir Putin claiming the country has approved the world's first coronavirus vaccine. Matthew, this is fascinating, calling it Sputnik V, and Putin is even saying his own daughter was part of the testing here. What do we know? MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what other evidence do we need? That the Russian state has absolute confidence in this vaccine that is developed at break-neck speed in one of its so very secretive labs here in the Russian capital. Than -- you know, that Vladimir Putin who very rarely -- in fact, I can't remember when he last mentioned his daughter, you know, mentions his daughter, has had his own daughter, allowed his own daughter to be vaccinated with this medicine that's been developed here. That despite the fact that third phase human trials have not been even started yet. They're not starting until tomorrow and that there's no scientific or clinical data that's been put out there which is conventional or peer reviewed to take place, to get a sense of whether this is actually -- actually an effective vaccine at all. What Vladimir Putin has said is this, is that the vaccine has gone through all the necessary checks. He said this in a video conference where he was speaking to his ministers on national television a couple of hours ago. "I know it's effective, he said, "And that it forms a stable immunity. He gave as evidence for that, the fact that his own daughter had been vaccinated. He said that she had a slight temperature, but now she feels well. The Russian authorities and the Health minister in particular has been speaking out on this, saying that this vaccine which is of course it becomes the first vaccine to be approved for public -- you know, public consumption as it were in the world. Says it's a huge contribution to the victory over coronavirus. Of course a lot of people around the world have serious, serious doubts -- Jim. SCIUTTO: Matthew, just quickly, you have covered Russia for a long time. Does it have any credible track record with its government's -- you know, the support for or success in reliable vaccines or other treatments? Is there any track record here that gives us reason to take this seriously and credibly? CHANCE: Well, I mean, there is. I mean, Russia has a long history, particularly during the Soviet Union days, a long history in being at the forefront of vaccine development, and so it does have a track record. It's got a really deep scientific, you know, kind of infrastructure which it's utilized to try and manufacture this vaccine and to get there first. The big problem of course is it's cut so many corners. It passed the law a couple of months ago, meaning that third phase human trials are unnecessary for the vaccine to be approved for public use. And that's of course the third phase trials are crucial because it's in those trials, usually with thousands of people, that you determine how safe the vaccine is. SCIUTTO: Yes. CHANCE: And how really effective it is. They've simply cut that out of the equation. So it's on that basis that there are serious doubts that this vaccine works. SCIUTTO: OK. Matthew Chance there in Moscow. Thanks very much. Joining us now to discuss this and other issues, infectious disease expert, Dr. Colleen Kraft. Doctor, it's interesting because it's not only Vladimir Putin that is speaking about a rushed process or a faster process for a vaccine. Of course the president has raised this idea of having one by the election, which all the health experts including Dr. Fauci say won't be ready by then. Just so our viewers understand why is it important to go to large numbers of people, test the vaccine out, make sure it works, make sure there are no side effects, et cetera, why is that important to have time and numbers? DR. COLLEEN KRAFT, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: Thanks, Jim. So I think one of the things to realize that we are actually at the same stage as Russia right now in America. We have vaccines that have gone through phase one and are in phase two studies right now. And so what we proposed to do and what our typical vaccine structure and evaluation is in the United States is to then, after demonstrating safety in phase one and a level of immune efficacy in phase two, we really want to see that it actually prevents transmission and prevents disease. And that's really what the large-scale phase three, although they are expensive, although they require a lot of participants, is the standard here in how we choose, you know, sort of what our frontrunner vaccine is. So again we're sort of at the same phase, but we are -- we need to have those phase three to make sure it actually prevents transmission. SCIUTTO: Yes. OK. Let's talk about data on children. So 90 percent jump in coronavirus cases in kids in the last four weeks. And that even before they went back to school. What is this teaching us about how this virus is transmitted among kids, but also crucially from kids to others? KRAFT: Right. So in general, I know it was already stated that in some of the sound bites that children tend to be the vectors of virus, right? So this ranges anywhere from respiratory viruses such as influenza to gastrointestinal viruses such as roto virus. Children tend to be the vectors. They carry a very high viral load. They don't have the best hygiene practices all the time. And they also are around adults and don't -- aren't using those hygiene practices around adults. And so they not only, you know, have -- maybe asymptomatic which will lead to then, you know, more interaction with more people but they tend to be more infectious. SCIUTTO: When the president says yesterday children don't transfer COVID to others, true or false? KRAFT: So that's false. And I think one of the things that we always -- it seems like we're getting kind of mixed up in this pandemic is we're really looking at some of this like it's a statistical public health view. And we're not -- we're not remembering that the steps -- statistics are not 100 percent, right? And so even if 90 percent are asymptomatic, that's still 10 percent that could be symptomatic. That could be a large number of people. SCIUTTO: Yes. KRAFT: We sort of look at these numbers and we forget about the individuals. SCIUTTO: Final question, if I can. Is there -- there's a lot of talk and some conflicting research about age difference among children. Younger children less of a risk, but by the time you get to adolescents, more so. Can you explain the difference there and do we actually know? KRAFT: I don't think we know. We haven't studied this enough. We're going to see a lot more of this as it transmits with schools reopening. And you know, it just really depends on the individual themselves and really, you know, their burden of disease. I think unfortunately we're going to see a lot more pediatric illness as this progresses. SCIUTTO: That's sad to hear. Colleen Kraft, Dr. Kraft, thanks so much for helping us understand it all. KRAFT: Happy to help. HARLOW: Let's go to Florida now where 12 school districts are welcoming back students to the classroom this week. Our Rosa Flores joins us this morning in Miami. And Rosa, the big concern, at least nine of the 12 county public school systems in Florida reopening in areas that, as I was reading this morning, have a positivity rate of over 5 percent. Is that right? ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, you're absolutely right, Poppy. And that is just the schools that are reopening this week. HARLOW: Right. FLORES: According to the education commissioner who we said during a press conference yesterday, he says that all of the schools that are in phase two here in the state of Florida are actually complying except for Hillsborough County. And we know that there is a tussle there between the district and the state, with the state telling Hillsborough that they must offer in-person instruction. But, Poppy, we're also learning this morning that the number of COVID- 19 cases in children here in the state of Florida has increased by 137 percent in the past month. Here are the numbers. On July 9th, there were more than 16,000 infections in children in this state. By August 9th, that number jumped to more than 39,000 and keep this in mind. There was no school in July and right now officials are pushing further reopening of schools. Let's look at hospitalizations because those increased by 105 percent during that same time period from 213 to 436. The number of deaths in children jumped from four to seven. Again, during that same time period. And all of this is according to data released by the Florida Department of Health. Now, during a press conference yesterday, Governor Ron DeSantis still pushing for the reopening of schools, and here is his rationale. Take a listen. GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): The fact is, in terms of the risk to school kids this is lower risk than seasonal influenza. In terms of their ability to spread it, they're less likely to spread it than they are for that. FLORES: Now, Poppy, it's important to note that top experts disagree. The vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics on Infectious Disease told CNN's Anderson Cooper yesterday that experts do worry about influenza in children. That influenza kills about 100 children a year. And COVID so far in just a few months has killed 90 children -- Poppy. HARLOW: Rosa, thank you. Those are the numbers that I think every parent needs to pay attention to. It's rare, but it is happening to children with COVID. Thank you very much. In a new attempt to potentially tighten the U.S.-Mexico border crossings the Trump administration is considering a plan that could turn away even some American citizens and lawful residents from crossing back over because of COVID-19. SCIUTTO: Plus, another conference -- college football conference says games will not happen this season. Could others join them? Will we see college football in the fall? And the question on many people's minds today, who will Joe Biden choose to be his running mate? We could find out as soon as today. We're going to bring you the latest.

Multiple Georgia School Districts Report Positive Cases After Reopening; Russia Claims It Has Developed First Coronavirus Vaccine; Coronavirus Cases Surge Among U.S. Children as Schools Reopen; 12 Florida School Districts Reopening This Week.

Mehrere Schulbezirke in Georgia melden positive Fälle nach Wiedereröffnung; Russland behauptet, es habe den ersten Coronavirus-Impfstoff entwickelt; Coronavirus-Fälle bei US-Kindern steigen bei Wiedereröffnung der Schulen; 12 Florida-Schulbezirke werden diese Woche wiedereröffnet.

佐治亚州多个学区复课后报告出现阳性病例，俄罗斯声称它已经研制出了第一个冠状病毒疫苗；学校复课后，美国儿童中的新型冠状病例激增；佛罗里达州12个学区将于本周复课。

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will tell you who's meddling in our election. The Democrats are meddling by wanting and insisting on sending mail-in ballots with this corruption all over the place. VAUSE: For those who are playing along at home, that's probably his unsubstantiated claim number 18,000 and something by President Trump since his inauguration. He also alleged without proof that mail-in ballots lead to widespread voter fraud. Democrats are openly accusing the Trump administration of trying to sabotage the postal service. Slowing down deliveries during a pandemic. And now during this pandemic, mail-in ballots might actually save lives. CNN's Pete Muntean has more. PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The postal service slogan, might be "we deliver" but is not what reality appears to be, NICK CASSELLI, POSTAL WORKER UNION, PHILAPDELPHIA: We are having trucks leave our building with zero mail in the truck. MUNTEAN: For Nick Casselli who heads the Postal Worker Union in Philadelphia, the mail is moving too slow. CASSELLI: My union reps, you know, they call me throughout the night, in the morning saying Nick, the mail is all over the place. We are just not getting it out. MUNTEAN: In 35 years with the United States Postal Service, Casselli says he has never seen issues this severe. The new changes have Democrats worried that slow mail could slow mail-in ballots, crucial in an election year overshadowed by the pandemic. CASSELLI: We are not providing the service that we provided 24/7 before Mr. DeJoy was appointed to Postmaster-General. MUNTEAN: In June, President Trump appointed long-time supporter Louis DeJoy to head the Postal Service, the first Postmaster General in two decades with no postal experience. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you be able to assure Americans -- MUNTEAN: It is his newly-implemented changes, like eliminating overtime and ending extra trips by carriers that Casselli says are causing delays nationwide. In Baltimore, people waited two hours in hopes of getting their mail that never showed up. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm waiting on unemployment. KASANDRA PEROS, BALTIMORE RESIDENT: A card and it's just not showing up. Yes, it should be here today but it should have been here a week ago too, so I don't really know. MUNTEAN: Mail delays have also been reported from Minneapolis to North Carolina and in Philadelphia. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of them were bills, and then they're going to charge you late charges. JAMES MAYO, PHILADELPHIA RESIDENT: We have missed six collection days in the last four weeks, which means they are not delivering, they are not collecting. So that's a problem. Medicines are not being delivered. Bills aren't going out in the mail. MUNTEAN: James Mayo says the problem got so bad that he called his congressman. And he is not the only one. REP. DWIGHT EVANS (D), PENNSYLVANIA: People who are calling us are raising concerns about the mail system. MUNTEAN: House Democrat Dwight Evans and 80 other members of Congress wrote DeJoy demanding the postal service not reduce mail delivery hours. DeJoy denies that any intentional slowdown is taking place. LOUIS DEJOY, U.S. POSTMASTER-GENERAL: Despite any assertions to the contrary, we are not slowing down election mail or any other mail. MUNTEAN: Postal carriers live by the motto, "Neither rain nor snow." Now the concern is politics will keep those like James Mayo waiting on the mail. MAYO: Both sides of the aisle will need to look at this. We need to fund the postal service properly so that these guys can go back to work. MUNTEAN: Even in spite of all this President Trump continues to support DeJoy's changes. In a new interview, he calls mail-in voting a catastrophe even though the American Postal Workers Union says the only real catastrophe is the squeeze being put on the postal service. DeJoy is set to face a congressional hearing and answer to these mail delays but not until September 18. Pete Muntean, CNN -- Washington. VAUSE: Meantime the Trump administration insisting that additional unemployment benefits will be ready in most states within the next two weeks. That's despite Congress failing to agree on a stimulus plan to extend the enhanced benefits. TRUMP: We just had a meeting with the governors and they were very anxious to get money for the people in their states. And if they, depending on the state, we have the right to do what we want to do. We can terminate the 25 percent or we don't have to do that. So we will see what it is. It depends on the individual state. But a lot of money will be going to a lot of people very quickly. VAUSE: The President's executive order calls for unemployment Americans to receive an extra $400 a week. $300 would come from the federal government, the other $100 would come from the states. But the President said it's possible states could pay nothing, the governor just has to ask and no one really knows how any of this will actually work. Kodak's transition from photography icon to pharmaceuticals may now be on hold. The Trump administration is pulling back a $765 million dollar loan while regulators investigate alleged insider trading. Kodak's stock shut up 2,700 percent when the loan was announced about a month ago but it fell sharply on Monday because the loan was pulled. CNN's Eleni Giokos joins us live from Johannesburg this hour. Ok, so we're looking at these allegations of insider trading. What about the level of transparency to all these deals now under the Defense Production Act? ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly right. I mean it was so interesting. It's sort of this come back kid. As you say, it's a legacy company in cameras as well as KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This president has used the DPA effectively but we're certainly aware of the Kodak allegations and take them seriously. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would he pull the plugs on that deal? MCENANY: I'll leave that to the President, but he takes these very seriously. We don't expect that he (ph) would ask to what that investigation finds. GIOKOS: So it's all about what the investigation will reveal but importantly Peter Navarro, the trade advisor also came out and voiced his disappointment and saying that this definitely tarnishes Kodak as well as the deal and really portends to a series of events leading up to the announcement of the deal. Now the day before the announcement, we saw the executives and GIOKOS: The volume traded on the stock as well, really vital. A week before the announcement we saw an average volume of around 80,000 shares (ph) a day, the day before it spiked to 1.6 million shares. If you take a look at the graph here, I mean it tells a really interesting story. But this deal is going to be absolutely vital for Kodak and its survival down the line. And the Securities and Exchange Commission will be investigating who had access to the information, who benefited, who sold after the fact. And remember, a couple of days after, we saw Kodak share price rising by almost 3,000 percent. We're talking big numbers here. We're talking massive increases on stock prices. Someone of course, has benefited immensely. So this is going to be a VAUSE: Yes, someone made out like a bandit, I guess. I guess we'll find out if it was legal or illegal or how it all played out. It wasn't me. Eleni Giokos in Johannesburg, thank you. Still to come though, stranded in China for six but now they're back home safe proving sometimes you really can rely on the kindness of strangers.

Democrats Accuse Trump Administration of Post Office Sabotage; Kodak Stock Dives after U.S. Government Loan Put on Hold

Demokraten beschuldigen Trump-Regierung der Post-Sabotage; Kodak-Aktie stürzt ab, nachdem ein Darlehen von US-Regierung ausgesetzt wurde

民主党指责特朗普政府破坏邮局；美国政府暂停贷款后柯达股价跳水

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom. And I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead, history in the making. Joe Biden has chosen Kamala Harris as his running mate, making her the first woman of color on a major ticket. Russia is starting phase three COVID vaccine trials today without peer review. And the man who bankrolled its research reveals when Russians will start getting vaccinated. And New Zealand quickly locks down a major city after COVID returns for the first time in more than 100 days. Good to have you with us. So, U.S. Democratic Joe Biden making history by choosing Kamala Harris as his running mate in the race for the White House. The senator from California is the first black and Asian-American woman on a major U.S. party ticket. Many of the issues at the center of her life's work like criminal justice reform, improving health care, and tackling income inequality had become hot issues in the 2020 presidential race. CNN's Arlette Saenz looks at Biden's historic pick. ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: The Democratic ticket is set with Joe Biden selecting California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate. Biden formed Harris of his decision over a Zoom call from his Delaware home on Tuesday. Now the two faced off during the Democratic primary as they were both running for president, including a heated debate moment over school busing, but ultimately, Biden has said he doesn't hold grudges and decided to go with the experienced campaigner as his partner on the Democratic ticket. Kamala Harris is one of only three women to ever be picked for the vice-presidential slot on a major party ticket. But she's also making history of her own as the first woman of color to be in that vice- presidential nominee position. She is the daughter of immigrants, her mother from India, her father from Jamaica. So, this is quite the historic pick, selecting her particularly as Biden had paced -- faced some pressure to place a woman of color on the ticket with him. Now Biden and Harris will appear for the first time together as the Democratic ticket here in Wilmington, Delaware. They will deliver remarks before holding a grassroots virtual fund-raiser with their supporters to try to energize the base and all of their supporters heading into November's election. Arlette Saenz, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware. CHURCH: A number of top Democrats are praising Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's pick. Former President Barack Obama says she is more than prepared for the job. He goes on to say her own life story is one that I and so many others can see ourselves in, a story that says that no matter where you come from, what you look like, how you worship or who you love, there is a place for you here. Hillary Clinton tweeted, I am thrilled to welcome Kamala Harris to an historic Democratic ticket. She's already proven herself to be an incredible public servant and leader, and I know she'll be a strong partner to Joe Biden. Please join me in having her back and getting her elected. And this from Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms who was also in the running for the V.P. slot. MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D-GA): I immediately thought of my 9- year-old daughter and what this will mean to her, to look at television and to see someone who reflects all that we encourage our girls to be and that's someone who is courageous, someone who works hard, someone who is obviously intelligent and well steady, and someone who cares, and is willing to put themselves out to serve others. And so, it makes me proud but I think more than that, it should make our country proud that there will be representation at the highest office that represents who we are as a diverse people and what we value as a country. CHURCH: Congresswoman Val Demings was frequently named as a potential running mate for Joe Biden. She reacted in a series of tweets, saying, "for a little girl who grew up poor, black, and female in the south, to be considered during this process has been an incredible honor. I feel so blessed to see a black woman nominated for the first time, reaffirms my faith that in America, there is a place for every person to succeed no matter who they are or where they come from." Well, the U.S. president reacted swiftly by attacking Senator Harris. He said she did poorly during the Democratic primaries and was disrespectful to Biden. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Plus, she was very, very nasty to one of the reasons that surprised me, she was very, she was probably nastier than even Pocahontas to Joe Biden. She was very disrespectful to Joe Biden. And it's hard to pick somebody that's the disrespectful when she said things during the debates, during the Democratic primary debates that were horrible. CHURCH: So, let's talk now CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers. He's also former South Carolina state representative. Good to have you with us. BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you so much for having me. CHURCH: Why do you think Joe Biden selected Kamala Harris? Was she always the clear choice to meet this moment, given her political and legal credentials and her background? SELLERS: I don't think she was a given, I don't think she was a slam dunk, I think that one of the benefits she had over some of the other candidates who, by the way, where more than qualified, Karen Bass more than qualified, Val Demings, Susan Rice, Tammy Duckworth. The list goes on and on. There was a vast list of qualified women of color so let me start there, but Kamala Harris did have a relationship with Joe Biden. It dates back to her time as attorney general and her relationship with Beau Biden. She's also never lost a race, unlike Amy Klobuchar, to be exact, but she's been district attorney in San Francisco. She's been statewide elected official as attorney general, and now she is a statewide elected official in a large state of the union by being United States senator. And she brought all of these qualifications to the table, and at the end of the day, I think that it was not only history, because she's not only the first African-American female to be at the top of the ticket. She is also the first person of Indian-American descent to be at the top of the ticket, so today is a big day in our country's history. I mean, it's kind of weird that we are here, so many centuries after our country's founding, but I'm very proud today. I'm proud of the Democratic Party and we'll see what happens between now and November. CHURCH: Indeed, and of course, the Trump campaign immediately attacked Kamala Harris, accusing her of embracing the left's radical manifesto and then President Trump called her nasty, his catchphrase for most women. SELLERS: Yes. CHURCH: So how -- how will Harris likely strike back against these other attacks that will inevitably keep coming? SELLERS: Well, she is tough, and I think that's one of things that Joe Biden recognized. She's actually been through the gauntlet, the political gauntlet. Remember, she did run for president of the United States and so she's been somebody who's been on the stage before. But she's not other to be an attack dog by any stretch and these attacks by Donald Trump are going to really fall on deaf ears. I mean, he's having a difficult problem. Donald Trump has never dealt with black women particularly well, whether or not it's April Ryan or Yamiche or Jemele Hill, and the list goes on and on and on, and now Kamala Harris. And so, they have a great deal of trouble trying to figure out how they deal with the future of this country. And I said it early I'll say it again, the Republican Party is going backwards. I mean, while they are embracing confederate monuments, and confederate flags, and what the country once was, you now have a ticket and a party that is representing the future. And that's why people are excited about what Joe Biden has done today. Not only being the vice president to the first black president, but now actually running for president and bringing along the first black, especially female who is the vice-presidential nominee. CHURCH: And Bakari, one of the first big test that Kamala Harris will face is a vice presidential debate with her counterpart Mike Pence. How will that likely go given what we already know about both of, them and their debating skills? SELLERS: Yes. That's not going to be anything. I mean, we're not worried about that, I mean, I think that there are lot of people like myself who, and when you look at, it if all things were even between Kamala Harris and the rest of the individuals who are in the running to be vice president, you know that she, by far, is the person who you want on the debate stage. She's not only have excelled in the courtroom, but here we are, I mean there is nobody who can tell you how hard a Kamala Harris punches other than Joe Biden, right? So, we're here, and Mike Pence really doesn't stand a chance on the debate stage with Kamala Harris. Biden will be prepared and somebody who is going to be able to effectively run circles around him. That's going to be a good day. Get your popcorn ready, in the words of the great American -- CHURCH: We'll be watching very closely. Bakari sellers, thank you so, much as always. SELLERS: Thank you for having me, Rosemary. CHURCH: To Russia now, and it is set to begin a massive COVID-19 vaccination campaign in October, despite questions over the safety of its newly approved vaccine. The Russian president made the big vaccine announcement on Tuesday, claiming it as a global first. But phase three trials have literally just begun. And as Matthew Chance reports, many experts are skeptical. MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You couldn't accuse the Kremlin of ignoring the propaganda value of its vaccine. They've even called it Sputnik, after the Soviet satellite that shocked the world and launch the space race. Now it's the vaccine race, the Kremlin says. It's one hands down. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): A vaccine against coronavirus has been registered for the first time in the world this morning. I know that it works quite effectively. It forms a stable immunity. CHANCE: We but how does he know? Well, he says one of his own daughters perhaps the one who is an acrobatic dancer has already been vaccinated, or his eldest, a medical specialist, where Putin says is that she had a slight temperature at first but feels much better now, extraordinary from a Russian president who rarely mentions his family. We still don't know for sure how many children he has. Still, it underlines how much confidence the Kremlin wants to show and its new vaccine. Despite concerns, no clinical data has been published, soldiers were used as volunteers in early testing and crucial third these human trials have not even started wearing shortcuts, say critics, and the Kremlin dash across the line. ALEX AZAR, SECRETARY, UNITED STATES HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: The point is not to be first with a vaccine. The point is to have a vaccine that is safe and effective for the American people and the people of the world. CHANCE: There's been criticism inside Russia too, a prominent pharmaceutical industry body this week calling on health officials to postpone the vaccine because it may put lives at risk. Not a warning that's been heeded. Officials say frontline health workers and teachers will be vaccinated first, then the elderly and other vulnerable groups. In fact, Russian officials say there is a vast global appetite for their vaccine. Applications for more than a billion doses, they say, have already been received from more than 20 countries. It may not be safe or even work, but Russia can proclaim at least to itself that it is once again a planet saving scientific superpower. Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow. CHURCH: And CNN's Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta spoke with the CEO of the group funding the Russian vaccine who has already given it to his family members. He says Russia had a head start over the rest of the world. KIRILL DMITRIEV, CEO, RUSSIAN DIRECT INVESTMENT FUND: We can say is that it works. You know, I've taken it myself, I've given it to my parents, to my wife. If you learn the signs, and I'll be happy to share with you, you will be much more convinced. It's a gradual rollout in August and September. We'll give of course some additional data, but our minister of health, our bureaucrats would not have approved it unless they were absolutely confident that the technology works, that it shows incredible safety and efficiency and safety is at the core of the vaccine. Because again, as I mentioned, it's a proven over the last six years platform that Russia had and had a head start on it versus some other nations who started to use more novel approaches not proven before. CHURCH: But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. immunologist says without evidence to support Russia's vaccine, it may not be safe and with such a quick turnaround, he doubts it will be effective. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I hope, but I haven't heard any evidence to make me feel that's the case. I hope that the Russians have actually definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective. I seriously doubt that they've done that, but that's what I think people need to understand when we hear announcements from the Chinese, or from the Russians that we have a vaccine, we are giving a vaccine, and people say, why aren't the Americans doing that? Well, because we have a way of doing things in this country that we care about safety and we care about efficacy. CHURCH: Sterghios Moschos is an associate professor of molecular virology at Northumbria University, and he joins us now from Newcastle in England. Good to have you with us. STERGHIOS MOSCHOS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN CELLULAR & MOLECULAR SCIENCES, NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY: Good morning. CHURCH: So, Russia has approved what it calls the world's first COVID-19 vaccine, but scientists there are only, today, starting phase three human trials, which means the vaccine safety and efficacy is still in doubt, so what exactly has Russia achieved here and announced? MOSCHOS: Well, I mean I'm speaking as a scientist, and I'm going to try and answer question really which is guessing a propaganda to amount for internal consumption in Russia that will bring out the best as your presenters actually indicated. We don't know if this vaccine is going to be efficacious. It's very similar to the Oxford vaccine. It looks like it's good. The Oxford people have admitted that it's probably going to need a boost or dosed. The Russians have gone and done this, so it's a double dose system that they are going to use anyway. We frankly don't know exactly how safe it's going to be, whether this is the best approach, there's another better approach. This is all a media activity. And frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if this was all engineered to go to other political parties to take actions to seem better than the Russians, which could lead to very, very severe and serious mistakes elsewhere which we really need to avoid here. CHURCH: Yes. I want to ask you that because what negative impact could this premature announcement of a COVID vaccine have on healthcare ethics throughout the world and of course on future trust in vaccines? Because that is critical here if you expect a population to take a vaccine. MOSCHOS: Yes. I think you hit the nail on the head, though. You know, we are struggling to get people to understand that a very deadly disease that in people's lifetimes we have managed to remove, measles, is very important to take a vaccination for. If we have a situation where a vaccine which has not been tested properly is found to be actually detrimental in some way, that could backfire very, very, very badly. I mean, vaccines were, if they are tested properly, it's like saying I'm going to take a car which, you know, we just bolted together and haven't even tried to turn the wheels on it to see if it will roll down the road. I'm going for a road trip across, you know, the whole of the United States, I don't think you would do that if you haven't checked the car for its safety first. Right? CHURCH: Yes. Good analogy there. And when you look at the small print of the approval certificate the Russians put out for this vaccine, it appears it's only to be given to medical workers and the elderly at this stage with wider use not taking place until January 1st 2021. What does that signal to you? MOSCHOS: Well, that basically means they are going to try to do a phase three trial on a very small the five part of their general population. Though the interview that you broadcast, you know, not a minute ago, indicated that certain individuals have received this vaccine, even though they don't belong into this defined group. And whether that's about a confident statement, whether it's a reality, whether it's something that has to do with access, I don't know. But if you are only vaccinating the extreme high- risk groups, you are either hold about cost because you're concerned about safety or you don't have enough doses around. CHURCH: Yes. MOSCHOS: So, which one of is it? CHURCH: It seems a little premature at this stage it's got a lot of people worried. MOSCHOS: I think you are being polite on how you're defining premature there. CHURCH: Sterghios Moschos, thank you so much for joining us. MOSCHOS: You're very welcome. CHURCH: We appreciate it. Well meantime, the United States is betting big on a potential vaccine from Moderna. The Trump administration has struck a deal with the biotech company to manufacture and deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine, if and when it's approved. The deal is worth more than $1.5 billion dollars, and the vaccine would be provided to Americans at no cost. The Moderna vaccine is one of six under contract with the U.S. government, and it's being developed in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health. Clinical trials are currently underway to test whether it's safe and effective, and this comes as the U.S. death toll increases every single day. Nearly 165,000 Americans have died from the virus so far. Still to come on CNN Newsroom, a fourth day of unrest in Beirut. Protesters are furious over the catastrophic explosion at the port. Their latest demands for justice, that's next.

Joe Biden Picks His V.P.; President Trump's Signature Name- Calling; Russia Approves COVID Vaccine

Joe Biden wählt seinen Vizepräsidenten aus; Namensnennung der Unterschrift von Präsident Trump; Russland genehmigt COVID-Impfstoff

乔·拜登任命副总统；特朗普总统的签名:辱骂；俄罗斯批准生产新型冠状病毒疫苗

CURNOW: So we certainly have some dramatic new developments in Belarus where the opposition candidate in the presidential elections says she fled to Lithuania to protect her children. After claiming Sunday's vote was rigged, a video of her surfaced on Tuesday calling for an end to anti-government protests and saying the nation has made its choice. Demonstrators once again filled the streets of Minsk anyway, and many are speculating she was threatened and forced to flee by the longtime president. Her husband is in jail and several members of her campaign have also been detained. Well, Nic Robertson joins us now live outside the Belarus Embassy in London. And Nic, I mean, this is certainly getting perhaps more and more mysterious as all eyes are focused on this opposition leader. NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: At least certainly worrying a lot of Belarus' neighbors here in the rest of Europe. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is in Lithuania and is apparently out of danger. But her supporters say that that statement that was aired on Belarus state television where she said -- where she called on protesters not to go out and protest, they said that was made under duress. The Lithuanian foreign minister indicated that perhaps threats were used to get her out of the country. She herself in a second video posting said that no one should have to go through or make the sort of decision that she had made. She said that she knew some people would be critical of the decision but that no protests was worth lives being lost. And her supporters are indicating that perhaps the lives of her children who are out of the country at the moment as well were under threat by state authorities. Remembering she was detained for a number of hours by herself when she went to the electoral commission to complain about the outcome of the results on Monday. Tuesday morning, she arrives in Lithuania. The European Union is certainly looking very, very carefully at the situation. The Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell has said that, you know, the European Union is considering the possibility of sanctions on Belarus. They're saying that it was neither free nor fair the election and the crackdown on protesters has been disproportionate and widespread. Thousands of people they say have been attacked by the police even we understand photographers working for well-known news agencies were had their cameras broken and memory cards ripped from them by the police. So a very strong crackdown. The Nordic and Scandina -- the Nordic and Baltic nations, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, all as well are issuing a joint statement because this is right on their doorstep calling on the government there for an end to the violence as well. CURNOW: OK. Nic Robertson there, thanks so much. Keeping an eye on that important story. So some news just in to us here at CNN, grim economic numbers from the U.K. as new data shows that the second quarter GDP fell by 20.4 percent, the worst quarterly slump on record. Let's go to Eleni Giokos, she joins us now live with the latest on that. That is certainly some pain that ordinary Britons are feeling. ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean, there's no other way to put this other than it is absolutely catastrophic. To give you a sense of the scale of the contraction here, during the height of the global financial crisis at any one time, we saw the economy contracting on a quarterly basis by just over two percent. When you see a quarterly contraction here by 20.4 percent, it shows you the depth and the scale of economic pain that was inflicted. I want to drill into some of the numbers here. The biggest drop on a quarterly basis was in the accommodation and food services sector. That dropped by 86 percent. And this is what happens when you ask your -- the lifeblood of your economy, the consumer to stay home and not spend. This is the effect of the lockdown, it's a story of lives versus livelihoods. It's something that the U.K. economy had to absolutely do. We know that we've been seeing immense pain across the board in all developed economies but it is incredible to see the U.K. taking the biggest hit. I want you to take a look at this graph, and it's basically comparing some of the G7 countries. If you look at Germany and France and Italy, and even in the U.S. number, the U.K. has dropped a lot more and doubled the rate of any of the other developed economies. We also know that the suffering -- we saw Europe experiencing the death toll is -- very high death toll is across the board but the U.K. had the highest of the lot. And again, this is now what we're seeing in the numbers, friends. What is encouraging here, Robyn, is that the June month-on-month GDP number, we saw an increase of 8.7 percent. The economy is slowly starting to open up again but it's a confidence game here as well. Do people want to go out and spend? Do businesses want to open up? And the unemployment figures also really vital. Remember that the Bank of England gave a lot of monetary policy support, fiscal support has come through by the way on furloughed people, and ensuring that businesses are able to keep jobs as opposed to get rid of the employees through a furlough scheme. So that was really encouraging as well. Without this kind of support and stimulus, this number would have been far worse. Now, the question is where. We're well into the third quarter of the year, is it going to be a V-shaped recovery? Is there an anticipation of a potential second wave? What would that look like? The new numbers show that perhaps we're getting slightly back on track. I mean, we're looking at a monthly increase on the agricultural front by two percent. Construction has recovered by 23 percent. Remember, this is a monthly number for June. So on a month-on-month basis, it is encouraged quarterly, of course -- I mean, a catastrophic number. I mean, there's no other way to put it here, Robyn. CURNOW: Eleni Giokos, thanks so much for that. So you're watching CNN. She's been a U.S. senator for less than four years, but now she's set to become a standard bearer for the Democratic Party. The rise of Kamala Harris. That's next.

Anti-Government Protests Erupt for Fourth Night; Opposition Candidate Flees to Lithuania; U.K. Shrinks by Record 20.4 Percent in Q2.

In der vierten Nacht brechen regierungsfeindliche Proteste aus; Oppositionskandidat flieht nach Litauen; Großbritannien schrumpft im 2. Quartal um den Rekordwert von 20,4 Prozent.

反政府抗议进入第四夜；反对派候选人逃往立陶宛；英国在第二季度创纪录地萎缩了20.4%。

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, two of the biggest conferences in U.S. college football have postponed their eminent seasons because of the pandemic. The Big Ten and Pac-12 say they pulled the plug on football and several other sports to keep their student athletes safe. They hope to resume competition in the spring. KEVIN WARREN, COMMISSIONER, BIG TEN CONFERENCE: You look at this decision. It just, we just believe collectively there's too much uncertainty at this point in time in our country, and to really, to encourage our student athletes to participate in fall sports. CHURCH: According to "Fortune" magazine 65 of the most reputable college football programs generate more than $4 billion in revenue each year. In 2018 they made nearly $1.8 billion in total profits, more than 27 million per University. And despite coronavirus case numbers soaring in the U.S., President Trump thinks the season should go on as planned. STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Hi. CHURCH: So, two big college football conferences postponing the season, a big blow to colleges and to President Trump who keeps insisting football continue despite surging COVID-19 cases. This decision, obviously, will result in considerable lost revenue. But what does it reveal about the President's leadership? COLLINSON: Well, Rosemary, college football is an absolute tradition in the United States in the fall. Each state has a number of big university teams, hundreds of thousands of people watch these games. If you turn on your TV on a Saturday morning you can watch college football pretty much between noon and past midnight. So what the President is so concerned about is if there isn't college football it will completely contradict his notion, his argument as he runs into the election season that America is back to normal during the pandemic. That is the reason why he keeps putting pressure on these college football conferences, these leagues to continue to play. CHURCH: What influence might he apply, what sort of pressure, perhaps over the Southeastern Conference, the SEC decision, which will have to be made very soon? COLLINSON: Right, and that, of course, is in the South of the country, an area where the President is very strong politically. States like Alabama and Georgia where he's hoping to do very well in the election. The problem is, though, is that reality is staring these colleges in the face. The reason why they cannot go ahead and play college football is because the virus has been spreading like wildfire through the Sun Belt and many other areas of the country. There isn't sufficient testing to keep testing college football players every day. You got these vast teams, 75, 80 players on a team, and a vast entourage of coaches and everything else. The United States hasn't put in place the contact tracing system like some countries like New Zealand, some countries like South Korea have that has helped them suppress the virus. So whatever pressure that the President brings to bear in his news conferences, the reality of the spread of the virus, the fact you can't get hundreds of thousands of people into these stadiums. And the fact that, you know, colleges and the teams can't travel safely around the country to play their games. Means that the decision really is out of the President's hands. And it reflects the reality of the fact that the United States has not got the virus under control. We're still seeing 1,000 deaths pretty much every single day and there are more hot spots that are popping up. So it's the reality of the virus that's stopping these college football games not some notion that these players and coaches don't actually want to play. CHURCH: And with that in mind, I mean it has to be said, that if President Trump announced a national mask mandate now along with an extensive national rapid test program, he could turn this pandemic around by the November election even before that. Why wouldn't he just do that? Surely that would be easier than pushing against the reality he faces. COLLINSON: You know, it's very interesting. The President, you know, I've rarely covered a politician who has such a strong connection with his political base, his most faithful supporters. But he's never really been willing to do anything to sort of lead that base in a different direction. The President clearly feels that Trump supporters, conservatives, are still against the idea of a government telling them they have to wear a mask. And he spent so many months undermining the idea of people wear a mask against, you know, the reality of science. But it's very hard for him now to kind of turn around and tell everybody to wear a mask and he doesn't really want to do it politically. I think that's one of the reasons. You know, the President has never really taken this pandemic seriously. He's never put in place the kind of testing and tracing organization that you're talking about nationally that might help suppress this virus.

Top U.S. Conferences Postpone Football Seasons

Die wichtigsten US-Konferenzen verschieben die Fußball-Saison

美国顶级会议导致足球赛季推迟

HARLOW: Welcome back. Another devastating month for air travel. This is an industry that employs nearly 500,000 Americans, and air travel dropped 75 percent in July due to the pandemic. For Southwest Airlines, it's a big blow and it is fresh off reporting a staggering $915 million loss in just the second quarter. Right now, the airline says it's losing about $20 million a day. Despite all this, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly is saying no layoffs, no furloughs this year. He joins me now. Good morning, Gary. GARY KELLY, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: Good morning, Poppy. HARLOW: You wrote this memo to your entire team. And you say, we're in the fight of our lives. You said there's a siege ahead. How can your financial position be so dire and not have any layoffs ahead? I know you had 17,000 voluntary people taking an early leave, but how long can you make that promise of no layoffs for? KELLY: Well, I think the -- you know, the early retirement program and the leave program is -- is really key to answering your question. So that's close to 30 percent of our total workforce. What we need here is to buy ourselves time, you know? I firmly believe that things will get back to normal, it's just a question of when. If you go back to the spring, we hoped it would be by the fall. I don't think that's going to be the case, I think, you know, we'll have a vaccine hopefully around the end of the year, early next year and then hopefully things will begin to improve. So we've got a ways to go. But with a 27 percent reduction in our workforce, I'd like to see how things go here in the fourth quarter. We'll know by October whether we need to get more serious about furloughs. So I just want to give our employees some comfort, that we're at least going to hold firm through the end of the year -- HARLOW: OK. KELLY: -- but after that I can't make any guarantees. HARLOW: I wonder what you make of the fact that there is still no deal in Congress on the next stimulus package. There are major legal questions about the president's ability to do what he is trying to do on unemployment, on payroll taxes through executive action. I mean, if action isn't taken soon by Congress, Gary, what is the impact going to be on the American consumer and therefore your airline? KELLY: Well, again, as I mentioned before, I think it's very clear now, here in the middle of the summer, that things are going to take longer and be worse than we had hoped. We've seen a surge in the COVID-19 cases. So the need is clearly there. I think, you know, members of Congress and the administration recognize that, and it's just -- they're in the process of, you know, making the sausage and hopefully to make a deal. But there's no question that the country benefited significantly from the CARES Act I. Unfortunately, it's not enough and we're definitely in need of a CARES Act II. HARLOW: I don't know if they're going to make a deal. I mean, we'll be watching but they passed a -- you know, a self-imposed deadline a few times over. Let's talk about testing. It's amazing that we're in August and there is still not widespread rapid testing available for most American people. I wonder if you think it's a failure by the government that we're at a place where we are when, you know, it would make such a difference, it seems, Gary, for you guys for example to be able to do rapid testing on people before they got on your planes. KELLY: You know, you go back to the beginning of the pandemic, and that was one of the keys. That, and contact tracing, quarantining. And I think now we've obviously arrived at a point where people must wear a mask, do the physical distancing. So, yes, it's one of the key elements. I don't think the world was very well prepared for this, and certainly the United States wasn't. And we still don't have enough testing, but it would be very helpful in an environment like -- you just look at kids going back to school, you'd like to know that when you send your kids in -- HARLOW: Yes. KELLY: -- that the other kids aren't -- HARLOW: Have you -- have you told the White House that? KELLY: Go ahead. Oh, sure. No, we -- you know, I mean, let's face it, this is the first time we've seen this kind of a challenge in a hundred years and I think we're all learning as we go. But there -- testing, there's testing protocols that are improving. We'll eventually get there, I assume, but sure, we wish all those things were in place right now. HARLOW: Gary, you talked about mandatory masks. You have required them now for everybody above two years old on your planes. I want to ask you -- KELLY: Right. HARLOW: -- on that front, because you have taken a step, going further than a number of the other carriers with no medical exceptions. There is this reporting -- I'm sure you've seen it -- about a mother on Monday, who Alyssa Sadler says that her son, who's autistic and three, would not wear a mask because he has a sensory issue with having things on his face, and that they were removed as a family and not allowed to fly. Given that, do you think that there should be any exceptions for children or anyone with special needs? KELLY: Well, that's our policy, you know, that's what we have concluded, is there shouldn't be any exceptions because the exception could be someone who has the virus. And the issue, Poppy, is very straightforward, which is if you make one exception, then you'll have to make a lot of exceptions because it's very easy to so-called "beat the system." So we do everything that we can to make it a very safe environment, an inviting environment. I think everyone is well aware of the need to wear a mask in society today, and we're very, very clear that that's a requirement to fly. So I'm very empathetic, I'm a grandfather, I have small grandchildren and I know how kids can be. But it's just a matter of making sure that it's a safe environment for everyone, including all those families. HARLOW: Gary, let me ask you this because the last time we had you on was early May. And since then, this country is finally having a long- overdue reckoning on race, following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And as you well know corporate leadership does not reflect the diversity of this country, there are only four black CEOs in the entire Fortune 500. When you look at Southwest leadership, all eight of your top leaders are white, there is one black board member and there has never been a black CEO of Southwest Airlines. Do you think that's a problem, Gary? KELLY: Well, it's definitely a challenge. And we've got a very diverse company, and the -- if you look at the total employment of Southwest Airlines, it very much reflects the United States of America so it's very, very diverse. We have -- HARLOW: But I think the point is at -- KELLY: -- very diverse leaders in management. HARLOW: -- the top, right? KELLY: Well, I think it's easier to address diversity needs in the board because the board turns over more frequently. But if you look at somebody like me, I've been trained for 34 years to be a part of Southwest Airlines. So we have a number of black leaders within Southwest Airlines, they're up-and-comers. And we just need to do better at creating opportunities, not just for black Americans but also for Hispanics, for Asian-Americans. So it is a challenge, and something that we've made progress on but we need to make more. And that's the single focus that we have -- I think -- for corporate America, is to create those opportunities and make sure that -- you know, what we're going to have to do, Poppy, is be more intentional -- HARLOW: Yes. KELLY: -- and make sure that we have a pipeline of candidates that do reflect that diversity. And what we've been doing hasn't supplied enough candidates, and so we're going to need to be more intentional, going forward. HARLOW: I think that's absolutely right. I appreciate your time this morning, Gary. Thank you and good luck to the entire team flying all of us around. Appreciate it. KELLY: Thank you, Poppy. Thanks for having us. HARLOW: Of course. We'll be right back.

Interview with Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly

Interview mit Gary Kelly, CEO von Southwest Airlines

采访美国西南航空公司首席执行官加里·凯利

BOLDUAN: Americans have been paying more for groceries since the start of the coronavirus. In some cases, they're at levels not seen in decades. It's putting an extra strain on families already under stress. There may be some signs of relief. For perspective here, CNN Business editor-at-large and host of "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS," Richard Quest, is here. Richard, this new data that came out this morning on food prices, what do you see here? RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE & CNN HOST: Well, the first thing is inflation is always dodgy on a month-by-month basis. But now we have two months showing that inflation is rising, both at the core level, stripping out food, and that the headline level is rising by 0.6 of 1 percent. That's month-by-month. It's an annual rate around about 1 percent upon 6 percent. That is OK. It is lower than the Fed's target. But if you look underneath, you start to see what is actually happening. Oil prices leading to higher gasoline prices because Americans are on the road. Americans are traveling. They're staying at home. They're driving instead of running. The summer driving season pushed gasoline up. Food is off just a tad. Food at home fell by 1.1 percent. Significant, Kate, because it shows supply and demand are now becoming more even. BOLDUAN: Let me ask you quickly because you're noting meat prices especially are something to look at. Why are they falling? QUEST: Ah, because, again, the slaughterhouses, the processors, they're managing to get the supply chain back again after COVID, or they're restoring it, and that means the price of meat, fish and eggs is down. Dairy as well. Interestingly, hot dogs, because of July the 4th, hot dogs were up. But remember, inflation numbers are dodgy. BOLDUAN: Yes. Dodgy, as we say. It's good to see you. Thank you, Richard. For the latest stock market news, check out "MARKETS NOW," streaming at 12:45 p.m. Eastern only at CNN Business. Thank you all for joining us today. I'm Kate Bolduan.

Grocery Prices Down Slightly after Spikes Early in Pandemic as Gas Prices Go Up.

Lebensmittelpreise sinken leicht, nachdem sie zu Beginn der Pandemie in die Höhe geschnellt waren, während die Benzinpreise steigen.

随着汽油价格的上涨，食品价格在大流行初期的峰值后略有下降。

JARRETT: The Trump administration has reached a deal with the biotech firm Moderna to manufacture and deliver 100 million doses of the company's coronavirus vaccine if and when it's approved. The deal could be worth as much as $1.5 billion. Moderna is one of several companies manufacturing a vaccine at risk, which means the vaccine is being produced before it is approved. Clinical trials are currently under way to test whether it is safe and effective. ROMANS: Russia plans to begin mass coronavirus vaccinations for its citizens in October. Despite serious questions about the safety and efficacy of its newly approved vaccine, several U.S. health leaders and vaccine experts are skeptical since no data has been released and phase three trials are starting only today. Matthew Chance joins us live from Moscow. And, Matthew, you know, vaccines are a very slow and steady wins the race business, but Russia is trying to say we're out there first. MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Well, they passed a law a couple of months ago at the start of this global pandemic, removing the need for phase three testing to be completed before approval for public use of the vaccine to try to fast track that. That's what they've done. There are big concerns about the lack of data that's been published. There hasn't been any. About the lack of test, phase three trials have only just begun. Russians, though, say that front line health workers in this country, teachers, elderly, other vulnerable categories will be the first to be vaccinated when they get this thing mass-produced and despite those broad concerns and skepticism about this being expressed around the world Russians are taking a very different point of view saying that this is an important victory in the battle against coronavirus. CHANCE (voice-over): You couldn't accuse the Kremlin of ignoring the propaganda value of its vaccine. They have even called it Sputnik after the Soviet satellite that launched the space race. Now, it's the vaccine race the Kremlin says it's won hands down. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): A vaccine against coronavirus has been registered for the first time in the world this morning. I know that it works quite effectively. It forms a stable immunity. CHANCE: But how does he know? Well, he says one of his own daughters, perhaps the one who is an acrobatic dancer has been vaccinated or his eldest, a medical specialist, or Putin says she had a slight temperature at first but feels much better now. Extraordinary from a Russian president who rarely mentions his family, we still don't know for sure how many children he has. Still, it under lines how much confidence the Kremlin wants to show in its new vaccine. Despite concerns no clinical data has been published, soldiers were used as volunteers in early testing and crucial third phase human trials and not even started, worrying shortcuts, say critics. The Kremlin dashed across the line. ALEX AZER, SECRETARY OF HEALTH: The point is not to be first with the vaccine. The point is to have a vaccine that is safe and effective for the American people and people of the world. CHANCE: There's been criticism inside Russia, too, a prominent pharmaceutical industry body this week calling on health officials to postpone the vaccine because it may put lives at risk. Not a warning that's been heeded. Officials say front line health workers and teachers will be vaccinated first, then the elderly and other vulnerable groups. In fact, Russian officials say there is a vast global appetite for their vaccine. Applications for more than a billion doses they say have already been received from more than 20 countries. It may not be safe or even work, but Russia can proclaim at least to itself that it is once again at planet-saving scientific super power. CHANCE: Christine, it really does have echoes, doesn't it, of the space race during the cold war. Again, to reaffirm what you just mentioned mass vaccinations in this country is going to start in October as they start to mass produce the doses of this vaccine that they've now approved. But, again this, is extraordinary. Those crucial phase three trials that are normally seen as being absolutely necessary before any vaccine is approved they've already started this morning. ROMANS: So clear also you have to have the public believe in the safety of a vaccine when it is ready as well. So rushing it, I don't know what it does to public uptake of vaccines around the world but critically important they get it right. All right. Thank you so much, Matthew Chance. Nice to see you. JARRETT: All right. Among the U.S. health officials expressing skepticism of the new Russian vaccine is Dr. Anthony Fauci. The federal government's top COVID expert telling ABC News if the U.S. was willing to, in his word, take the chance of hurting a lot of people or giving them something that doesn't work, it could roll out a vaccine next week. FAUCI: Having a vaccine, Deborah, and proving that a vaccine is safe and effective are two different things. I hope that the Russians have actually definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective. I seriously doubt that they've done that. ROMANS: All right. Russia's claim of having developed a coronavirus vaccine creating new concerns among medical experts in this country. Some were already nervous the Trump administration would rush trials in hopes of unveiling a potentially untested vaccine right before election. Now those worries have intensified. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Laura, President Trump has said he thinks we can have a vaccine ready to go by Election Day. And that is brewing more fears that we could have an October surprise. In other words, that President Trump could pressure the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve a vaccine to go on the market in October even if it hasn't been thoroughly tested in phase three trials. But Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, says, quote, this cannot happen. He says we can only have a vaccine when we're finished with phase three trials and we know that the vaccine is safe and that it also it's effective. These trials involve 30,000 people. Now other experts tell us that there's no way those trials can to be done and ready to go by Election Day. Now this concern about the so-called October surprise is based on large part with what President Trump did last spring with hydroxychloroquine. President Trump pressured the FDA to give it an emergency use authorization, even though there was no data showing that it worked. So the FDA did give it authorization and then they had to take it away a couple of months later. So the concern here is that the president might do the same thing with the vaccine -- Laura, Christine. JARRETT: All right. Elizabeth, thank you for that. Will we see college football in the fall? In the spring or not at all? "Bleacher Report" coming up next.

Russia & the Vaccine Race

Russland und das Impfstoffrennen

俄罗斯与疫苗竞赛

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST, NEWSROOM: I'm Brianna Keilar, and I want to welcome viewers here in the United States and around the world. More families are without their loved ones today after the deadliest day of the summer so far, 1,499 Americans lives lost Wednesday to the coronavirus. In fact, it's the 17th consecutive day that the U.S. has averaged more than 1,000 deaths per day, and it's a stark reminder that the U.S. does not have this pandemic under control. While deaths are rising, testing is decreasing including in major hotspots. Right now, 35 states are reporting an increase in test positivity, and that is something that Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed just a short time ago. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: When you look at other parts of the country, this is the thing that's disturbing to me is that we're starting to see the inkling of the upticks in the percent of the tests that are positive, which we know now from sad past experience that that's a predictor that you're going to have more surges. So unless we all pull together to get that down, and we don't have disparities in some states are doing this, and some states are doing that, we're going to continue to have this up-and-down. So that's the thing that I'm concerned about because I believe we can -- we have it within our power -- to be able to get that down. Bottom line is, I'm not pleased with how things are going. KEILAR: Those comments, following a dire new warning from the head of the CDC: Act now, or it will be the worst fall in U.S. public health history. I'm joined now by Dr. Roshini Raj, associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health. Doctor, thank you so much for being with us today. I want to begin with your reaction to these comments from Dr. Redfield. Can we get back on track or are we destined to have a really terrible fall that might even eclipse what we've been going through? ROSHINI RAJ, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, NYU LANGONE HEALTH: Well, I think that, you know, that terrible fall is a possibility if we don't all really, you know, hunker down and do our part. And the steps to take are fairly simple, and Dr. Redfield laid them out. And it really comes down to wearing the mask, social distancing, washing our hands, being vigilant. You know, these are measures that we've been talking about for a while. And I understand that people are getting tired of it, it's been several months now, it's not easy to still adhere with that same vigilance, but this threat of a second wave or an awful fall is very real, and we have to realize that. And really, every individual do our part. Even if you're in an area of the country -- I'm in New York City, which -- where we feel like we really beat this thing. It can absolutely come back. And of course in other parts of the country, they're really still struggling a lot. It's really up to us. I mean, when you think about it, if we all -- and not that this is a realistic scenario, but -- if we all stayed in our homes for the next three weeks, this thing would die out, you know what I mean? So there is a way to control it, it just is up to us. KEILAR: And Dr. Redfield, he admitted today, he said that the U.S. was underprepared for the pandemic. I mean, we all knew this, but we'd been hearing from the administration, especially the president, this downplaying of what the response has been. You know, he basically says that it's been great, we know it hasn't been great. What does it mean to have the CDC director just admit reality so that maybe it can instill some faith in folks to believe what he's saying? RAJ: Yes. I mean, I think authenticity and honesty is extremely important right now. You know, this COVID situation has become such a political issue, which I think is unfortunate. But there's a lot of mistrust in what we're hearing either from the government or from health officials. I think it's very important that that trust is restored because we do have things coming up that could potentially help a lot, like vaccines for example, if the trust in those vaccines or the messages that people are getting from the government or the CDC isn't there, people may not take the vaccine. And that would be a disaster because that is a potential to really take control of what could be a very dire situation. KEILAR: And finally, I want to ask you about this new report out from the CDC, and it shows that there's a rise in mental health conditions during the pandemic. RAJ: Yes. KEILAR: I think that's another thing that we all knew was going on, right? Everyone, I think, is struggling more than they normally do. RAJ: Yes. KEILAR: And some people, we are learning, are struggling a lot. So how much does this concern you? RAJ: I think it's very concerning. I think you have people who have underlying mental health issues to begin with, and when you add something like this pandemic, it's just completely overwhelming. So those people are really suffering. And then you have people who maybe didn't have issues like that before, but are undergoing relationship stress, job stress, economic stress, you know, worried about their children, worried about their own health. So it's a tremendous issue. And then you have the COVID people themselves, the survivors, who went through COVID, actually survived from a medical standpoint but have lingering symptoms and some mental symptoms also. So there are so many factors involved here and I think we're going to see -- you know, people are sort of calling that the second wave, which is the mental health kind of outlook coming out of this. We're going to see the effects of that, not just in the short term but I believe in the long term as well. KEILAR: Yes. Dr. Raj, thank you so much for walking us through that, we appreciate it. RAJ: Thank you. KEILAR: And a reminder to our viewers that help is available through the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, 1-800-273-8255 on your screen. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis is likening the obstacles to opening schools in his state to the same challenges faced by the U.S. Navy SEAL team that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: Martin County Superintendent Laurie Gaylord told me today that she viewed reopening her schools as a mission akin to a Navy SEAL operation. Just as the SEALs surmounted obstacles to bring Osama bin Laden, to justice, so too would the Martin County school system find a way to provide parents with a meaningful choice of in-person instruction or continued distance learning. All in, all the time. KEILAR: DeSantis and Florida's education commissioner have pushed districts to reopen, threatening to withhold state funding from those districts that offer only remote learning without permission. In fact, Florida pressured Hillsborough County to reopen according to the district superintendent there. We'll have much more on that, ahead. But first, a look at some other headlines from across the country. BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Brynn Gingras in New York. Check out this video that's been circulating on Twitter. It's of a New York City bus and a crowd of people on that bus, partying. The MTA confirms this is one of their buses, and that group jumped on board as the driver, while on their route, was attempting to navigate a block in the street. Now, according to the MTA, that crowd stayed on board for about 15 minutes, but put the driver -- and, really, each other -- at risk. In a statement, the agency's president saying in this egregious situation -- they're crowded in there, no one was wearing masks and it's important to keep that in mind as we take the next steps in working with law enforcement. The bus was disinfected. JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jean Casarez in Pennsylvania. Police are trying to find the identities of two guests at a children's theme park outside of Philadelphia, Sesame Place, after they say the two aggressively punched in the face a teen employee who was only trying to enforce the park's mask policy. CNN affiliate WPVI is saying police are combing through video at the park as well as reservations that can give them a tentative ID. The 17-year-old employee required facial and jaw surgery. He is expected to recover. COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: I'm Coy Wire in Atlanta. After a third straight week of zero positive tests in the NBA's bubble setup in Orlando, players will soon be allowed to have guests join them with some limitations. In a memo obtained by CNN, players can only invite up to four people, and they must either be family or friends with, quote, "longstanding relationships." However, that does not include someone, quote, "known by the player only through social media or an intermediary," unquote. Visitors can start arriving at Disney World on August 24th, and anyone who joins the bubble must quarantine for seven days upon arrival. KEILAR: Ahead, I'll be speaking live with two parents who lost their 32-year-old son to the virus. What they want you to know about their last FaceTime call with him. Plus, the president saying the quiet part out loud when it comes to mail-in voting. What he admits about the Post Office. And today alone, he also uses several sexist tropes to describe women in power including Senator Kamala Harris, Joe Biden's running mate.

Robert Redfield Warns Fall Could be Worst in Public Health History

Robert Redfield warnt davor, dass das Herbst in der Geschichte der öffentlichen Gesundheit am schlimmsten sein könnte

美国疾控中心主任罗伯特·雷德菲尔德警告，此次秋季疫情可能是公共卫生史上最糟糕的一次

KEILAR: Despite the nation facing an unprecedented health and economic crisis, the Trump administration is spending time on the president's shower habits. The Energy Department, calling to roll back water efficiency standards for shower heads after this complaint. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You go into a new home, you turn on the faucet, no water comes out. You turn on the shower -- if you're like me -- you can't wash your beautiful hair properly. KEILAR: Joining us now is CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir. I mean, Bill, this is one of the weirder ones. Tell us what this is all about. BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: It's -- you have to laugh to keep from crying, Brianna, because the president has made no secret of leaning into his vanity, especially on the stump. He talks about how fluorescent lights make him look a strange color, he talks about this low-flow toilets, dishwashers. And he has made this his personal mission -- despite everything else that's going in the world. But just for context, back in '92, then-President George H.W. Bush put in a new law that limited a showerhead to 2.5 gallons a minute. Sensible, enough to wash, enough to conserve for a country of our size. The president then would take showerheads like these and make 2.5 gallons come out of all of them. The Obama administration said it had to be 2.5 gallons total, he wants 2.5 gallons to come out of five, 10, 20 showerheads because he's not getting wet enough. Now, the Appliance Standard Awareness Project, consumer groups, even "Consumer Reports" says this is ludicrous. We've tested showerheads, you can get a good shower within the government limits. This will just cause so much waste when it comes to hot water, the fuel that goes into heating that as well, and especially out West. And just for perspective globally, to back off, he's obsessed with this at a moment when, you know, hundreds of millions of people around the world don't even have access to clean drinkable water, about a third of humanity doesn't have the kind of plumbing we're used to for sanitation in this country. And especially in the American West, mayors, governors encouraging water conservation as the West goes (ph) in a two-decade megadrought which is only going to get worse as 80 million people need to live off of a trickle that is going to be the Colorado River, if the scientists are right. So amid all of this, it seems like the metaphor is, the hotel is on fire, and President Trump is the guy who calls down, as people are evacuating and the alarm is sounding, he's the guy who calls the front desk and complains about water pressure. KEILAR: Yes, that's what it's like. Bill, thank you for just giving us that overview. It's so important to remember all the water challenges in our country and abroad as well, thank you. And President Trump is facing an out-of-control pandemic that has killed nearly 170,000 Americans, abysmal poll numbers and an economic recession. And yet instead of trying to provide some stability, the president made a series of media appearances this week where he appeared deflated and resorted to fear-mongering as he took a hammer to the institutions that Americans should be able to trust right now. First, elections. He and his administration seem unconcerned by China, Russia and Iran trying to undermine the U.S. electoral process, and he's lobbing his own attacks, trying to sow doubt about whether votes will count, or if Americans can trust election results. As you are well aware, there's a pandemic happening right now and it will still be happening in November. In fact, experts say that it's possible it's going to be worse. People need options to vote safely. For many, that will mean voting by mail instead of in-person. And the president is dead-set against mail voting unless it's in the must-win Republican-led state of Florida. So, knowing that, listen to what he said this morning. TRUMP (via telephone): Now, if we don't make a deal that means they don't get the money. That means they can't have universal mail-in voting. KEILAR: Now, he just admitted he doesn't want to fund the government because he doesn't want to make voting easily accessible and safe. He'll say it's because mail-in voting is ripe for voter fraud, but it's not. His own intel officials in charge of election security refuse his other claim, that foreign nations will interfere on some mass scale with mail-in votes. They say that can't happen. There is no widespread fraud in America's elections, and that is according to data kept by the conservative Heritage Foundation. But the postmaster general, a Trump donor, has proposed cuts to his own Postal Service even though the Post Office will play a pivotal role in the coming months. And I should mention that the postmaster general has behaved in a way that has raised questions about his ethical credentials. CNN reports that he continues to hold a multimillion-dollar stake in a postal service contractor, which is an obvious conflict of interest according to experts. In the meantime, Republican operatives in at least one swing state are openly trying to get Kanye West on the ballot for the general election. They're hoping to peel off votes from Joe Biden to help President Trump. Kanye West's wife, mind you, publicly says that he's going through a mental health crisis right now. But what is more, West says he's been talking to Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior advisor. From elections to the law, the president is once again openly interfering with the Justice Department, making comments about Bill Barr's active and controversial investigation of the Russia probe. This was Trump's warning this morning. TRUMP (via telephone): Bill Barr has a chance to be the greatest of all time. But if he wants to be politically correct, he'll be just another guy. KEILAR: He's pressuring the attorney general, who has already done him quite a few favors. But he doesn't stop at the DOJ. Listen to how he describes FBI Director Christopher Wray in regards to this particular investigation. TRUMP (via telephone): So Christopher Wray was put there. We have an election coming up -- I wish he was more forthcoming, he certainly hasn't been -- he was put there for a good reason... He was chosen by a certain person, and I said, 'Go ahead, put whoever you want.' I'm so honest that I said you could put anybody you want. Let's see how Wray turns out. He's going to either turn out one way or the other. KEILAR: Wray is the person that Trump hand-picked. The FBI says that it's cooperated with multiple investigations into the bureau's handling of the Russia investigation, even assigning agents to come of Barr's efforts. As the president dismisses the severity of this pandemic constantly, from pushing unproven treatments to lying about how testing works, his own CDC director is breaking from him. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: This is the greatest public health crisis to hit this nation in a century, that we were underprepared. I'm asking you to do four simple things: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands and be smart about crowds. If we don't do that, as I said last April, this could be the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we've ever had. KEILAR: The briefings that the president has been holding recently provide no real information, no national strategy for testing or tracing or containment. Instead, they often devolve into political rants. And if you take a look at our resident CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale's Twitter feed every night, you'll see how he's been saying the president is being more and more dishonest. And Daniel says that he's often just copying and pasting his CNN fact- checks because the president tells the same lies over and over and over, including the one about the timetable of the vaccine. GERALDO RIVERA, WTAM HOST, GERALDO IN CLEVELAND: What's the earliest we could see that, a vaccine? TRUMP (via telephone): Sooner than the end of the year, could be much sooner. These three (ph)... RIVERA: Sooner than November 3rd? TRUMP (via telephone): ... companies are fantastic. Oh, I think in some cases, yes, possible before, but right around that time. KEILAR: That's not true. Even by the most optimistic of timetables, a vaccine won't be ready until the end of the year or the beginning of next. It would take months for the majority of Americans to have access to it. Keep in mind, scientists and doctors around the country have publicly said they worry the vaccine will be rushed before it's ready for political purposes. And he's also making promises about the next round of stimulus relief. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you permanently rescind the payroll tax, how do you pay for Social Security? TRUMP: We're taking it out of the general fund... UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But that would incur (ph) huge deficits. TRUMP: ... and what we'll do -- yes, what we'll be doing is, if we do that, we'll get it approved in that case by Congress, and we'll take the money from other places other than -- we will not take it from Social Security in any way, shape or form. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, but how do you fund it from the general fund when the general fund just incurred a debt of $2.8 trillion? TRUMP: You're right, but we're going to have tremendous growth, we have tremendous growth. You take a look at what's happening here? Next year, unless somebody comes in -- KEILAR: That's a con. The payroll tax funds Social Security. If you take it away without a realistic plan to fund it, you could bankrupt not only Social Security, but Medicare as well. Doing this would, in the short term, put more money in people's pockets just before the election, but it would have dire long-term consequences. And his explanation to pay for it? It's magic, magical growth in an uncertain economy, during a once-in-a-century pandemic. Separately, the president said, quote, "The suburban housewife will be voting for me. They want safety and are thrilled that I ended the long running program where low income housing would invade their neighborhood. Biden would reinstall it in a bigger form, with Cory Booker in charge." That's both racist and sexist. First of all, that word, "invade," it is a very loud dog whistle he uses when he's talking about non-white people coming to where white people are. And second, doesn't it seem like he's still living in an era where Elvis and "Great Balls of Fire" top the charts, where women are just June Cleaver caricatures? TRUMP: I don't want to sound too much like a chauvinist. But when I come home and dinner's not ready, I'll go through the roof. KEILAR: On top of all that, in that tweet, he not-so-randomly picks an African-American Democratic senator to lead Biden's, quote, "low- income housing invasion." Here's how he tried to explain it. TRUMP: They're going to, in my opinion, destroy suburbia. And just so you understand, 30 percent-plus of the people living in suburbia are minorities. They want to change zoning so that you have lots of problems where they want to build low-income housing. You want something where people can aspire to be there, not something where it gets hurt badly. KEILAR: Again, he is saying the quiet part out loud there. It is not the 1950s. The suburbs have become more and more diverse. Most middle- class homes have two working parents, including women who work. And speaking of women who work, today alone, the president trotted out a number of sexist tropes. He called Nancy Pelosi "stone cold crazy;" Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "not even smart," Mika Brzezinski, "a ditzy airhead." And this is how he described Senator Kamala Harris, who is now a candidate for vice president of the United States. TRUMP (via telephone): And now you have a sort of a madwoman -- I'd call her -- because she was so angry -- KEILAR: The angry black woman trope, from the mouth of the president of the United States of America, a reminder, as he focuses on suburban women, that many suburban women, they're actually black. It's 2020, not 1950. Still ahead, a Philadelphia judge refuses to obey a mask mandate that is posted on his own courtroom door. Plus, I'll be speaking live with the parents who lost their 32-year- old son to the virus: why they want their last conversation with him to be a message for everyone.

Trump Calls for Increased Water Pressure; Trump's Public Conduct Out of Step With Contemporary America.

Trump fordert erhöhten Wasserdruck; Trumps öffentliches Verhalten steht nicht im Einklang mit dem heutigen Amerika.

特朗普呼吁增加水压；特朗普在公共场所的行为举止与当代美国格格不入。

KING: Voter suppression plain and simple. That is the take of Colorado Secretary of State today after some remarkable comments from President Trump. Listen. TRUMP: They want $3.5 billion for the mail-in votes. Okay? Universal mail-in ballots. They want $25 billion for the post office. If we don't make a deal that means they don't get the money that means they can't have universal mail-in voting. KING: So let's walk through that. The president says universal mail-in voting can't be done no money for it unless the post office gets more resources. He is right and he correctly notes that post office can't get that money if he refuses to cut a new Coronavirus spending deal with the Democrats. But the president is incorrect when he says Democrats came up with that $25 billion request. The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noting this morning that number actually came from the Postal Service Board of Governors all appointed by President Trump. CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins joins us live from the White House. Kaitlan, pretty candid comments from the president there, can't have more mail-in voting if the post office doesn't get more money and I'm not in the mood to give more money. KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yep. He has been making this argument John indirectly and now we're seeing the president do so, and about the plainest terms that you are going to see the president say this. Saying explicitly visits the reason he is blocking this funding not only the funding for more election resources but also that $25 billion for the Postal Service which desperately needs that money. We should note and he says it is strictly because Democrats want to expand mail- in voting and he doesn't want that to happen. He is explicitly linking the two and saying that's the reason he is blocking this and Democrats are pushing back on what the president is saying. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had something to say about it earlier this morning. REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): They did not really ever like the Postal Service because they always want to find a way to make money off of something and they want to privatize. But now at a time of a pandemic you would think they'd have a little sensitivity. COLLINS: So what she appeared to be referring to there is how the Postal Service delivers a lot of prescriptions in the mail of course that is important at a time during the pandemic when people don't are not wanting to leave their homes as much as they were before. But it's not just Pelosi that is criticizing the president for his remarks. The Former Vice President Joe Biden is as well, he says this is what he believes basically John an assault on democracy. KING: And so Kaitlan, the president's also - he wants a payroll tax cut holiday now and he say if he wins re-election he'd like to cut the payroll tax. How does that square with the president's promise to never touch social security? COLLINS: It doesn't seem to. This is one of those things where it depends on who you're listening to. Here at the White House, what you are hearing? Because Larry Kudlow is one of the president's top economic advisers he was there in the briefing yesterday. And on Sunday he said that the president did not want to eliminate the payroll tax cut permanently if he reelected. He just meant that this deferral that right now that the president signed in this memo would be forgiven at the end of the year. Of course, Congress would play a role in that, but the president repeated what he said again yesterday. If he is reelected, he wants to make the payroll tax cut permanent.

President Donald Trump: Democrats Want Money In Stimulus For "Universal Mail-In Ballots".

Präsident Donald Trump: Demokraten wollen Geld aus dem Konjunkturprogramm für \"universelle Mail-In-Stimmzettel\".

唐纳德·特朗普总统：民主党想要用钱刺激“全民邮寄选票”。

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, everyone, and welcome to "Amanpour." Here's what's coming up. Taking on one of President Trump's closest allies. For the first time in 17 years, could a Democrat beat Senator Lindsey Graham in South Carolina? Jaime Harrison tells us why he thinking he will. COVID-19 throws American college football out of bounds. What it means for the NFL and what it says about America. And finally, they call him the new jazz messiah. With me, Jacob Collier, YouTube prodigy who's already wowed Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones. And we get a special performance live on the program. Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. After years of security cooperation, Israel and the United Arab Emirates have struck a historic peace deal. The move was announced in a joint statement with President Trump, who said that it would bring together two of America's strongest allies in the region. DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: This is a truly historic moment. Not since the Israel/Jordan Peace Treaty was signed more than 25 years ago has so much progress been made toward peace in the Middle East. By united two of America's closest and most capable partners in the region, something which said could not be done, this deal is a significant step towards building a more peaceful, secure and prosperous Middle East. AMANPOUR: Now, as part of this deal, Israel says that it won't -- that it will suspend its plans to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank, which is also what the U.S. wants for now. Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, shared these images of himself on the phone to the UAE crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed. He also thanked President Trump, "from the bottom of his heart." BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I want to thank President Trump for his critical help in brokering this historic accord, and I want to thank him for his revolutionary vision for peace, which is the most realistic and important formula for peace in the region. President Trump's Middle East plan served as a basis for today's historic peace announcement. AMANPOUR: There was criticism from the usual quarters, of course, an Iranian news agency tied that Revolutionary Guards calling it shameful, but it does raise major questions. Will other Arab states follow in establishing ties with Israel? And have the Palestinians lost out? The former Israeli prime minister, Tzipi Livni, joins us from Tel Aviv. Tzipi Livni, welcome back to the program. TZIPI LIVNI, FORMER ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Thank you. AMANPOUR: You know, the last time we spoke, your prime minister was on the verge of annexing the West Bank. And you said that this would be a disaster for Israel, and you were hoping that the U.S. would persuade him not to. Can you tell me how this all fits in now, this jigsaw puzzle? LIVNI: Yes. My feeling today is that we are having too good news in one toking. I mean, on one hand, Netanyahu decided or agreed to suspend the annexation, and I believe this is good news, because there is hope for peace with the Palestinians. And yet, we are having peace and normalization with the Emirates. And for many years, you know, discrete relations with them as a state, and also personally as a foreign minister and now to have this public, I believe that this sends a very good news to the region. And I do hope that this can open a new door for negotiations with the Palestinians, because as an Israeli, I believe peace with the Palestinians is important for Israel as well. AMANPOUR: I'm going to get to that in a second. But you mentioned that you've had discreet relations with the UAE when you were foreign minister. I mean, that goes back a long time, more 10 ten years now. You were foreign minister between 2006 and 2009. LIVNI: Yes. AMANPOUR: But I also understand that you were one of the last major Israelis. I mean, nine months ago you met with the foreign minister of the UAE. How long has this been going on? And was it a deal that was crafted between the two parties or did the United States craft this deal? LIVNI: Well, for many years we had understanding that Israel is not the enemy anymore, but -- and Iran is basically the common threat, but they had their glass ceiling in the relations with Israel and this was the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. And therefore, the relations between Israel and also, as you mentioned, personally as a foreign minister not only with them, but with different guard stem was discreet meetings. Just -- I was foreign minister since 2006. So, we are talking about many years ago, but also in just a few months ago, I visited -- well, not in office, not an official visit, but I visited Abu Dhabi with their invitation, a few -- just a year ago, I visited Manama, Bahrain. So, we could see some signals that we have better relations and maybe it will be more public and we can reach normalization. And I think that what Mohammed bin Zayed (ph) was -- he showed leadership, it was a -- he showed courage, and also it was very smart thing to do, because instead of annexation, we are turning into peace. And I want to say that even though, you know, I heard some disputes also about Trump plan, I want to congratulate everybody today for making these steps, and I want to call the Palestinians also not to shut the door again. AMANPOUR: OK. So, you've raised a huge number of issues. First of all, you said you visited Bahrain. Do you believe there will be more Arab states joining in this process? I understand that your prime minister has visited Oman. I understand that, you know, that might be -- LIVNI: Yes. AMANPOUR: Is that correct? Can you confirm that? LIVNI: I don't know. I don't know which state is coming next, but it is true that the Prime Minister Netanyahu visited Oman. I also met the foreign minister of Oman a few times also in public. And to my surprise, my last visit to Bahrain was also public. And even though I'm not in office, you know, I'm an Israeli visiting there. So, as I said, maybe this is the beginning of something that is bigger than just one state, but I really highly appreciate this step. And as an Israeli, it's important for us, but as an Israeli who believes in peace with the entire region, but also with the Palestinians, I hope that postponing the annexation can lead hopefully to another round of negotiation with the Palestinians. And -- AMANPOUR: OK. So, Tzipi Livni, a big elephant in the room -- yes, I know that that's your position. You believe in hope -- rather you hope for peace and you always have done. And you believe in dialogue with the Palestinian authority. LIVNI: Yes. AMANPOUR: But as you very well know, the Arab League's former position was that there would never be such normalization with Israel until there was also normalization and a full peace with the Palestinians. So, are the Arabs saying that they've had enough? That they're just -- these -- the Palestinians are on their own now? LIVNI: You know, it is clear that since 2002 the Arab League position is that normalization comes just after peace between Israel and the Palestinians and Syria. And as an Israeli, I hope to see peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but I think that what the Emirates did today is saying, OK, instead of annexation, we are willing to take a huge step towards Israel. I know that the Palestinians, while they are not happy with the situation, in a way, there is a change in the linkage between the relations between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel and the Arab world, but I think that in a way what Emirates did is minimizing the damage of annexation, because the day after annexation as I've told you also -- AMANPOUR: Well, let me ask you -- yes. LIVNI: -- in our -- AMANPOUR: Yes. Yes. You told me it would be a disaster for Israel. LIVNI: -- is end of -- yes. And now, it was postponed. AMANPOUR: Yes. LIVNI: I hope that it would not come back in another door or in a back door or in the future. Let's hope so. But for now, for today this is good news, postponing the annexation, having normalization with the United Arab Emirates, good news. AMANPOUR: Well, absolutely. But of course, you know that there are many people who just simply don't believe that this is going to end annexation, and your own former colleague, foreign minister of Jordan, Marwan Muasher, who, as we all know, Israel and Jordan were the last to secure a peace in your region, and that was in '94. Marwan Muasher, one of his initial reaction is, I'm not sure Israel is going to stop the de facto annexation. It looks like a ploy to justify the establishment of relations. I don't think Israel or the United States has changed their mind about annexation, only the timing. What's your reaction to that? LIVNI: There is -- well, it's not a secret that in Israel you have to two different camps. You have on the right wing, on Israel there are those saying, OK, what is the meaning? The meaning is that we can have normalization with the Arab world. We doubt peace with the Palestinians. And what I'm trying to say is that, but you cannot have both. You cannot have annexation and peace with the Arab world. Now, I'm sure that annexation, or not having annexation, it's not peace yet. But there is internal dispute in Israel, either present those believing that annexation is wrong and having peace with the Palestinians based on two states where two people sees an (ph) Israeli interest. This is an internal discussion in Israel. I don't know what the outcome will be. But for now, you know, not having -- or postponing annexation, for today it's enough. Let's see what lies in the future. And maybe, maybe, maybe also Israelis would understand that we cannot have both, and when we have hopes for a strategic change of the situation of Israel in the region and having peace with the Palestinians would be part of it, maybe more Israelis would be open to the concessions that are part of any peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. AMANPOUR: Well, that, of course, would depend, as much as anybody, on the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who, you know, has got about nine or 10 lives, you know, right? LIVNI: Right. AMANPOUR: And many people are quite cynical about the timing of all this, because of his legal troubles, because of, you know, the herculean efforts it took, three separate elections to actually hang on to power. What do you think is -- has this -- is this another lifeline for Benjamin Netanyahu? Where do you see the politics? You're talking about internal Israeli politics toward peace. Do you really see that? LIVNI: Listen, I'm not a political commentator. But -- and I'm sure -- and I hear voices coming from the circlers, they are quite frustrated from postponing the annexation plan. And as you said, peace between Israel and the Palestinians depends on leadership in Israel on the Palestinian side. But yet, what we see today is that Netanyahu decided to postpone annexation and to normalize the relations with the UAE. So, for now, we are gaining time without annexation. I don't know whether he would gain politically for it or not. We are having a huge debate in Israel about Israel's democracy, about the way Netanyahu is attacking law enforcement and the Supreme Court in Israel. So, yes, we have huge debates in Israel these days about corruption, about everything. But this is a moment in which having peace with another Arab state, this is good news for Israel. And postponing annexation is also good news. AMANPOUR: It's good news indeed, for the region. So, it's a big day. LIVNI: Yes. AMANPOUR: Tzipi Livni, always good to have your perspective. And you have been there at the cold face, so to speak, of these negotiations. So, it's great to hear from you. There are these same debates going on in the United States about democracy, about law and order, about, you know, legality of elections and so forth. And now, we turn to South Carolina, a state that could make history in an already historic year. It is where Joe Biden was handed the Democratic Party leadership after his decisive win in that state's primary. But for the past 17 years, it's been red through and through, with Republican senator and Trump convert confidante, Lindsey Graham, unchallenged, that is until now. Jaime Harrison, the first African-American chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party is joining us now from the state capital of Colombia, and he is taking on Lindsey Graham. Welcome to the program, Jaime Harrison. JAIME HARRISON (D-SC), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Thank you so much. AMANPOUR: What is it -- it's great to talk with you. It's such a vital state, as we've established here. What is it that makes you think for the first time in 17 years, nearly 18 years, you're going to be able to unseat Senator Graham? HARRISON: Well, Christiane, first of all, you know, I grew up in long odds. I'm the son of 16-year-old mom who had to stop to school to take care of me. I grew in a family with not much education and not much money. And despite it all, despite those long odds, I went to Yale in Georgetown and worked on Capitol Hill and became the first black chair of the state party. And so, you know, that is a uniquely American story. It's a story that you can rise up from the very lowest ranks and rise to the tops. Well, in this race, folks have given me long odds. And they said that, you know, you can't beat history. But what folks don't understand is that we are making history in this race. I have outraised Lindsey Graham in the last two quarters. I raised $14 million in the last quarter, more than any other candidate in the country right now, with the only exception of one. And so, we are well on our way to making history here in South Carolina. We've got a campaign on the ground like we have never seen in the Democratic Party with over 5,000 volunteers. And so, this is about closing the chapter on the old south, which Lindsey is a part of, and opening and writing a whole new book called the new south, one that is bold, that inclusive and diverse. And that's what we're building here, Christiane, and that's why I'm so excited about the prospects moving forward. AMANPOUR: Do you think, Jaime Harrison, that there's something about the timing, the time wherein the historic moment in the United States, and frankly are not a the world, the pandemic, you know, the racial uprising for justice, you know, all of the things, the economic, you know, disaster that we're seeing as well. I mean, obviously, South Carolina has been very, very badly hit by COVID, one of the worst-hit in the world if you account for numbers and population. Is there something about that that is also, you know, having people question the current leadership? AMANPOUR: Yes, Christiane, you know, the stars are aligning here. And I think you add to the fact that the guy I'm running against, Lindsey Graham, has changed. As you can recall, when John McCain was alive, Lindsey Graham was somebody that we all respected regardless of your party. You may not have agreed with him all the time, but you had respect for him because you thought he could rise above the fray. He really helped parties come AMANPOUR: Of course, the other senator currently serving is Republican Tim Scott, I believe. You talked about the old Lindsey Graham and the new Lindsey Graham. Well, let me just play a mashup or it's a campaign ad, attack ad against him, not by your campaign but by Get Lindsey Out group. And it's sort of -- it refers to how he was a never trumper until he was a Trump trumper. Let's just play it. SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): He's a AMANPOUR: Jaime Harrison, you said that, you know, many people respected Lindsey Graham. He was known as somebody who could, you know, forge deals across the aisle. What do you think led to that change? HARRISON: I don't know. It's like watching a live version of the invasion of the body snatchers. I don't know where the old Lindsey Graham has gone. But I do know this new Lindsey Graham just doesn't have a set of core values or core convictions, or even a backbone in his spine to stand up for what is right. You know, these issues don't need to be partisan. It's not about Democrats versus Republicans or progressives verse conservatives. Ultimately, the issues that people are dealing with here in South Carolina are about right issues versus wrong issues. We need someone who's going to fight for our rural hospitals and make sure that our small businesses have the funds that they need in order to stay open, to make sure that, you know, we have basic services. You know, just two years ago 14 of our 46 counties have no OB/GYNs. 38 percent of our rural communities have no access to broadband. So, they couldn't do Zoom calls or anything like that. And so, these are fundamental issues and they're not new to South Carolina. It's just that COVID has made them worse. And the question is, where is Lindsey Graham? And most of the time he's either, you know, sitting next to Sean Hannity for a Fox News interview or on a golf course. We need a senator that is going to be a workhorse for South Carolina, not a show horse. Someone who is going to work for our beautiful state and the people that live in it. AMANPOUR: Again, Lindsey Graham of 2015 said some of the nicest things anybody can say about a human being when he really praised then Vice President Biden. I mean, he essential said, you know, what is not to like? He's the nicest person I think I've ever met in politics. He's as good a man as God ever created. So, that was 2015. I ask you that, because I wonder, can Joe Biden and now Kamala Harris, that ticket, turn South Carolina into a democratic state? In other words, can they win the state, do you think? HARRISON: I think there's a great opportunity here. And part of it is, you know, Kamala Harris probably visited South Carolina more than any other candidate that ran for president last cycle. And Joe Biden has been a friend of South Carolina for a long time. This is a man who gave one of the eulogies at Strom Thurmond's funeral. He gave a eulogy at Fritz Hollings, you know, the dredging of the Port of Charleston is helping because of the help of Joe Biden. And so, they have been to some of these places and communities that Lindsey Graham hadn't been to in years. So, they understand the hardships of the working people here. And partnering with me on these issues that we have to deal with, I think we're going to make a formidable team. AMANPOUR: Look, we obviously invited Senator Graham on to this program. We have done many times. He's declined. We hope for, you know, an acceptance of our offer at some point. But I do want to ask you this. You know, there's been a lot of fear about contesting the election, about, you know, what might happen, voter suppression, all of those things that have been, you know, raced because of what President Trump has said and the like. Let my just play for you what Congressman Jim Clyburn told me not so long ago about his fears for the integrity of the election. REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): I've been warning now for about three years that this president does not plan to give up the office. He does not plan to abide by the constitution of the United States. He does not plan for there to be a fair unfettered election taking place on November 3rd. AMANPOUR: So, that was him talking to me not so long ago. And I wonder if you feel the same way. And I wonder if you are surprised, like many were, at an extraordinary letter that was signed and published by two former, you know, military officers, army officers, who had served several tours in Iraq, you know, basically saying -- and I'm going to read it, the president of the United States is actively subverting our electoral system. Threatening to remain in office in defiance of our constitution. If Donald Trump refuses to leave office at the expiration of his constitutional term, the United States Military must remove him by force, and you must give that order. He's writing to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Milley. What do you make of that development? HARRISON: Well, Christiane, I really hope that this doesn't have to get down to that. It has never happened in the history of this great nation. I am very, very concerned with the subversion of, you know, basic institutions like the Postal Service, where many of our veterans, when they come back from fighting wars and they go and they get employed. It's an institution in our small and rural communities. Many people get their medicines through the Postal Service. And for us to start to play politics with the Postal Service and how we conduct elections here, that is un-American. And we cannot have that and they cannot stand. And I don't care if it's a Democrat or Republican, we cannot allow that as Americans to allow our basic institutions that make our democracy work be undermined by anyone. AMANPOUR: And very finally and very quickly, do you think -- I can hear a groundswell of suggestion that voters might just have to go and vote in person. HARRISON: Well, you know, or folks, we have absentee here in South Carolina. And so, folks can still apply for their absentee ballots, have it mailed to them and they can drop it off at the precincts. But I just hope that we could conduct elections like we conduct the elections. America is supposedly the democracy. We're that shining city on the hill. We are the fighter -- we fight for democracy across this nation. We shouldn't have to be fighting for our own democracy. And so, you know, I'm encouraging and urging my friends on both sides of the aisles, Democrats and Republicans, let's stand up and show people that we understand the power of democracy and we're going to fight for that democracy, even here in our own country. AMANPOUR: Amazing times. Jaime Harrison, thank you for joining us. Senate candidate in South Carolina. Now, sports has been sideswiped by COVID. Could the pandemic cancel American college football? Well, the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Mountain West are the big college football conferences pulling teams this fall. Sportswriter, Dave Zirin, and retired NFL defensive end and activist, Michael Bennett, co-authored "Things That Make White People Uncomfortable." Here's our Hari Sreenivasan talking about collegiate athletes being empowered by the Black Lives Matter movement and demanding their safety against COVID with the hashtag, we are united and we want to play. HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Christiane. Thanks, Dave and Michael, for joining me. This seems like an intersection of so many things that are happening at this moment. We've got student athletes, their long-term struggles, we've got a pandemic, we've got Black Lives Matter, we've got restarting schools, and that's part of why I wanted this conversation with you, because of what is happening with college football seems to give us a gateway into so many other interesting things. So, let me start with this about college football. Dave, have you ever seen anything like this where students successfully advocated on their own behalf in such a public way, where in a matter of weeks we actually saw action that would impact their lives and their collegiate careers? DAVE ZIRIN, SPORTS EDITOR, THE NATION: No, I mean, you would have to go back to the late 1960s when you had a period of the revolt of the black athlete, when a lot of black student athletes, as they're called, although I have problems with phrase, student athlete, as we can discuss, but a lot of them organized themselves against racist coaches, against not having any black cheerleaders against not being able to choose their own classes. I mean, there was a wave of that in the late '60s and early '70s by athletes who were empowered by the black freedom struggle. And I think that's the reflection we've seen out today. A lot of these athletes feel empowered by the Black Lives Matter movement to actually speak out on their own behalf. And so, it's not just the pandemic. It's seeing people in the streets call out for racial justice, has them applying that to their own lives. SREENIVASAN: Michael, I want you to take us back, if you could. When you were playing at Texas A&M, could you imagine a moment where students would just say, listen, I want scholarship protection. I want the costs of the medical care associated with this pandemic paid for. You know, I am not just your entertainment. I'm a human being. I mean, has this power dynamic shifted in just a short time between when you were in school and today? MICHAEL BENNETT, RETIRED NFL PLAYER: No, I couldn't imagine. I feel like, before, there was a lot of fear. We didn't have Colin Kaepernick taking a knee. We didn't have that moment, that climax moment to push everybody over the edge. There was a lot of quietness. And it was -- people were subjugated to a lot of things. And I think, looking back, I don't think we had the courage to be able to collectively unionize almost, in a sense, and really ask for what we really wanted, knowing that we were the product, knowing that we were the ones who were bringing an income into the school, and knowing the things that we face when we come into this, as Dave was talking about, being able to select your class, not being pushed into a certain way. And to see that, finally, they're coming together as a whole and challenging the NCAA on their status, and knowing how it's been -- being ability to benefit and profit off of young amateur athletes, and not allowing them to make any income, and knowing that they have all almost put them in a situation where they had to deal with paying on their whole life in the continuation after they finished with the sport. I think any contract that you sign in perpetuity is a dangerous contract. SREENIVASAN: Dave, there were two separate hashtags that seemed to merge. And in a way, these students accomplished something that the rest of the country has not. There was the #weareunited hashtag and then there was the #wewanttoplay. And for a while, those were almost wedged against each other. Walk us through what happened. DAVE ZIRIN, "THE NATION": Sure. Two of the big five conferences have now said, we are not going to be playing football this far -- this fall. And what that did was, it agitated a lot of the athletes who were saying, we need to unite, we need to unionize, we need to have a say our health care, we need to have a say in how we're treated during this pandemic. That shifted. And they started to say, like, well, wait a minute, we actually do want to play, though. We just want to be able to have a say in how this playing comes about. The problem, though, is that they don't have a players association. The problem is that there is no centralized united leadership, like a commissioner, like you have in the NFL or the NBA. And so there's no real way to organize and get what these college athletes so obviously deserve. So, instead, what you had was different conferences backbiting against each other, different medical experts, people were turning to at different times, saying what they necessarily wanted to hear about whether to open or not open. You had a lot of lawyers involved on the question of liability. And before you knew it, you had a good portion of the college football season, as of this recording, just completely up in smoke. SREENIVASAN: Michael, tell us how important that last year of playing can be. I mean, in this context, it seems like, if you're on the bubble or a good player, this could determine your placement in the draft, on how high you're selected, how much money you might get as a signing bonus. And, then, alternatively, there's also the potential here is your health from the virus itself or the health of one of your loved ones. I mean, how hard is it for a player to deal with that? BENNETT: I think it's a difficult decision. I mean, you have to the duality of wanting to achieve something at a high level, then also duality of just being a student athlete and having to deal with the health part. So, it's like you're in a conundrum because you don't know what to do really. And being a student athlete or being actually in the final year of your collegiate years is really important to you trying to put yourself in a position to be able to be in combine. But I think this is bigger than that. I think this is the moment where the exploitation of the collegiate athlete is on the bubble of bursting. And I think, as a collegiate athlete, it's hard to -- some of the athletes might find it hard to sacrifice for the greater good. But, at this moment, the greater good is what is -- what will be better for a lot of the younger athletes who are coming to the college level. SREENIVASAN: Dave, you have called the college football system a plantation system. What do you mean by that? ZIRIN: Well, because I feel like it's been organized for a generation, at least, on the basis of the systematic exploitation of primary -- primarily black athletes. And it has -- there's this big sucking sound in college football that involves the taking of black wealth that is created and putting it in the pockets of administrators, of coaches, and of primarily white administrators of the game itself. I mean, college football, you take a step back from it, it is the second most profitable and popular sport in all of the United States to the National Football League. That's the only sport it's behind in terms of ratings and money. There's currently billions of dollars of television contracts out there to broadcast college football. College football coaches are the highest paid state employees in -- I believe it's 39 of the 50 states it's the football coach in the state that's the highest paid public employee. And to make it even more stark, just so people understand it, when Clemson won the national championship back in 1981, their coach, Danny Ford, made $50,000 a year. The coach now, Dabo Swinney, makes $10 million a year. So that's when I call it -- when I refer to it as a plantation system, it's a system where the athletes do not get paid for the labor they put in. And it's not a coincidence to me that the most exploitative sport, which is college football, is a sport that is absolutely dependent on black bodies for the purpose of its profitability. SREENIVASAN: Michael, you have heard the familiar refrain from the NCAA: Listen, you're -- and Dave referenced this here -- you're getting an education. You're still amateurs. This changes the dynamic if you were to get paid. Should college athletes be compensated? Should they be able to unionize? BENNETT: I mean, if we're going off of simply capitalism and a fair business deal would be, if you achieve a certain amount of success and you achieve -- you bring in your company a lot of money, then you are -- you would have a stock option, you would have dividends in some type of capacity. And I think, as a collegiate athlete, collegiate athletes should be paid, because, if you look at a lot of the collegiates, you go back to Johnny Manziel, and you look at his jersey being sold without his name on it, we know that he has the highest sold jersey. We look back at Cam Newton, and we look back at all these great athletes who were put -- going to the NFL, but their jerseys were being sold in so many different ways. And they -- and the university benefited off their names and benefited off the papers and benefited off that. You got collegiate athlete who can't even have food, but they're the number one prospect. But the athlete is stuck in a situation where he can't achieve anything and get any amount of money for his service. And I think we do look back at the degree -- I mean, depending on what degree you got, who knows what -- a bachelor's degrees isn't worth much these days. And I think if the collegiate athlete isn't allowed to benefit off of his skill, which is his brand, which is body, which the university is using, then what else is there for him to do, besides -- they say, you got this degree, but it's not worth the paper that it's printed on, just quoting Dave. SREENIVASAN: Michael, I want to also just touch on the NFL. Like, since training camp has started, somewhere around 60 -- I think 56 players as of last week have already tested positive with this virus. You played a position, defensive end. You are literally face to face with a guy who -- you guys are battling every down. BENNETT: Halitosis. Yes, you get a lot of halitosis coming right back at you. SREENIVASAN: So, is there any way possible for this sport to be played safely, even -- what kind of testing regimen? What is some way that you could play such a close-contact, incredibly physical sport, where you're exerting so much energy, safely? BENNETT: Honestly, I think this whole idea of playing the sport safely, I think, when we look back at Donald Trump and the way that he was able to articulate a message around capitalism over the morality of the citizens, I think that was the opening gate into a lot of these jobs, and a lot of this pushback from a lot of the citizens realizing that a lot of these businesses and a lot of these things that they love don't share the same amount of love. And we used to romanticize with our occupation and think that, wow, my job, I love it, it loves me in the same type of way. And now we're looking back and realizing that, at the bare minimum, the most important thing of all was always achieving money. And I think it's going to be really hard to find a safe way, and not allow -- not to see any players get this virus, because, at the same time, we know it's violent. We know that the sport of NFL, it -- you have to be close, you have to be touching. So, I don't know. I don't know if there's -- if it's possible to go whole season and not spread the virus. SREENIVASAN: I want to ask also about this moment that we're in now. You were playing at a time when players, including Colin Kaepernick and yourself, were protesting silently. You got a lot of criticism for it. And here you are now. You turn on some of these NBA games, MLB games, you have entire teams taking a knee together. You see referees, players coaches doing it. What does that mean for you? BENNETT: I mean, I kind of worry about the idea of symbolism. I'm worried that symbolism is -- people see that as being the number one goal to achieving progress. And I think we have to be careful to not be a part of the moment, and continue thinking about it as a movement. I think looking back as being -- seeing and being a part of those things, it felt more risky at those moments, because you -- it wasn't the popular thing to do. And I think now we are looking at something, and it's becoming popularized in a culture, where things seem to be instant, when you look at Instagram, you look at Facebook. Everything seems to be trending. But I think we have to wait it out to see how far, how long and how strong those symbols really mean, because, at the end of the day, we have a lot of these owners and a lot of these teams saying that black lives matter, but we look at -- we start to take a deep jog through their minds and deep job through their ZIRIN: Michael said something really important that I want to underline. We have to remember that the goal was never to have the right to kneel or sit during the anthem. The goal was never to have free speech during the anthem. That's not what this was about. This has been about police reform. And so the concern is that, when all the focus is on what the NBA players are doing during the anthem and whatnot, then it just basically becomes, like, commodifying dissent. Like, it becomes almost a marketing tool, like, look how woke we are, and not something that's directed towards a particular movement goal, which is what this has been all about from beginning. SREENIVASAN: Dave, I'm sure not surprised when you see the president talk about low ratings for NBA, it's because of the activism. I mean, it's part of the pattern of how he has used sports over the last several years. ZIRIN: Yes, I think President Trump, the most disciplined part of his entire presidency has been to launder racial animus through sports. Or you want to call it racial dog whistling or you want to call it racism, whatever you want to call it. He has constantly use sports, particularly sports that are centered around black athletes, namely, the NFL and the NBA, as a place to sort of whip up his base. Like, if you notice what he said about the NBA, he said, look how bad their ratings are. They're not doing a great job, like hockey. It's like, you don't need to be Al Sharpton to figure out what he's saying. And, also, it would be worth pointing out that the NBA's ratings are something like three times as high as hockey's ratings. But when has he ever let facts get in the way? The point is to use the players as basically a distraction for people, as a way to -- so, it's like, don't look at the pandemic, don't look at how divided the country is, don't look at how much pain people are in economically right now. Blame these wealthy athletes who don't appreciate what a great country this is. SREENIVASAN: But, Michael, why do you think that sports is such a proxy for all of these different types of culture wars that we have? I mean, on the one hand, what was very simple was cheering for your team, wearing your team's colors, jersey, going to tailgate, whatever, having a great time. But all of a sudden, now it seems that your support of a team or a specific player or a league is a political statement in and of itself. BENNETT: Oh, I think we're living in a politicized world right now, because a lot of things are worried about the politics of how man is going to be treated. We're looking at the racial disparities doing COVID. It showed. And I think, a lot of times, the teams and players are starting to grab back their humanity. There's always been this sense of this subhumanism when you were an athlete. You were a part of this class that didn't -- that didn't get sick. You didn't -- you didn't associate with all these different things. And now athletes are having this awakening. And I think the whole world is having this awakening into its responsibility to its fellow citizen. When you look at an athlete, you like to not think that they're a part of the system, but they are a part of it in every single way. So, now when an athlete stands, you look at Colin Kaepernick, and you look at what he did, a lot of people hated what he did, because they're saying that, oh, he's bringing sports and politics and religion into all these different things. But why would we -- when we get on the field, why would our blackness be taken away when we go into this world, and people still see us as a color, they still see us as a threat, they still see us as something other than human? And I think, when we talk about our political views, that brings back the human side of this. And I think it's important, as being an athlete, to recognize those things and recognize the responsibility of being able to speak up and recognize the responsibility of really being a full citizen. SREENIVASAN: All right, Dave Zirin, Michael Bennett, thank you both. ZIRIN: Thank you. AMANPOUR: Sports on the front line of activism. And, finally, something magically different with musician Jacob Collier. The 26-year-old exploded onto the scene with his 2016 album "In My Room," which was recorded, you guessed it, in his room. He uses layers and layers of tracks and plays most of the music himself. This process can also take place in his bathroom. Take a look. AMANPOUR: Something to make us smile. And tomorrow, Friday, this Grammy Award winner is releasing his latest album, "Djesse Vol. 3." He's joining me now from home here in London with perhaps the most impressive Skype setup on the planet, and we're going to take a look at it. Jacob Collier, welcome to the program. AMANPOUR: Oh, my gosh. OK, so you have got -- hi. Hi, Jacob. I saw you overhead, and now I'm seeing you face to face. Is this all Skype you have got rigged up there? JACOB COLLIER, MUSICIAN: This is a bit of a multicamera fancy Skype setup I have got running, which has been super useful in quarantine, if I'm completely honest with you. AMANPOUR: Well, listen most people are asked. We do try to ask, how is everybody doing in quarantine? How has it been for them during this COVID pandemic? For you, I think it's been a really productive time, right? COLLIER: Right. Yes. I mean, to be honest, I'm so grateful for it. It's brought me a lot of joy, a lot of time to think and reflect and spend time with family. I have sort of fallen in love again with parts of the creative process that I never get a time to really get jiggy with, you know, because I'm touring or traveling, collaborating, doing things like that. I don't get to hang out in this room and just make things. And I think I have really, really valued the time and space to do those things in this time period. AMANPOUR: Tell us a little bit about the one that we sort of set you up with. We saw the song that you're playing in the bathroom. And you're not just sitting in the bathroom in various areas and in the bath. You're using the sound of toilet paper and the sound of other things and the percussion of other just ordinary bathroom things that you would find there. What brought you to this? COLLIER: It's something I have always loved doing, I mean, since I was very, very young. Really, like growing up in this exact house, actually, this was my music room as a 1-year-old. So I think, for me, there's always been something magical about music that sounds like a person's life. And so, for me, be it a saucepan or a badminton racquet or some kind of weird marble, it's always been something that I have been drawn towards, recording the sounds, sampling them, and then making them groove. AMANPOUR: And who did we just see pop up there? You have got Mahalia. And you have also got Ty Dolla Sign, the rapper? COLLIER: Yes, that's Ty. I had a lot of fun putting these guys in mirrors and in those. AMANPOUR: Yes. COLLIER: It was -- it took a little bit of time. I stuck my iPhone right at the top of the room, where you can see the whole room. And I made sure that there was a zone for Mahalia and a zone for Ty Dolla Sign, so that, when that chorus hits, you have got multiple Jacobs, as per normal, and then I think Mahalia is in the window and Ty Dolla Sign is in the mirror, if I recall correctly. AMANPOUR: Yes, yes, that's true. That is exactly what we saw. And it's really -- I mean, obviously, it's really interesting. And you have been -- I mean, when people hail you as a jazz messiah, what do you think? And are you really jazz, or is it a mixture of genres? Can you define yourself by a particular genre? COLLIER: I have always been really confused by the idea of sort of segregating music into these different categories. For me, it's one massive language. When I was growing up as a kid, I was such a sponge. So, there was Prince and Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson on the one hand, and then Bartok and Stravinsky and all these strange classical composers on another. And then there was Beck and there was Bjork, and there was Bobby McFerrin. And, for me, it was all music. And there was no reason to say, well, that belongs in the folk category, this belongs in the jazz category. So, for me, I think it's all about music. I suppose -- I'm not sure how I'd exactly describe my sound. I have almost sort of made it my mission to not be able to be categorized by one thing. But I think a lot of my sort harmonic sensibilities do stem from jazz. I think it's a fascinating place to spend time and listen. But I think jazz informs every different kind of music. And so, for me, I really enjoyed, especially with this new album, "Djesse Vol. 3," just bringing all of these different flavors together and sort of building bridges between styles and getting those bridges to make sense. AMANPOUR: So, look, some of the great traditional or the great fathers of music right now, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, they have spoken really very highly of you. But also you're obviously really popular with the young generation and people who kind of like your nontraditional approach to this. And I think many people want to know, do you think this is where music might be going? I mean, what are you trying to -- or what are you trying to say about how you use all daily objects, the music, the layering, how you create your sound? COLLIER: Well, I think everybody's a musician. And I think that all it really takes is the courage to go and put some sounds together and get them to make sense. I wouldn't declare myself a master on any particular instrument, but I have never been too afraid to try. And so this room is actually filled with a ton of different musical sounds, from guitars, to basses and drums and all sorts of things, weird instruments from around the world, and Moroccan instruments, Indian instruments. And so, for me, I wouldn't say I have any grand plan. Like, it's all about trying to explain this or state this or make this possible, but I do think that I'm trying to be myself. And I'm going to do it on my own terms, and I'm going to do it on my own time. And I think that, hopefully, there's something about that process of creating from that place which will resonate with people. And the joyous thing to me is that they seem to listen. That's like a bonus to my natural childlike process, or something like that, I guess. AMANPOUR: And when we just see these multiple screens on -- as I'm looking at you and talking to you, the viewers can see some of the video and all your multiple cameras. And it's weirdly compelling. And you try to focus on one of you, and then you see you playing this instrument and that instrument, and just about every instrument under the sun. You grew up in a musical family, right? Isn't your mom -- I think she's a teacher at the Royal Academy? COLLIER: That's absolutely true. You speak the truth. Yes, for me, it was almost like a second language growing up. In every corner of the room, there was something that made sound. And it's funny. In quarantine, my family and I, which is my mom, who's a single mother, and my two little sisters, we have been singing Bach chorales every night just for a bit, like really AMANPOUR: Well, in a minute, I'm going to ask you to play us out live with "All I Need." But can you first tell us about it? What is the song? It's a love song. How did you come up with it? What was the influence. And then we're going to ask you to play it. Jacob, can you hear me? COLLIER: Hey. Oh, sorry. I think you cut off one second. Yes. "All I Need" is -- it's a love... AMANPOUR: Yes. OK. Tell me about it, yes. COLLIER: Yes. It's quite sort of incandescence, a sort of wonder blast or something. It's quite groovy. And I knew I wanted to collaborator for it that had this kind of levity, and for whom things weren't so heavy and who wasn't particularly pretentious, but who was just amazing. Mahalia was like the perfect fit. And so I wrote the song. Mahalia sings part of it, and Ty Dolla Sign sings part of it. And for me this song is -- it's almost like the sort of -- the serendipitous sort of alchemy of joy and how you can transform every different kind of force inside your life, and it can become something ultra-joyful. AMANPOUR: OK. Well, now I want you to start playing "All I Need." And we're going to say goodbye to our viewers. Thank you so much for watching. And you can find us on social media. But you're going to listen and watch Jacob Collier play "All I Need." And I think you have got a whole load of different camera angles as well. So, hit it Jacob. COLLIER: Thank you so much.

Israel and United Arab Emirates Strikes Historic Peace Deal; Will Other Arab States Establish Ties with Israel?; South Carolina Senate Race Between Senator Graham and Jaime Harrison; Jaime Harrison, U.S. Democratic Senate Candidate, is Interviewed About Senate Race in South Carolina; Interview With Jacob Collier; Sports and COVID-19.

Israel und die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate schließen ein historisches Friedensabkommen; Werden andere arabische Staaten Beziehungen zu Israel aufbauen?; Senatsrennen in South Carolina zwischen Senator Graham und Jaime Harrison; Jaime Harrison, demokratischer Kandidat für den US-Senat, wird zum Senatsrennen in South Carolina befragt; Interview mit Jacob Collier; Sport und COVID-19.

以色列和阿拉伯联合酋长国达成历史性和平协议；其他阿拉伯国家会与以色列建立关系吗？；南卡罗来纳州参议员格雷厄姆和海梅·哈里森之间的竞选；美国民主党参议员候选人就南卡罗来纳州参议员竞选接受采访；雅各布·科利尔访谈；体育和新冠疫情。

HILL: The Big 12 Conference joining the S.E.C. and ACC in moving forward with plans to play college football this fall. Andy Scholes has more in the "Bleacher Report." Andy, good morning. ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Erica. So the country's biggest conferences remain split on how to deal with the pandemic. On one side, you've got the Big Ten and the Pac-12 who say their medical experts are advising them not to play football this fall. And then, on the other side, you've got the Big 12, S.E.C. and ACC who say their experts are telling them they can play safely. Now, take a look at this. This is where college football stands right now. Who's playing, who is not. Now, Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said yesterday that their medical experts told them that if it wasn't safe, they would stop immediately and he explained the reasoning to move forward. BOB BOWLSBY, BIG 12 COMMISSIONER: Reasonable people can disagree on it, but -- and, you know, the Pac-12 and the Big Ten are seeing much of the same information that we're seeing. But our board believes in our scientist and has come to a conclusion that's different. And so have the leadership of the S.E.C. and the ACC. SCHOLES: All right, Texas hosting the first fans at a major U.S. team sporting event since March last night. Just under 3,000 fans were on hand to watch FC Dallas play Nashville. Now, fans had to not only wear masks and socially distance themselves, but also had to sign a liability waiver as they entered the stadium. Now, both teams took a knee to protest racial injustice during the national anthem and some of those fans in attendance were booing them. And FC Dallas' Reggie Cannon called those boos absolutely disgusting. REGGIE CANNON, FC DALLAS DEFENDER: You've got fans booing you for people taking a stand for what they believe in when millions of other people support this cause and we've discussed with every other team and the league what we're going to do and we've got fans booing us in our own stadium. How disgraceful is that. I want to say, it -- for lack of a better word, it pissed me off. SCHOLES: Yes, and, again, Erica, this was the first team sporting event here in the U.S. that had fans in attendance and, of course, this is the first one since all -- everything that's transpired in our country since March and the players heard boos. It will be worth watching moving forward. HILL: Interesting UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Covid-19 hot spots are only growing hotter. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mask wearing should be mandatory. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can have major outbreaks in one part of the country and you can have very few cases in another. We have to figure out how to deal with this. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kamala Harris joining the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, the first look at an historic ticket. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I watched her poll numbers go, boom, boom, boom, down to almost nothing. There was nobody more insulting. KAMALA HARRIS (D), PRESUMPTIVE VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The case against Donald Trump is open and shut. Just look where they've gotten us. It didn't have to be this way. ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman. BERMAN: All right, welcome to our viewers in the United States. END

Big 12 Moves Ahead with Fall Sports.

Big 12 geht mit Herbstsport voran.

秋季体育的12大动作

QUEST: Joe Biden just called for a national mask mandate. Once again, he was with his new running mate, Kamala Harris. They both wore masks as they came in and gave rousing speeches. Joe Biden says masks are needed for a three-month minimum. JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Every single American should be wearing a mask when they are outside for the next three months at a minimum. Every governor should mandate -- every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing. The estimates by the experts are, it will save over 40,000 lives in the next three months. SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: That's what really leadership look like. We just witnessed real leadership, which as Joe Biden said that as a nation, we should all be wearing a mask for the next three months, because it will save lives. And the thing about Joe that the American people know is that his role of leadership in our country has always been about doing what's best for the people of our country. QUEST: Arlette Saenz is with me. Arlette, before we deal with the substance of it, just on sort the two candidates, I get the feeling, just so far that Joe Biden speaks in a sort of lackluster detail, a bit halting, stumbly way and then Kamala Harris has to come along and tell us what he says, and tries to energize us about what he said. ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, I think you are going the see kinds the dynamic develop and play out over the course of the partnership that they are trying to build as she is now his running mate. You know, they had those remarks. Just before that, they actually were part of a virtual briefing with public health experts. A few members of their team that they have assembled to talk directly about the coronavirus pandemic. But you heard the former Vice President there call for that three-month mask wearing nationwide. He has stressed over the course of his campaign over the past few months as coronavirus has played out that people need to wear masks. They need to socially distance when they are out in public, out in crowds. And that is something that he reinforced again today. And also Senator Harris, as she is now teaming up with him as part of his ticket. QUEST: Arlette, thank you. Arlette Saenz joining me from there. Now, coronavirus cases are rising in Europe. We know that. We have seen the statistics. We have seen the travel restrictions and the various advisories. The numbers have been climbing steadily since July. Obviously, they are not as high as they were. They are still well below March and April peaks. But the new spikes in both the U.K. and France, along with bigger surges in Spain, shown in green -- they all show a worrying trend. Spanish authorities are scrambling to respond. Whether you call it a second wave, an elongated first wave, a spike or a surge, it doesn't matter. CNN's Al Goodman reports from Spain. The authorities don't want to let it get out of control. AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: Six weeks after lifting a nationwide lockdown which slowed down the coronavirus last spring, Spain is recording the highest number of new cases in Western Europe. Spain has about 300,030 cases -- more even than in Britain. There are 600 outbreaks across Spain. But the top government health official says it is too early to talk about a second wave. Yet, the number of new coronavirus patients in hospitals and in ICUs is on the increase, even from earlier this month. Officials say these outbreaks are especially due to young people at drinking parties, in nightclubs, and outdoors. Also to large family events like weddings, people not wearing masks and getting infected and among seasonal farm workers who live and work in close quarters. GOODMAN: It is now Spain's 17 regional governments leading the battle against the coronavirus, each with their own set of rules. So here in northwestern Spain in Galicia, the regional government is banning smoking in public places if there is not proper social distancing, and some other regions are considering following suit. Al Goodman, La Coruna, Spain. QUEST: TUI, the large European travel company -- TUI is reporting a collapse in summer bookings -- late summer bookings which is significant. There had been an early resurgence in bookings, which has now disappeared. The world's largest tour company says June's and July's booking now at 81 percent from last year. That perhaps is not exceptional. But IATA expects Europe traffic to fall 60 percent this year. Of course, near-term, recovery highly uncertain. Rita Marques is the Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism, joins me from Porto. Minister, it is good to have you with us. Look, the measures that are now being taken by countries like Portugal are dramatic. You are now offering to ensure health and medical costs against COVID? RITA MARQUES, PORTUGUESE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR TOURISM: It is true. Hello, Richard, first of all. Yes, it's true. In fact, we have been developing a huge strategy in order to guarantee that everyone is safe here in our country. Of course, all the hotels and restaurants have been implementing sanitary rules, very strict sanitary rules, and on top of that, we have been instigating trust. In order to instigate trust, we have to have a very strong healthcare system. So we have been developing a kind of protocol in order to ensure that everyone that travels to Portugal has medical assistance either through a private network or through the national care system. QUEST: Do you think that's going to work much? Because -- well, I suppose you obviously think it is otherwise you wouldn't have done it. But is it going the work, bearing in mind that traveling to a country -- at least from the U.K.'s terms, traveling to a country which is not on an approved list means your travel insurance is invalid. Is that what this is aimed at solving? MARQUES: In fact, the only country that has continuously put us in the red list is the U.K. because all the others, for instance even yesterday, we had good news from Poland. So most of the countries right now consider Portugal to be a safe destination, a safe tourist destination. Of course, we have been providing all the information to the U.K. At the end of the day, we have not guaranteed that we are in the green list for now. But we will continue to grant all the information to the British government. So at the end of the day, as I was telling you, I do believe that tourists that are planning to come to Portugal will see as positive the possibility to subscribe to the Portugal health passport, what we call -- it is kind of a health passport that guarantees success at previously fixed price to high-quality healthcare systems. QUEST: Right. Now, the 13th of August, the summer season two-thirds of the way through. It is pretty difficult to salvage anything from this in terms of a sudden boost in bookings unless it is late summer. So, as you come out of the summer, how bad -- how much wreckage is there in Portugal's tourism industry? MARQUES: If you come to Portugal right now, you will see a lot of Spanish, French people, Italian, so of course, we cannot compare the numbers that we are having today this year with ones that we got last year. Notwithstanding, we estimate a kind of 50 percent -- maybe 50 percent less tourist receipts when compared to what we had last year. But still people are coming. For instance, if you address the routes, the flights -- flights are coming, and flight routes are -- we pretty much have resumed 60 percent of them when comparing to the ones that we had last year. And the low capacity factors in the flights are pretty good. So, it's working. People have to get out from their homes. They have to -- they need to travel. They need to -- QUEST: Minister. MARQUES: Yes? QUEST: Minister, as you plan -- I mean, I get your point. But, surely, you have now got to start looking at rescue methods for those tourist companies, small businesses, beach salesmen, bars and the like that were not able to make enough money in the summer to see them through the winter through until next year? MARQUES: Absolutely. You know, we have two big priorities. The first one is of course, it relates to health issues. We want to save lives. So pretty much, our first priorities is a sanitary framework, the correct sanitary framework in order the save lives and to warranty that everybody is safe. The second priority is to maintain jobs and to create all the conditions that the companies have to -- all the conditions to guarantee that the companies will survive and we are investing a lot on that. So we have been outlining a couple of instruments, several instruments, financial and fiscal instruments in order to guarantee that the companies survive through these tough times, through this desert. Notwithstanding, I have to tell you, as I was telling before that our estimates for this year are pretty much -- when compared to last year are pretty much worse, of course, but not as worse as we were estimating when the pandemic popped up. QUEST: We take whatever small blessings we can get in this pandemic, Minister. And so, I appreciate you bringing me up to date on that. We celebrate the 50 percent you got whilst we regret the 50 percent you didn't. Thank you, Minister for joining us. We will check in again with you before the end of the summer. When we come back, it is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. It is a very busy day. The big news of the day of course is that Israel and the UAE have reached some form of peace agreement with bilateral trade talks, et cetera, et cetera. After the break, we will talk more about it. I will have the news headlines in a moment. It's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS live from New York.

Biden Calls For Three-Month National Mask Mandate; Spain's COVID-19 Spike Worst In Western Europe

Biden fordert dreimonatiges nationales Maskenmandat; Spaniens COVID-19-Spitze am schlimmsten in Westeuropa

拜登呼吁强制执行全国佩戴口罩三个月；西班牙的新冠病毒感染者激增，居西欧之首

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But, David, do you have anything further to add on that? QUESTION: The Prime Minister was pretty clear today at his own press conference that he considers this to be a temporary suspension and that the deal would still be open to him at some point in the future. I'm asking what you think he should do. Should he actually ( OFF-MIKE) TRUMP: No, right now, all I can say: It's off the table. So I can't talk about some time into the future. That's a big statement. But right now it's off the table. Is that a correct statement, Mr. Ambassador? DAVID FRIEDMAN, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: Yes. The word suspend was chosen carefully by all the parties. Suspend, by definition -- look it up -- that means temporary halt. It's off the table now, but it's not off the table permanently. TRUMP: Go ahead. QUESTION: Mr. President, thank you so much. Just to follow on some of the questions that Kaitlan was asking. You said you do want an accurate vote. TRUMP: That's right. QUESTION: Would you direct the Postmaster General to reverse some of the policies changes... TRUMP: No, not at all. QUESTION: -- that have occurred there, in order to prevent delays? TRUMP: No, I wouldn't do that at all. No, I want the Post Office to run properly. But -- which makes sense, they would need a lot more money if they're going to be taking in tens of millions of ballots that just come out of the sky from nowhere. And so they need additional financial help. It's a part of the bill that the Democrats don't want to make because they want a trillion -- much bigger part of the bill -- they want a trillion dollars to go to states that are run by governors, who happen to be Democrats, who have not done a good job for many, many years. And those are states that owe a lot of money and need a lot of money, and they're talking about $1 trillion. So, the Post Office and the three and a half billion dollars for the votes themselves, which sounds like a lot of money they're looking for -- three and a half billion dollars. Think of that: three and a half billion to have mail-in ballots. Again -- absentee, good, universal mail-in, very bad. Please. Go ahead. QUESTION: Just taking a step back, one quick follow-up. Given that the negotiations are still ongoing about whether to get more money to the Postal Service, why not put more resources and more money, yourself -- find a way to do that to make sure there is a free and fair election? TRUMP: Well, they can do it very easily. All they have to do is make a deal. If they make a deal, the Postal Service is taken care of, the money they need for the mail-in ballots would be taken care of -- if we agree to it. That doesn't mean we're going to agree to it. But all they have to do is make a deal. But again, more important to them is not that. That's a lot of money, but a small time compared to the other. What they want to do -- and very -- very, very strongly what they want to do is bail out cities that are run by Democrats and have been for many years. And these cities and states have done very badly, and they desperately need money for that. And we're open to something, but we're not open to the kind of money that they need. Go ahead, please. QUESTION: My question for you is just, Mr. President... QUESTION: Mr. President, three and a half years, sir... QUESTION: Very quickly, my question for you is just what are you doing... QUESTION: Three and a half years... TRUMP: Just one second. Please, go ahead. QUESTION: What are you doing as President to make sure there is a free and fair election? TRUMP: That do what? QUESTION: What are you doing, as President, to make sure there is a free and fair election? TRUMP: So, everyone talks about Russia, Russia, Russia. They talk about China, China. They talk about all of these different countries that come in and run our elections, which is false. But what they do -- what they don't talk about are things like very loose mail-in ballots, universal in nature, that, frankly, Russia, China, North Korea, Iran -- all of these countries that we are reading about, hearing about, and, in some cases, they're writing about, intelligence-wise -- these countries can grab those ballots or print forgeries of those ballots, and they would go out and they would have a field day. This is the easiest way for -- the mail-in ballots is the easiest way for a country like a China or Russia or a North Korea or Iran -- I hear Iran, too. You know, that was part of the report. This would be very easy for them. This is much easier than... QUESTION: What are you doing to make sure it's free and fair? TRUMP: Well, we have been very strong. Now, if you remember, President Obama was informed about Russia by the FBI in September. The election was in November. President Obama decided to do absolutely nothing about it. People don't mention that very much anymore. That's a lost fact. But he was informed very powerfully that they're going to do -- and President Obama did nothing. We have done a lot, and we've really shored it up. But what people can never prepare for are millions and millions of mail-in ballots. Because they can be forged. They can be captured. They can be taken. QUESTION: There's no evidence of that, so... TRUMP: No, that's a very hard thing to do. We have to make sure that we can do that. Please. QUESTION: Sir, Mr. President, after three and a half years, do you regret, at all, all the lying you've done to the American people ( OFF- MIKE) TRUMP: All the what? QUESTION: All the lying. All the dishonesties. TRUMP: That who has done? QUESTION: You have done. TRUMP: Yes, go ahead. Please. Please. Go ahead. QUESTION: I wanted to ask about the payroll tax cut. One, is it going to be optional or mandatory for employers to defer and not collect the payroll tax? TRUMP: So, we'll... QUESTION: and I have a follow-up on that. TRUMP: The payroll tax is very important and a very big benefit to people, as you know, to companies, because we want the companies to be strong -- but now, directly to people. And it's a very big number. And we're taking care of it. And we -- this will go directly to the people, to workers within the company. It's a payroll tax. It's called a payroll tax cut. We're cutting the payroll tax. And it's a very large number, and that will go directly to the workers of the company. QUESTION: But will the employers collect that through FICA? Will that be -- are they going to be required not to collect that money? Or is it... TRUMP: The -- you mean later on? You mean later on, at a later date? QUESTION: Well, right now. So, September 1, when I get my paycheck, will it be up to my... TRUMP: The employers -- the employers will collect it and give it, most likely. The employers will collect it and give it. OK? QUESTION: But can I ask a follow-up on that? TRUMP: Please, go ahead. QUESTION: Mr. President, I have two questions. The first one on domestic policy. There are claims... TRUMP: Can't -- can't understand a word you're saying. QUESTION: There are claims circulating on social media that Kamala Harris is not eligible to be -- to run for Vice President because she was an anchor baby, I quote. Do you or can you definitively say whether or not Kamala Harris is eligible -- legal -- and meets the legal requirements to run as Vice President? TRUMP: So, I just heard that. I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements. And, by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer. I have no idea if that's right. I would've -- I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for Vice President. QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) TRUMP: But that's a very serious -- you're saying that -- they're saying that she doesn't qualify because she wasn't born in this country? QUESTION: She was. QUESTION: No, she was born in this country, but her parents did not -- the claims say that her parents did not receive their permanent residence at that time. TRUMP: Yes, I don't know about it. I just heard about it. I will take a look. Back in the back, please. QUESTION: Mr. President, a follow-up on UNGA. Ambassador Kelly Craft recently said that you -- or she's hoping that you might be able to deliver the speech in front of the U.N. General Assembly in person, even though other leaders will be sending in their video recordings. Can you confirm that? TRUMP: Yes, I'm thinking about going directly to the U.N. to do the speech. A lot of people will not, because of COVID -- will not be able to be there, as you know. But I'm thinking -- I think it's appropriate. If we can do it, I will do it directly. And again, this will not be like in the past because some countries won't be able to escape the problems they're having. You know, countries are having a tremendous problem with the China virus. So, we'll see what happens. But I would prefer doing it. I can do it the other way. I can do it viral, as they say. I can do it in that form. But I'd rather be at the United Nations -- deliver it. QUESTION: Would you do it if the room was empty? TRUMP: I think it -- I think it better represents the country. Also, I feel, sort of, a -- at least a semi-obligation as the President of the United States to be at the United Nations to deliver what will be an important speech. QUESTION: Would you still do it if the room was empty? TRUMP: Well, the room won't be empty. The room will have different people there and representatives of countries. But I can understand how it's, you know -- it's very difficult for countries to be there. They won't be there only for that reason. They'd love to be there. I've already had people call. In fact, say -- a couple of them -- I'd love to be there. If you want, I will be there. I said, Don't be there. You don't have to be there. No, the room would be -- I think the room will not be -- although, there may be a spacing requirement like you have in this room. This room was always packed. This room would be packed again if we had the seats open. But you have a spacing requirement, so I understand that the United Nations, they may have that, too. Yes, please. QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. I have a question on the peace deal, but if you don't mind, could I defer my question to Emel Akan from "Epoch Times." TRUMP: Sure. Yes. Please. QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. TRUMP: Thank you. QUESTION: I would like to ask your opinion about what recently happened in Hong Kong, the recent attack on press freedom in Hong Kong. And Jimmy Lai was arrested. His newsroom was raided. How will the U.S. respond to this? TRUMP: Well, I think it's a terrible thing. But one thing that we have done -- you know, we gave tremendous incentives to Hong Kong because of freedom. We want freedom. And we were giving tremendous economic incentives to Hong Kong. And we have now withdrawn all of those incentives, and it will be impossible for Hong Kong to compete with the United States with respect to that. It just won't be, because we've taken all of the incentives away. If you look at China -- with the World Trade Organization, as an example -- they're getting tremendous because they're considered a developing nation, which is ridiculous. Why should they be a developing nation, but we're not? And they get tremendous incentives. We have -- by the way, I told them it's unacceptable, and we've been -- we've been doing that for a long time. They understand exactly how we feel, and big changes are being made. But with respect to Hong Kong, they get tremendous financial incentives so that they could do business and compete in the world. We've now withdrawn all of those incentives. It's going to be very hard for Hong Kong to compete. And I will tell you that the United States -- and I say this from any standpoint you want to hear it -- will end up making a lot more money because of it. Because we lost a lot of business to Hong Kong. We made it very convenient for people to go there, for companies to go there. We've withdrawn all of that. And the United States will be a big beneficiary from an economic standpoint, but I hate to see what happened to Hong Kong because freedom is a great thing. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: And you heard the president there. It was a new low in a day full of lows, the president of the United States questioning the legitimacy of Kamala Harris, the vice presidential nominee on the Democratic ticket, the presumptive vice presidential nominee, to be president or vice president of the United States. She obviously is qualified to be vice president. She is a natural-born citizen of the United States who was born in this country. But the president was asked about this crackpot theory that has shown up on right-wing media suggesting that Senator Harris is not qualified to be a vice president. That is just flat-out lie. It's not the case. It was a lie when they said it about Barack Obama. It's now a lie when they're saying it about Kamala Harris. But I want to begin there, because there were lots of things to fact- check, as always, during this press conference with the president. Gloria Borger, let me go to you first. We -- I guess our breath should not be taken away anymore with this president. We started off the day with the president saying he's not going to give funding to the Postal Service because he doesn't want to see mail-in voting in this country. Now he's questioning the legitimacy of Kamala Harris. There is no bottom. GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No, there isn't. And let me just say this, that there isn't any pretense anymore that these briefings have anything to do really with coronavirus or with giving the American public information. What it is now is a campaign event from the podium of the White House. And what struck me from the very outset, when the president was challenging what Joe Biden did today, he called it a decree, which, of course, it was not. He said that he would like, urge governors to require mask wearing. About 37 or 38 states already do that, as you know. But what struck me was, he then started to describe Biden as somebody who would usurp an enormous amount of power. He said, if the president has unilateral power to order citizens to cover their face, what other power does he have? And let me remind everyone, this was from a man who is trying in many ways to derail voting in this election. And there he was standing at the podium of the White House also asking Joe Biden to stop playing politics with this virus, as he delivered this political attack that went on and on from the podium of the White House. ACOSTA: And, Daniel Dale, you're our fact-checker here at CNN. Walk us through some of what the president was just saying a few moments ago, and specifically these comments about Kamala Harris. DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: Senator Harris is qualified to serve as vice president or eventually as president. This is a lie. This is absolute nonsense. The president couches this in the tone of just asking questions, I'm not sure if it's true, check it out. In whatever form he raises this issue, it's just absolute garbage. It should not be humored whatsoever. It's wrong. The president also made a series of false claims about Joe Biden. As Gloria said, he kept suggesting that Biden was calling on him as president to issue a national decree to mandate masks. Biden asked every governor to issue their own mandate. He also claimed that Biden has been wrong at every turn about the virus. I'm sure you can find cases where Biden has been inaccurate in some respects, but Trump is the one who said, we have 15 cases, we're getting close to zero. He's the one who predicted a total death total of 50,000, 60,000, 70,000, 80,000 we keep exceeding, et cetera. Trump also claimed that Biden's immigration policy, which he wrongly described as -- quote -- "open borders," would result in the pandemic infiltrating every U.S. community. Jim, it's already around the United States. It's already in every states -- every state of the union. We don't need an open border policy for the pandemic to be everywhere. And, Jim, lastly, the president continued to make a series of false claims about mail voting, wrongly saying that mail voting is easy for foreign countries like Russia, China, North Korea to grab ballots, to forge ballots. That is just false. Every jurisdiction has a different ballot, different paper, different security codes, different candidates on the ballot. And experts have emphasized that it would be extraordinarily difficult for any for any foreign country to do large-scale mail ballot fraud. ACOSTA: Bakari Sellers, your thoughts? BAKARI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, there's no bottom. I mean, that's my initial thought. I mean, birtherism is something that I had on my bingo card, but I did not have it right now. To go to that within the first 24 to 48 hours is a bit much. And I think, just as someone who's run for office, someone who's been elected office, someone who is a -- quote, unquote -- "political strategist" -- I guess they give us those names from on high -- what we can recognize is that the Trump campaign has no idea how to deal with Kamala Harris. They're throwing at her the entire proverbial kitchen sink. And what we have seen throughout the polling moment, Morning Consult, et cetera, is that she's polling extremely well. She's outpacing her numbers that she had before. She's outpacing Tim Kaine when he was chosen as Hillary Clinton's vice presidential running mate. And so Donald Trump and Mike Pence are having a great deal of trouble. But we should have seen this coming. The reason being is because Donald Trump is attempting to treat Kamala Harris the same way he's treated every other woman and black woman that he's come in contact with, with some sense of power. And he cannot handle that. And so, as we go through this process, expect the words like nasty, expect the misogyny, expect the birtherism, which is rooted in racism. Let's not escape that. Let's expect what Donald Trump truly is. And my last point, we cannot be desensitized to the isms that the president and vice president and Republican Party may put before us. We simply cannot. Our country deserves bigger and better than that in evaluating both parties and both presidential candidates and both presidential vice presidents -- or vice presidential candidates. We cannot become desensitized to their racism, their bigotry, their ignorance or incompetence. And that's very important throughout this cycle, because this presidential election, November 3, people are going to vote like their life depends on it, because we see it actually does. ACOSTA: And, Gloria Borger, Donald Trump, I mean, he's sort of -- he used birtherism to make a name for himself in the Republican Party. You and I remember this all too well. BORGER: Yes. ACOSTA: It got so out of control during the Obama administration that President Obama had to put out a birth certificate, which was just completely unnecessary. He was born in Hawaii. And yet the president -- then candidate Trump -- or not even candidate Trump -- then businessman Trump was just saying it over and over again throughout his rise inside the Republican Party. BORGER: Yes. ACOSTA: And, I mean, to me, this should have been a situation where he really should not have even addressed that question the way it was asked. BORGER: Well, exactly. Exactly. ACOSTA: What do you think? I mean, it just seems to me that he... BORGER: Well... ACOSTA: He seemed to pump oxygen into it, as opposed to knocking it down. BORGER: Sure. Right. Well, of course. Look, it's garbage. We all know it's garbage. It's absurd. It's nonsense. And what the president should have done is what John McCain did during his presidential campaign when he was asked about Barack Obama by somebody who said, oh, he's an Arab, he's this, he's that. And McCain, of course, said, no, no, he's a very good man. ACOSTA: That's right. BORGER: But, of course, Trump would never do that. In fact, when the question was first raised to him, if you will recall, he wasn't quite sure even what the issue was. And, at first, he said, oh, wait, yes, but maybe she wasn't -- she wasn't born here? I hear that. Some people are saying, as he always said. And then whoever it was who asked the question sort of elaborated that, in fact, that was not the so-called issue. And then he said, well, I'd have to look into it. So, he was ready not to just dip his toe in the water on this, but to jump into the pool on this, because he's throwing everything up against the wall that he can, not only against Joe Biden, but now also against Kamala Harris. And it's distasteful and it's disgraceful. And somebody in his administration, some -- someone in the United States Senate ought to stand up and say, enough of this, stop this, get on with the campaign, and talk about how you're going to fix this COVID problem we have. ACOSTA: And, Daniel Dale, I want to play a little bit of -- our colleague Kaitlan Collins tried to press the president on this comment that he made earlier this morning about depriving the Postal Service of money needed to deal with this influx of mail-in ballots that we may see at election time, we likely will see at election time. Let's play a bit of that exchange and talk about it on the other side. KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: ... need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all these millions and millions of ballots, and you said that would be fraudulent. So it sounded like you said you're blocking... TRUMP: No, no. No, no. I said it will end up being fraudulent, because if you look at what's happened over the last few weeks -- just look at the few instances where this has happened -- it's turned out to be fraudulent. COLLINS: There's no widespread evidence of fraud. TRUMP: We have to have an honest election. And if it's not going to be an honest election, I guess people have to sit down and think really long and hard about it. ACOSTA: Daniel, what did you think about that comment? DALE: Well, he keeps citing suppose that instances of voter fraud or election fraud that are not actually instances of voter fraud or election fraud. One he brought up in some of those comments to Kaitlan was the New York primary, Democratic primary, in which Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney one. There was no evidence of voter fraud in that primary. There were ballot issues related to things like missing signatures on ballots, a late postmark. So there was a legal challenge, but none of that is fraud. That is, unfortunately, standard with mail voting. And so the president keeps referring to things as evidence for his false claim that mail voting is rife with fraud that don't prove his point whatsoever. ACOSTA: Gloria, I mean, what do you think? The president keeps repeating these comments over and over again about the New York primary. He talks about -- he makes these false statements about voter fraud out in California. He has been riding this horse since he became president. And yet he's -- I mean, it is -- it obviously creates all kinds of confusion and distrust in the system. And he seems to be doing it all over again. BORGER: Right. And there's now a court challenge in Pennsylvania. And the Trump campaign has to come up with concrete examples of just where voter fraud was evident in the state. So, look, I think this president wants to have people believe that the election is rigged before the votes are cast, counted, whatever you want to call it, and he understands that there's early voting in an awful lot of states and a lot of that voting is going to be done by mail. And I think he's doing everything he can to delegitimize an election that he's worried about losing. And it's pretty transparent to me. And the fight in Congress over the funding for the Postal Service is particularly absurd, because what the president is saying is, well, in order to have a fair election, you have to fund the Postal Service, but I'm against giving more money to the Postal Service. I can't quite square that one. ACOSTA: He was slippery on that question, for sure, and didn't really give a straight answer in terms of what he would accept... BORGER: Yes, he was. ACOSTA: ... in terms of funding the Postal Service. All right, Gloria Borger, Daniel Dale, Bakari Sellers, great insights from all of you. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Just ahead more breaking news. We will have the latest on the coronavirus pandemic and a dire new warning about what may happen in the months ahead.

President Trump Holds White House Press Briefing; Phoenix Mayor Responds to Fauci saying Arizona Set a Good Example for Controlling COVID.

Präsident Trump hält eine Pressekonferenz im Weißen Haus ab; Der Bürgermeister von Phoenix antwortet auf Fauci, dass Arizona ein gutes Beispiel für die Kontrolle von COVID sei.

特朗普总统举行白宫新闻发布会；菲尼克斯市长回应福奇，表示亚利桑那州为控制新冠病毒树立了一个好榜样。

COOPER: After calling Kamala Harris, quote, "nasty" and fanning the birther commentary raised by his allies, President Trump was asked a very sensible question at today's briefing, do you have an issue with a strong woman of color being in this presidential race? The President's response, no, none, whatsoever as you know. Well, as you know, that is not the impression that comes across perhaps when watching the President interact with strong women of color. QUESTION: Do you want them to rein in Robert Mueller? TRUMP: What a stupid question that is. What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions. The same thing with April Ryan. I watch her get up. I mean, you talk about somebody that's a loser. Maxine Waters is a low IQ individual. The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico is a horror show. I watched just this morning, this Tlaib, Tlaib. She's vicious. She's like a crazed lunatic. QUESTION: Kamala Harris. TRUMP (via phone): She was probably very nasty. QUESTION: You might -- TRUMP: Why don't you people act -- let me ask you -- why don't you act in a little more positive. It is always trying to get me. Get you, get you. QUESTION: My question to you -- TRUMP: Look, let me tell you something. Be nice. Don't interrupt me. QUESTION: Mr. President, my question is -- TRUMP: Don't be threatening. Be nice. You didn't hear me. That's why you used to work for "The Times" and now you work for somebody else. COOPER: Joining me now is Democratic Atlanta Mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Biden supporter who will speak at the D.N.C. Convention next week. Mayor Bottoms, you know, when you hear all the stuff the President is now saying about Kamala Harris, not surprising though, you know, sort of regurgitating the birther -- the racist, you know, birther conspiracy. I guess that's not surprising either, but when he says he has no issue with women of color, do you buy that? MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D-GA), ATLANTA: That was hard to watch, Anderson. I felt my blood boiling. Now, you could have added to that Lori Lightfoot and Muriel Bowser to that list and I saw this great quote when you posed that question. BOTTOMS: Strong women don't have attitudes. They have standards and boundaries. That's something we know this President doesn't have. He doesn't have any standards. He doesn't have any boundaries and he is a drowning man and if we aren't careful, he is going to take us all down to the bottom with him. And so this is the reason it was so important that the ticket that Joe Biden put together reflected who we are as America, the diversity of America and also, reflecting that there are strong women of color who lead with integrity, and I'm looking forward to speaking at the D.N.C. Convention and casting my vote because this President is a disgrace to our country and it's only getting worse. COOPER: It's interesting to contrast what the President says about Kamala Harris with what she actually said and how she said it in the first public event with Vice President Biden. You know, she was, in a way, very sort of disarming, tough, but also conversational. I just thought it was very interesting mix and a very talented mix of, you know, having a conversation with people and making her points, but even, you know, doing things with a smile at times. I just thought it seemed like it sort of knocked President Trump off -- it seems like the White House at this point is still unsure how to kind of respond to her. BOTTOMS: Yes, he clearly has been rattled and I know the one thing that he fears is having to go up on a stage and go up against obviously Vice President Biden, but also to have Mike Pence have to debate Kamala Harris. And what I see when I see President Trump is someone who knows that he is going to lose. He will not stop at anything to make sure that not only is there foreign interference with this election, but there is also domestic interference. He said as much, and I know that for as many adjectives that he likes to use to describe women of color in particular, the fact remains that this is a strong ticket. This is a strong woman on that ticket and he knows that it is one that will defeat him in November. COOPER: You know better than anybody, Georgia is considered a tossup state in the General Election given the ongoing concerns about the pandemic, plus the unknowns about funding for the Postal Service, how it might struggle to handle mail-in ballots. How concerned are you about residents of Atlanta and elsewhere being able to vote safely and have their vote counted? BOTTOMS: I'm very concerned, because in June, our primary was a complete mess. People waited hours on end. They waited seven and eight hours to early vote and I shared with you before, I requested an absentee ballot that never arrived in the mail, so we know that it is only going to get worse. It is my hope in Georgia that people who are able and are healthy will go out and early vote if possible so that we can spread the crowds out. And hopefully with the Atlanta Hawks putting a very large voting precinct at State Farm Arena that will draw more people out into a building that people can spread out and cast their votes safely. COOPER: You and the Governor of Georgia obviously, Brian Kemp, a Republican continue to be at odds over the response to the pandemic. You rolled your economic reopening plan back. He sued you. He has since withdrawn the lawsuit saying you made some concession, which I know you dispute. Now, he is going to be issuing an executive order. At this stage, where do you see Georgia going? Where do you see Atlanta going? BOTTOMS: You know what really discourages me about this, Anderson, is I reached out to the governor to try and reach some type of agreement because quite frankly, I'm tired of our state looking bad nationally and I don't like the fact that people are being infected and they are dying of COVID in our state at very high rates. So, I reached out to the governor to try and reach some type of agreement. We were in the middle of mediation and then he issued out a statement saying the mediation was over. What the governor wanted me to agree to is what he is going to issue in this executive order. He wanted me to agree to not allow enforcement of a mask mandate in businesses and to allow businesses to pick and choose as to whether or not that this mandate could be enforced and who would enforce it? We don't allow businesses to enforce a fire code. We don't let them pick and choose as it relates to building codes, so that made no sense to me, but that's what he's putting in the executive order. Be that as it may, the mask mandate still stands. The lawsuit has been dropped. And hopefully people will continue to exercise good common sense. And listen to the science when I'm out and about I see people were masking the city of Atlanta, and hopefully they're doing that across the state. COOPER: Yes, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. I appreciate your time. Thank you. BOTTOMS: Thank you. COOPER: Ahead, a controversial new figure in the White House responds to coronavirus is moving out fast. The questions about his views on herd immunity and why suddenly has the President's ear will explain what we're talking about, next.

Interview With Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D-GA), Atlanta

Interview mit Bürgermeisterin Keisha Lance Bottoms (D-GA), Atlanta

专访佐治亚州亚特兰大市市长凯莎·兰斯·巴斯顿

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to you, our viewers in the United States and around the world. The U.S. Democratic Convention are just a few of days away and Joe Biden and his vice-presidential pick, Kamala Harris are making the coronavirus pandemic a central issue in their campaign. CNN's Jessica Dean has more. JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Be a patriot. Protect your fellow citizens. Step up. Do the right thing. JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, Joe Biden calling for governors to implement an immediate mask mandate, saying it could save tens of thousands of lives. BIDEN: Every single American should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months at a minimum. Every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing. The estimates by the experts are it will save over 40,000 lives in the next three months. DEAN: Biden has previously said, if elected, he would consider using his authority to mandate face coverings. Joined by running mate Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee today pushed back on those who oppose such mandates. BIDEN: It's not about your rights. It's about your responsibilities as an American. DEAN: A day after their public debut on the Democratic ticket, Biden and Harris were briefed on the coronavirus pandemic and the economy by a host of experts, including former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and former surgeon general Vivek Murthy. BIDEN: I've been doing these briefings with two of the four docs up there. DEAN: Today's events aimed at drawing a contrast with the Trump administration, offering a vision of how a Biden-Harris White House would confront the crises facing the country. SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: That's what real leadership looks like. DEAN: Harris, continuing her indictment of President Trump's handling of the pandemic. HARRIS: There may be some grand gestures offered by the current president about a vaccine, but it really doesn't matter until you can answer the question, when am I going to get vaccinated? DEAN: The campaign's focus on policy today comes as it announced bringing in big money since Biden announced Harris as his vice- presidential pick, raising $34 million on Tuesday and Wednesday. (on camera): Biden and Harris did not take questions on Thursday. But on Wednesday, they told my colleague Arlette Saenz that they would campaign together in the fall if science allows. Going back to the scene that we have seen from the Biden campaign that they really want science to lead their decisions. Jessica Dean, CNN, Wilmington Delaware. BRUNHUBER: President Trump is fueling yet another birther conspiracy. He is praising a controversial lawyer who falsely claims, Kamala Harris isn't a U.S. citizen and is in eligible to be U.S. vice president. Sounds familiar. Harris of course is American and is fully eligible to serve in office alongside Joe Biden. The lawyer wrongly argued that Harris isn't eligible because her immigrant parents weren't naturalized U.S. citizens when she was born in California. But the President didn't dismiss the allegation. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: there are claims circulating in social media that Kamala Harris is not eligible to run for vice president because she was an anchor baby, I quote. Do you, or can you definitively say whether or not Kamala Harris is eligible, meets the legal requirements to run as vice president. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So I just heard that. I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements. And by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer. I have no idea if that's right. I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president. BRUNHUBER: Independent fact checkers call the lawyer's argument racist nonsense. Now CNN's Nic Robertson takes a look deeper look at Harris' multicultural background and how it influenced the Democratic vice- presidential candidate. NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Kamala Harris speaks passionately of her heritage. HARRIS: You know, my mother and father, they came from opposite sides of the world to arrive in America. One from India, and the other from Jamaica. ROBERTSON: A daughter shaped by the world. HARRIS: My grandparents were phenomenal. We would go back to India like every other year. ROBERTSON: Her grandfather, an accomplished diplomat. A young Kamala Harris would walk the beach with him and his buddies. HARRIS: They would talk about the importance of fighting for democracy, and the importance of fighting for civil rights and that people would be treated equally regardless of where they were born or the circumstances of their birth. ROBERTSON: Values Kamala's mother, Shyamala Gopalan, embraced and her parents indulged. Her brother, Harris' uncle, awed by her drive. GOPALAN BALACHANDRAN, SEN. KAMALA HARRIS' UNCLE: Can you imagine 1959, a 19-year-old girl who has done home science and B.A. in Lady Irwin College. Going to a PhD program in biochemistry at University of California at Berkeley all by herself. ROBERTSON: She met Kamala's father, Donald Harris, an economic student, together becoming civil rights activists, and marrying. They had two girls, Kamala, then Maya, divorcing when Kamala was 7. Those early years, spending time with Jamaican grandparents too. Her father, well-regarded in Jamaica. RICHARD BERNAL, FORMER JAMAICAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: Professor Harris is a very thoughtful, calm person. ROBERTSON: Although Ambassador Bernal never met his friend's daughters, he's sure they benefitted from his country's qualities. BERNAL: It is this quality of self-confidence. And I'm sure that the children would have imbibed some of that from Jamaican, born in Jamaica. ROBERTSON: But it was her mother who would raise her and influence her the most. HARRIS: She was a brown woman. She was a woman with a heavy accent. She was a woman who many times people would overlook her or not take her seriously, or because of her accent assume things about her intelligence. Now, every time, my mother proved them wrong. ROBERTSON: Like mother, like daughter, a trailblazer, and maybe all the way to the White House. Nic Robertson, CNN, London. BRUNHUBER: For weeks President Trump has been railing against voting by mail. But now he and first lady Melania Trump have requested mail- in ballots for the Florida primary. Records from the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections website shows there ballots were mailed Wednesday to Trump's Mar-a-Largo resorts. But it comes even as the president now admits he's holding up funding for the post office because he believes balloting by mail encourages fraud. Even though there's no evidence for that. CNN's Kristen Holmes has more. KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump admitting he's opposed to funding for the Postal Service for political reasons. TRUMP: They want $3.5 billion for something that'll turn out to be fraudulent. That's election money basically. Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots, those two items. That means you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it. HOLMES: Fueling outrage over the Trump administration's attempts to use the postal service to meddle in the election. HOLMES: With more people than ever expected to vote by mail in an election held in the middle of a pandemic, President Trump has spent months making false claims about widespread fraud. TRUMP: This is a thing that will be a disaster like never before. HOLMES: Meanwhile, both the Democrats and Republicans raising concerns over changes made to the agency by the new Postmaster General, a Trump fundraiser and ally, including major shakeups in leadership and cost cuts that some workers say have slow delivery. SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): Now is not the time to be cutting back services. HOLMES: All this as postal workers across the country are sounding alarms this week over the removal of hundreds of mail processing machines from postal facilities. Documents obtained by CNN outline the plan to remove nearly 700 machines used for organizing letters and other mail. Well, a spokesperson for the service describes the removal as a cost saving measure, postal union leaders warned that something like this just months before the election could cause delays. In a statement, the Postal Service saying it quote, routinely moves equipment around its network as necessary to match changing mail and package volumes. S. DAVID FINEMAN, FORMER CHAIRMAN, U.S. POST OFFICE BOARD OF GOVERNORS: I don't understand why they were taken out. I heard someone report that they might have been taking out to use for spare parts made little sense to me. HOLMES: And new revelations over the Postal Service's urging that states use more expensive first-class mail to make sure the ballots are prioritized or risk that voters will not receive their ballots in time to return them by mail. The influx of mail-in voting causing some states already financially unstable during a pandemic to bulk at the cost. Now, Democrats are asking for a new USPS inspector general investigation. This time to look into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's finances. New financial disclosures obtained by CNN showed DeJoy apparently did not divest millions in stock from his former company, a current Postal Service contractor, and that DeJoy holds stock options in a major USPS customer, Amazon. The Postal Service says he has followed all of the ethics requirements. (on camera): So just to recap here, we have a President who is now openly undermining the system. You have not only Democratic and Republican lawmakers raising concern, but also postal workers, state officials. All sounding the alarm and we are just three months out from this election. And we have to be clear. This is the integrity of the election. And right now it remains unclear whether or not this is going to change ahead of November. Kristen Holmes, CNN, Washington. BRUNHUBER: The coronavirus pandemic has already hit European tourism hard. Now with new cases surging across Europe, there are new restrictions on movement, on travel. So we'll have more on that coming up after the break. Stay with us.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Call for U.S. Mask Mandate; Trump Fuels Fake Birther Theory About Kamala Harris; The Multicultural Background of Kamala Harris; Trump, First Lady Request Mail-In Ballots in Florida; Bipartisan Concerns Raised About Post Office Changes; Democrats Want Probe Into New USPS Postmaster

Joe Biden und Kamala Harris fordern ein US-Maskenmandat; Trump schürt falsche Birther-Theorie über Kamala Harris; Der multikulturelle Hintergrund von Kamala Harris; Trump und First Lady fordern Briefwahl in Florida; Überparteiliche Bedenken gegen Änderungen bei der Post; Demokraten fordern Untersuchung des neuen USPS-Postmeisters

乔·拜登和卡马拉·哈里斯呼吁美国授权戴口罩；特朗普助长了卡马拉·哈里斯的假出生理论；卡马拉·哈里斯的多元文化背景；佛罗里达州第一夫人特朗普要求邮寄选票；两党对邮局改革的担忧；民主党人希望调查新的美国邮政局长

ACOSTA: And we're back with breaking news on the coronavirus crisis, as the loss of life grows more staggering by the hour, the death toll now above 168,000, with more than 5.2 million cases. The CDC forecasts that figure will be nearing 200,000 deaths in just a few weeks. And CNN national correspondent Kyung Lah has more. Kyung, we have a new measure of the coronavirus hot spots across this country. KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and it really gives you a sense, this data from the CDC, on how many people have been affected. Eighty percent of Americans, according to the CDC, have lived in a county defined as a COVID hot spot, a hot spot for at least one day. That's a county definition. So, that is 818 counties, so many Americans affected, and really praying for a vaccine that we heard the president today touting. TRUMP: We currently have three candidates in phase three clinical trials and are on pace to have more than 100 million doses very shortly thereafter. LAH: Although, the reality of clinical trials show it will still be months before Americans have a safe vaccine. In China, early results suggests a vaccine treatment in phase one and two trials may be safe and produce a reasonable immune response, news that comes at the end of a very long back to school week. HILARY PORTERFIELD, PARENT OF QUARANTINED STUDENT IN GEORGIA: It was terrifying. It was -- my worst fears had come true. LAH: Her child quarantined, says this Georgia mother, like the more than 2,000 Georgia students, teachers and staffers across five states. At least 230 positive COVID cases have now been reported from schools. The head of the CDC says reopening schools can't be done quickly. DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: Yes, we don't want to pressure anybody. Our guidance, the timing of that is going to have to be decided one school at a time. LAH: Given what he has seen, this Arizona teacher says he is quitting. MATTHEW CHICCI, ARIZONA TEACHER: We weren't given the option to teach from home, no. It is a small room. There is one exit. There is the ventilation isn't all that great for schools. And so it's just -- it's not a good situation. LAH: But the Trump administration continues to insist schools reopen. The radiologist test should back up the president's own theories as driven by this belief. DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS ADVISER: We know the risk of the disease is extremely low for children, even less than that of seasonal flu. We know that the harms of locking out the children from school are enormous. LAH: While COVID does rarely kill children, they can infect their homes and community. The spread of COVID in California is slowing, but the state reported a grim marker, more than 600,000 cases, the most of any U.S. state. REP. RAUL RUIZ (D-CA): They are much higher in underserved and disproportionately affecting people of color and Latinos here in California. LAH: Nationwide cases are trending down in most states, seen here in green. But in the last week, the U.S. reported more than 360,000 cases and the death toll continues to stands at more than 1,000 lives lost every single day. In three weeks, predicts the CDC, between 180 to 200,000 Americans will have died from COVID. The CDC also updated their guidance. After contracting coronavirus, patients are protected for three months. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Right now, we are not even getting close to driving it down. I think what we are going to do is probably level off at the high 40s to low 50,000 cases per day and then post-Labor Day, we're going to have an explosion of cases. LAH: Now, of course, the experts are saying that one way to control that explosion of cases is to wear a mask. And we got this unvarnished reaction from Dr. Anthony Fauci. He says when he sees people inside a bar not wearing masks, he gets so angry that his blood doesn't just boil, Jim, his blood evaporates. Jim? ACOSTA: All right. That is putting it as tough as you can. All right, Kyung Lah, thank you very much. Joining us now, Dr. Peter Hotez, Professor and Dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, and Dr. Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. Surgeon General who is advising the Biden campaign on COVID-19 and brief the former vice president and his running mate, Kamala Harris, just yesterday. Dr. Hotez, let me start with you. Overall cases here in the U.S. are slightly down but California just surpassed 600,000 cases, just staggering. And Florida has reported more than 4,000 cases, new cases a day for the past 52 days straight. That is just unbelievable. Taking a step back, what is all of this number -- what do all of these numbers say to you about the fight that we are in right now? DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Yes. So, if you take the 30,000-foot aerial view, Jim, here is where we are at. We are more or less plateauing now, but plateauing at what I call 100 miles per hour, meaning 40 -- between 40,000 to 60,000 new cases every day. And the transmission is especially aggressive in the southeastern United States where it is high as it's ever has been in Northern Florida, in parts of South Carolina and Georgia and Mississippi and Western Tennessee and in parts of Texas. So it is still absolutely terrible and you still cannot open schools in many states in the country, especially in the southeastern United States. That's point one. Point two is the deaths are continuing. This is just this very somber telling of the same story every day, 1,000 deaths every day. Sometimes it goes up to 1,500, but 1,000 deaths per day. It is like you can bank on it tragically. So, we are easily moving to 200,000 to 300,000 deaths by the end of the year and now new numbers are coming out suggesting that it is an undercount, meaning there are many unaccounted deaths, meaning people that die at home or die suddenly who don't officially have a COVID-19 diagnosis but clearly have that. So when we account for the excess, that is going to higher than that. So the bottom line is we'll record 2020 as a time of terrible devastation and a White House that never took on a federal response even when they could have. ACOSTA: And, Dr. Murthy, I want you to watch, speaking of the administration, what the administration's testing czar just told CNN, my colleague, Pamela Brown, about testing in this country just a short while ago. Let's listen to what he had to say. PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Has the administration actually exhausted it to get more supplies, like reagents and tips other testing supplies to the labs? Is that true, everything has been done? ADM. BRETT GIROIR, TRUMP'S CORONAVIRUS TESTING CZAR: I am going to say, definitively, yes. BROWN: Definitely, yes, there is nothing else the administration can do could to more testing? GIROIR: Well, you will hear a DPA action coming up early next week. BROWN: Would you say enough has been done to make sure that everyone who needs a test gets a test in this country? GIROIR: Everything that can possibly be done has been done. ACOSTA: As the former surgeon general, what is your response to that? VIVEK MURTHY, FORMER U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: Well, Jim, it's good to be with you today. And what I would say is that we have certainly come a long way on testing thanks to the work of many people inside and outside the government. But there is no question that we have a long way to go and that we don't have what we need right now. And think about this, test positivity rates in many parts of the countries are still extremely high. And regardless of what the national labs are telling us, the on-the-ground-experience still shows that for many, but not all people, the wait times for tests are in excess of three days, which is simply too long. And I'll tell you as somebody who has been working with schools and with sports organizations around the country, a lack of available and affordable testing has been one of the key reasons that so many of them have decided to forego in-person learning and athletic competitions. So, testing absolutely needs to be a part of our overall COVID-19 strategy and we need to recognize that we don't have enough of it right now. And what we need is a moon shot effort to develop a rapid, low cost point of care testing, ideally, home testing. We have great talent and resources in our country and I think we could create such testing capacity but it takes to, I think, the focus, investment and leadership. ACOSTA: Absolutely, and leadership is the key in all of this, and we just haven't had it up until this point, especially on this issue of testing. All right, Dr. Vivek Murthy and Dr. Peter Hotez, we appreciate your time very much. Thank you, both of you, for that and have a great weekend. Just ahead, more states are altering their vote by mail policies as concerns grow over an expected surge in ballots and postal delays. Next, I'll speak with the governor of Delaware who recently signed a bill expanding mail-in voting in his state.

U.S. Death Toll tops 168,000 with 5.2+ Million Cases, New CDC Forecast Projects 189,000 U.S. Deaths by September 5

Die Zahl der Todesopfer in den USA übersteigt 168.000 mit mehr als 5,2 Millionen Fällen, neue CDC-Prognosen prognostizieren 189.000 US-Todesfälle bis zum 5. September

美国疾病控制与预防中心预测，到9月5日，美国死亡人数将达到18.8万人，死亡人数超过520万例

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news. JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Wolf Blitzer is off today. I'm Jim Acosta in THE SITUATION ROOM. And we're following breaking news. Amid President Trump's attacks on mail-in voting, the Postal Service has just warned 46 states and Washington, D.C., it may not be able to deliver mail-in ballots in time to be counted under their election laws. At the same time, former President Obama is accusing Mr. Trump of trying to, quote, "kneecap" the Postal Service to suppress votes in the presidential election. There is also breaking news in the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. death toll has topped 168,000 people with more than 5.2 million known cases. And the CDC is now forecasting, get this, 189,000 U.S. deaths by September 5th. Let's begin at the White House with CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, the president is upping his attacks on mail- in voting less than three months before the election. KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Those attacks have continued this week, and they've been part of this element where the president is saying he's going to block new funding that Democrats want for the Postal Service, which, of course, is going to play a critical role in carrying out an election that could be largely conducted by mail. And, Jim, his attacks are all coming as the president himself is requesting his own mail-in ballot. COLLINS (voice-over): Even though it could be critical to carrying out the November election, President Trump made clear today that his refusal to give the post office more funding is a direct shot at Democrats. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because they want $1 trillion to go to their friends doing a bad job running certain cities and states that are doing very badly. COLLINS (voice-over): The president argued he wouldn't block new funding for the U.S. Postal Service if Democrats meet his demands in coronavirus legislation. TRUMP: They're not giving it to me. They're giving it to the American people. I mean, giving it - yes, I would certainly do that, sure. COLLINS (voice-over): The effort to sowing down about mail-in voting isn't just coming from the president. His top cabinet officials are also issuing their own warnings. WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The idea of conducting elections by wholesale mail-in ballots is reckless and wrong. COLLINS (voice-over): President Barack Obama accused the Trump administration of attempting to suppress votes. BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via telephone): What we've never seen before is a president say, I'm going to try to actively kneecap the Postal Service to encourage voting and I will be explicit about the reason I'm doing it. That's sort of unheard of. COLLINS (voice-over): Cost-cutting moves of the post office have come under scrutiny because it's causing delays in delivery and sparking concerns there will be widespread slowdowns. Trump recently claimed he hadn't spoken with the U.S. postmaster general, an ally of his and longtime GOP fundraiser. TRUMP: Well, I didn't speak to the postmaster general in the post office. COLLINS (voice-over): But the White House is now confirming Trump not only spoke with Louis DeJoy, he met with him last week ahead of the postmaster general's tense meeting with Democrats. Despite being the nation's most outspoken critique of voting by mail, Trump and first lady Melania Trump have requested their own mail-in ballots ahead of the election. TRUMP: Absentee, good. Universal mail-in, very bad. COLLINS (voice-over): The president also came under fire this week after he refused to knock down a racist conspiracy that Senator Kamala Harris may not be eligible to be vice president because her parents are immigrants, even though she was born in the U.S. TRUMP: I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements. COLLINS (voice-over): Today he was asked if he saw her addition to Joe Biden's ticket as a threat. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have an issue with a strong woman of color being in this presidential race? TRUMP: None whatsoever. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't see her as a threat? TRUMP: No. None whatsoever. COLLINS (voice-over): The answer from Trump the day before wasn't surprising given he built his political career in part by sowing doubt about President Obama's birthplace. Today, Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, declined to denounce the move. JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: I personally have no reason to believe she's not. But again, my focus for the last 24 hours has been on the historic peace deal that we've been able to achieve here. ANTHONY MASON, HOST, "CBS THIS MORNING": She was born in Oakland, California. KUSHNER: Yes. MASON: Makes her a qualified candidate. Why didn't the president take the opportunity to debunk that theory? KUSHNER: I have not had a chance to discuss this with him. But, again, let hit words speak for himself. COLLINS (voice-over): It wasn't the only conspiracy the White House didn't disavow this week. Trump recently congratulated and endorsed a Georgia Republican congressional candidate who has only embraced the QAnon conspiracy, a movement the FBI has labeled a potential domestic terrorist threat. Today he avoided a question about whether he agrees with Marjorie Taylor Greene. TRUMP: She comes from a great state. And she had a tremendous victory. So, absolutely, I did congratulate her. Please, go ahead. Go ahead please. QUESTION: That conspiracy theory. Do you agree with her on that? That was the question? COLLINS: Now, Jim, the president made those comments at a press briefing before he left the White House because he's going to his New Jersey golf club this weekend. But on his way there, he stopped at a hospital in Manhattan where he just left because his younger brother, Robert, there is there in the hospital. Robert is 72. We don't know what's wrong with him. And you can see the president getting out of his motorcade there. He only said that he is ill and he said he is having a hard time. We really don't know much more than that right now. Jim? ACOSTA: All right. CNN's Kaitlan Collins, thank you very much for that. Let's get more on this disturbing new warning from the Postal Service. CNN justice correspondent Jessica Schneider is working the story for us. Jessica, this is incredible. 46 states and the District of Columbia are being told already that mail-in ballots may not be delivered in time to be counted in the presidential election. What does this mean for voters? JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, really, Jim, it means that voters need to be aware that different states have different deadlines. And that's exactly why the USPS general counsel mailed out these letters to secretaries of state all around the country warning them that their deadlines might not jive with just how long it takes to get mail delivered. And that's exactly why the state of Pennsylvania, for example, has recently amended their rules. They are now saying that any ballots that are received up to three days after Election Day will be accepted as long as they're postmarked by November 3rd. Now, there are a patchwork of rules all over the country. Here's a map showing you how it breaks down. There are 30 states, the ones in yellow that have deadlines to receive those mail-in ballots by Election Day at 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. That's usually when the polls close. But then there are 20 other states in green there that say that the ballot must be received by Election Day. So that really puts voters in a pinch. And the U.S. Postal Service is telling voters get your ballots in the mail at least one week before Election Day. That means most people should put it in the mail that last week of October. It might not register for a lot of voters so they're getting the word out. New Jersey in fact has just changed its rules. It now says that ballots will still be accepted up to November 5th. That's two days after the election. But this warning coming from the U.S. Postal Service, Jim, at the exact same time that we've learned that the inspector general is now reviewing some of the recent changes at the USPS by the Post Master General Louis DeJoy, they include elimination of overtime, service slowdowns. The inspector general for the USPS will also look into DeJoy's financial ethics rules and whether he's complied with them. You know this comes after lawmakers from both parties have really talked about the disturbing changes at the USPS and raised some red flags about it. Jim, though, DeJoy has repeatedly said that these changes are not meant to disrupt the mail system. Instead, he's contended that it's because of the financial situation that the Postal Service in that these cuts are necessary. Jim? ACOSTA: Yes. All these changes come just before the November election. CNN's Jessica Schneider, thank you very much for that. Let's get more on all of this with CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. He's the author of the new book "True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump," and CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger. She also joins us. Jeffrey, we'll get to you in just a second. But Gloria, the Postal Service is warning states that some ballots might not be counted because of delays in delivery times. But it's decisions by the postmaster general that led to these slowdowns, the inspector general is now investigating. But we know the president has fired a long list of IGs, hasn't he? GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And look, this is a president who doesn't like any kind of oversight. And now you have an inspector general saying I need to look at this. Because why on earth would the new postmaster general, who happens to be a big political ally of the president, decide to change everything at the post office, reducing overtime, reducing modernization, you know, the use of processing equipment during a pandemic right before an election, unless you are trying to say to people don't vote by mail, it's too confusing, it's not going to help you at all, and derail the election and give the president the opportunity to try and delegitimize an election before it even starts. ACOSTA: And, Jeffrey, this warning comes as President Trump continues to sow unfounded fears about voting by mail, and as he holds up more funding for the Postal Service, does this amount to voter suppression, do you think? JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, voter suppression doesn't have a technical legal definition. But the reason you know he is trying to suppress the Democratic vote through starving the Postal Service is he says so. One of the extraordinary things about him is he lies a lot. But he also tells the truth in sometimes unbelievably obvious and peculiar ways. And here he's doing - he's just saying the reason we are starving the post office is to hurt Democrats in November. No president has ever spoken this way about an election before, but we've never had a president like Donald Trump before. ACOSTA: Gloria, I mean, should people out there just tune out the president when he says this? He's undermining people's faith in the election and mail-in voting. But he wants to send in his own mail-in ballot, doesn't he? BORGER: Well, he and his wife Melania are voting absentee ballot in the state of Florida. And of course, he says absentee ballots are different. But they're not. They're not any different at all. And of course, the president also says, well, I trust mail-in voting in Florida because they've got a great Republican governor. Talk about a mixed message. Talk about a blatantly political message. You have it there from the president of the United States. What the Democrats are saying in response to what the president is doing is they are telling their voters who want to vote by mail because they feel it's safer in the middle of a pandemic, vote early, don't vote late. You get your ballot and hand it in early because that way you can be sure that you're going to be counted and you won't give the president this opportunity to say that the election is rigged. I mean, who knows whether that will occur. TOOBIN: But the problem - Gloria, but the problem -- BORGER: But it's hard to not listen to him. Yes. TOOBIN: I'm sorry. It's just that the problem is, most of the time -- most of the way you get your absentee ballot is through the mail. So, you know, if you're sabotaging the Postal Service even if Democrats or just people who want to vote are organized and ask early, they still might not be able to cast their ballots. BORGER: Right. TOOBIN: That's what's so pernicious about this. BORGER: But - but -- TOOBIN: And, frankly, there is not much the Democrats can do because you can't - you can't pass a law that says deliver the mail on time. It is an administrative act by the Postal Service, and they seem determined to sabotage this election. BORGER: But, you know, there are lots of states that vote in October, for example. And you could, if you handed in your ballot right away, you would have enough time. I mean, there is also this question of funding for the Postal Service as part of this stimulus package. If they get the $25 billion that they need, will that help, or will it still be sabotaged by the postmaster general? I mean, we don't know the answer to that question. But how about getting them the money they need? Or what about other things like UPS or any other FedEx saying, well, we're going to help with those ballots, we'll get them in? ACOSTA: It's pretty incredible to have this conversation. The president has attempted to undermine the integrity of this election in so many ways. Who would have thought we would be talking about the Postal Service and all these changes at the Postal Service right before the November election? The timing is suspicious obviously. Jeffrey Toobin, Gloria Borger, thank you so much for that. We appreciate it. Coming up next, promising news about a coronavirus vaccine being developed in China. And if you've had COVID-19 and recovered, do you still need to wear a mask? We'll talk about that with our medical experts.

Trump Praises QAnon Conspiracy Backer who Won GOP Primary; Postal Service Inspector General Reviewing Postmaster General's Policy Changes and Potential Ethics Conflicts; Trump Claims No Problem With Women Of Color After Promoting Birther Lie About Sen. Kamala Harris; Postal Service Warns It May Not Meet Some Mail-In Ballot Deadlines As Trump Opposes New Funding, Attacks Mail-In Voting

Trump lobt QAnon-Verschwörungsunterstützer, der die GOP-Vorwahl gewonnen hat; Postal Service Inspector General Überprüfung der Richtlinienänderungen des Postmaster General und potenzieller ethischer Konflikte; Trump behauptet, kein Problem mit farbigen Frauen zu haben, nachdem er Birther Lie über Senator Kamala Harris gefördert hat; Der Postdienst warnt davor, dass einige Fristen für die Mail-In-Abstimmung möglicherweise nicht eingehalten werden, da Trump sich einer neuen Finanzierung widersetzt und die Mail-In-Abstimmung angreift

特朗普赞扬卡农阴谋支持者赢得共和党初选；邮政服务监察长审查邮政部长政策变化与潜在道德冲突；宣传有关参议员卡马拉·哈里斯出生地谎言之后，特朗普声称，有色人种女性没有问题；邮政服务警告，因特朗普反对新资金，攻击邮寄投票，它可能无法满足一些邮寄投票的最后期限

GOLODRYGA: Officials in California are searching for a man they believe started a wildfire in Los Angeles County. Austin Fulgencio (ph) is wanted in connection with the Ranch 2 (ph) fire which has already burned 2,500 acres. The fire is one of several raging across the west. Fires have already burned over 100,000 acres in California, Oregon and Colorado. The Lake fire in northern Los Angeles County has scorched over 17,000 acres and destroyed 21 structures. In Oregon, 565 homes have been evacuated as firefighters work to contain a nearly 1,000 acre blaze near Mosier Creek. Meanwhile in Colorado, parts of Highway 70 are closed as firefighters battle the Grizzly Creek fire. The blaze has burned 13,000 acres and is zero percent contained. Colorado Governor Jared Polis called it the top fire priority in the country. Well, the weekend is unlikely to bring relief for firefighters battling the blazes across the West. Over 80 million people are under excessive heat warnings this weekend stretching from California to Texas. CNN's Allison Chinchar is with us. Allison, what kind of temperatures should people out West be prepared for? ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So in the southwest, places like southern California and Arizona you're talking triple digits. But even places like Seattle are likely going to get into the low to mid 90s over the next couple of days which is hot for them. I know that may not seem like that high for other areas but it is for them. So yes, you're talking about a pretty wide expanse here dealing with those incredibly hot temperatures. And that's not good for the fires, especially the firefighters. They're in full gear. They're out there trying to battle those blazes and also trying to battle the heat as well. Two of the fires we've been focused on, the Ranch 2 fire again, only 3 percent contained. The Lake Fire only 12 percent contained. But the Lake Fire specifically is very impressive with how quickly it grew. It went from 50 to 10,000 acres in just two and a half hours. CHINCHAR: To put that in perspective, that means at one point it was consuming 66 acres per minute. That's consuming basically the equivalent of an entire football field in just about every second. One of the contributing factors has been the lack of rain. Again, look at Los Angeles. It's been 88 days since they've had measurable rain. Las Vegas it's been over 100 days since they've had measurable rain. And now you're going to be talking about heat on top of that. And again, we're not talking 5 to 10 degrees above average. You're talking record-breaking. And again, for multiple states including Colorado, which as you mentioned is also fighting several fires as well. Several of which are still at zero percent contained. So do keep that in mind. And they desperately need to see some rain. One area that doesn't need any more rain are areas of the Midwest. They're still dealing with the repercussions from the Derecho Event that moved in earlier this week bringing 19 tornado reports over 500 severe wind reports and 25 large hail report. Some of the largest damage and most widespread damage coming from the state of Iowa. You can see here, just crops flattened, levelled because of the strong winds there. Also a lot of structures and buildings sustained some pretty significant damage, Bianna. But it wasn't just Iowa. You also had damage in Illinois, Indiana and a lot of the other surrounding states as well. GOLODRYGA: Let's hope those firefighters out west get some relief from Mother Nature soon. Allison, thank you so much. Well next, thousands of protesters arrested while calling for a fair election in a country home to the man dubbed Europe's longest-serving dictator. We're live with the calls for change. But first in today's "Represented", we set our sights high on the world's first certified armless pilot, Jessica Cox. Her limitless courage is inspiring women in aviation around the world. JESSICA COX, THE WORLD'S FIRST CERTIFIED ARMLESS PILOT: Knowing that I'm doing this in an unmodified airplane, just flying with my feet, it is the most incredible sense of freedom. It's still a mystery as to why I was born without arms. As a child, I found myself very frustrated because everyone was telling me, you can't do that because you don't have arms. You have a disability. I have had some wonderful opportunities. I'm a scuba diver. I've surfed. I have a fourth degree black belt in American taekwondo. The summer after my college graduation I remember being approached by fighter pilot. He asked me if I wanted to go flying. Losing contact with the ground was a terrifying thought to me. I made the commitment after that first flight that I would do everything it takes to become a pilot. Preparing for flying is as critical as flying the airplane itself. You check the oil. You check the fuel quantities. Because once you're in the sky, you don't have any other choice but to fly that plane. Clear for takeoff. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very smooth. COX: It has given me a vehicle to inspire people with disabilities. GOLODRYGA: And we are cheering her on. Wow. How impressive. Well, CNN is exploring the past, the present and the future of women's rights in the U.S. and around the world. Be sure to check out more of this reporting at CNN.com/represented.

Police Search For Man Accused Of Starting California Wildfire

Polizei sucht nach Mann, der beschuldigt wird, Waldbrand in Kalifornien ausgelöst zu haben

警方搜寻被控引发加州大火的男子

GOLODRYGA: Another day of outrage in Eastern Europe. Thousands of demonstrators marched through the capital of Belarus demanding a fair election saying that last week's vote was rigged. Officials in Belarus say nearly 7,000 people have been arrested in this week's protests. The U.S. has been weighing in with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterating Saturday that he believes the elections in Belarus quote, "weren't free, they weren't fair". CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Minsk. And Fred -- I am so glad that you are covering this important story. These protesters are taking a real risk, aren't they? FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: they certainly are taking a real risk. And it's hard to overstate just how much courage it takes these people to come out here. I want us to kind of pan over here in this direction a little bit and you can see how many people have actually come out, because where we are right now there are thousands of people who are out on the street and they're protesting. And the way that they do that, at least in this location, is they stand at the side of this road, which is one of the main roads actually leading into the center of Minsk. They stand there, many of them women, with flowers and then the motorists there honk in support of the opposition. And the reason, of course, why it takes them so much courage is because this is one of the most repressive states in the world and Alexander Lukashenko, the long time dictator, is one of the most repressive leaders in the world. And a lot of people and the protests after last Sunday's vote got beaten up. Thousands of people were arrested. People were telling us that many, many people were tortured while they were in detention, women forced to strip down and kneel and then many people also humiliated on government television here in this country. PLEITGEN: And yet, the people are still coming out and demanding that Alexander Lukashenko must go. He says that he won 80 percent of the vote. And as you can see by the turnout here a lot of people don't believe that that was the case. They're calling for new elections and, quite frankly, they're also calling for an end to violence by the government security forces because so many people have been beat up. Some people actually killed, also in the last couple of days. And the people here are telling us, Bianna, finally. They say, look, they know this is an extreme danger to them but they feel they need to come out now or maybe they'll never be able to witness change in their country, Bianna. GOLODRYGA: And it takes such courage. You see people from across the board there -- the youth, the factory workers that are protesting. As one source I spoke to said it's not a matter of if Lukashenko's regime ends, it's a matter of when. Fred Pleitgen in Belarus, thank you so much for your reporting. Well, coming up, is the state of Georgia doing enough to stop the spread of coronavirus? Health experts are raising red flags about the state's response as one school district reports more than 50 cases in just one week.

Food Banks Struggling To Feed People As Crisis Worsens; Thousands Arrested As Belarusians Protest Vote They Call Rigged.

Lebensmittelbanken, die Schwierigkeiten haben, Menschen zu ernähren, während sich die Krise verschlimmert; Tausende von Weißrussen festgenommen, weil sie gegen eine Wahl protestieren, die sie als manipuliert bezeichnen.

随着危机加剧，粮食银行努力为人们提供食物；数千名白俄罗斯人因抗议他们所称的舞弊投票而被捕。

SMERCONISH: Is Kanye West serious about running for president or is it all just part of a dark, twisted fantasy? Once an outspoken Trump supporter, West told "Forbes" that he's taken off the MAGA hat and wouldn't, quote-unquote, "argue" that his campaign serves as a spoiler. "NPR" has documented how several Republican operatives, some with Trump ties, are actively helping the rap superstar get on presidential general election ballots in various states. Kanye West officially on the ballot in Vermont, Colorado, Oklahoma and Arkansas and has filed recently in Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa. Jared Kushner met privately with West last weekend in Colorado where the two partook in a friendly conversation. Kushner confirmed to reporters Thursday that the meeting wasn't focused on his presidential campaign, but was more of a discussion on policy, an assertion that he reiterated on "CBS News." JARED KUSHNER, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: We were talking about different policies. Kanye's obviously a very visionary thinker. He's somebody who cares a lot about our country and a lot of people. A lot of these ideas for how we can get better schools and better capital and better jobs into the inner cities to those who need it the most are ones that President Trump's very focused on. So Kanye and I like to talk about ideas like that, but we haven't discussed his actual campaign. SMERCONISH: The RNC and Trump has denied involvement in West's campaign, but the president isn't exactly discouraging the competition, saying he thinks it's, quote, "Great that he wants his voice heard." The cost of having West's voice heard is a gamble GOP operatives are betting on that could mean pulling voters, especially African-American voters, away from Joe Biden in places like Wisconsin. The president carried the state by fewer than 23,000 voters in 2016 with a substantial decline in turnout among black voters from the 2012 re-election of President Barack Obama, but recent polling suggests Biden's comfortable lead with black voters is still solid. The billionaire mogul polled at only 2 percent support among black registered voters compared to Biden's 72 percent and Trump's 14 percent. West also polled only 2 percent support overall. So how much of a spoiler is Kanye West actually? Joining me now to discuss is Randall Lane, "Forbes" Chief Content Officer and a journalist who has interviewed Kanye West exclusively multiple times, including one epic four-hour chat. His recent piece is titled, "Inside Kanye West's 'Almost Daily' Chats With Jared Kushner." Randall, what's it like to chat with Ye for four straight hours? RANDALL LANE, CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER, FORBES: The Ye marathon. Listen, he's a very smart guy and he's a very interesting guy. He doesn't know a lot about politics and he doesn't know a lot about most issues, but people who think that he's just a naive -- it is (ph) not true. He's quite smart. He doesn't know what he's doing in politics, but he's quite smart and he knows a publicity opportunity when he sees it. The question right now is is he being used to affect -- and once he's on the ballot in Wisconsin and Ohio -- and again, it's still to be determined whether he finally gets on. I mean, now this is a legitimate issue in the 2020 race. SMERCONISH: Was he surprised when you told him that he can't get to 270 based only on the ballots that he's qualifying for? LANE: Talking to -- talking to Kayne, it's a little bit in riddles. He is a poet in many ways, but it's a lot of riddles, but he keeps on going back and forth. He tells me he's in it to win. I tell him flat out he can't win. He says, well, I'm not going to argue with you and when you push him that he's there as a spoiler, he clearly listened. As much as he says -- he told me I'm taking off the red hat, but then he will say almost nothing bad about President Trump even though he's running against him and he's very easy to get to talk to -- to say negative things about Joe Biden. It's very clear he prefers President Trump to Vice President Biden. So the question becomes how much -- to me, it's not really a Kanye West story anymore, it's a White House story because this week, we connected -- I mean, it's not just that one meeting in Telluride. We have sources, multiple sources telling us that Kanye's telling people he's talking to Jared Kushner almost daily. SMERCONISH: You reference his poetry. He allowed you to record a couple of pieces of sound. This one's about 20 seconds long. Play it. KANYE WEST, RAPPER: That the COVID made this hate. Try to keep us quiet, cause riots. Try to keep us quiet, cause riots. How about we change up our diet? How about we change the diet? How about -- how about we get a real plan? How about we change up the meal plan? How about we stop hiding in the bunkers and be a real man? SMERCONISH: Give me some context for that. What was going on in your chat? LANE: Well, again, if you listen to the last line, stop hiding in the bunkers and be a real man. The one thing he did say about President Trump -- I asked him why are you running? Why are you against President Trump right now? The only thing he could say is that he didn't like that he hid in the bunkers -- hid in the bunker during the Lafayette Park protest. So it's unclear why -- he has no real reason -- he does not have -- he has very strong pro-life values and obviously he's very, very religious. He could not articulate why he wanted to run and at first in the first hour when I talked to him, I talked to him right after he declared. When he announced on July 4th that he was running, he got 1.2 million likes on Twitter. He has a huge platform. I texted him (ph) and then we talk and I ask him why are you running? He couldn't really articulate that and at first, it seemed like a publicity stunt, but then, as you said, Michael, he starts getting on ballots and then this becomes real, this becomes something that could, on the margin, potentially affect the race and that's news (ph). SMERCONISH: When you say to him -- final question. When you say to him are you simply playing a -- hoping to play a spoiler role, what does he say or do you get a riddle? LANE: He says -- not just a spoiler role, but to hurt Biden. He says I'm not going to argue with you, but then that night when that story came out, it went pretty big, he texted I'm in it to win, but he can't win and he's talking to Jared Kushner we're being told -- you know, he's saying almost daily, but certainly regularly and that raises a question to me. Again, it's not a Kanye West story. This has become a White House story. Are they trying to use somebody who has bipolar -- who's been diagnosed with bipolar , are they trying to spin him and use him to get an advantage? SMERCONISH: Randall, thanks for the insight. It's fascinating. I haven't paid attention to it up until now. Now I'm going to. LANE: My pleasure. Great to be here always. SMERCONISH: Let's see what you're saying via my Smerconish Twitter and Facebook pages. This I think comes from Facebook, "Yes, enough people will vote for Kanye just cause that is the world we live in." Michelle, you know, there are a lot of folks -- I'm not -- I'm not -- I'm not questioning their intelligence, but they're low information voters. Might be very, very wise, just paying attention to things other than, frankly, this kind of a program and might they go in and cast a ballot for Kanye West? They might. I think it's simplistic, though, to say -- I think it's overly simplistic to say, aha, here's a Joe Biden voter otherwise. People said the same thing about Johnson and Weld in the last cycle and Jill Stein and I just don't think it's so simplistic. I think there's a lot more going on with those third-party candidacies. Up ahead, the hundreds of thousands of seats in many of America's college football stadiums will remain empty this fall due to COVID restrictions. When those fans vote in November, will it impact their vote? I want to know what you think. Go to my website at Smerconish.com this hour. Should college football be played in the fall? Also, looters brought destruction to Chicago's Magnificent Mile stores this week. Critics of the local prosecutors say her reforms, easing felonies of theft, may have encouraged them. What does she say? I will ask her. MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), CHICAGO: We can't continue to allow this to happen, for people to believe that there is no accountability through our criminal justice system. No one wants to hold people in jail because they are poor, but people who engage in this kind of criminal activity, they need to be held accountable and we can't do it alone. We need the prosecution and we need the courts to step up.

Republicans Helping Boost Kanye West's 2020 Campaign

Republikaner unterstützen Kanye Wests Kampagne 2020

共和党人助力坎耶·韦斯特 2020 年竞选

BLITZER: As the U.S. now closes in on 170,000 lives lost to the coronavirus, there's a dire prediction coming in from the CDC director. Dr. Robert Redfield is now warning the fall could bring a catastrophic loss of life as COVID collides with the annual flu season. Thankfully, hundreds of thousands of those who have been stricken with COVID have recovered, but for many, recovery is a relative term. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more on these so- called COVID long haulers and the lingering debilitating effects they're still suffering. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Four months later, my stomach is not what it used to be. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been treated as COVID for 97 days. I'm pretty much in the throes of it. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN (voice-over): They are known as long haulers, diagnosed with COVID-19, but months later still experiencing symptoms. MICHAEL REAGAN, COVID-19 LONG HAULER: Everything from blood clots, seizures, tremors. I have a lot of neuropathy. I don't have control pretty much of the left side of my face and some issues with memory loss. GUPTA (voice-over): Fifty-year-old Michael Reagan had always been on the go, rock climbing, running, scuba diving. And then just like that, everything changed. (on camera): When did you first feel sick? REAGAN: Well, on March 22nd which was a Sunday, I woke up in the morning. I was unable to catch my breath. I went into the bathroom and I coughed up blood. GUPTA (voice-over): Reagan ended up the same day at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. At the time in the spring, it was the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic. REAGAN: I remember seeing stretchers come in with lots of people, people gasping for breath. GUPTA (voice-over): His symptoms dire. REAGAN: My blood pressure was out of control. It was 200 over 100 and something. My heart rate got as high as almost 200 beats a minute, and I was gasping for air. GUPTA (voice-over): Fortunately after five days, Reagan began breathing more easily with the help of medications. He never went on a ventilator, but he spent the next two months in and out of the hospital. ZIJIAN CHEN, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POST-COVID CARE, MOUNT SINIA: We realized that the patients don't really fall into the black and white where some patients are sick and then they get healthy again, and then some patients are sick and then they die. GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Zijian Chen is medical director of the Center for Post-COVID Care for the Mount Sinai Health System, a first of its kind in the country focusing on recovery. For the first several months, doctors have been just trying to figure out this disease, but now the long-term effects are also proving equally mysterious. CHEN: If you have shortness of breath, we're looking to see whether we see something on a cat scan or we see something through will pulmonary function testing to see that there is specific organ damage. The reason we break this down is because we need to look at it physically to see what the virus actually does to your organs physically. GUPTA (voice-over): The CDC estimates 35 percent of adults are not back to normal two to three weeks after testing positive. Still experiencing difficulties breathing, nerve pain or even memory loss and brain fog. A study of 143 Italian patients found 87 percent of them reported having at least one lingering effect 60 days after the onset of their first symptom. (on camera): Is there some way of predicting who is more likely to have these persistent symptoms? CHEN: I would presume that if you had a pre-existing condition that the infection with the virus can worsen that condition, but again, we're also seeing patients who were previously healthy, but their symptoms have also persisted throughout their illness and beyond. GUPTA (voice-over): It's truly a medical mystery that Dr. Chen and Michael Reagan hope is solved. REAGAN: When I was in the throes of fighting COVID, I was only focused on breathing. I was scared to go to sleep because I would stop breathing. It wasn't until that, you know, I was generally doing better that I started to notice a lot of the other symptoms. And I know other people must feel the same. GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting. BLITZER: Thanks Sanjay for that report. Dr. Vivek Murthy is joining us right now. He is the former U.S. surgeon general. He's also the (inaudible) adviser to the Joe Biden campaign. Dr. Murthy, thanks so much for joining us. So let's talk a little bit about what Sanjay was just reporting on. Could this be another legacy of coronavirus, not just many thousands of people dead, but many more who could be, you know, having problems for months, even years down the road? VIVEK MURTHY, FORMER U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: Yes, Wolf, it's good to be with you this evening. And I, you know, we are concerned about some of these stories we are hearing more and more from people with COVID, stories that tell us that the effects go beyond the first few weeks for many, and in fact, it lingers often for months. We're also learning that there are more organ systems that are affected by COVID-19 that won't be originally thought. In the early months of this virus, we thought this was primarily a pulmonary disease, a disease of the lungs and the respiratory tract. But it's turned out as we have learned more, that we've understood that the heart is affected, the kidneys are affected, the nervous system is affected, and the list has continued to grow. So this is one of the reasons it's so important that we are cautious in how we approach this virus because we got to recognize we don't understand the full impact of this virus yet. We got to approach it with the utmost caution and protect people across the age spectrum. BLITZER: You know, Dr. Murthy, another 1,029 Americans died just yesterday from coronavirus, more than a thousand Americans are dying almost every single day. I offered on twitter a little while ago alternates while ago some perspective. In mid-March, the U.S. and South Korea each had approximately 90 confirmed deaths. The U.S. now has almost 170,000 confirmed deaths while South Korea, with a population of some 52 million has 305. Let me repeat that, 305 confirmed deaths in South Korea. So what did they do right and what did we do wrong? MURTHY: Well, that's a great question, Wolf. And it turns out that we are at a very unusual place among other countries, and particularly among other industrialized countries. Many other countries were able to figure out how to bring the rates of virus down. And while nobody has solved COVID entirely, many of the countries are still dealing with small outbreaks here and there. In most cases, they have managed to keep those outbreak relatively small and they have done with a kind of combination of increasing their testing capacity, but also building a contact tracing core that can help to limit the spread. In our case, what we have not done is we have not built the kind of testing capacity we need. We don't have the contacting tracing core that's required. And we've allowed the infection to spiral out of control such that even the testing and tracing we do have is not sufficient. And we have allowed that spiral to happen because we haven't, one, observed the kind of measures that one needs to do by staying home to keep the rates of virus really, really low. We opened up, in fact, too early. And there's one last thing that we have not done swiftly enough, which is to put in place universal masking orders. The simple true and what the data tells us is that masks work to reduce the spread of the virus, though we've had a patchwork of mask mandates around the country. And the problem is, if you wait until there's an outbreak in your state to put a mask mandate in place, then it's too late. It's already started to spread there. And so there are numbers of steps we can take and other countries have showed us that they work, we just have to step up and take those steps because we've lost far too many lives and we just can't afford to keep going down this path. BLITZER: Yes. One thing the South Koreans did effectively. They had a national strategy, a national policy. They didn't defer action to cities or counties or anything along those lines. They took action for their entire country and immediately everyone was wearing a mask. They weren't even raising any questions about that, social distancing, and all that contact tracing, which we of course have not been able to do. You're the former U.S. surgeon general during the Obama administration. Let me ask about this warning if that were not enough from the CDC director. Dr. Robert Redfield. He said, this fall, the coming months could be the worst period of public health this country, the United States of America has ever seen with the flu season on top of the coronavirus pandemic. The president seems to scoff at that, said the Spanish flu was so much worse. What's your reaction to what we heard from Dr. Redfield? MURTHY: I think Dr. Redfield is appropriate in his concern that he's voicing. The main concern about the fall is that we will be seeing influenza spread at the same time COVID-19 is still here and likely will still be spreading. And here's why this is a problem, because either virus on its own would be enough to strain our health care system. But together they will put potentially severe strain in our clinics and our hospitals. But there's a second issue, which is that people when they present with a flu, they often have a fever. They may have a cough at times or feel short of breath. These are actually somewhat similar to the symptoms that people can have with COVID-19. So that means that at a time when people are coming in with flu and with a cold, that their symptoms will be hard to distinguish from COVID symptoms. And because of the challenges, the ongoing challenges we have with testing capacity, it may take us a while to figure out where the person who has a fever actually has COVID or something else, which means that more people will be isolated for longer. It also means it will be harder to keep schools and workplaces open. But here's what we can do. We can, number one, get our flu shot. Less than half the people got their flus shot last year. We need to bump those numbers up. The second thing we can do is we can wash our hands, wear a mask, stay home if we're sick and keep distance from each other. Because it turns out the same measures that work to prevent COVID-19 spread also help prevent the spread of flu. And finally we've got to accelerate our efforts to expand testing capacity, especially with the rapid home tests because those will be a game changer. Now, Wolf, finally I just got to say, it is concerning and so saddening for me to look at what's happening around the world and to compare how we are doing in America because or response to COVID-19 has actually been a departures from the usual character of America. What America typically does in these situations is we rise to meet challenges, we work together and support each other. We draw in our extraordinary talents in our heart and I know that we have the knowledge and the talent and the technology to do what needs to be done to overcome COVID-19, but we can't do it without focused, effective leadership. That's what we need. BLITZER: Yes. Good you compare how the U.S. has dealt with this and other countries like South Korea for example. It is heartbreaking to see that. Dr. Murthy, thank you so much for joining us. MURTHY: Good to be with you, Wolf. BLITZER: Just ahead, Joe Biden is hoping to siphon off Republican voters who do not want to vote for President Trump. Can Democrats win them over for good? The former Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel, he's standing by live. There you see him. He'll join me here in the situation room. He has a pitch to Republicans who plan on voting for Biden. That's next.

Reports On Long-Term COVID-19 Symptoms; Warning From CDC On The Worst Fall In The U.S.

Berichte über langfristige COVID-19-Symptome; Warnung von CDC vor dem schlimmsten Herbst in den USA

关于新冠病毒长期症状的报告；美国疾病预防控制中心发出警告，美国将迎来最糟糕的秋季。

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The question is, is that about public interest or is it about private profit? Mike Lindell told our colleague Betsy Klein this morning that he has a seat on the board of the company that produces this, has a financial stake in the drug, and of course we've seen from the president's promotion of hydroxychloroquine over the opposition of his public health officials that there may be private interest involved there. He gave - announced a big loan to Kodak to get into the generic drug business, including components for hydroxychloroquine. Now that loan has been halted while the government investigates insider trading. So we don't know where this is going to go with the oleandrin, but it's something that we'll watch and, of course, will be a question for the Food and Drug Administration. KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWSROOM HOST: Absolutely, and John real quick, just on mail-in voting as he continues to - as you rightly fact checked, one thing I noticed there is now it seems the president's a bit muddying the water about why he cares so much about the postal service. Now he continues - now he's going back to what we - he has said previously about being just concerned of the financial situation with the postal office when he made very clear last week why he is holding up, why he is not interested in funding the postal service. It has nothing to do with getting its house in order. It has everything to do with mail-in voting. ROBERTS: Well, exactly. He said so directly, and you know, the backdrop for this, Kate, as you know is long-term funding issues for the U.S. Postal Service, and Republicans have talked for years about wanting it to be more run like a business. They of course - the way - the reason the postal service loses money in some cases is because rural, small states that get service at the same rates that everyone else does are getting subsidized because they're more expensive to serve, but this is a case where the demands on the postal service have dramatically increased because of the coronavirus because to avoid getting sick many, many more people want to vote by mail. The president's losing the election. He's behind, if you average all the polls, by a significant margin to Joe Biden, and he's looking to sew confusion and doubt about the outcome of the election, and the Democrats are beginning to push back. The Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is calling back the House, and the question's going to be how to congressional Republicans respond? Are they going to hear the voices of their constituents who are fearful that, say, their medications will not be delivered on time because - BOLDUAN: Right. ROBERTS: -- of some of these service problems with the postal service. That's where the battles really going to get joined. BOLDUAN: Absolutely. John, thank you for standing by and working through that with us. I really appreciate it. All right, joining me right now is Dr. Celine Gounder. She's a CNN Medical Analyst and former New York City Assistant Commissioner of Health. Dr. Gounder, I'm just going to ask the control room if you have that sound byte of the president being asked about oleandrin, let me know because I'd like to play it again for Dr. Gounder. I know I'm asking for that on the fly, but with - even without that, Dr. Gounder, I wanted to ask you - I've been wanting to ask you about this because this is fresh reporting that first came out through Axios, citing sources saying that the president wants the FDA to approve this botanical extract who has a potential cure as people who support it describe it for a cure for COVID-19, but it's not only not proven that it has any impact with relation to COVID. It is not proven to have any impact - it's not approved for anything. What do you think of this? DR. CELINE GOUNDER, FORMER NYC ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF HEALTH: Well Kate, I think the same rules, the same procedures and protocols need to apply to any drug or vaccine that we're looking at for coronavirus or really for any medical condition. So whether that is remdesivir and dexamethasone, which actual drugs that have been studied already in Phase 1, Phase 2 clinical trials, or whether it's a new drug or botanical like what the president is talking about, this is not Russia. You know, we don't just put out a vaccine without testing it appropriately. There's a reason that we have these health and safety protocols to make sure that whatever we put out there is safe and effective, and that just has not been proven in this case or in the case of other medications that the president has promoted like hydroxychloroquine. BOLDUAN: And I guess - and that's something, a comparison to make for sure because it does seem like it could be even potentially more dangerous than the conversation that was had over hydroxychloroquine since this is currently not tested or approved for any use whereas hydroxychloroquine with serious side effects, though, was approved for actual treatments of actual diseases. What do people need to know? GOUNDER: Well look, you know, I think it's important to remember that we do have processes. We have a Food and Drug Administration because there periods in our history, for example, in the early 1900s where many things were peddled as cure alls. They were snake oils that were really dangerous to people. Things like laudanum was peddled as a cure all, which actually is largely opioids, so you ended up having a lot of middle class women becoming addicted to opioids at that point in our history. So there's a real reason we have these health and safety measures to protect the American people. BOLDUAN: Yes. There is new research out, Dr. Gounder, that I wanted to ask you about really just within the last few minutes highlighting not only how Latino and black people are getting harder hit by the virus than any other group but are disproportionately also being hospitalized at a rate - at a higher rate for COVID. One example is Ohio where black patients accounted for 31.8 percent of hospitalizations compared to making up only 13 percent of the state's population. That's startling in and of itself, but what does it mean for the country and what needs to be done now? GOUNDER: Well this certainly rings true with my own experience in New York City caring for COVID patients. The vast majority of the patients I saw were either Latinx or African American, and I think it's important to remember this is largely related to who's at risk for being exposed and then who's at risk for having severe disease. This is not just about socioeconomic status. This is about structural racism that is baked in to every aspect of our society. So whether that is the fact that we know that Latinx and African American and indigenous communities are more likely to live in places that have worse air pollution, that they're more likely to not have access to safe water, to have water that's contaminated by lead, they're more likely to have schools that are crumbling that don't have appropriate ventilation, they're less likely to be in jobs that have some health and safety protections that the rest of us enjoy. So it is not surprising to me at all that we're seeing this bear out in the data BOLDUAN: Yes. None surprising, but just horrible nonetheless. There is a lot of talk about this new, inexpensive, saliva-based COVID test that just receive FDA emergency authorization. I wanted to get your take on it. Do you - do you see it as a game changer as some are describing this test? GOUNDER: This is potentially game changing because it really does get rid of a lot of the barriers to scaling up testing. So you know, we've been talking for months about shortages of those swabs to get a nasal sample. You don't need a swab. You literally just have to spit in a tube, as long as it's a sterile container. There's nothing special about the container, and there's no special tests or reagents, chemicals that you need to perform this test. This is something that can be performed but he general lab with the instruments and the chemicals they already have on hand. You're not having a contract with any special company to do this, and Yale is actually making the protocols for this testing publically available, and it's a test that can be done for under $10 - probably under $5 in most labs, so it's much cheaper than the test that we are currently employing right now. BOLDUAN: Yes. Dr. Gounder, thank you. It's great to see you. Another development that we are watching, college students ignoring warnings about social distancing and wearing masks. Take a look at this video, what appears to be a large party near the University of North George over the weekend. Normally a video like this wouldn't be startling at all because that's what happens in college, but with COVID on the rise, especially in Georgia, drinking, dancing, packed in, not wearing masks at least as far as we can see, that's terrifying to public health experts. At the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, they're investigating four COVID clusters now, including one at a fraternity, and classes resumed there just last week. And at the University of Alabama, a photographer from the school's student newspaper took these photos. Large crowds, outside bars in Tuscaloosa over the weekend. Again, very few people wearing masks and very little social distancing happening despite the state's order that people in public spaces wear a face covering when closer than six feet apart from others. It's not just college students, though. The CDC says the infection rate in children 17 and younger has increased, quote, "steadily from March to July". That's all the more important to consider as more schools reopen and more states struggle to contain new outbreaks. In Georgia, once again going back there, one school district that's already had problems since reopening is now suspending in-person learning and one more school due to new COVID cases. Dianne Gallagher is standing by. She's live in Atlanta. She's tracking all of this for us. Dianne, we're talking about Cherokee County schools. What is the latest there? DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate. You said suspending in-person learning at one more school. That is the third high school in Cherokee County to suspend that in-person learning. By the way, the third week of school starting today in Georgia, so it shows just how quickly this can spread. If you take Cherokee County alone since the beginning of last week so we're looking here, the rate of infection, of the number of kids who - and parent and excuse me, and teachers who have been infected with COVID-19 has tripled over just that two-week period. The number of people who are in quarantine, more than 1,100, has doubled. So we're seeing this ripple effect through Cherokee County to kind of give you and idea of what they're dealing with with this in- person learning. About the quarter of the students chose in-person learning in that school district, so they weren't even dealing with their full student bodies. Now, it's also important to point out that they didn't have a mask mandate within the schools in Cherokee County, and that's something across the state of Georgia that we're dealing with. You talked about that University of North Georgia party, that video there, and it really is stark. The video's dark, but you can see people aren't wearing masks. They're not social distancing. They're doing what they would do, say, if this one 2019 for a back to school party in college. It was off campus, and that's going to be key when we're talking about going back to school for college and university students. A spokesperson for the University of North Georgia told CNN that they were, quote, "disappointed that many of their students chose to ignore COVID-19 public health guidance," but they said, hey, we do have mask requirements inside our classrooms, inside public spaces. They don't have them in residence halls and they can't control what students do off campus, Kate. They said that they encourage students to exercise this independent responsibility, but it's going to be something that parents from K through 12 and all the way up, those how have college students are going to be concerned about here. BOLDUAN: Yes, and this isn't just on college students. This is on the schools as well. This is on the plans that the put in place all the way through know what college students do when the get back to school. It's great to see you, Dianne. Thank you so much for tracking all that. Coming up we have new developments in the battle over mail-in voting. The White House claiming that they will stop removing sorting machines from post offices, and now House Democrats are making moves to try to block any further changes to the USPS. We're going to have much more on that coming up. Plus we're just hours away from the start of a very different type of Democratic National Conventions, one of this week's keynote speakers joins us live.

Trump: "Looking Into" Unproven Therapeutic for Coronavirus; Trump Speaks Amid Furor Over Postal Service; Study: Minorities Disproportionately Hospitalized for COVID-19; Video Shows Packed Private Party Near Georgia College Campus; UNC Has Four COVID Outbreaks Less Than a Week After Classes Resume; CDC: COVID Infection Rate has Increased "Steadily" in Children Under 17; Another Georgia School Suspends Classes Due to Rising COVID Cases

Trump: \"Untersuchung\" von unbewiesenem Therapeutikum für Coronavirus; Trump spricht inmitten von Aufregung über den Postdienst; Studie: Minderheiten wegen COVID-19 überproportional häufig ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert; Video zeigt vollgepackte private Party in der Nähe des Georgia College Campus; UNC hat vier COVID-Ausbrüche weniger als eine Woche nach Wiederaufnahme des Unterrichts; CDC: COVID-Infektionsrate bei Kindern unter 17 Jahren ist „stetig“ gestiegen; Eine weitere Schule in Georgia setzt den Unterricht aufgrund steigender COVID-Fälle aus

特朗普：“调查”未经证实的冠状病毒治疗方法；特朗普在对邮政服务的愤怒中发表讲话；研究表明：少数族裔因新冠疫情住院的比例过高；视频显示佐治亚大学校园附近充满私人聚会；北卡罗来纳大学在恢复上课后不到一周时间内爆发了四次新冠疫情；美国疾控中心：17岁以下儿童的新冠疫情感染率“稳步”上升；又一所佐治亚州学校因新冠病例增加而停课。

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. In a little over an hour, Kate, the House Democrats will be on this very important phone call where they'll be discussing the details of their very unusual, very rare return to Washington, D.C. in the middle of a summer - the summer recess to address all of these issues. You know, Speaker Pelosi over the weekend indicated that she most likely will call them back to Washington later this week and likely on Saturday a vote on a bill that would block major operational changes that the Post Master General is trying to make happen at the postal office. You know, this is just one part of a very aggressive, ramped up strategy by House Democrats to really put the pressure on this problem, to show up in Washington, and to make - show a force essentially that they are working on this. They have also called for the Post Master General and the chairman of the board to come up here on Capitol Hill next Monday on the 24 to testify in from of cameras about these problems that we've been hearing about all across the country and, of course, the policy changes at the postal office. Just this morning, additional two House Democrats called on the FBI to look into whether there is any criminality, criminal charges that they could look at as far as what the Post Master General and others are doing. So clearly, Kate, an aggressive ramp and stance from House Democrats as they take on this issue, call their members back, and we'll hear details of what exactly that looks like in the conference call House Democrats will be having in the next hour. BOLDUAN: Yes, and Sunlen will bring us any details that pop up from that. Thank you so much, Sunlen. It's great to see you. Just moments ago, President Trump he weighed in once again on this, railing against mail-in voting, throwing around unproven claims of fraud, and calling vote by mail dangerous, again, for which he has not and there is not proof of widespread dangerousness. Listen to this. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Absentee ballots are great. You request a ballot. You can't - I signed an absentee ballots. Absentee ballots are great. They work. They've been proven. They're good like in Florida, but this universal mail-in is a very dangerous thing. It's fraught with fraud and every other thing that can happen, and we have to be very, very careful. We have a very big election coming up. I think we're going to do very well, and I want to make sure the election is not stalled. BOLDUAN: Attacks like this from the president now has state officials in charge of elections looking at legal options. Attorneys general for at least half a dozen states are discussing potential lawsuits. One of those states is Colorado, and I'm joined right now by the top elections official in the state, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. Thank you so much, Secretary, for being here. You have called the moves by the president very clear voter suppression, and you have promised that you're not going to let that happen in Colorado, and I wonder how do you guarantee that? What are you going to do about it? JENA GRISWOLD (D), COLORADO SECRETARY OF STATE: Well good morning, Kate. Thank you for having me on the side (ph). Just such an important topic for our nation to discuss because the president with his just last remarks and all of his rhetoric is trying to suppress voters in November when he should be more concerned about suppressing the virus that has killed over 170,000 Americans. You know, the nation can look at Colorado's election model as an example of how to withstand the sabotage coming out of the White House. We sent out ballots three weeks before election day and actually ask Coloradans to stop returning them eight days before because they need to get in by election day. And what we have, Kate, is hundreds of drop boxes across the state that Coloradans use, and overall we are confident that we'll have an accessible an secure elections, but we want the rest of the nation to follow in our footsteps and make sure that all Americans can cast a ballot. BOLDUAN: Secretary, what are the legal options you believe could be taken right now against the administration's move? GRISWOLD: Well Kate, to share with you in 2012 and 2016 I was a voter protection attorney, and in 2017 I ran for Secretary of State because the president was trying to suppress voters, including thousands of Coloradans. As Secretary of State, I will not allow him to suppress any American and will fight him with all options on the table. So we are looking at possible legal action against both the Post Master General and the president himself. BOLDUAN: Is there an example of what the legal option - what the range of options would be right now at this point because time is critical as we will know with the election right around the corner? GRISWOLD: Sure. Well Kate, you're going to have to wait maybe a day or two or a couple days more. I don't want to get in front of our attorneys, but there's several legal possible claims whether that's under - BOLDUAN: OK. GRISWOLD: -- state law, constitutional law, and federal law. BOLDUAN: One element we all know of voter suppression is simply instilling fear that your vote's not going to count. That's one element of it. Do you think that damage could already be done? GRISWOLD: Well I do think that the president is undermining November's election and he is having an effect. You know, I was really proud for our state-wide primary in Colorado, which was June 30, to see not only did we set a record turnout in a pandemic, but we also had a higher percentage of Republicans use mail ballots than Democrats even with the option of voting in person with early voting or same day voting. But there is recent polling that shows that Republican's confidence in vote-by-mail is being chipped away at. That's why I think it's so important to push back against the president. He has told us exactly why he is attacking vote by mail, why he's attacking the postal service, all the attacks on our elections because he's trying to tilt the election in his favor. He said he's trying to defund the postal service to make sure that mail ballots don't work. That's reprehensible, it's undemocratic, and we have to push back against his lies. BOLDUAN: Look, and the president has continually pointed to widespread voter fraud for a reason he has opposed vote by mail. I mean, he's talked about widespread voter fraud with no evidence since he won the election. The body of evidence, though, is proving the opposite of that that we know. Let me play you what the president's Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, said to Jake Tapper about this yesterday. JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: There's no evidence of widespread voter fraud. MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: There's no - there's no - there's no evidence that there's not either. BOLDUAN: There was a little bit of crosstalk, but here's what was said. "There's no evidence of widespread voter fraud," says Jake Tapper rightly so. And then Meadows says, "But there's to evidence that there's no either." Your reaction to that. GRISWOLD: It's just ridiculous. I just think it's shameful to the extent that people in the administration are going to sabotage this election. The president has told us why he's railing against vote by mail. He thinks Democrats will win, and it should be shocking to every single American that, number one, the president is trying to undermine our elections, but number two, he doesn't even have the right facts. In Colorado, we've had more Republicans use vote by mail in the last two out of three elections. And the fact that they would use such circular reasoning as a way to try to trick and tilt this election is just reprehensible. BOLDUAN: I have to tell you, Secretary, hearing that - that fact - that real fact that you're laying, the Republicans turnout in big part by mail-in vote, I'm just now waiting from the tweet from the president saying not only does he like mail-in voting in Florida now, he also now supports it in Colorado. It's good to see you. I really appreciate your time. Thank you. GRISWOLD: Good to see you. Thank you. BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us, an unconventional convention kicking off just hours from now. I'll speak with one of the keynote speakers for the Democratic Convention, and his story is one to listen into. Not only a mayor, but also a man how just lost his mother and stepfather to coronavirus. That's next.

Pelosi Calls for House to Return from Recess for Postal Service Vote; WH Chief of Staff: Mail Sorting Machines Won't be Removed; Two Dem Congressmen Call for FBI Investigation into USPS Chief and Board of Governors; Trump: Absentee Ballots "Great," Universal Mail-In Voting "Dangerous"; States Consider Legal Action Against WH Over USPS, Mail-In Voting.

Pelosi fordert die Rückkehr des Repräsentantenhauses aus der Pause für die Abstimmung über den Postdienst; Stabschef des Weißen Hauses: Postsortiermaschinen werden nicht entfernt; zwei demokratische Kongressabgeordnete fordern eine FBI-Untersuchung des USPS-Chefs und des Verwaltungsrats; Trump: Briefwahlabstimmung \"Großartig\", universelle Briefwahl \"gefährlich\"; Staaten erwägen rechtliche Schritte gegen das Weiße Haus wegen USPS, Briefwahl.

佩洛西呼吁众议院从休会返回邮政服务投票；万洲国际办公厅主任：邮件分拣机不会被移除；两名民主党议员呼吁联邦调查局对美国邮政局长和理事会进行调查；特朗普：缺席选票“很棒”，“普遍邮寄投票”危险；国家考虑采取法律行动反对万洲国际超过美国邮政，邮寄投票。

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Of course, we'll see that speech tonight. Thank you so much for joining us. Our special coverage of the Democratic National Convention starts right now. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Tonight the Democrats officially begin their fight to take back the White House at a historic time of crisis in America. The party sets to nominate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as their ticket to defeating President Trump. Making the case for the Democrats tonight, former First Lady Michelle Obama. Other headliners include Biden's former primary rival, Senator Bernie Sanders. Welcome to CNN's special coverage of the Democratic National Convention. I am Anderson Cooper. This will not be like any convention that we have seen before ever, as the coronavirus changes the way we do everything. Let's go to Wolf Blitzer in the CNN Election Center. Wolf, it's going to be a streamlined made for TV event. What more can we expect? WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Anderson, Democrats will put the pandemic and President Trump's response front and center along with other huge challenges facing the nation right now. Speakers spread out across the country will drive those issues home. We're going to hear from governors on the frontlines in the coronavirus crisis, including New York's Andrew Cuomo. He will argue that the only way for America to recover is with new leadership. Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer will drill down on the threat to the lives and livelihoods of workers in her state and across the United States. We're covering it all with our political team including Jake Tapper, Dana Bash and Abby Phillip. Jake, I understand you have new details on the big speeches tonight. JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: That's right, Wolf. Michelle Obama is the headliner and we're told her remarks will be very different from what one might expect from a former First Lady, as she updates her call from four years ago, that when quote, "They go low, we go high." Unquote. She will explain how that mantra applies now in the context of what she sees as four chaotic and divisive years under President Trump. We will soon find out just how pointed she is willing to get in her criticisms. We know she will serve as a sort of character witness about Joe Biden, the man she saw tested during his eight years as her husband's Vice President, tested during policy fights and of course, when his son, Beau, died of brain cancer. We also will hear from Senator Bernie Sanders who will call for progressives who backed him and backed Elizabeth Warren and other more liberal candidates to join together and unite behind Joe Biden to defeat Trump no matter who they supported during the primaries as the Democratic Party struggles to win over progressive skeptics of Biden. We're told that Sanders will validate Biden's economic vision or try to do so at least and argue that the former Vice President is committed to fixing healthcare, even though, of course, Sanders and Biden have many strong disagreements on the subject. Dana, the Democrats are looking to draw some sharp contrasts between Joe Biden and of course, President Trump. DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, and that is including Republicans. There are Republicans who are going to speak tonight and that includes the former Ohio Governor, John Kasich, who is an outspoken opponent of President Trump going back to their 2016 primary fight. But tonight, he is going to argue that by going beyond just criticizing the President actually backing his Democratic rival that Kasich who is a self-described lifelong Republican is putting the country before politics and he's going to encourage Republican voters like him who don't like the President that are worried about the ideological differences with Joe Biden to put that aside the way that John Kasich will. We're also going to hear from several prominent G.O.P. women who support Biden including former Congresswoman Susan Molinari. She even gave a keynote address at a Republican convention and now in the words of one Democratic source I spoke with, she represents exactly the kind of voter the Biden campaign is hoping to win over. So the Democrats are making a very strong, very open appeal to Republicans tonight knowing that the outcome of this election could hinge on 2016 Trump voters now turned off by the President and Abby, Democrats have more on their focus tonight. ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Dana. They are devoting a considerable amount of time to the fight for racial justice and presenting it as a crisis that's as urgent and important as the battle against the coronavirus and the nation's economic slides. So we'll hear tonight from a family that has come to symbolize that struggle very publicly. We have learned that the relatives of George Floyd will address the convention from Texas and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser will speak from the balcony overlooking Black Lives Matter Plaza just a couple of blocks from the White House where peaceful protesters were violently teargassed and she'll talk about how she went up against President Trump during that time, and in her words, he was plotting to send troops in camouflage into the streets and Federal helicopters into the air -- Anderson. COOPER: Abby, I want to check in with our correspondents, Jeff Zeleny and Arlette Saenz, covering the convention from Joe Biden's home base in Delaware. First to you, Jeff, what more are you learning about Michelle Obama's speech? JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, we're learning that Michelle Obama will be giving what's described to me as the most overtly political speech she has given in her public life, really a crescendo of what she has been doing since leaving the office four years ago, but so different than her speech at the Convention in 2016. I am told she is going to directly challenge and confront the President. She is going to say this, I'm told, that he is wrong for a country and in over his head, that it simply is not a time to reelect him. Now, this is something that is a stark departure from her previous convention appearances. We can all remember in 2008 when she came into that Denver Convention, still, you know, the wife of an Illinois Junior Senator, introducing herself to the country. She has grown during this period of time and she believes now is the time when she should be speaking out forcefully. She's also going to I'm told, continue on the line that we all remember from 2016 saying when they go low, we go high of course, referring to the birtherism comments and so many years of attacks on her family. I am told, she is going to explain what that means, saying going high does not mean sitting on the sidelines. Going high does not mean ignoring these, it means, you know, getting in the arena voting first and foremost. So her speech is going to be a bit of a continuation of former President Barack Obama's speech that he gave at John Lewis's funeral, urging young Americans to vote. That is the takeaway from her speech tonight. Of course, it's prerecorded. Most of the speeches are live, but it'll be about 18 minutes long, and I am told that again is the sharpest political speech she's ever given -- Anderson. COOPER: All right, to Arlette Saenz now we go. Arlette, what can you tell us about Bernie Sanders's speech tonight? ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson four months after he bowed out of the presidential race, Bernie Sanders speaks tonight with the goal of uniting Democrats around Joe Biden, speaking over eight minutes from back home in Vermont. An aide says that Bernie Sanders will talk about, you know, urging the country to unite behind Biden to, quote, "remove the most dangerous president in history" and select Joe Biden. Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden haven't seen each other in person since that one on one debate back in March, but an aide says they do speak regularly as their two teams have worked closely since about April on policy and efforts trying to unite the Democratic Party. It's a bit of a different approach for Sanders, who had that long drawn out fight with Hillary Clinton back in 2016. But tonight, Sanders is expected to rally progressives and all Democrats around Joe Biden's candidacy speaking directly to those voters who voted for other candidates during the primary and maybe even voted for President Trump back in 2016. Sanders is expected to argue that the future of democracy and the economy is at stake, and he will warn, quote, "The price of failure is just too great to imagine." COOPER: Arlette Saenz, appreciate. We've got a lot to watch for when bring in David Axelrod. David, you know Michelle Obama well, obviously. I'm wondering what you are expecting from her tonight based on what we know from early, you know, releases of some of her comments, but also from prior speeches that she has given before at these conventions? DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, well, first of all, the thing that makes Michelle Obama the figure that she is, is that she's authentic, she is honest and she is passionate. I think back, Anderson, to Inauguration Day of 2017 and the coldness that you could sense between her and Donald Trump and she expressed herself in her book on this subject. I expect a very powerful emotional and edgy speech. I don't think she is going to you know, as Jeff said, I think she is going to demonstrate what going high means against someone who she believes has gone relentlessly low. And I think, this is going to be a different kind of speech than we've seen from her before. She is going to -- she's going to make very clear what she thinks the stakes are and she's going to create that contrast between the character of Joe Biden and the character of Donald Trump, which is going to be a theme that runs through this entire convention. So I expect a high -- a high level emotional kind of speech from her, I should say, highly emotional speech from her about the stakes in this election. COOPER: Nia-Malika Henderson, how involved do you expect Michelle Obama, former President Obama to be moving forward after tonight? NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: I imagine they will be very involved. If you flashback to 2016, they were out on the stump campaigning. Michelle Obama, in fact, gave a very impassioned speech denouncing the "Access Hollywood" tape after that came out. You know if you think about somebody like Michelle Obama, she really is kind of a thread and a bridge across many different demographics across many different generations, too. She's got a lot of issues that you can connect with some of these young folks, and particularly talking about the need to vote. In some ways, I think she can play it differently than the President -- the former President, President Obama, who is in some ways been loath to get out there, particularly in the early months of Donald Trump's presidency. There was always a fear that him speaking out would sort of shed more heat than light, and now, I think with Michelle Obama, she is going to bring the heat and she is going to bring the light tonight and really I think rally all sorts of voters, people who not might not be completely sold on this ticket and then some of those suburban white women voters that we've heard so much about that are so important to Joe Biden's fortune. She's going to speak directly to them. And then oftentimes, you see with First Lady's a humanizing of a candidate. That's the role she played in 2008 for her husband, who in some ways was seen as too cerebral. And you'll see that I think tonight as well when she talks about Joe Biden in such an empathetic way, telling stories that a lot of Americans might not know about Joe Biden. COOPER: Gloria, it is a remarkable, you know, kind of milestone, just comparing tonight to four years ago at the beginning the Democratic National Convention then. I mean, then, Republicans were upset at the Obamas for, you know, executive orders for deficit spending. I mean, those are things which Republicans clearly don't have a leg to stand on anymore. GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. They don't and what the Democrats are going to try and prove at this Convention, is that unlike Republicans at this point, many of whom do not like Donald Trump, many of whom don't want to spend the money. He wants to spend, many of whom are against the stimulus package, for example, is that they're going to try and say Democrats are unified. And this kind of strange convention that we have tonight with Bernie Sanders speaking may make it easier for them to make that point because if you recall, four years ago, when Bernie Sanders spoke, there was kind of a demonstration on the floor for Bernie, Bernie. And that that Bernie-Hillary thing was still going on. And I think -- I think now, without the audience there, with Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden having a real relationship and I think we noticed this during the campaign, they disagreed with each other, but they liked each other. They were in Congress together forever. They trust each other. The Biden campaign has brought in the Sanders people. They didn't agree on Medicare-for-All. That's a problem. But tonight with having Bernie Sanders speak without any people out in the audience to disrupt a nomination process for Joe Biden might actually help the Democrats look like they are unified. COOPER: John King, I'm so curious just to see how this is produced, because, I mean, it runs the risk of being, you know, three-hour long infomercial that people don't particularly want to watch or perhaps it's a very intimate kind of very compelling presentation that's very well-produced and brings people to places emotionally that they haven't been on. I don't -- I have no idea, do you? JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, and nor do they, and that's the challenge here. Are they picking the right people? Are they targeting the right people? Is bringing these Republicans in a good idea. They have their sense of what the map is, what it will take to beat Donald Trump. But Anderson, let's just start with the basic premise. It is incredibly hard to defeat an incumbent President of the United States. Bill Clinton was the last person to do it back in 1992. That was the wild Ross Perot year. This year, we'll have two candidates. This is Trump versus Biden, but the coronavirus is the wild card. Will the virus look as tough for the country in a month or two as it does right now? That's one calculation, as Biden prosecutes the case against him. The other thing though, is to use every moment to your opportunity, because go back through those races, right. John Kerry came a lot closer than most people remember, but he couldn't get there. That was the first. That was 2004. The first election after 9/11. David remembers this. Mitt Romney at times looked very competitive, it didn't turn out that way in the electoral map in the end, but there were moments in that race where Mitt Romney looked like a competitive candidate. Can Joe Biden put together the electoral map to defeat an incumbent President? The one advantage he has is he goes into this convention with a pretty comfortable national lead and a pretty healthy lead in most of the battleground states. Some of them are very close, they will get tighter, but at least Biden has the advantage going in. The challenge for this convention is to maximize that advantage. That's why rally the African-American base, especially your most reliable voters, African-American women, and then try with Kasich, with Susan Molinari, with Christie Whitman, with other Republicans to try to recreate the coalition from 2018 that made Nancy Pelosi Speaker. If Joe Biden can hold the suburbs and turn out voters in the urban areas, he has a pretty good chance to be the next President of the United States, but he has a healthy lead now, but it will not be easy. COOPER: Yes, we're getting closer to the start of the Democratic Convention. Michelle Obama's tougher than ever criticism of President Trump. We're going to hear from Bernie Sanders. We're going to hear him go farther in uniting Democrats behind his former rival, Joe Biden. Also ahead, a revealing interview with Joe Biden about how he survived family tragedies and a promise he made to his son, Beau, before he died. JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He said, Dad, look at me. Look me in the eye, Dad. Give me your word as a Biden, Dad, you're -- I'll be okay.

Democratic National Convention Coverage; Interview with Former Presidential Democratic Candidate Pete Buttigieg.

Berichterstattung über den Demokratischen Nationalkongress; Interview mit dem ehemaligen demokratischen Präsidentschaftskandidaten Pete Buttigieg.

民主党全国大会覆盖率；前总统民主党候选人皮特·布提吉格访谈。

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: Good Monday morning. I'm Jim Sciutto. POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWSROOM: And I'm Poppy Harlow. In just minutes the president will head to two campaign events. He'll begin in Minnesota. He'll go on to Wisconsin today. We are watching to see if he stops and takes reporter questions on his way out of the White House. Will he answer charges which Democrats that his cutting of funding to the Postal Service will just stall mail-in voting ahead of the election? Well, moments ago on Fox News, the president attacked the Postal Service once again. He called it one of the, quote, disasters of the world, but insists that he is not tampering with the election. SCIUTTO: Today, Democratic leaders are holding an urgent conference call, this after the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced she will call the House to cut its recess short to address the U.S. Postal Service crisis. Democrats are also calling for the Trump-appointed postmaster general, who is also a mega donor to the Trump campaign, Louis DeJoy to testify next week. Other story we're following today, the U.S. surpassing 170,000 coronavirus deaths. There is now a potential snag in the government's operation to come up with 300 million vaccine doses by January, and that's where we begin, CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. So, Elizabeth, headline here, scientists say they are having difficulty recruiting enough black and Latino subjects for clinical trials. Do we know why and explain why that's essential to get this right? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, Jim. We've talked often about how we need 30,000 people for each of these trials, but the footnote there, and it's an important one, is it needs to be the right people. You want a diverse selection of study subjects, and that's by law and by NIH policy and by just good science. So let's take a look at who they have recruited so far. There's a website where you can sign up to register for trials. 350,000 people have registered online, that's terrific, but only 10 percent of them have within black and Latino and more than half of the cases in the U.S. have been black and Latino. So you can see there's a real discrepancy there. And that's why when I spoke with Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the NIH, I asked how the recruiting for minorities going in the Moderna trial, that's the first one out of the date, he said, Elizabeth, I have seen the data for the first week. I am giving it a C grade. The ramifications are serious. There is a data safety monitoring board that oversees these trials. And if they are seeing that there aren't enough blacks and Latinos and other minorities, they could say, hey, guys, slow down, take more time to recruit people from these groups. Of course, that would slow down the effort to get a vaccine, but it would be worth it because we'd be getting a vaccine with the right safety and efficacy. HARLOW: I mean, Elizabeth, you have to remember the history that this country has and distrust of the system, especially given, you know, back starting in the '30s and testing of syphilis vaccines on African- Americans. I mean, there's a real history here that I think is important. COHEN: Oh, for sure. You're talking about the Tuskegee experiments, where black men were abused in this trial. They didn't even know they were in a trial. There was a cure for syphilis, there was a treatment, an antibiotic, but they -- penicillin, but they weren't given it. So it's a really terrible dark cloud and the United States apologized for this in 1997, and those trials ended in the '70s. So, yes, you're absolutely right. There is a reason. And injustices continue to this day, healthcare disparities for minorities in this country are morally reprehensible. And so you can understand why black people and Hispanic people are a little concerned saying, sure, shoot me up with an experimental vaccine. HARLOW: Elizabeth Cohen, we so appreciate the reporting and the context. Thanks a lot. With us now is Dr. Vineet Chopra, Chief of Hospital Medicine at the University of Michigan. It's really good to have you. And if we could just there, how concerning is it to you that, so far, as Elizabeth has reported, you've got about 10 percent black and Latino joining in these trials and it's just not representative in terms of a percentage of the population? DR. VINEET CHOPRA, CHIEF OF HOSPITAL MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Good morning, Poppy, and thanks for having. And it is very concerning. And I'll say as somebody who took care of patients who were often African-American and Latino, I totally recognize the importance of having those groups in these trials. I will say that problems are multifold. You mentioned the historical aspects with trust in the healthcare system. I also think it's a challenge with the healthcare delivery aspect of things. We know that there's a deficiency or a discrepancy between how many of our providers are Latin and African-American. And there does appear to be a discrepancy in terms recruiting those patients. I think part of that relates to who is doing the actual conversations with the patients and how these experiments and these vaccine trials are being framed. So it is very concerning to me as a healthcare provider so see this gap between who is being recruited and what we need to do to actually quell this disease. HARLOW: Let's talk about, Doctor, on the testing side of it. Because I think a lot of people have been scratching their heads wondering how is it that all these professional athletes are getting tested every single day and the NBA bubble has proved to be so safe, which is a great thing, by the way, and the why can't we all have this? Well, the NBA has contributed significantly to a study to try to make this more and more available broadly, and that's the Yale study with the saliva test. And the results are really, really promising. One of the authors of the studies, one of the scientists involved was on New Day this morning just talking about what they have found. Watch this. DR. ROBBY SIKKA, CO-LEADER, YALE/NBA COVID-19 SALIVA TEST STUDY: For us, we test family, we test players, we test staff and we test them six days a week. And for us being able to do that has given our organization a margin of safety that they feel more comfortable with. But, you know, when the price point is as low as it is and it's as easy as it is, it's something that is really, really functional outside of the NBA box. HARLOW: You can do it outside the NBA bubble, it's affordable and it's easy. Those are all great things. So when do we all see it? CHOPRA: Absolutely. And I want to commend the study authors for this actual breakthrough. We've seen saliva tests before but what we haven't seen is a test that's scalable, that costs less than $10 and it has high sensitivity in relation to the PCR testing or the more invasive testing. I hope it's a matter of time, Poppy. I think the entire key to solving the coronavirus problem is scalable testing that doesn't just extend in a reactive way to when people have symptoms, but a more proactive way such that when we know that there are patients or providers or even students and teachers in a congregated setting that we can go about screening for this disease as opposed to waiting for it to manifest itself. Asymptomatic transmission is rampant. We know this is going to be a problem when schools reopen. We need a strategy that really can get to the point where in two to three hours you know who has disease and who doesn't. And we are looking forward to having that in the healthcare setting hopefully soon. HARLOW: Hopefully really soon, for sure. Let me just end on this because you are the author of this letter. You wrote on July 31st along with a number of other healthcare professionals, 34 of them, warning the way that the administration changed their data collection of COVID cases, testing, et cetera, from hospitals, into a centralized database instead of going through the CDC, as they were before, was irresponsible. And now that we're a few weeks out from your letter, I'm just wondering if you could talk about the impact as you're seeing it in your hospital. CHOPRA: Yes. I think the impact is real. We are scrambling at our hospital, and I will say at hospitals across country where many of my colleagues who wrote this letter also came from where we are trying to understand the new system. How can we input the data, how do we extract the data, how do we assess our performance and our capacity in relation to other hospitals? There has been multiple reports in the media about data inaccuracies, data lags. I mean, it's kind of like fighting this war with one hand tied behind your back. You need good information to make good decisions, and hopefully decisions that will help patients. And as of now I think we're still stuck in this bind between trying to do the right thing and not having the right tools to be able to do that. HARLOW: Dr. Chopra, thank you, really good to have you. CHOPRA: My pleasure. Thank you. SCIUTTO: Important chat. Washington now, where House Speaky Nancy Pelosi, she has called lawmakers back early from recess to handle the crisis now unfolding at the U.S. Postal Service. CNN Congressional Correspondent Sunlen Serfaty joins us now. So, Sunlen, tell us what's going to happen on this emergency call and what exactly House Democrats are planning to do? What can they do? SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, it's a good question, and that's intentionally what this very important conference call for House Democrats is going to cover. In about two hours, they will be hopping on the call as a caucus. And they will be discussing essentially what the next steps in all of this will be, sorting out the details of their very rare and very abrupt return to Washington, D.C., in the middle of summer recess. Now, Speaker Pelosi laying out the stakes here in a letter to colleagues over the weekend saying, quote lives, livelihood and the life of our American democracy are under threat from the president. This is why I'm calling on the House to return to session later this week to vote on Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Maloney's Delivering for America Act, which prohibits the Postal Service from implementing changes to operations or level of service it had in place January 1, 2020. And we know, according to sources, although it hasn't within set in stone, that most likely they will be voting on that bill and, again, a very rare Saturday session up here on Capitol Hill in the House. And this is just one of many parts of a ramped-up much more aggressive move by House Democrats to really try to take control of this issue and address these problems at the post office. The House Oversight Committee, one week from today, next Monday, has called for the postmaster general as well as the chairman of the board to come up here and testify in front of cameras on Capitol Hill. And just this morning, two Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee calling for the FBI to look into whether there have been crimes committed here. So, Jim, a lot of moving parts and a much more aggressive approach by House Democrats starting with an early return to Washington from summer recess. Jim? SCIUTTO: We'll see what they do. Sunlen Serfaty on the Hill, thanks very much. Still ahead this hour, the battle may be playing out in Washington, but mail-in controversy is -- it's personal for the postal workers in the middle of this. We're going to speak to one of them about what all these delays actually mean. HARLOW: Also, the stakes are high, the Democrats kicking off a virtual convention tonight as a new CNN poll this morning shows a much tighter race. What does the party need to do to rally support?

Trump Holds Event in Wisconsin as Democrats Kick off Convention; Vaccine Trials have been Slow to Recruit Black and Latino People

Trump hält Veranstaltung in Wisconsin zum Auftakt des Kongresses der Demokraten ab; bei Impfstoffversuchen wurden nur langsam Schwarze und Latinos rekrutiert

民主党大会开幕，特朗普在威斯康星州举行活动；疫苗试验在招募黑人和拉丁美洲人方面进展缓慢

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. Several states now say they're considering legal action against the Trump administration over new operational changes taking place inside the U.S. Postal Service. North Carolina, one of those states considering such action. Joining me now is the state's Attorney General Josh Stein. Mr. Stein, thanks so much for taking time this morning. JOSH STEIN, NORTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Jim, pleasure to be with you. SCIUTTO: So first, let's begin on those lawsuit. Are you going to join forces with other Attorney Generals and sue the administration? Have you decided? STEIN: We are exploring our legal options. A number of states share the concerns. The Postal Service is the definition of an essential service. It's a -- SCIUTTO: Yes -- STEIN: Life-line to the rule in Carolina, small businesses depend on it. In an era of pandemic, it is a way for people's voice to be heard in this election by voting, and so we will protect the postal service this cycle. SCIUTTO: This morning, the president just a few minutes ago said that this is just about making the Postal Service more efficient. Do you believe him or do you suspect the president is trying to restrict mail-in voting because he sees political advantage? STEIN: The president last week admitted that he did not want to provide funding for the Postal Service because he wanted to make it harder for people to vote absentee. Those were the words he spoke out loud. And you combine that with his political appointee donor Postmaster General taking a series of actions, all of which have the effect of slowing down mail delivery. This is the cause of our grave concern. SCIUTTO: I want to show you what some North Carolina voters received in the mail this past week, which I know you're aware of. It's an absentee ballot request form, it came from the Trump campaign, I believe we have an image of it, and has, well, the president's face on there, Trump victory campaign slogan. What is this exactly? STEIN: It's a shame. It's a shame. It's hypocrisy. He's making false and unfounded assertions that there's widespread fraud, when there's no evidence. He's making a false distinction between mail-in voting and absentee voting, when they are the same thing. His own legal filings in federal court admit they are the same thing. In North Carolina, it is actually called No Excuse Absentee Voting. Anyone -- SCIUTTO: Yes -- STEIN: Who wants to vote by mail can do it. All you have to do is put in your request, and if you put in your request today, in North Carolina, we're the first state in the country, 18 days from now, the ballot will be mailed to you and you can have your vote counted or put into the box in mid-September. SCIUTTO: Yes, so much of what the president does is about disinformation. It's about raising doubts, et cetera. You have an important job there, as the attorney general. Is it working in North Carolina? Is it confusing voters? Is it reducing interest in mail-in voting? STEIN: Well, it has not reduced interest. Mail-in vote requests are up eight or nine-fold from where we were four years ago, and I think that's obviously driven by the pandemic. SCIUTTO: Yes -- STEIN: But the damage he's doing is to really the fabric of our democracy. The way our system works is, we have peaceful transfer of power between parties, and have done so successfully since our founding because people have faith that the final result reflects -- SCIUTTO: Yes -- STEIN: The will of our voters, and he's -- SCIUTTO: Yes -- STEIN: Trying to damage that belief, and it's incredibly harmful. SCIUTTO: Yes, and as you say, it's often in his words themselves. So Congress, Nancy Pelosi says she's going to bring Congress back Saturday, to take urgent action. What does Congress have to do to fix this problem, or to prevent really a further, you know, trimming of the Post Office's ability to handle that increased demand? What do you need from Congress now? STEIN: Congress plays a critical role. They provide oversight so they can make sure that it's not been mismanaged, and they provide funding, and I urge them to do both of those things. There's a role for state legislatures. They need to review their laws to make sure that if somebody postmarks their mail-in ballots by election day, and it gets their days afterwards, that vote still counts because a lot of states, the law says it has to have arrived on election day -- SCIUTTO: Yes -- STEIN: Even if you mailed it in a week earlier. And then ultimately, though, Jim, it's the voters. The voters have to have confidence and know their vote will count. They just have to participate. SCIUTTO: Yes -- STEIN: In North Carolina, it's incredibly easy, you can vote on election day safely. They're going to have all kinds of protective measures in place, 17 days of early voting including two weekends, and if you want to vote by mail for any reason, you can do that. Your ballot will be mailed to you in 19 days, if you send in your request, and you can either put it in the post and track it through the state board's website to make sure it got there or you can hand deliver it to the County Board of Elections any time before election day. So people need to know, they can vote -- SCIUTTO: Right -- STEIN: Their vote will count and it will reflect the will. SCIUTTO: Well, I'm glad you said that. We're going to be doing that as often as we can, is get the information. If you're in North Carolina, listen to what the man says, you have multiple ways to vote. Don't listen to the disinformation, listen to the facts. Josh Stein, thanks so much for coming on this morning. STEIN: Jim, appreciate it. HARLOW: Yes, really important interview there. Molly Ball is here, national correspondent for "Time", an author of "The New York Times" bestseller "Pelosi". Congrats on the book again, Molly, good to have you. MOLLY BALL, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, TIME: Thanks so much, great to be here. HARLOW: Can we begin with this sort of remarkable exchange between Mark Meadows; White House Chief of Staff and our Jake Tapper yesterday. They had about a half-hour interview, people should watch the entire thing. But then there was this moment about any evidence of widespread mail-in voter fraud of which there is none. Let's just roll the tape. MARK MEADOWS, CHIEF OF STAFF, WHITE HOUSE: They say, hey, by the way -- JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, THE LEAD: There's no evidence of widespread voter fraud, though. MEADOWS: That's not -- TAPPER: But there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud. MEADOWS: There's no -- there's no -- there's no evidence that there's not either. That's the definition of fraud, Jake. HARLOW: What? There is no evidence that there's not either. I mean, has the bar completely changed here for the White House and Republicans? You've got to like disprove something that was never there anyways? BALL: Well, you know, this is kind of the standard that has been created since literally day one of the Trump administration, right, when you remember, the president began insisting that he actually won the popular vote because of these imaginary claims of fraud for which there was no evidence. There was no way for them to substantiate it. But he just kept claiming it, and this is obviously a pattern for this president, that something doesn't actually have to be true for him to say it over and over and over again, until it just sort of becomes part of his reality, even if it's not part of the reality that we all live in. So, and interestingly, you know, there have been isolated cases where fraud in absentee balloting did affect elections. There was a North Carolina congressional race a few years ago -- HARLOW: Sure, 2018. BALL: That was -- HARLOW: Yes -- BALL: But you never hear Republicans talk about that one in part because it was a Republican-driven voter fraud scheme. HARLOW: How big over the weekend though, the change that you apparently now -- I mean, you do have now Schumer saying that, you know, that Democratic-led house, Pelosi is open to a standalone bill on funding USPS. In fact, Steve Cortez, a Trump surrogate said on "Fox" yesterday that the White House is now open to that, and it sounds like the Senate is. So how big a shift is that, that as they come back -- if McConnell calls the Senate back, the house is going to come back, that at least there is somewhat of an OK, we're open to a standalone bill here to fund USPS? BALL: Yes, you know, I think the Democrats sense that they have the politics on their side on this, and the way you see Republicans behaving backs that up. The Postal Service is a tremendously popular institution, and it's something that touches literally every American where they live. People like getting the mail. People notice when the mail doesn't come on any particular day, especially when so many of us are stuck at home, waiting for packages, waiting for letters, even waiting for junk mail, just to have something to do over the -- HARLOW: Yes -- BALL: Course of the day. So, I think for a lot of Democrats, they feel like look, the President Trump allegedly trying to cheat in the election isn't new. It's what they impeached him for, but this is something that hits home to the American people in a much more accessible way. This is something people can relate to much more urgently, and I think you see evidence of that in the protests over the weekend, and in just the tremendous amount of public concern that has been flooding, you know, every member of the house and Senate over people's worry about the Postal Service. HARLOW: You write in your book, Molly, here's just one quote, "the story of Nancy Pelosi is the story of an extraordinary woman who shattered the marble ceiling." You go on to say "Pelosi would demonstrate it was not Trump's Washington. It was hers." She's flexing those muscles right now, is she not, with calling back the house? BALL: She is, but you know, as always, and as with impeachment, she has to juggle a lot of competing imperatives. This is the week of the Democratic Convention, and so, you know, as a party, they want to show that they're one team and not create a distraction to that. I'm sure that a lot of people have been in touch over the weekend over, you know, how can the house best push this forward without taking away from the infomercial that the party as a whole and the Joe Biden campaign is trying to put on. And there's also -- you know, you have a left wing of the caucus that has always wanted more aggressive oversight, that even up to and after impeachment felt that more could have been done, more investigations, faster pace of all of these oversight efforts. So she's always had that left flank pushing to try to get her to do more, and I think this reflects that, too, saying even though this is on the eve of the election, I mean, everybody would prefer to be out campaigning and putting a happy face toward the -- forward for the American people, this is just too urgent to let stand, particularly because it does affect the election. HARLOW: Molly Ball, good to have you. Thanks so much. BALL: Thank you. SCIUTTO: Well, as convention week kicks off, a new reality for Democrats, a new CNN poll shows Biden's lead narrowing. We're going to give you all the details, next.

Trump Holds Event in Wisconsin as Dems Kick Off Convention; States Mull Legal Action Against White House Over USPS

Trump hält Veranstaltung in Wisconsin ab, während die Demokraten den Kongress eröffnen; Staaten erwägen rechtliche Schritte gegen das Weiße Haus wegen USPS

民主党全国代表大会开幕之际，特朗普在威斯康星州举行活动；各州正考虑就USPS对白宫采取法律行动

SCIUTTO: Transmission rates of the coronavirus are slowing in Arizona just as schools are set to reopen across the state, but one school district had to cancel its plans to start in-person classes just today. HARLOW: That's right. Let's go to Miguel Marquez, he joins us live in Phoenix this morning. Good morning, Miguel. What happened? MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning. So today's the 17th, today was the day originally that school was sort of moved back to, and this was supposed to be the in-person start date. That all went away as the virus, they couldn't get hold of the virus here and bring down those numbers. The numbers are down remarkably here, from about 25 percent positivity rate to about 10 percent now, so the school district in San Tan -- this is a suburb of Phoenix, way-out suburb of Phoenix -- they said they were going to start on the 17th in person. They had so many absences, just a ton of teacher absences, that on Friday they had to not only cancel in-person, they had to cancel virtual as well. The superintendent, now saying by later today he should have an idea of how long these absences are going to last and when they might be able to get back to -- to at least virtual if not in-person. But it does underscore just how difficult it's going to be when teachers are certainly concerned about their health, the access to PPE in these places. So it is going to be very, very difficult for them to really open up until they get that percent positivity and all those metrics down to a much even lower level. It's about 10 percent now, they need it below five percent for about two weeks before I think most people will feel comfortable getting back to school. Back to you guys. HARLOW: They certainly do, Miguel. Appreciate the reporting, thanks very much. Let's go to Miami now, our Rose Flores joins us. Good morning, Rosa, you have more than a dozen school districts reopening this week in Florida. At least two districts have students already under quarantine, is that right? ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right, Poppy. We just heard from the Broward County superintendent who says that at least five students and two teachers in that school district are under quarantine. We've also learned that in Martin County -- and this is in southeast Florida -- from the spokesperson there, that at least 151 students are under quarantine, 11 staff members are impacted in four different schools. Now, this spokesperson also says that at least six teachers from a high school in Martin County are still expected to go to school, to brick-and-mortar schools so that they can livestream their classes. This is so long as they are not exhibiting symptoms and they will have to wear a mask and they will have to social distance. All this as the Florida High School Athletic Association announced that girls' and boys' sports, athletics, will resume in a week on August 24th. And, Jim and Poppy, Governor Ron DeSantis has been pushing for both of these two things, both the reopening of schools and the return of girls' and boys' sports. And when asked, he has said that if one person gets sick that goes not mean that either the school should shut down or that sports programs should shut down -- Jim and Poppy. SCIUTTO: Rosa Flores in Florida. let's go to Texas now. So health officials there, they're seeing the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 the lowest since June. What are they crediting to this? Because of course the state did reinstitute some closure orders and so on, and what are they saying now? Are they going to start to relax those things again? ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as we've been reporting for the last several weeks, the coronavirus positivity rate in this state has fluctuated wildly over the last few weeks, from 12 percent up to 25 percent. But right now over the weekend, we're now reporting here in the state, health officials are saying that the positivity rate stands at about 11 percent. And this is due in part, state health officials say, because of an influx of backlog of testing that has now been kind of loosened up and reported now, tens of thousands of new cases. And they say that this was due in part to a computer coding problem over the last few weeks that didn't allow the testing that was being done to be reported properly. And now they say that that has all been adjusted and that the positivity rate in this state now stands at 11 percent, which is significant because it's one of the factors that the governor here is looking at to determine whether or not more businesses can continue to reopen -- Jim and Poppy. HARLOW: Ed, thank you for the reporting from Texas this morning. Meantime, fury is growing in Belarus over what protestors are saying was a rigged presidential election. Look at those demonstrators filling the streets. Even anchors on television, on state television, walking off the job. We'll take you there for a live report, next.

Schools Set to Reopen in Arizona, Texas and Florida

Wiedereröffnung von Schulen in Arizona, Texas und Florida

亚利桑那州、德克萨斯州和佛罗里达州的学校将重新开放

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Hello, welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States, and from around the world. You are watching "CNN Newsroom" and I am Rosemary Church. Just ahead, vacation over amid fears of delayed ballots in the November election. Nancy Pelosi calls U.S. lawmakers back to Washington to try to block postal service changes. Just hours before the start of the Democratic National Convention, the race for president is tightening between Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden. And a massive demonstration in Belarus. Thousands, angry, calling for the ouster of the country's newly re-elected president in a widely disputed vote. Good to have you with us. Well, as the back to back U.S. political convention gets underway, the Trump administration's handling of the U.S. Postal Service is raising concerns about the integrity of the upcoming election. And the House Speaker is taking action. Nancy Pelosi is calling on lawmakers to return to Washington this week to vote to block any changes in postal service operations. Requests for mail-in ballots are expected to surge during this pandemic. President Trump's appointed postmaster general has made a number of cutbacks in the postal service. The president has admitted he believes an uptick in mail-in voting will favor Democrats. And he has repeatedly claimed falsely that mail-in voting will lead to massive fraud. Meantime, a scaled down Democratic convention is just hours away. It will consist of virtual events televised from across the country as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris accept the nomination. For the next four nights, the Democrats will showcase some of the party's biggest names including the Clintons, the Obamas, former 2020 candidates, as well as rising Democratic stars. And CNN's Abby Philip has more now on the issue surrounding the U.S. Postal Service and the political uproar. ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: Amid national outcry, the U.S. Postal Service appears to be backtracking on two moves that it had made in recent months as part of a major restructuring that have also lead to significant delays in mail delivery all across the country. The Postal Service says it will no longer remove those blue mail drop boxes that you'll see in communities all across the United States. Those drop boxes were slated for removal because the Postal Service said some of them were in low usage. They will now no longer remove those Postal Service boxes between now and the election. They are also keeping in place some of these massive pieces of equipment that were used to sort millions of pieces of mail all across the country. About 700 were slated for removal, destruction, or redistribution, in the Postal Service system. And amid outcry, they are now saying that they will leave those pieces of machinery where they are between now and November. At the same time, CNN has obtained internal documents that show that many of those pieces of machinery were already slated to be removed by this point, about 95 percent of them. So it's not clear whether or not this announcement will make a substantiated difference. Meantime, White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was pressed this weekend about whether the White House would be willing to come to the table on the issue of funding the Postal Service. Take a listen. MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I'd be glad to. JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: If this Postal Service issue is one that everybody can come together on, why not have a stand-alone bill? You seem to be suggesting you don't want to do that. You want it to be a part of a bigger package. But let me ask you just a broader picture about voting by mail. MEADOWS: Well, and don't get me wrong -- TAPPER: You're -- MEADOWS: Yes. Okay. Don't get me wrong. TAPPER: Your own folks -- MEADOWS: I am all about piecemeal. If we can agree on postal, let's do it. If we can agree on stimulus checks, let's do it. PHILLIP: And that would be a reversal of the White House's position on this issue. Last week, President Trump made it very clear he did not want to fund the Postal Service to the tune of $25 billion because he was concerned that that money would be used to help the Postal Service process millions of mail-in ballots. Meantime, over on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a major development says she will bring the House of Representatives back from recess by the end of this week to deal with the issue of the Postal Service. She is also calling on her members to have a day of action on Tuesday, urging them to go to postal offices in their district to bring attention to this issue. Abby Phillip, CNN, Washington. CHURCH: And former U.S. Vice President Al Gore appeared on CNN Sunday. He was asked about President Trump and what is being done with the Postal Service. AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I suspect that he has gone too far on this, even for him because the Republican members of the House and Senate, are really hearing from outraged voters, veterans who aren't getting their medicine, people who aren't getting their paychecks, people who are expecting things in the mail and not receiving them. This is really an outrageous assault on an American institution that goes back to the very beginning of our country. CHURCH: And Al Gore accepted his party's nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention 20 years ago. As we get closer to this year's convention, CNN's Jessica Dean tells us what to watch for. JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The 2020 Democratic National Convention is set to kick off on Monday and this is going to be a convention unlike any convention we've ever seen. As Democrats work around the pandemic and work to make sure everyone is socially distanced and safe, as they also try to rev up the Democratic Party and build support around Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And we're get some details on logistically how this might work. We're told first that there are four different sets that they'll be using, Los Angeles, New York, Wilmington, Delaware -- here in Wilmington, Delaware where we are told that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will give their acceptance speeches. And then Milwaukee, which is where the full convention was originally slated to take place. In addition to that, there will be speakers all across America from different historic sites that will be giving their speeches, which we are told will be much shorter than we are used to seeing at these conventions. These will be more like two to five minutes. We are used to seeing maybe 10 or 15 minutes from some of these speakers. And then additionally to that, we are told that broadcast kits have been sent out all across the country to delegates, different members of the party who will be able to set up those broadcast kits in their own living room. There will be a truck here in Wilmington, Delaware that will be able to see those feeds from all of these people across America and be able to punch up reaction shots. They'll also use those for roll call. We are also told there will be an emcee and various emcees that will carry the programming because again, remember, this is going to be like just a television broadcast. Typically, a convention is broadcasting to both the room and TV. And this case, they are simply broadcasting out to TV. And also across all the various online platforms. We are also told that there will be a host of speakers on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, starting with a real variety within the Democratic Party on Monday that includes Bernie Sanders, Michelle Obama, and a former Republican governor, John Kasich, who actually ran for the Republican nomination back in 2016, now speaking at the Democratic National Convention. So, a lot to watch as we move into Monday. Jessica Dean, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware. CHURCH: And a new CNN poll shows Joe Biden's lead over Donald Trump has narrowed significantly since June. Overall, half of registered voters back the Biden-Harris ticket while 46 percent say they support President Trump and Mike Pence. That's right at the poll's margin of error. And with me now from Los Angeles, political analyst Michael Genovese. Good to have you with us, and a lot to cover of course. But let's start with that latest CNN poll showing the Biden-Harris ticket only 4 percentage points ahead of the Trump-Pence ticket going into the DNC, given the pandemic, high unemployment, the controversy surrounding the U.S. Postal Service, how surprised are you by how close this is right now? MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: I think this look like a close race from the very beginning. And we are still a long way away, 11 weeks. And we won't really have a clearer picture until a few weeks after the two parties have their conventions. But in all likelihood, this will be another squeaker (ph) as it was 20 years ago. And Donald Trump has two paths to victory. One is basically a replay of 2016 where he loses the popular vote this time by probably about 5 million or 4 million, but wins the Electoral College. The other way is if the Republicans can be successful in voter suppression efforts that they are trying, and if the mail-in ballot chaos continues and they don't resolve that before the election. CHURCH: And let's look at that because with President Trump objecting to mail-in voting and even stopping USPS funding, there is concern the elderly and vulnerable won't have an opportunity to vote in the middle of the pandemic. Should the rest of us consider voting in-person to ensure our ballots get counted? GENOVESE: Well, I think this is a universal problems, not just the elderly or the infirm. Who wants to go to a high school gym in the middle of a pandemic with a bunch of other people? This requires us to have some, you know, openly clear thinking and take some risks in terms of trying some new things. We need to open up the process and make voting longer. There is a lot of things we can do to make voting easier. The problem is, the president is going to try and narrow the range of the vote. Democrats want to expand it. And whoever wins that race, the race to open or close the amount of people voting is going to win the presidency. CHURCH: Of course, in just a matter of hours, the Democratic National Convention kicks off four days of virtual events. Michelle and Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Governor Andrew Cuomo and others will speak. And this will be very different, of course, to anything we've ever seen before due to this pandemic. But what are you expecting to see and hear, and what are you watching for? GENOVESE: Yes. It's not your father's convention. This is going to be a strange one. I've been to six party conventions, Democrats and Republicans. They tend to be partly 12-way circus and partly big tent revival meeting. This is going to be much more tempered, much more moderate and much more controlled. In the past, we didn't know the nominee until we got to the convention. But since the era of primaries starting in the '70s, we knew ahead of time who the candidate is going to be. So the drama is gone. It seems to be more of a coronation than a contest and a big infomercial for both parties. And so what I'm looking for is to see who can manage and process best and who can get their key points across desk. CHURCH: Yes, it's going to be a very different arena, isn't it? And President Trump, meantime, intends to make a speech near Joe Biden's hometown on the same day the former vice president accepts the Democratic nomination. What's Trump strategy and will it work do you think? GENOVESE: Well, he likes to do counter programming and he likes to do counter punching. Donald Trump always has to be the center of attention. And the cameras are going to be on Biden and the Democrats over these next few days. He's going to try to wrestle them away. It's something like Teddy Roosevelt's daughter said to her father. She said, poor dad has to be the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral, and the baby at every christening. That's Donald Trump. So his counter programming is going to be to try to shine the spotlight on himself to tear down Biden of course. It's a norm that he's going to bust (ph). Normally, the opposition party gives the other party a few days just to make their case and not interfere. But Donald Trump is a norm buster and he's going to try to reclaim center stage. He may be very well be able to do it. CHURCH: We shall watch and see. Michael Genovese, joining us live from Los Angeles, thank you so very much. GENOVESE: Thank you, Rosemary. CHURCH: Well, the school year is starting in many places despite the coronavirus pandemic. And one student party has gone viral for all the wrong reasons. What the university is saying, that's next.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi Brings House Early from Recess to Work on USPS Bill; President Trump Against Funding USPS; Democratic National Conventions to Kick Off Monday Virtually

Sprecherin Nancy Pelosi holt das Repräsentantenhaus vorzeitig aus der Pause, um an USPS-Gesetzesvorlage zu arbeiten; Präsident Trump ist gegen die Finanzierung des USPS; die Nationalkonferenzen der Demokraten werden am Montag virtuell eröffnet

众议院议长南希·佩洛西提前结束众议院休会，讨论美国邮政法案；特朗普总统反对资助美国邮政署；民主党全国代表大会将于周一以虚拟方式开幕

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello, everybody. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you so much for sharing this day with us. It is Joe Biden's big week unlike everything else it's changed and challenged by the Coronavirus. Democrats open their nominating convention tonight and you will hear a lot about the Coronavirus disruption as the Biden/Harris ticket and its allies make the case President Trump's pandemic performance is a disaster. The numbers out this morning do show a little promise a weekend dip in the Coronavirus case count but the daily death number still averaging over 1,000 now for the 21st consecutive day. 170,000 Americans in all have now died from the Coronavirus. There is new reporting today that the president is enthusiastic about another unproven and experimental drug, a botanical extract called --. The president says maybe or one of his allies says it would help treat the virus. It is not a medical expert urging the president to do this. It is getting this my pillow guy who just happens to be on the board of the company that makes that product. That fits with the case the Democrats' case that the president and science remain strangers seven months into this pandemic. Biden enters his convention week with a big asset the polling lead but beating an incumbent even a historically weak one is a very difficult task so team Biden is looking for venues to reach voters. Watch here, this is a new interview with the rap star Cardi B. JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The rest of the world's always looked to us. Why have they looked to us? Not because we're so powerful but the power of our example. Look what they're seeing now with this president? He's literally promoting hatred, promoting prejudice, promoting racism this is all about, all about the game of making people hate each other because that's how he wins by dividing us. You are going to change it. Your generation is already doing it. KING: The goal there building voter enthusiasm that's always a major convention goal but that challenge made much more difficult this year because there is no packed arena, no funny hats, no confetti, no balloon drops. Bernie Sanders gets a big role on opening night so does the Former Ohio Governor John Kasich. He is a Republican who says the country needs Democrat Joe Biden to end the Trump chaos but the headliner is the Former First Lady Michelle Obama. Remember back in 2016, her message when they go low, we go high but Democrats this morning appear very determined to set a much tougher tone for this year's event. SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Donald Trump is going to do his best to raise every racist, nasty, ugly, false argument that he can. But we are all there to support Kamala Harris. SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): Everybody gets the fact this is the most consequential election of our lifetime. PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), FORMER MAYOR OF SOUTH BEND: The president seems to have a project of undermining the confidence of the American people in our own institutions in a way that undercuts democracy itself. KING: Let's get straight to Wilmington, Delaware CNN's Jessica Dean, Wilmington of course, the hometown of Joe Biden. He will not be in Milwaukee Jessica but this is a giant moment, a big week for the presumptive nominee? JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a pivotal moment for Joe Biden in his long storied history in public service, John. I mean, you have to think back 1972. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate. He's run for president three times and finally made it this to moment in time and like everything else in this campaign season it is not normal. To your point we are in a parking lot in Wilmington, Delaware when we were supposed to be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to watch Joe Biden accept this nomination. So it is a huge moment for him personally and professionally to accept this nomination here in Wilmington, Delaware but certainly very different than what anyone had anticipated. We do know that he will be accepting in person at the arena just behind me as well as Kamala Harris. Now this convention coming as you mentioned new polling out from CNN, I want you to take a look at those numbers. We see a bit of a tightening race between Joe Biden and President Donald Trump. Biden leading 50 percent to 46 percent and then take a look at the all-important battleground number Biden at 49 percent to President Trump's 48 percent. So again showing the race narrowing between when we last had some polling from CNN, john, but the Democrats hoping that they can get a conventional convention bump. We'll see if that actually happens. You said Michelle Obama, John Kasich, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar we're all going to see them tonight as the Democrats go remote for their 2020 convention. KING: It's going to be fascinating to see it. Jessica Dean will be with us throughout as we watch this very unconventional convention and joining us now to continue the conversation, CNN Senior Political Commentator and Host of "The Axe Files," David Axelrod. David it's good to see. You write on cnn.com today Joe Biden is in the strongest position of any challenger to an incumbent president in recent history. KING: If you average our polls, Jessica just showed you the new CNN poll. If you average out the recent polls you get 51 to 42 so a nine- point lead there for Joe Biden if you look at it. But as you know, as you know you were in Obama '08 but also Obama re-elect in 2012 when a lot of people thought Mitt Romney might have a shot. It is very difficult to unseat an incumbent president. We have had three two-term presidents in a row, that's an anomaly in American history. What is challenge number one for Joe Biden with this convention? DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think getting people to know Joe Biden. You know it's an interesting thing to say because he has been in politics for 50 years. But people don't know that much about Joe Biden. They have a - they know he was Vice President under Barack Obama. They don't know that much about what he did as vice president. And there is a good story to be told there. They understand and lived through with him the loss of his son Beau and they see in him empathy and connection with people who have struggled and have suffered loss, that's important, that's something to be burnished. But he also needs to I think, John, tease out his economic message here and make clear what his vision for the future is. This election can't just be - this convention just can't be a look back it has to be a look forward and the economy is one place where Trump has maintained a small lead in terms of people's confidence. It is important for him to lay out an economic vision during these four days. KING: And opening night tonight if you look at the speakers, you see Jim Clyburn, Member of the House Democratic Leadership very key ally to Vice President Biden in the primary campaign. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, he will help prosecute the Democrats' case on the Coronavirus tonight. Senator Klobuchar, one of the campaign rivals. John Kasich, the Republican who's never Trump Republican who is going to say, hey Republicans, give up the Trump chaos. Bernie Sanders, obviously critical to unifying the party, Gretchen Whitmer the Midwest the State of Michigan also a COVID focus there. But I want to focus on someone you know very well, the Former First Lady Michelle Obama. This is the tone we heard from her at Hillary Clinton's convention four years ago. MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: We tried to guide and protect our girls through the challenges of this unusual life in the spotlight. How we urge them to ignore those who question their father's citizenship or faith? How we explain that when someone is cruel or acts like a bully you don't stoop to their level? No, our motto is when they go low we go high. KING: What do you expect to hear from the Former First Lady tonight? And how important is she they obviously chose to make her the headliner on night one but the Biden/Harris campaign clearly thinks she is very important here. AXELROD: Well look, she is extraordinarily popular figure in this country, a best-selling author, par excellence and someone who people relate to, particularly women. And so, I expect you're going to hear more of the same. I think Michelle Obama is a - she is very frank, she speaks her mind. She speaks with great passion. And I expect that, you know, though I said earlier that the goal is to boost Biden and I think you will hear that in all the speeches. Tonight reads to me like a recitation of indictment about the crisis we're in. And then they're going to turn the corner and talk about how we get out of them and that Biden is the key to that. But I think that she will come with a pretty tough critique of what we have seen in the last four years, that's my suspicion. They have given - I understand they have given her quite a bit of time in the context of a virtual convention so they're betting a lot on Michelle Obama and I can tell you from my own experience she is a very good performer in these kinds of settings. So I think she will be outspoken, I think she will be blunt about where we are? And I think she will embrace Biden and tell people why he represents a contrast to what we have. KING: One of the few people we can speak to, Karl Rove would be on the other side, which has been a part in a top leadership role in a campaign that's won two presidential elections. It's hard to do; it is incredibly hard to do. What are your takeaways from having watched 2016 and now where Biden is in 2020 what is - in your view is the single biggest lesson the Democrats better learn, don't run this way, run that way? AXELROD: Don't allow your opponent to define you. Make sure you fill in the gaps and this convention as I said earlier is very important. John, you only get a few times in a whole campaign when you gather an audience of the size of the Democrats is going to have for the next four days. It is an essential task for them to not only define who Trump is because I think that is well understood by people but really define who Biden is and where Democrats want to leave and give people a clearer sense of that coming up because next week he is going to be torn apart by Republicans. AXELROD: The road to re-election for Donald Trump is to try and destroy Joe Biden. This week is all about fortifying him and giving people a clear sense of a way out of the kind of crisis that we are in right now and making him the hero of that story. KING: David Axelrod, appreciate your time and your insights today. We'll come back to you during the week. And I'll see you bit later tonight. You should join us, don't miss the first night of the Democratic National Convention. Our Special Coverage starts right here 8:00 pm eastern live on CNN. Up next, is "Operation Warp Speed" slowing down? Why some Coronavirus vaccine trials could be delayed. First though, a convention flashback Hillary Clinton having a ball in the 2016 balloon drop, this year of course, no balloon drops, no big crowds as Joe Biden's convention. And then Donald trump's to follow in the midst of a pandemic.

Joe Biden: Trump "Promoting Hatred, Prejudice, Racism"; Michelle Obama A Headliner On Tonight's Convention; Four Republicans Speaking At Democratic National Convention

Joe Biden: Trump \"fördert Hass, Vorurteile und Rassismus\"; Michelle Obama als Hauptrednerin auf dem Parteitag heute Abend; Vier Republikaner sprechen auf dem nationalen Parteitag der Demokraten

乔·拜登：特朗普“宣扬仇恨、偏见、种族主义”；米歇尔·奥巴马是今晚大会的头条新闻；四名共和党人在民主党全国代表大会上发言

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The CDC says cases are steadily rising among children. Forty-five percent of those cases may be asymptomatic. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will be sending our kids back to school, and I have no fear in doing so. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As parents, our No. 1 task in life is to protect our babies, and I really felt like I was dropping mine off at a death trap. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The crisis over the U.S. Postal Service in the 2020 election is escalating. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is very serious. This has to have a fair election with every vote counted. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to make sure that every vote counts but that only one vote counts. ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Monday, August 17, 6 a.m. here in New York. In the same actual room at the same actual time for the first time since March. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I barely recognize you. BERMAN: Have I changed? CAMEROTA: No, you haven't. You haven't aged a day. It is so great to be back in the studio. It's just this moment of normalcy, it feels like. BERMAN: Well, except I have to wear pants. I mean, the thing is -- I'm serious about this. CAMEROTA: Are you? BERMAN: I'm wearing suit pants for the first time in five months. The good news is they still fit. The bad news is they're desperately uncomfortable, compared to the jeans that I've been wearing every day without washing since March. CAMEROTA: You haven't had the quarantine 15? BERMAN: No. No, I've been managing to keep it off. CAMEROTA: I can see that. BERMAN: I find that light beer and vodka are not that caloric. CAMEROTA: It's just great. I mean, it's great that the numbers in New York are such that we can do this. You and I are six feet apart. We've measured. And so I hope that this can last. BERMAN: Yes. Well, I think that depends to a large extent on what happens in the country and what everyone in the country does over the next several months. So this morning, the coronavirus death toll in the U.S. has surpassed 170,000. It took just 18 days to add the last 20,000 deaths. The U.S. is now averaging more than 1,000 deaths a day and has been for three weeks now. And the last thing you want to see is this. An actual decrease in testing. Fifteen states are conducting fewer tests in the previous week, and the seven-day average -- you just saw that -- of new testing peaked in mid-July and then dropped. So why on earth do less testing? One thing that may help or that the FDA has approved a saliva-based coronavirus test for emergency use. This could give Americans a fast and inexpensive option to get tested, not to mention avoiding the discomfort of the swab that goes up the nose and scrapes the brain. This could be a major development. CAMEROTA: Also developing overnight, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling for lawmakers to return to Washington this week for a vote to block the Trump administration from defunding the U.S. Postal System. The Trump-appointed postmaster general already enacting a series of changes that have led to slower mail delivery. And he's warning states that mail-in ballots will not be delivered on time for election day. President Trump admits he is blocking Postal Service funding in order to stop mail-in voting. Several states are this morning considering legal action. Meanwhile, it's day one of the Democratic National Convention, so we'll tell you what to expect in this unusual year. We also have a new CNN national poll to show you. It shows the race between President Trump and Joe Biden tightening up. So let's begin our coverage with CNN's Dianne Gallagher. She's live in Atlanta with the new developments on the pandemic. DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alisyn, more than 40,000 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed across the country on Sunday alone. And while there were some places, like here in Atlanta, where they've got a brand-new testing site, up here -- overall, testing is down across the United States, leading many to believe that we still do not know the full scale of infection in the United States. GALLAGHER (voice-over): Growing concern that the U.S. is testing less for coronavirus, even as over 1,000 Americans die daily from the disease. The average number of coronavirus tests per day dropping by more than 68,000, compared to the last two weeks of July. That's according to the COVID Tracking Project. DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES AT VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: It may be testing fatigue or a sense that why should I get tested if the results don't come back for a week because they're not useful. This virus is still spreading widely in the communities. It's not under control yet. GALLAGHER: As testing has slowed, positive rates increased over the past week in 36 states as of Friday. According to Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center. In California, nearly 8,000 new cases reported on Sunday alone. The seven-day positivity rate nearly 7 percent. In Illinois, the state's governor announcing new restrictions will take effect tomorrow in an area across the border from St. Louis. The Metro East region showing an eight-day average positivity rate above 8 percent. And Chicago's mayor warning her city is seeing a steady increase in cases, fueled by people ages 18 to 29. MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), CHICAGO: We've just got to break through the young people that they're not immune to this virus. GALLAGHER: Meanwhile, as schools and universities continue working on their reopening plans, several reporting outbreaks. DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE COORDINATOR: If we want to have everything working and football and schools, we need to get the community spread of this virus down. GALLAGHER: In Arizona, one school district is canceling in-person and online classes, due to a large number of staff absences. The J.O. Combs Unified School District in San Tan Valley, Arizona, says it does not know when instruction will resume. In Georgia, Cherokee County shutting down a third school due to a cluster of cases. More than a quarter of the students at Creekview High School in quarantine. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reporting a fourth cluster of cases, this one based in a residence hall. And at Oklahoma State University, an off-campus sorority House locked down after reporting 23 cases. This large gathering at an off-campus housing area near the University of North Georgia going viral, sparking concern, because no face masks are visible. Masks are not mandatory in Georgia. School outbreaks not concerning White House senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has young children. JARED KUSHNER, SON-IN-LAW OF DONALD TRUMP: We absolutely will be sending our kids back to school, and I have no fear in doing so. GALLAGHER: Now a bit of potentially promising news on the testing front. The FDA has granted an emergency use authorization for a saliva-based test. It's the same one that the NBA has been using in the bubble to test asymptomatic people. The NBA helped fund the research on this. And what's key here is that it is not only quick, but it is inexpensive, because it doesn't use any sort of proprietary items like the swabs or anything else making it easier to facilitate across the country. CAMEROTA: And we are going to be getting much more information about that during the program, Dianne, thank you very much. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling lawmakers back early from their August recess to vote on legislation that would block changes the Trump administration is making to the U.S. Postal Service. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling on Mitch McConnell to do the same with the Senate. CNN's Phil Mattingly is live on Capitol Hill with more. What have you learned, Phil? PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alisyn. It's a move that underscores just how sharply the concern has risen amongst Democrats about operational changes within the U.S. Postal Service that have slowed deliveries over the course of the last several weeks and months. The speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, calling the chamber back as soon as Saturday, according to House Democratic aides. That is nearly a month before they were supposed to return from their August recess in between two national conventions. And underscoring that Democrats right now believe and think that the White House, led by the president, are essentially rigging the Postal Service to try and slow down deliveries amidst the expectation of tens of millions of mail-in ballots of the next several months. The speaker in a letter to her colleagues last night saying, quote, "Lives, livelihoods and the life of the American democracy are under threat from the president. At a time of a pandemic, the Postal Service is election central. Americans should not have to choose between their health and their vote." Now the House coming back this weekend. The Senate, as you noted, Alisyn, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer calling on the Senate to do the same. No answer yet from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on whether he is willing to consider that, but something to pay attention to. This is not just a partisan issue. Republicans, as well, including Senate Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, who faces a very difficult re-election campaign in November, coming out in a tweet last night, saying the Senate should return and should address funding shortfalls. It's worth noting, guys, many of the operational changes if not all the operational changes that have been put into place are due to funding concerns, at least according to the postmaster general. But when you mix those changes with what the president has said, much of which has been false or completely unproven up to this point, Democrats believe there are serious problems here. They are bringing the chamber back to vote on legislation to block those changes, and there will be an oversight hearing as soon as next week. Still waiting to hear if the postmaster general and other USPS leadership will attend but they've been invited and Democrats making clear they are not going to change course any time soon. They view this as a serious concern, John. BERMAN: Yes, Phil, and it puts it front and center during convention weeks. Phil Mattingly on Capitol Hill, thanks so much. So it is convention day in America. The Democratic National Convention kicks off tonight in, well, wherever. Unprecedented doesn't even begin to cover this. In many ways, this will be the most unusual convention we have ever seen. CNN's Jessica Dean is live in Wilmington, Delaware, with a preview. I just note that Wilmington, Delaware, is nowhere near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it is not, John. We can confirm we are nowhere near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We are in Wilmington, because that's going to be kind of one of the anchor areas of this convention, as you mention, that's taking place all across America. I'll get to that in just a moment. First, let's talk specifically about tonight. What can you expect on this first night of this 2020 Democratic convention that is being produced remotely and across the country? Well, some familiar faces: Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders, John Kasich. Really explaining the spectrum of speakers that will be here, because tonight's theme is "We, The People." They're really trying to make this message come through that they welcome everyone to support the Biden/Harris ticket this year. Now, we got some information yesterday about what this might look like logistically. I'm told there are four set stages. One here in Wilmington, as I mentioned; one in Milwaukee, as you mentioned, where the convention was originally supposed to be anchored, with thousands of delegates yelling in a convention hall; Los Angeles; and New York. And in addition to that, there will be a number of speakers spread out all across the country. They'll be at historic sites that are going to be tethered kind of thematically to what they're talking about, I'm told. And then thirdly, there have been production kits that have been sent to delegates, members of the party, people all across America who can set those up in their home, and they'll, I'm told, be using that for the roll call. Again, something we would typically see in a convention hall. They're going to go to 57 different live shots on that one. And then also for reaction shots. So as the speakers are speaking, a truck that's located here in Wilmington will be able to punch up hundreds of feeds from across the country and get those reaction shots. And to give us an idea of what this could look like -- could look like being the key word -- we did see that Biden and Harris had an all- staff meeting last week. One of the staffers tweeting out what that looked like. And if you take a look at this photo, you can see how they brought in dozens and dozens of people remotely with Biden/Harris in there. Looking ahead for the rest of the week, John, again, speakers that we would expect at the convention. That includes President Obama -- former President Obama, former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, last cycle's nominee, and then, of course, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, who will be giving their acceptance speeches right here in Wilmington -- John. BERMAN: Jessica Dean for us in Wilmington. Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders tonight, but, of course, it's worth watching because we never see anything like this before. We have no idea how it's going to go. CAMEROTA: It's our new normal of seeing that huge screen of just little dots of faces. BERMAN: I have some experience in TV with signals coming in from different places. CAMEROTA: How did that go? BERMAN: Sometimes strange things can happen. Sometimes. So it's worth watching to see. We have new video just in to CNN, showing this huge party near one Georgia college, just days before the start of the fall semester. New information on the impact of this, next.

U.S. Death Toll Surpasses 170,000 Ahead of Flu Season; Pelosi Calls House Back to Vote on Post Office Lockdown; Virtual Democratic National Convention Kicks Off Today.

Die Zahl der Todesfälle in den USA übersteigt 170.000 vor Beginn der Grippesaison; Pelosi ruft das Repräsentantenhaus zurück, um über die Schließung von Postämtern abzustimmen; der virtuelle Nationalkongress der Demokraten beginnt heute.

流感季节来临前，美国死亡人数超过17万；佩洛西呼吁众议院重新就关闭邮局进行投票；虚拟民主党全国代表大会今天开幕。

BOLDUAN: The postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, will soon be in the hot seat. It was just announced that DeJoy will be testifying before two congressional committees. He was set to appear before the Senate Homeland Committee on Friday and then the House Oversight Committee on Monday. He's been facing an avalanche of criticism and now an avalanche of changes being made to the postal system, changes that are leading to a slowdown in service and delays that are particularly concerning with the expected surge with mail-in voting for the upcoming election. DeJoy definitely has a lot of questions we know to answer from both Democrats and Republicans now. We'll bring you updates on that as we can get it. Also, a new warning out on the American Heart Association about devastating heart problems linked to the coronavirus. Some key findings coming out that nearly a quarter of those hospitalized for COVID-19 experience serious cardiovascular complications. Studies showing 8 percent to 12 percent of all COVID patients have acute cardiac injury. And there's also case studies indicating COVID may lead to heart attacks, acute coronary syndrome, strokes, blood pressure abnormalities. And you can see there the list goes on. Joining me right now is Dr. Mitchell Elkind, president of the American Heart Association. Doctor, thank you for being here. We've heard this anecdotally from some patients who have recovered. But how serious are these cardiac issues that you're learning related to COVID? DR. MITCHELL ELKIND, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION: Well, thank you for having me. You know, this disease surprises us every day. We learn more and more about it. And in the beginning we discovered that this wasn't just a respiratory disease and it can cause heart problems in as many as 20 percent to 30 percent of people who are hospitalized. Sometimes those were very serious complications. People could have cardiac arrest in the hospital when they were severely affected. What we've discovered now is that, even as people recover from the virus, as long as a couple of months after they have gotten better, they can have evidence of heart injury. Although, most of those patients we think will recover. We don't know yet. It hasn't been long enough to know how long lasting or how severe those lasting complications may be. But we're seeing it in people with milder disease and people who may not even have been hospitalized in the first place who have milder forms of the disease to begin with. BOLDUAN: Doctor, do you think there's a chance that with some of these -- some of this injury to the heart that you're seeing in recovered patients that it could bring them lifelong damage? ELKIND: That is certainly a concern. Again, we don't know the answer to that. We've only known about COVID-19 for six months or so, right? So we need to follow these people. So, for example, the American Heart Association has a registry in which we -- we follow people who have had COVID-19 and look to see what their cardiac complications are during the hospitalization. And we hope to continue tracking people afterwards so that we can really answer that question. Unfortunately, we just don't know that yet. But that is a concern that we have and why we're so attentive to this problem. BOLDUAN: What do people need to know and look out for as obviously coronavirus is still amongst all of us and what people need to know? What I'm seeing it's not real hitting had one particular age group either. ELKIND: It's not. That's correct. It can affect people who are young, fit and healthy as well. And, in fact, in some of the studies that have been done, even people who seem to be well initially go on and develop these kinds of cardiac issues later. And so that is, of course, concerning. You know, initially, we -- we recognize that people who had a history of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes were the ones who were most at risk of complications. That's still true. But it doesn't mean that young, healthy people can't get sick from this. So I think people need to be aware of that. This is a challenging illness. And, again, we're still learning about it. And I think people need to take it seriously and do all the things that we've been talking about and public health officials have been talking about, like wearing masks, social distancing, maintaining sanitary practices to prevent the spread of the virus. Everybody is susceptible to it. And we need to be very careful about it. BOLDUAN: Doctor, thank you very much for your work and your time today. Appreciate it. ELKIND: Thanks for having me. BOLDUAN: Coming up next, families living in tents on their front lawns, thousands without power. President Trump is paying a visit to Iowa after this devastating storm.

Dr. Mitchell Elkind, American Heart Association President, Discusses Cardiac Problems Associated With COVID-19

Dr. Mitchell Elkind, Präsident der Amerikanischen Herz-Vereinigung , erörtert Herzprobleme im Zusammenhang mit COVID-19

美国心脏协会主席米切尔·艾尔金德博士讨论与新冠肺炎疫情相关的心脏问题。

CHURCH: Antigovernment demonstration in Belarus are now in their second week. Thousands of people filled the streets of Minsk for the 9th straight day, Monday, protesting what they call a rigged election. Meanwhile embattle President Alexander Lukashenko was booed and heckled by factory workers. He says there won't be any new elections, quote, until you kill me. CNN's Matthew Chance is live in Moscow. He joins us now. Good to see you, Matthew. Pretty blunt message from Lukashenko, what might it reveal about his likely next move? And of course, how far will Russia go in supporting him? MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, obviously, from my perspective here in Moscow, it looks like Alexander Lukashenko is doing everything he can to remain in office as president of Belarus. Whether he will be able to sustain that, I think that is something that you know, as I say remains to be seen. We are still watching to see what unfolds over the coming days and weeks. In terms of what Russia is prepared to do, well that is also unclear. There's been a whole lot of speculation that you'll be aware of, of the idea that Russia sort of preparing to provide assistance of some kind to Alexander Lukashenko. That assistance could take the form of military assistance. That's at least the speculation. But there is very little sign of that actually happening on the ground. And I expect the Kremlin is looking at this situation, as we all are very carefully and weighing the risks. So, they will know that, of course, if they were to send in forces to support the regime of Alexander Lukashenko that would have significant political and economic blowback, economic because undoubtedly there would be sanctions impose on Russia for undertaking the kind of action. And politically because both in Russia and in Belarus, that there are a good deal of popular resistance to Russia, you know, taking that kind of you know, overt military action. And remember, I think this is key as well, these protests in Belarus are not anti-Russian protests. They are not pro-European Union, pro NATO protest, like we saw in Ukraine back in 2014 that compelled the Russians to move in and seize Crimea for instance back in 2014. These are anti-Lukashenko protests. And to a very large extent, the Kremlin itself is isn't a big fan of Alexander Lukashenko. They could probably live with the idea of somebody else coming in, taking over, who they could work with. And so, you know, I think all the speculation about Russia possibly, you know, preparing a military intervention is just that at this stage. CHURCH: All right. We will watch it very closely to see what happens next. Matthew Chance, joining us live from Moscow. Many thanks. Well, the first time in two years, the U.S. Navy is providing CNN with rare behind the scenes footage of a reconnaissance patrol over the disputed South China Sea. China has claimed with much of the sea despite objections from a number of other countries. CNN's Ivan Watson reports the South China Sea is a grown potential flash point. IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Final preparations before takeoff. Rare footage of a U.S. Navy aircrew flying a mission over the South China Sea last week. This aircraft bristles with high powered scope to conduct surveillance. CMDR. MIKE STEFFENS, U.S. NAVY: We are serving as eyes and ears, patrolling ahead of the force. We are closely monitoring our adversaries. WATSON: The adversary here is China. And it is not long before a Chinese voice calls out over the radio and tells the U.S. plane to leave. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Depart immediately. Depart immediately. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm United States military aircraft conducting lawful military operations in international airspace. WATSON: Eyewitness's similar challenges two years ago on a different U.S. Navy flight over this increasingly tense region. At least seven different governments have competing claims to parts of the South China Sea. But Beijing claims virtually all of the sea for its self. To cement its claim, China embarked on a massive island building project, constructing runways, and radar stations on what had been reefs and at holes. Last month, the Trump administration declared Beijing's position illegal. MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: We reject China's unlawful claims in the South China Sea, once and for all. WATSON: The Defense Department says it has stepped up deploying war ships and planes on what it calls freedom of navigation operations through the sea, prompting Beijing's top diplomat who accused the U.S. military of trying to destabilize the region. WANG YI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER WATSON: But it's not just the U.S. that is challenging China's territorial claims here. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: China coast guard, China coast guard. WATSON: Late last year, Indonesian ships faced off against Chinese vessels. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are in Indonesian waters, sir. Please move away and go back to your territory, sir. WATSON: Indonesia deployed fighter jets to an Island that it controls. CMDR. FAJAR TRI ROHADI, INDONESIAN NAVY: A very possible conflict that affecting to our territory or our stability. We will protect our interests, national interest. WATSON: Meanwhile other countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, growing increasingly assertive against Beijing's maritime claims. The Philippines building up one of its own islands. While the commander of the Philippines Navy warns about alleged Chinese provocations on the high seas. VICE ADM. GIOVANNI BACORDO, PHILIPPINE NAVY: The first one who fired the shot loses public support. And I am sure they want us to take the first shot, but we will not. WATSON: With so many Navies operating in such close quarters, there is growing risk of a first shot that could trigger a wider conflict. Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong. CHURCH: And thanks so much for joining us this hour, I'm Rosemary Church, I will be back with more news in just a moment.

The Battle For Belarus; Naval Tensions In The South China Sea.

Der Kampf um Weißrussland; Seestreitigkeiten im Südchinesischen Meer.

白俄罗斯之战；南中国海的海军紧张局势。

KING: The death of the current Coronavirus disruption really depends on where you live, especially as children go back to school, all the kids start to go back to college campuses. Let's take a look at the current trend lines and start with the 50 state maps? 14 states heading up that's the orange and the red. A little bit of downturn if you will in this map. We were in single digits heading up a few days ago. 14 states now heading up including Iowa that's where the president is traveling today and you see them spread across the country that means more cases right than they were reporting last week 14 states. 15 states holding steady that's these beige or yellow states. California among them, Texas among them. California and Texas of course big drivers of the summer surge they are holding steady. 21 states heading down including Arizona that's another stop for the president on the road today and another state that had been driving the summer case count up. You see the 21 states in green that means your case count is going down. Now the death map lags the case map so even when the cases were coming down sometimes the deaths are heading up. And there's still a lot of pain and suffering in this map 19 states reporting more deaths today than did a week ago by comparison. Fourteen states holding steady 17 states in green including California and Texas heading down the death count in Florida, Pennsylvania, you see up here in New England states heading up. So the case count, this one is interesting and worth watching. We're on Tuesday now, right? Monday 35,000 cases down here, right? Over the weekend just above 40,000 cases are we finally coming down? And you see the seven day average moving up here; this is the summer surge starting to come down can we keep it down? Sometimes early in the week you get glitches and it goes up. Let's watch this for the rest of the week and hope it stays down. 35,000 cases, you see you have to go back to June to get that low again. So the president can make the case and his team can make the case starting to come down, that's good. But the president's critics will say is that you had it down here. How did you ever let it get back up? That is the continuing debate in the country. Another thing we look at is the testing positivity rate and right now 5.8 percent, so about 6 percent of the tests taken in the United States are coming back positive right now. You want to be below 5 and then you want to push it down from there and you see again it went up in the summer; it's about level now maybe trickling down a little bit. Let's hope that continues as we go down. Here's the other issue though if you go state by state. Again I said you want to be below 5 percent but we have 24 states right now at 5 percent or higher including again the president's traveling to Iowa today, the president is traveling to Arizona today. Texas and Florida driving the summer surge. Their positivity rate still too high, actually still too high in half of the United States yet the administration's testing CZAR says, things says are better and getting better still. ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HHS: I'm not at all dismissive of testing. Testing is critically important and it plays an important role in surveillance particularly going back to school. The only thing I've been trying to say is that it's part of a comprehensive plan. We have the capacity to do almost 50 million tests in August and we believe that will be up to close to 90 in September. Now how those are employed in the schools, diagnostics, hospitals that depends on the degree of spread but we have got lots of testing capacity right now. KING: With me now live from Boston is Dr. Michael Mina who is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public health. Dr. Mina, it is good to see you again. So let's translate what the Admiral says there and whether you think that's right? When you look and I'm hopeful but I'm afraid to be optimistic, right? You start to see that curve coming down. The baseline is still way too high, never sure we got to know how to begin with but it is starting to come down so you start to get hopeful. Is there enough testing out there in the places where we need it most to make sure we have two full eyes on this and we're not blind to it? DR. MICHAEL MINA, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: It really depends on what the goal in the case of testing is? As far as goal is just to be able to observe and know where cases are increasing? Where they might be going down? We're starting to get a good number of tests. And yes, from a purely observational perspective I would say we are able to track where the epidemics are happening? But when we're trying to use testing as an approach to pull people out of transmitting to their neighbors, for example, the types of tests that we have right now are not where they need to be. DR. MINA: Primarily because the long delays that still exist, multiple days usually if not a week or more before people get their result back. KING: And you heard Admiral Giroir mentioning that more testing helps especially when we get into this back to school environment, we can talk about elementary school the like. But let's talk at the moment about college campuses. University of North Carolina being exhibit "A" right now on this national debate, they came back to school then they had several clusters now they're going back all online. Listen to a little sample here of perspective on how we got here? REEVES MOSELEY, UNC-CHAPEL HILL STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT: UNC was kind of a - for like of a better phrase, guinea pig for all of this nationally and across the state of North Carolina. And you know when you saw 130 students test positive that should tell the rest of the universities across the system this isn't the best idea especially given the rise of cases across the state. KEVIN GUSKIEWICZ, CHANCELLOR, UNC-CHAPEL HILL: When things started activities begin to happen off campus and then bring some of that back into the resident's halls, that's where we began to see the positive cases and we were surprised at the velocity and the magnitude of the spread. KING: I'm not sure what the steps necessary are here to prevent this from happening but for parents watching who may have drop off the kids already or about to do so is this instructive or is it just one college campus that went awry? DR. MINA: Unfortunately this is it instructive. I think that this is the real fear of bringing a large number of people back into usually pretty cramped quarters and it's been one of the biggest fears that we have had in terms of looking towards the fall, K-12 or colleges. This is unfortunately somewhat expected and we are hoping it might go a different direction but I think it's going to prove very, very difficult. KING: I want you to listen here because as I said earlier we're - hopefully we're going to stay below 40,000 cases. We were at one point down to 19,000 cases a day hopefully we can continue to track down. But Dr. Deborah Birx another member of the Coronavirus Task Force was talking about this the other day and she says she wishes that when you had a lower baseline, I'm not going to call a low baseline, 18,000 daily cases is still pretty high. When we had that low baseline she wishes the United States had done more. DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WH CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE COORDINATOR: I wish that when we went into lockdown we looked like Italy. But when Italy locked down, I mean, people weren't allowed out of their houses. Americans don't react well to that kind of prohibition. KING: Is it that simple? Americans don't react well or is it a little bit more complicated? And I would go back to the day the White House actually released some pretty comprehensive reopening guidelines telling states to be careful, meet different tests, different gates before you go more aggressive with your reopening. And then within days the president said forget about them reopen. DR. MINA: Now look, Deborah Birx is absolutely correct. When we have lower baselines but I would say that we should get much lower than 20,000 but it is much easier to actually continue to suppress cases if we do what we need to do when cases are at lower base lines. And we should be talking the same mindset today and recognizing we need to be acting now because cases could very well skyrocket in the fall. And I do think Americans are having a lot of difficulty following these types of guidelines to really social distance and not go out and congregate. It is not part of the culture but in this case I think it is going to be increasingly needed especially as we get into the fall to keep cases low and keep everyone safe. KING: I've been saying this for a while but I'm going to hope that listening more to smart, level-headed scientists like yourself becomes more and more part of our culture. We will see if that can be the case. Dr. Mina I appreciate your insights as always. Thank you. Up next for us, shift back to politics, the president calls him a loser, a lifelong Republican makes the case for Joe Biden.

Admiral Brett Giroir: We've Got Lots Of Testing Capacity Right Now

Admiral Brett Giroir: Wir haben jetzt jede Menge Testkapazitäten

布雷特·吉若尔上将：我们现在有很多测试能力

GORANI: Welcome back. The big spenders from Paris are finally in the Champions' League final. Don Riddell can tell us more. Hi, Don. DON RIDDELL, CNN WORL SDPORT: Hi, Hala, yes, indeed. Finally, remember, this is the team that spent roughly a billion dollars and they didn't invest all that money just to be the best team in France, they want to be the best football team in Europe. And it has been a painfully disappointing quest in the last few years. But having knocked out RB Leipzig on Tuesday, they are now in touching distance. Angel Di Maria set up the opening goal here. It was headed in by Marquinhos and by half time, PSG were 2-0 ahead. It has to be said Leipzig give themselves absolutely no favor that was a dreadful clearance from the goalie. It came back to haunt him as Neymar deafly assisted Di Maria for the second goal. And after ten of the second half, it was all over, really. Again Di Maria instrumental crossing to the near post for Juan Bernat (ph) he has headed good enough, but Neymar was on hang just to make sure. So 3-0 the final score. PSG will now face either Bayern Munich or Lyon in Sunday's final. Those two teams will play in the second semi in the coming hours. Now last week, the club marked its 50th Anniversary. And now the team is giving the fans something really big to celebrate. These were the things in Paris on Tuesday night. And supporters took to the streets, shrugging off Coronavirus concerns, and as you can see, letting their emotions run free. I would imagine that many more will be out on Sunday if they can go all the way and finally lift that elusive trophy. All of the players badly want this, but arguably none more so than Neymar. When the Brazilian superstar joined in 2017, he became the most expensive player in the world. And he was expected to deliver this trophy, but it's not been easy and sometimes it seems as though the pressure has just been too much for him. First Christina MacFarlane spoke to Neymar the day that he arrived in Paris and she's been following his journey since. Good to see you again, Christina. It has been quite the story for Neymar, hasn't it? CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN WORLD SPORT: It really has been a bit of a long journey for him Don, hasn't it? It was actually this month three years ago that Neymar arrived at the proms after his Qatari owners have dropped a whopping 263 million on his transfer feed, the highest in history. And as you say, I was lucky enough to be one of the first journalists to sit down with him in the stadium. And I remember at the time with the foray going on, almost as calm, relaxed and non nonchalant he was at the time, given the sort of high expectations that came with that high price tag. The biggest expectation of course was to win the Champions' League. But what transpired in the years to come was not that. His first two seasons were sort of mired by untimely injuries and internal divisions within the squad. In all of that time, the pressure has been mounting on him to deliver. And I think in the last couple of champions' league fixtures we've seen, we've seen that play out on the pitch. He seemed somewhat frustrated at times in front of goal. He's kind of fluffed his lines actually in terms of delivering on those goals. But we've also seen something else as well, Don, and that is the hunger this time around for him to win collectively with his team. MACFARLANE: He has been disciplined, he's been focused, and especially in last night's game, we saw him galvanizing the team around him so effectively alongside Angel Di Maria and Kylian Mbappe of course. I think perhaps what might have helped him this time around Don is the fact that Paris Saint-Germain and all the French teams have had to take an enforced break because of COVID-19. It's meant that Neymar has managed to go injury free and has managed to maintain his focus without being drawn by how the match is going on at the same time, like the French Cup, for instance. But I think what we saw at that easy win against Leipzig last night was that, this is no longer a team of individuals, it is a collective unit pushing towards a goal, and they are now, of course, just one win away from lifting the champions league for the first time. It looks like it is coming together, doesn't it, Don, at the right time? RIDDELL: Yes, they haven't done it yet. Yes, they are in the final, but that still won't be good enough if they don't actually lift the trophy on Sunday. MACFARLANE: Certainly not job done just yet, although I'm sure they feel that Katarion is breathing down their necks. And I think it's not unfair to say that perhaps the most likely opponents on Sunday could be Bayern Munich. And certainly if that is the case, it will be the toughest test that they've faced yet. But I mention that triumph the players that we've seen coming forward, Di Maria and Bapi Neymar specially in last night's game, that could be the key on Sunday. These players playing together as a unit could be the key to unlocking that Champion's League trophy. But as we know, they are desperate to shed the image of the sort of high- profile underachievers. They have not gone past the last 16 for the last three years in a row. And collectively right now on the pitch Don, their combined transfer cost of all the players is $930 million. I mean, it really is - if they're not going to do it now, when are they going to do it, and of course it would be quite something to do it in Paris Saint-Germain's 50th anniversary year. RIDDELL: Yes, nor as they would have imagined though without anybody there to cheer them on and celebrate in the stadium. But hey, we're all in the same for this year. Christina MacFarlane, great stuff. Thanks very much. And Hala, that's all we have time for with the sport just now back to you. GORANI: All right. Thanks very much, Don. Well, those fans had no problems celebrating in person in Paris. Thanks very much. And thank you all for watching. I'm Hala Gorani. We'll have more news coming up after a very short break. You're watching CNN.

PSG Advance To First UEFA Champions League.

PSG zieht erstmals in das Finale der UEFA Champions League ein.

巴黎圣日耳曼队将晋级其第一场欧冠联赛。

VAUSE: Well, it becomes official later on Thursday in the United States. Joe Biden will accept the Democratic nomination for president. A senior adviser says Biden will not make President Trump a central figure in his speech but rather seize the moment as something bigger than his opponent. And three of Biden's former primary opponents will also speak on Thursday along with three of the women who were on his final list to be running mate. CNN's special live coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. on the U.S. East Coast. That's midnight in London, 8:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. Mathew Littman is a Democratic strategist and he served as Joe Biden's chief speech writer, recently advised the Harris campaign. Joins us now from studio city in California. Good to see you, Matt. MATHEW LITTMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good to see you, John. VAUSE: OK. This is the night when Democrats introduce Kamala Harris to most Americans as a roll-out, it seemed pretty smooth. There were no gaffes. And one thing seems pretty obvious here, Harris is now the future of the Democratic Party. LITTMAN: You know, there are a lot of good future leaders in the Democratic Party. I expect to see a bunch of them in the Biden administration. Perhaps Pete Buttigieg, for example, Eric Garcetti. But yes, Kamala is definitely in the lead role now as the vice presidential nominee, no question about it. VAUSE: There was this message from almost every speaker on Wednesday, which was basically get out and vote. Sitting this election out is not an option. And no one knows better than that than the 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton. Here she is. HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: For four years, people have told me I didn't realize how dangerous he was. I wish I could do it all over, or worse, I should have voted. Look, this can't be another would have, could have, should have election. VAUSE: So overall, is Harris a net motivator? Will she be the difference between now and getting black voters out to the polls and four years ago when they sat on their hands? LITTMAN: So I do think that Kamala makes a big difference because Kamala is a very enthusiastic campaigner. She is able to raise a lot of money for Joe Biden, which is really important. And so I think it's important and I think, yes, the African American vote is important. You know, Donald Trump barely won in Wisconsin. In Wisconsin in 2016, just in the Milwaukee area, there were 40,000 less African American voters than in 2012. And if the same people had voted in 2016, then Hillary Clinton would have won Wisconsin. So if I were Hillary Clinton, I'd be pretty bitter about what happened in Wisconsin too. We need people to get out and vote. And so we often talk about, John, the centrists and the independents voting. We really need people to get out and vote who didn't vote in 2012 even more than we need those independents and centrists to get out and vote. VAUSE: You know, you've worked for a long time Joe Biden as a speech writer you. You worked closely with him. You've also worked with Kamala Harris, the vice presidential campaign. So, you kind of know these two individuals, you know, as leaders and as politicians. How will this relationship work if they win in November? LITTMAN: So, I think it's great. I think the relationship between the two of them, I've been hoping for a long time that Kamala would be the V.P. nominee. And Kamala has a ton of experience. The agenda is going to be so big, John, it's so robust in terms of the number of things. You know, when Barack Obama became president, we talked about how he did health care. And because health care was such a big deal, it was impossible to do climate change at the same time. We're going have to do 10 things like that when Joe Biden gets into office. So Kamala also just like Joe Biden knows where -- knows how to work the system. Right? She served in the Senate. She served in statewide offices. And so between the two of them, they're going to have to push every lever that they can that's in the states and that's in the Congress in order to get this enormous agenda passed. I was just talking to somebody today who works in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he was listening to me, listing all the possibilities for all the things that they might have to do next year and how huge that agenda is going to be just for that committee alone. There is a lot to do. Joe Biden can do a lot. He needs Kamala to help. VAUSE: Very quickly, Biden's speech Thursday, the big finale, we expect the moment in history. Will it move the needle? Will it be, you know, an FDR (ph) new deal moment? LITTMAN: Well, I think there are a lot of people who are voting for Joe Biden because they're against Donald Trump. And there is a lot of enthusiasm against Donald Trump. And while Joe Biden is ahead in the points -- in the polls substantially, we still need more enthusiasm for Joe Biden. And that's what he has to do tomorrow night. He has to talk about why people should vote for Joe Biden. Not just why they should vote against Donald Trump. VAUSE: Matt, thank you. We'll get you to stick around next hour. We will talk about gun reform. Gabby Giffords gives her address to the DNC and why that has actually, you know, been quiet, but actually on the agenda maybe for the next administration. Thanks. Good to see you. LITTMAN: Thanks, John. VAUSE: Officials are issuing mandatory evacuations in northern California because of a series of dangerous wildfires. The LNU lightning complex fire is made up of several wildfires north of San Francisco. Napa County, Lake County and Sonoma County. The SCU lightning complex fire is burning through areas to the southeast of San Francisco. Officials say hundreds of new fires started between Sunday and Wednesday. About 10,000 lightning strikes are to blame. Still to come, Australia's quarantine hotels are under investigation because instead of controlling the spread of the coronavirus, they're now the reason why one state, Victoria, is seeing a second wave.

New Evacuations As Lightning- Strikes Fires Ravage California

Neue Evakuierungen wegen blitzartiger Brände in Kalifornien

雷击引发大火肆虐，加州开始新一轮疏散

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thanks so much for joining us. Soon, we expect to hear from President Trump. He's hosting the prime minister of Iraq at the White House this morning. The prime minister will be arriving any minute now. And they will be meeting in front of reporters for at least a brief period in the Oval Office this hour. And we're certainly standing by for that. Especially since this morning the president's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was arrested and charged with fraud. We're bringing that to you if and when it happens. Now let's turn to the latest on the coronavirus. New infections in the United States continue to decline today with the country averaging just over 47,000 new cases over the last seven days. That's down 11 percent from the week before. Looking at the map, you can see that there are 20 states that are now seeing a downward trend in cases, in new cases. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID is also lower today, down nearly 28 percent since its peak last month. Tragically, though, more than 1,300 Americans died from the virus yesterday as the daily death toll remains stubbornly high, refusing to decline, it seems. In Florida, the death toll just crossed 10,000 people. And on the critical issue of testing, the rate is up slightly today but still down in trouble spots like Florida and Georgia, leading some to question whether new cases are now being under counted once again. Overall, the trends are positive right now. But the country's top official in charge of testing warnings that it can quickly change if Americans aren't careful. ADM. BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (voice-over): We need to be absolutely diligent about adherence to public health recommendations or else we could have flares and outbreaks. This thing could turn around very quickly if we're not careful. BOLDUAN: We also have some breaking news coming in about the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. He's just out of surgery following a procedure for a polyp on his vocal cord. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is joining me now with the very latest on this. Sanjay, what more are you hearing about Dr. Fauci, how he's doing and what this procedure means for him? DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, he had a procedure that started this morning. It was under general anesthesia. And it was, as you mentioned, to address this polyp that he had developed on his -- his vocal cord. We can show an image of what have that looks like. Basically, I know this is something that's been bothering him for some time so he's been wanting to get it addressed, you know, over the past few months, in fact. But now was the time that he could actually get it done. He texted me -- there you see the image of it. That's a graphic representation, obviously. But that's what the polyp sort of looks like. It sort of adhered to the vocal cord. It can cause someone to have difficulty speaking, sometimes can be painful as well. And as I mentioned, he wanted to have it addressed for some time so now is the time. He texted me, Kate, as soon as he got out of surgery. The guy is amazing, right? Almost 80 years old. Texted me as soon as he got out of surgery and said that he was doing OK. But he's going to need time to recover, obviously, from all of this. BOLDUAN: You can imagine that recovery means not talking, which is basically what he's been having to do now for six months straight as we lean on him. Talk -- can you just remind us that -- the kind of representation of a polyp and what it looks like is really useful. But how does a polyp form? I feel like I often hear about it when it comes to singers developing polyps. GUPTA: That's right. Yes, that's right. There's -- there's all sorts of different reasons, you know. Typically, it's just from overuse of the vocal cords or from damage to the vocal cords in some way. So singers, as you mentioned, from overuse. But people who are smokers, for example, may be more likely to develop polyps just because of the trauma to the vocal cords. I can tell you, with Dr. Fauci, he's been talking about this for some time. Back in December of last year, he actually dealt with flu. He had a pretty significant flu virus at that point. This is obviously pre-COVID. And he's been talking a lot, you know, over the last several months and his voice has become increasingly gravelly. And, you know, he's talked about it. He knew he had a polyp. It was just a question of when best to sort of have this addressed. And as you mentioned correctly, the advice is going to be don't talk for a while. That's how you rest and recover from vocal cord surgery. Or, if you do talk, keep it at very limited bursts of speaking, just under a couple of minutes, for example. So we're probably not going to hear from him as much, at least spoken words for some time. So, again, or even just very shorts snippets of speech. BOLDUAN: I'll tell you, I'll take an interview over text with him, considering how important the information is that we need to get from him at any time. Thanks, Sanjay. I really appreciate it. GUPTA: You've got it, Kate. BOLDUAN: We wish the doctor a very quick and speedy recovery. We mean that in the most urgent sense as we're in the middle of the pandemic. Let's turn back to the chaos with the coronavirus that's surrounding school reopenings across the country. The situation on college campuses is becoming especially troubling. And it seems to be quickly exposing how difficult it is to contain the virus no matter the plan in place, no matter how much money any campus may be able to throw at it. Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, she's now telling colleges that they need to be conducting "surge testing" in order to keep a handle on cases that are popping up and so quickly. Here's Dr. Birx. Let's play how Dr. Birx put this during a call with state and local leaders yesterday. DR. DEBORAH BIRX, COORDINATOR, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE (voice-over): This last trip through the heartland really brings attention to how each university not only have to do entrance testing, but what we've talked to every university about it being able to do surge testing. How can you do 5,000 samples in one day or 10,000 samples in one day? BOLDUAN: Here's just a sample of the problems that is facing universities right now. University of Mississippi, at least 15 student athletes, one employee, tested positive for COVID. In Massachusetts, Boston University is reporting 12 COVID cases since testing began on campus late last month. Five students at Virginia Tech have tested positive for COVID ahead of the fall semester, which starts next week. That's on top, of course, of the situations at UNC, Chapel Hill, and Notre Dame having to move to online learning only after outbreaks on their campuses this week. And in Kansas, health officials are investigating at least five COVID clusters at universities across that state. Let's go there. Joining me right now is the health secretary for the state of Kansas, Dr. Lee Norman. Dr. Norman, thanks for coming back on. I appreciate it. First, I want to ask you what you think Dr. Birx is DR. LEE NORMAN, SECRETARY, KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT: Hey, Kate. BOLDUAN: -- is advising about campuses and colleges doing surge testing. Are colleges and universities in Kansas capable of that? NORMAN: We have some of our colleges and universities that are doing surveillance testing when students, faculty and staff come in. We have some that are not doing surveillance or testing. We do have the ability to do surge testing, and, of course, to follow anybody that's going to be symptomatic and then do the cluster tracing and testing around them. BOLDUAN: The advice from Birx, that makes sense to you, right? NORMAN: It makes a lot of sense. In fact, I met with her in person here in Kansas City this past Saturday. And we described one of the larger universities that is using a saliva-based test to test every one of the people coming in. They have had quite a number of positives and have been able to quarantine and isolate those. And they are going to sequentially do the faculty, staff and -- and students in -- in waves, if you will. It's been successful. BOLDUAN: That's really interesting. How concerned though -- just broadly locking at what you're dealing with at the moment, how concerned are you about the five active clusters that we're hearing about at colleges in Kansas? NORMAN: We are quite concerned. Some of the patterns are already emerging. And granted, the classes just started on Monday. So we know the ones that are testing positive probably brought it in from their home communities. I know we'll have more outbreaks than just the five. But it's a big reminder. In Kansas, our number of coronavirus is still going the wrong direction. Colleges and universities, community colleges, will not be safe islands as long as community numbers are going up. BOLDUAN: Kansas state is one of the schools that's facing an outbreak, a cluster. And from what I see, it's linked to a fraternity. There are other schools in other states with clusters linked to the Greek system as well. Dr. Norman, what can you do about this? What can you do about off- campus parties? If this seems to be a particular trouble spot, how do you address it? NORMAN: Well, to your point, the colleges and universities can do everything in the teaching and learning setting. But in off-campus housing, and particularly fraternities and sororities, it depends a lot on the governance structure and the civic responsibility, if you will, within those fraternities and sororities. We've had two significant outbreaks -- you mentioned one of them -- here in Kansas. And I think that's just going to be the tip of the iceberg. It will happen more and more. I do not know what college presidents and CEOs will do when it comes to the Greek communities. But I think there really needs to be a significant curtailment of their social activities because they are just not getting it, quite honestly. BOLDUAN: And I mean, that must be quite frustrating for you. You opened the campuses, you're there to learn. Yes, college life is also about social life, but this isn't a college year that anyone has experienced before. I mean, what would you say if you could have every ear of fraternities and sororities, or honestly college presidents, because they need to really start stepping up and start making some decisions? NORMAN: Yes. Well, I've kind of given up a little bit on fraternity and sorority members, quite honestly. If you ask them, what should you do to curtail the spread of coronavirus, they can cite it line and verse what is the right thing to do, but they are not doing it. Young people think they are invincible. But it's, I think, a large amount of responsibility, therefore, falls onto the governance structure of those Greek communities. And then, of course, ultimately, it goes to the top, which is, how much can you curtail their activities. What is it that you can do feasibly? And I think it will get worse. BOLDUAN: How much worse? What's your fear here? Because I remember, early on, you were very strong in saying you didn't - you were OK with schools shutting down even before there was any community spread in Kansas. I remember this back in March. And now you're dealing with real community spread -- BOLDUAN: -- and schools are reopening. That doesn't make a lot of sense. NORMAN: Right. Well, and -- BOLDUAN: I feel like we just lost Dr. Norman, as you can well see. Dr. Norman, thank you very much for your time. We'll get back with him as soon as we can another day. We also have some breaking news this morning that we're following. Another associate of President Trump arrested. This time, his former campaign manager and chief strategist -- chief White House strategist, Steve Bannon. Plus, President Obama delivering a blistering rebuke of President Trump at the Democratic convention, warning democracy itself is at stake in November. So what will Joe Biden say now after what turned out to be a very historic night at the DNC?

U.S. Official: Positive Trend Could Change if Americans "Aren't Careful"; Fauci Has Surgery for Vocal Cord Polyp; Dr. Birx Recommends Colleges Conduct "Surge Testing" for COVID-19; Colleges Struggle to Reopen as Clusters Pop Up on Campuses; Dr. Lee Norman, Secretary, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Discuses Struggling Colleges, Surge Testing, Health Officials Investigating 5 COVID Clusters at Kansas Universities

U.S. Beamter: Positiver Trend könnte sich ändern, wenn die Amerikaner nicht vorsichtig sind"; Fauci lässt sich wegen eines Stimmbandpolypen operieren; Dr. Birx empfiehlt Colleges die Durchführung von "Surge-Tests" für COVID-19; Colleges kämpfen um die Wiedereröffnung, während Cluster auf dem Campus auftauchen; Dr. Lee Norman, Sekretär des Gesundheits- und Umweltministeriums von Kansas, spricht über angeschlagene Colleges, Surge-Tests, Gesundheitsbeamte untersuchen 5 COVID-Cluster an Universitäten in Kansas

美国官员：如果美国人“不小心”，积极的趋势可能会改变；福奇做了声带息肉手术；伯克斯医生建议大学为 新冠病毒进行“激增测试”；随着新冠集群出现在校园中，大学难以重新开放；堪萨斯州卫生与环境部部长，讨论挣扎中的大学，激增测试，卫生官员调查堪萨斯大学5个新冠集群

GORANI: The knock-on effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the world's many acute humanitarian crises has been profound. From the conflict zones to the climate crisis, the pandemic has placed further pressure on already existing problems. And it's catapulting many countries into utter calamity. Lockdowns are crippling already exhausted economies with rising cases overwhelming health care systems. Meanwhile, NGOs, the nongovernmental organizations, and charities, they are struggling to keep essential activities alive. Slashed budgets, dried up funding and people around the world are having their own problems right now. Even in quote-unquote "rich" countries. A lot of people are finding themselves out of work. CNN's Arwa Damon reflected on this in light of World Humanitarian Day. In a CNN op-ed, she writes, "I'm angry at the trajectory of our evolution as a species. I'm angry at us that we created a world where being a humanitarian is a thing and not the norm." Arwa Damon joins me now. She is live in Istanbul. You just returned from Beirut; your charitable organization INARA was also helping those wounded by the blast. So talk to us about that experience and also how the pandemic around the world has changed your fundraising abilities and opportunities for INARA. ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, Hala, it was just devastating to be there. And, you know, you have been to Lebanon. You know the potential that this country has. And from a personal standpoint, you know, a lot of the times when we report in the aftermath of, you know, an explosion or war, we talk about trauma. But we talk about trauma on the faces of strangers. Going to Beirut and seeing that trauma on the faces of friends puts it into something of a different dimension because you see how it can physically alter a person's features. And then there's the sheer scale of the destruction that occurred. And all NGOs were trying to do what they could. There was an army of volunteers. INARA, my charity, had more than 60 doctors, medical students, nurses volunteering alongside it. But already all of us in the humanitarian world were struggling, trying to get funding, whether you're talking about the United Nations or smaller charities like myself. And the fear is that, as this pandemic has even more of a ripple-on effect in terms of crumbling economies and having people tighten their wallets, some countries turning more inward, those who are most vulnerable are going to end up not receiving even the most basic of humanitarian assistance. GORANI: And there's a two-week coronavirus lockdown. Obviously, there is hundreds of thousands of people now homeless in Beirut. What do they do, where do they go? Where are they sleeping? DAMON: You know, those who can afford it are in hotels, Hala. People have moved in with friends, relatives. They're cramming together, obviously not the ideal scenario during COVID. No one at this stage can really go back into their homes. And there were about 300,000 people who were left homeless, according to the Beirut mayor. And so this two-week lockdown, as you know, you can imagine, only exacerbates what is already an extraordinarily difficult and, in many ways, inexplicable situation. And then there's the issue with hospitals. Lebanon's COVID numbers are rising. Since the explosion took place in Beirut's port, numbers of COVID positive cases have gone up 180 percent. There were yesterday close to 600 cases reported. Hospitals were damaged in that blast that took place at the port. Three hospitals are out of operation entirely. Others are dealing with the wounded. On top of that, they had to have COVID cases shifted over to them from the damaged hospitals. DAMON: And so it's really as if, you know, Lebanon especially Beirut right now is just being knocked down from all different directions. And the government is quite simply not doing enough and, some would tell you, not really doing anything at all. GORANI: All right. Arwa Damon, thanks very much, Arwa with a reminder that there are many NGOs, many charitable organizations, trying to do their best in the absence of, by the way, government help in cities like Beirut. Seeing the distress on the faces of people you know certainly brings that story home. We have all been there. Thank you very much, Arwa Damon, in Istanbul. GORANI: Let's get you up to speed on some of the stories that are on our climate radar right now. Right now, there are 26 fires burning across California. Lightning is to blame for many of the active fires which have now scorched nearly 130,000 hectares and evacuations have been ordered in multiple areas. Brazil's vice president has invited actor Leonardo DiCaprio to the Amazon to see how things work there. Over the weekend, DiCaprio reignited a running rift with the country's president, slamming Jair Bolsonaro's dismissal of the fires that have burned large areas of the forest. No word from DiCaprio. Dramatic new developments off the court from the NBA, as new footage has emerged of the altercation between a team president and a police officer from last year. So you'll be able to see some bodycam footage from that incident. You might remember it. We'll explain what it means next.

Coronavirus Cripples Existing Humanitarian Crises

Coronavirus lähmt bestehende humanitäre Krisen

新型冠状病毒弱化了现有的人道主义危机。

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Even as new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations across the U.S. begin to decline, the death toll remains stuck at more than 1,300 people. To be specific, another 1,356 Americans lost their lives on Wednesday. A report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force, obtained by "The Atlanta Journal- Constitution," warns of expanding community spread in Georgia. CNN's Natasha Chen is live in Atlanta with more. What have you learned, Natasha? NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, the task force report suggests Georgia should be doing a lot more, including closing bars and gyms. Now, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is upset about this. He called this pandemic politics on the part of the media. He emphasized the positive progress being made. Now, it is true, the seven-day moving average of new cases has come down since late July, but is still averaging more than 2,000 new cases a day. CHEN (voice over): The White House Coronavirus Task Force has a dire warning to Georgia and Kentucky as new cases of coronavirus continue to climb and schools continue to tackle reopening. Georgia is seeing the highest daily numbers of coronavirus cases per capita. The state's governor is lashing out over a leaked report from the task force obtained by "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" warning Georgia needed to take stronger measures. GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): This is what's so frustrating about pandemic politics and leaked reports. All I'm asking for is Georgians to get all that information. CHEN: In Kentucky, more than half of the counties are in the danger zone, according to the task force. The governor says positivity rates are more than 5 percent. GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): It means we're in the midst of statewide spread that we've got to stop. And I believe we can stop. But you can't address a problem without admitting there is a problem. CHEN: Meanwhile, more schools and universities are making decisions about reopening. The University of Alabama is going ahead with in- person learning and sports activities. But reopening is also posing some problems for schools. At the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, more than 350 students are in isolation, due in part to an off-campus party. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If we want to be here on campus, it's going to be a different kind of experience. We can do this, but students have to step up and do their part. CHEN: Notre Dame and the University of North Carolina are both suspending their sports programs for at least a few days after clusters on their campuses. The University of Mississippi announced 16 new cases, 15 student athletes and one staff member. Even pre-college students are affected. The College Board canceled SAT tests for nearly half of the enrolled students on August 29th due to testing site closures. And Detroit's teacher union is voting to authorize a safety strike. TERRENCE MARTIN, PRESIDENT, DETROIT FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: It is not an action that we take lightly. We will do whatever we need to do to ensure the health and safety of our members. CHEN: And teachers here in Gwinnett County, the largest school system in Georgia, are also upset. That district is phasing students back into the classroom. Tonight, there is a board meeting where teachers plan to protest outside. And one of them told me there are at least 50 people signed up to speak publicly there. John. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Natasha Chen for us in Atlanta. Natasha, thank you very much. Joining us now is Dr. Ali Khan, he's the dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center's College of Public Health. And, look, Dr. Khan, there is one question that is looming over every household with children right now, which is, will my kids get to go back to school? If they are back in school, how long will they be able to stay there? If they're not in school, when will they be able to go back. And this is it. I mean 95 percent of the discussions in every house are all about this. And I think there were major developments overnight with the Detroit teachers authorizing a strike if they are convinced that safety measures are not in place. Teachers in New York City threatening to strike if they don't see changes made. It just seems like there is lingering, if not increasing apprehension about this. And I'm not sure how you address that. DR. ALI KHAN, DEAN, COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH, UNIV. OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER: I think we've already answered this question for the United States, right? So we started this discussion about two, three weeks ago as some early school districts started. And we know from our work overseas that before school started on average, they had 0.8 cases per 100,000 per day. And we know if there are over 50 cases -- or 5 cases per 100,000 per day, the schools will not do well. And we -- well, we're seeing that. we're seeing high schools and elementary schools shut down. We're seeing colleges shut down. I mean the best way to protect our kids and get them back in school is shut down community transmission. Until we, as a nation, are willing to do what we know works all over the world to shut down community transmission, our kids are not going to be safe and we're just going to do this sort of back and forth, go to school, stop school until eventually we just close them altogether. CAMEROTA: Right, but, Dr. Khan, aren't there places, like New York, where the transmission rate is -- I can't -- I don't know what it is right now, but it's below 5 percent right now. So below 1 percent they're telling me. KHAN: Yes. CAMEROTA: And so can't schools in New York, say, open? KHAN: Yes, so schools in New York had three cases per 100,000 per day. So, absolutely, that's below our threshold of five. And if they put the right protection measures in place, they absolutely should be able to open safely. But, again, it's -- you have to make sure you have the right protection in place. Are you staggering students? Are you making sure you're taking care of health and hygiene? Are you making sure everybody's wearing a mask? So there's additional steps you need to take. But if you're less than five cases per 100,000 per day in your local community, it's a good time to have a conversation about can you open schools. BERMAN: Talk about measures you can take. Look at what they're doing in Massachusetts. Massachusetts says it will require kids who are going to school at all levels to get the flu vaccine by December 31st. The reason there is the fears of a twin-demic (ph) I guess they're calling it because the flu is something that can hit you. You want to eliminate one possible dire outcome by getting vaccinated. As a matter of public health and public policy, how do you evaluate that, Dr. Khan? KHAN: So even without a Covid outbreak, we know that for many flu seasons, if they're bad, we have diversions in emergencies and no -- no places in the inn (ph) in hospitals. So that's during a bad -- regular bad flu season. So if you would layer a bad flu season on top of Covid, there's no hospital beds for people. So you need to do everything you can to decrease influenza within the community. Unlike Covid-19, for influenza, kids are how disease gets spread within the community. So if you protect all kids, you will decrease community transmission. But it's also a reminder for all adults this year, please, make sure you get vaccinated against influenza. CAMEROTA: I know, I'm one of those people who like reluctantly goes to get my flu shot every year because I'm not going to get the flu anyway, why am I taking time out of my day. Today, I mean, this year I'm running. I'm running as soon as they announce it, I'll be the first one. KHAN: Please. BERMAN: Good to hear. I am impressed and surprised. CAMEROTA: I'm going to get in front of you. Yes, I know, my laziness is being beaten by the flu. KHAN: Absolutely. Alisyn, get vaccinated because, you know, remember, there's two different public health strategies. So if you have a -- if you get a flu and a -- if you get flu and a fever, you stay home for a couple of days and you're fine. But if that fever is really Covid-19, it means bye-bye for 14 days. So it's two different scenarios. So, yes, decrease your chance of getting flu, please. CAMEROTA: You make such a good point. John can't live without me for 14 days. That's ridiculous! BERMAN: Or 14 minutes, what do you mean 14 days? CAMEROTA: That's -- that's not possible. BERMAN: Dr. Ali Khan, a mask on, thank you very much, as always, for being with us this morning. We've got a thing. Dr. Khan and I have this thing. CAMEROTA: I know you do. And he has a different mask every time. Looks good. BERMAN: We appreciate it. KHAN: Mask on, team. CAMEROTA: Thank you. KHAN: Get down community transmission. BERMAN: All right, we want to take -- CAMEROTA: Thank you. BERMAN: We want to take a moment now to correct something that we showed in a graphic yesterday. It erroneously showed that 155 coronavirus cases at Colorado College. That is incorrect. One hundred and fifty-five students are under quarantine there after one student tested positive. We apologize for that error. So, one of Vladimir Putin's biggest critics is hospitalized after what some suspect to be a poisoning. Dramatic events and breaking details in a live report from Moscow, next.

Deaths Rise from Coronavirus in the U.S.; Schools and Colleges Struggle to Reopen

Anstieg der Todesfälle durch das Coronavirus in den USA; Schulen und Colleges kämpfen um die Wiedereröffnung

美国冠状病毒引起的死亡人数上升，学校和大学为重新开放做努力。

CAMEROTA: These days when you hear Trump-Russia investigation, you might be tempted to think, isn't that over? Well, no, it's not, because the bipartisan congressional investigation into Trump's Russia connections just came out. This one was led by Republicans. And it's stunning. John Avlon has our "Reality Check." JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Even Republicans in the Senate Intelligence Committee have determined that the Trump-Russia connection was not a hoax. It was the truth. And there's a lot of new, damning information in their nearly thousand-page report showing unprecedented contact between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence officers and intelligence services, which they then lied about in public and to Congress. Now, Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort was in regular contact with and gave sensitive campaign information to Konstantin Kilimnik, who we now know is a Russian intelligence officer, and Manafort's interactions with him represented a, quote, grave counterintelligence threat. In their report, the name Kilimnik appears some 800 times, and Manafort himself, the report says he, quote, lied consistently. The report also makes clear that when candidate Trump said stuff like this -- DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: WikiLeaks. I love WikiLeaks! AVLON: He wasn't kidding around. He meant it on a scope and a scale we never imagined. The Intel Committee report chops down the narrative that Trump pal Roger Stone was going rogue for the president in his contacts with WikiLeaks, because multiple Trump campaign leaders knew what WikiLeaks would do for them and when. Check out this timeline. Once the Trump campaign found out that the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape was about to drop, the campaign told Stone, who directed Jerome Corsi to tell WikiLeaks to, quote, drop the Podesta e-mails immediately, referring to stolen e-mails from Hillary campaign chairman John Podesta. Within a half hour, it happened. Even after U.S. officials warned candidate Trump that WikiLeaks was little more than an arm of the Kremlin, he continued to boost WikiLeaks from the trail, at least 130 times in the last month of the campaign alone, according to Politifact. And the report strongly suggests that President Trump flat-out lied when he told Bob Mueller's team that he couldn't recall talking to Stone about WikiLeaks. The committee believes he did and did repeatedly. Here's the lightning round. That already questionable Trump Tower meeting from June of 2016 did, in fact, include an asset of the Russian government. That Russia repeatedly tried to infiltrate and influence Trump's incoming administration, praying on its, quote, relative inexperience, that Russia not only moved on to blame Ukraine for 2016 interference, but sold the obvious lie to Trump and leading Republicans who continue to push it to this day. We're also learning that the Senate committee referred for criminal investigation five close associates, including Trump's son, Don Jr., and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, all on the suspicion that they lied to the committee as first reported by "The Washington Post." Now, all of this is new information. But here's what's not. President Trump almost never having a bad word to say about Vladimir Putin, not even over bounties on U.S. troops. And we'll see what accusations are offered up by the upcoming Durham report, much hyped by Barr and Trump. But Senate Republicans signed off on the facts of this exhaustive report. And the results are clear, the Trump campaign's Russia connections were real. Russia's interfering in this election as well and the report condemns it. But make no mistake, Trump's real Russia hoax was the one he tried to perpetrate on the American people. And that's your "Reality Check." CAMEROTA: Our thanks to John Avlon for that very helpful look. Meanwhile, President Trump delivering a stark warning to the American people and an un -- well, that's President Obama, actually. He's the one who's delivering the unprecedented rebuke of the sitting president. Highlights from the Democratic Convention, next.

Trump- Russia Probe Not a Hoax.

Trump-Russland-Untersuchung kein Scherz

特朗普-俄罗斯调查不是骗局

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: The CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield says that states in the south have begun to turn the tide on the pandemic. That is what he says. Indeed, we are seeing a decline in new cases all across the country. However, hard to imagine how long that could last with this reality. Take a look at your screen right now. These are students hanging out, large gatherings, like this. This one is at Penn State. This was just last night. Now, at least 19 states are reporting cases on campus. Several of the outbreaks have been traced to off campus gatherings and Greek life. Could these potential super spreader events wipe away all the progress that we worked so hard to get this thing under control? Dr. Leana Wen joins me now. Those are definitely disturbing pictures, Doctor. Thank you so much for joining us. No doubt that we're going to see more schools that started in person switch to remote learning. But that is, you know -- that's begetting another problem, right. Kids have to scramble. They have to travel to find new housing or go back home. How fearful is this that you think it's going to lead to more -- are you that this is going to lead to more outbreaks? I can't talk because, you know, it's so late. But are you fearful that this is going to lead to more outbreaks? DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. And we are seeing these outbreaks now. I mean this is what happens when you have a lot of people gathering, close together, in places where community transmission is already ongoing. And I think these universities really need to have a plan. They need to have a plan for what happens when there are outbreaks. And also, what happens if they have to close down. It is irresponsible to just send the kids out and not have a plan for what happens. LEMON: But why send them the back in the first place? DR. WEN: Well, I don't know that they can keep them on campus either if they're going to go completely virtual. And I think here is the question at the end of the day. It's that we can't have our cake and eat it. And so if we are going to be reopening these schools, we also have to think about well, what are we willing to give up? Are we willing to ask students to give up their social activities? Are we able to say, if you go to these off campus activities where we see these super spreader events coming then you cannot come back to school? LEMON: Wow. Listen, I think that would be a good thing, and you would get a lot of kids and a lot of families to wake up because I don't think the kids and the parents are taking it seriously. Let's talk about high school, right -- or at least, not high school but K to 12 schools. Set to reopen in person in the coming days. It seems that outbreaks there could be the most problematic, right? Even more problematic than colleges. Because younger kids also are likely asymptomatic. They're going to go home to their families at the end of every single day. How do you see this playing out? DR. WEN: Well, kids do not live in a bubble. Just like these older students don't either. And especially with children, they're going to come home, as you said, to their families, to potentially adults who have chronic medical conditions or more vulnerable. And we have to remember the teachers and staff too. Studies show that one in four teachers and staff have chronic medical conditions or are of an age where they could become seriously ill if infected with coronavirus. And so I do believe that when you get schools that are starting, in particular, in areas with active virus surges, that we are going to see escalating spread. And the question is, what are we going to do? Are we willing to say, let's postpone school until we can suppress the level of COVID infections and make sure schools get the resources that they need? Or are we willing to send our kids and everybody around them, into essentially an uncontrolled experiment? LEMON: So help me with this. You say we can't have our cake and eat it too. What is the rush? What is the rush to send kids back and into a potentially dangerous situation? DR. WEN: I mean I know that people are eager to have our kids back to school at whatever level. But maybe we should think about this the way that we think about budgets. We have a city or a state that has a financial budget. But there is also a coronavirus budget. But you can't do everything. And so, we as a society have to decide what are those most essential activities? If it's school, for younger kids, because they really cannot do virtual instruction well, then maybe we should not have universities come back. Maybe we definitely should not have bars and restaurants and gyms and sporting venues. Maybe those can wait too. And we as a society just have to be tough, to be clear that we can't do everything we want to do. Not yet. LEMON: Yes. Listen, you can hire if you can afford a tutor. Your kid may have to go to school one year longer. That's a whole lot better than not having them around forever. So I don't understand the rush, but again, I am not a parent. But I don't think if I was a parent, I would be sending my kid back to school at this point. Thank you, Doctor. I appreciate it. DR. WEN: Thanks so much. LEMON: So, Steve Bannon. Steve Bannon -- free on bond tonight, accused of ripping off donors who wanted to build a border wall. Wow. That's some irony there, right? And now he is part of a notorious and growing club in the Trump world. We're going to discuss that. That's next.

At least 19 States Report COVID-19 Cases at Colleges

Mindestens 19 Staaten melden COVID-19-Fälle an Hochschulen

至少有19个州报告了大学里的新冠病例

BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to you, our viewers watching here in the U.S., in Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. In the U.S., Democrats have gotten their official business out of the way and now they can focus on November. Thursday, Joe Biden accepted the Democratic presidential nomination. His speech cap the unprecedented virtual Democratic National Convention. Now, he did not mention Donald Trump by name, but Biden drew a sharp contrast between himself and the current president and likened a vote for Trump to evoke more anger and darkness. JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2020 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We know this about this president, if he is given four more years, he will be what he has been for the last four years. The president takes no responsibility. Refuses to lead, blames others. Cozies up to dictators and fans the flames of hate and division. He will wake up every day, believing the job is all about him. Never about you. Is that the America that you want, for you, your family, your children? BRUNHUBER: One of the convention speakers was Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth. She is an army veteran who lost her leg serving in Iraq. Duckworth said Biden understands what military families endure, because his late son, Beau also served. She had less flattering comments about the president. SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH, (D-IL): As president, Joe Biden would never let tyrants manipulate him like a puppet. He would never pervert our military to stroke his own ego. He would never turn his back on our troops or threaten them against Americans peacefully exercising their constitutional rights. Joe Biden would stand up for what is right, and stand tall for our troops and stand strong against our enemies. Because unlike Trump, Joe Biden has common decency. BRUNHUBER: A man who helped President Trump win the election in 2016, now faces federal charges. Former chief White House strategist, Steve Bannon is accused defrauding donors and pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Prosecutors say Bannon and three others help create a fundraising campaign to build President Trump's border wall, promising that all of the money would be spent construction. And then said they used much of the money on personal expenses and lavish lifestyle. After Bannon's arrest on Thursday, President Trump tried to distance himself from his former adviser. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I feel very badly. I haven't been dealing with him for a long period of time. As most of the people in this room know. He was of involved in our campaign. He worked for Goldman Sachs, he worked for a lot of companies. But he was involved likewise on our campaign. And first small part of the administration, a very early on. I have not been dealing with him at all. BRUNHUBER: Bannon pleaded not guilty, and was released on bond. He now joins a long list of Trump associates charged or convicted of crimes since he took office. In the coming hours, U.S. Senators will hold a virtual hearing on the United States postal service, and hear from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Postal workers and election observers have been watching him closely. Wondering if and by how much, he'll serve President Trump's interest during the 2020 elections. Now, remember, Mr. Trump has said he opposes much needed funding for the U.S. postal service because he doesn't want to see it use for mail-in voting this November. He has repeatedly raised unfounded concerns that mail-in voting would, somehow be fraudulent. The postal service could see a massive increase in those ballot, submitted that way as voters take extra precautions because of the coronavirus pandemic. Samantha Hartwig is the president of branch nine of the National Association of Letter Carriers and joins me from Minneapolis. Thank you very much for speaking with us. So, on Thursday, at a briefing press, Democrats, from a former postal service inspector general who resigned in protest in April, said the Trump administration appear to want to turn the agency into a political tool, he said. You represent letter carriers in the Minneapolis area. What is it like for your members to be in the middle of this maelstrom? To have this service politicized, and have your clients, you know, effectively taking sides? SAMANTHA HARTWIG, PRESIDENT, BRANCH NINE, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS: Yes. It is tough for the carriers. They don't like being in the middle of it. They would rather just be left alone to do their job. Get the mail to our customers, every piece, every day, as we have been doing since the 1700s, when the postal service was founded. And we just want to get our jobs done. We don't want to be in the middle of some political agenda. Our job is to get it done. And get it done, every piece, every day, six days a week. They just want to get it done. BRUNHUBER: So you just want to get the job done. Have you seen any evidence on the ground about efforts to dismantle the service, or slow things down for the election? HARTWIG: Yes. The post office has removed some of our sorting machines which has slowed the mail down. It's been taking longer to get a letter across town than it used to. Our packages have been getting delayed for an extra day. So, if you order your medication, and you need it today, you might not get it until tomorrow and that is a problem. And we are not OK with that at all. BRUNHUBER: I heard, in your area, a herculean efforts carried out during the primary, despite the loss of overtime hours and some are sorting equipment, as you say. People running around trying to get ballots to the right place. So, I'm just curious, are ballots treated differently by workers even though they are bulk mail like junk mail, essentially? The same class? HARTWIG: Well, ballots are not the so called junk mail. Ballots are treated as if they are priority mail. They're handled special, they are getting special priority treatment. We had upper level postal management taking ballots and giving them to their destination, to make sure everything went through and got to its destination on time and smoothly. And so the postal service is actually treating all ballots as a priority. And that is great, because the more people that can vote, the better it is for the American people to have their voices heard. So, it's a good thing. And we can handle it. BRUNHUBER: All right. So, I want to delve back into the politics. You know, the current postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, back down on many of the proposed changes to the postal service. But we are hearing there are massive long term reforms in the works after the election. We've only heard sort of reports of what they are, but presumably they are meant to cut costs, and could have a huge effect DeJoy's testimony before a Senate hearing today. So, what are you hoping to hear from him and what are you worried most about down the road? HARTWIG: Well, what I would hope to hear from him is that he was hearing what the American people have been saying. Don't slow down the mail. We need our mail, stop removing those sorting machines that we need to effectively get our job done and understand that slowing down the mail affects everybody. Every demographic, rural America. Anyone living in a metropolitan area. I'm really hoping that he is listening to the American public. My concern is that after the election, because we temporarily have a hole in these operational changes, and removing equipment, my concern is that after the election, they will go forward with continuing to remove all of this equipment. And it will be detrimental, going forward, after the election, also. It is a short sighted solution to the problem. When prefunding in 2006 was mandated by Congress that we refund future retiree health benefits for 75 years that's is actually the roots of the postal services' financial issues. COVID-19, it doesn't quite help. BRUNHUBER: All right. Listen, we'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us, Samantha Hartwig with the National Association of Letter Carriers. I appreciate it. HARTWIG: Thank you so much. BRUNHUBER: All right. We will be right back, stay with us.

The USPS Crisis And The 2020 Election; Steve Bannon Charged With Fraud; U.S. Senators To Hear From Postmaster General DeJoy

Die USPS-Krise und die Wahlen 2020; Steve Bannon wegen Betrugs angeklagt; US-Senatoren hören von Generalpostmeister DeJoy

美国邮政危机与2020年大选；史蒂夫·班农被控欺诈；美国参议员将听取邮政总局局长德乔伊的意见。

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Today the Postmaster General facing some contentious questions mostly from Democratic senators that made a back and forth over whether changes he is implementing at the Postal Service will slow election mail. Democrats worry these changes are political, and they believe some of them do anyway that they are meant to impact the election. Today, the Postmaster General says, absolutely not. LOUIS DEJOY, POSTMASTER GENERAL, U.S. POSTAL SERVICE: I have never spoken to the President about the Postal Service other than to congratulate me when I accepted the position. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prior to implementing the changes, did you discuss these changes or their impact on the election with any Trump campaign officials? DEJOY: I'm one new person in the organization with this -- with the whole structure around me, an operating structure and executive team around me that are involved in these decisions, OK. And we -- the -- having any -- moving forward with trying to have any negative impact on the election is an outrageous claim. KING: Joining me now is CNN's Phil Mattingly up on Capitol Hill. The Postmaster General, Phil, essentially saying there is nothing to see here. Are the Democrats convinced? PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No. No, and I don't think they will be for a while. And I think he's going to have to face even more heat when he comes and testifies in front of the House on Monday. House Democrats are going to move a bill related to some of those operational changes tomorrow, rare Saturday session in the middle of August. But look, I think what you -- the sound you play gave you a sense of what Louis DeJoy came to this hearing to do, a hearing where it was his first public appearance in front of members of Congress. He didn't have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate because he was given the post by the postal board. And so his job was essentially to try and push back on allegations that have really spread like wildfire over the course of the last several weeks, concerns that the operational delays were intentional, concerns that there was some connection in some way, shape, or form to the tens of millions of mail-in ballots that will be coming in large part because of the pandemic. This was what he had to say about the election. DEJOY: This sacred duty is my number one priority between now and Election Day. There has been no changes in any policies with regard to election mail for the 2020 election. If everyone complies with the with the mail process that we've been identifying, there will be absolutely no issue. MATTINGLY: And John, one thing to keep in mind here, while he's trying to decouple this from the election, one thing that he acknowledged and all lawmakers from both parties were really paying attention to, is the fact that there have been delivery delays. And those delays have not just been just because of the coronavirus, they've been largely in part from when he started in June, just a couple of months ago. And that is where you're going to see a lot of pressure going forward. You've heard a lot about vote by mail. You've heard a lot about the election. But the delays in terms of the on the ground issues, those create not just for Democratic lawmakers or union members, but for members across the board and their constituents, that is going to increase pressure on the Postal Service in the days and weeks ahead, John. KING: More questions to come. We will see how this one plays out. Phil Mattingly live on Capitol Hill. Appreciate it. And when we come back, we'll take this question, the debate about vote in mail, the debate about the Post Office from Washington out to America. Colorado's governor joins us live, next.

Postmaster General Grilled On Capitol Hill Over Service Changes

Postminister auf dem Capitol Hill wegen Änderungen im Service ins Kreuzverhör genommen

美国邮政总局局长在国会山就邮政服务改革接受质询

BURNETT: New tonight, Texas becoming just the fourth state to surpass 11,000 deaths from coronavirus. It comes as nearly half of the states across this country are seeing new deaths trending higher. Nick Watt is OUTFRONT. NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Today, more COVID- 19 deaths logged in Arkansas than ever before. GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R-AR): We're not back to normal. We have more work to be done. WATT (voice-over): On average more than a thousand Americans have died every day for about a month now. REDFIELD: Hopefully this week and next week you're going to start seeing the death rate really start to drop. WATT (voice-over): His optimism is based upon the nationwide new infection rate dropping at the moment. But ... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we're gonna see in the fall another spike and I just don't see it not happening given the burden of disease that's circulating in the community today. WATT (voice-over): There's a width (ph) already. REDFIELD: Middle America right now is getting stuck. We don't need to have a third wave in the heartland. WATT (voice-over): Case counts climbing in Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, now looking a little sunnier in the south, the rate of new cases now falling in Texas Even so today in Dallas. MICHAEL HINOJOSA, SUPERINTENDENT, DALLS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT: All the medical professionals were unanimous in their recommendation that there should be no in-person learning on September the 8th. WATT (voice-over): Of the 101 largest districts in the nation, 64 now reopening online-only despite pressure from the president and some of his acolytes who are not medical professionals. July 8th, the President tweeted this, "In Germany, schools are open with no problems." That day, 356 new cases in Germany, yesterday, more than four times that. New York crushed the curve, still nervous about schools. GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): They're still working out what the plan would be. I would have a lot of questions, parents do have a lot of questions. This is a risky proposition no matter how you do it. WATT (voice-over): Kicking up to college level cases now confirmed on campuses in at least 19 states, some reverting to remote learning, gatherings like this, proving a problem. Penn State's president asking the question, "Do you want to be the person responsible for sending everyone home?" WATT: And the CDC has updated its guidelines for reopening K through 12 and it's very clear that they want to have a situation where if you've got one case in a school, you do not need to shut the whole place down. They are, as the administration is, very eager for schools to open brick and mortar, but I think you mentioned this, Erin, earlier, a six-year-old girl die in Florida from COVID-19. Yes, kids generally do not get it as seriously. But they do get it, Erin. BURNETT: All right. Nick, thank you very much. I want to go straight to Dr. William Schaffner now. He's a former CDC official and now Professor of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. You heard that Nick just talked about the CDC in schools. Well, Dr. Schaffner, the Florida education Commissioner just spoke with Jake Tapper here on CNN about Florida's decision to mandate in- person classes in the fall, currently that's being fought in court. But he said sending kids back to school is safe, because they have less risk of catching coronavirus than they do seasonal flu. Here's what he said. RICHARD CORCORAN, FLORIDA EDUCATION COMMISSIONER: The risks that are known are certain, are profound on not sending kids back, child abuse cases, suicide deaths, drug overdoses, achievement gap exacerbation, food insecurities. Those are on this site. It's far greater than the low, low risk of - even less than seasonal flu. BURNETT: What's your reaction to that conclusion? DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, INFECTIOUS DISEASE DIVISION, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: He doesn't know that. I don't know what data he's using. As Nick said, opening schools is a risky business. We're doing it all over the country in various ways, trying to do it carefully. But we all know, in effect, we're doing an experiment. We'll have to see what happens and we must have a plan to respond if there are cases. Dr. Gupta said that in your previous segment. He's absolutely right about that. We have to be flexible and be able to respond if cases occur in a school. BURNETT: So one top WHO official earlier today, Doctor, compared the patterns of this pandemic with those that we saw in the 1918 influenza, in which more than 50 million people, the WHO says died. Here's what they said. DR. MIKE RYAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WHO HEALTH EMERGENCIES PROGRAM: It took three waves for the disease to infect most of the susceptible individuals and then settle down probably into a seasonal pattern. But this virus is not displaying similar wave-like pattern. BURNETT: So what's the significance of this, Dr. Schaffner, that he's basically saying it took three waves then and then the most susceptible people all had it, then it became seasonal and much less of a threat, right? But he's saying that this is not acting that way. What does that mean? SCHAFFNER: Well, it means that first of all, this virus didn't go away during the summer, only to come back in the winter. It's kept spreading. So we don't think this is going to be a very seasonal virus. Remember, this is a new virus. It's writing the textbook as it goes along. The other thing we have to remember back in 1918, we didn't travel. We didn't communicate the way we did. We had a much smaller population. We were much more rural and separated. It took much longer for that virus to find us all because We were fewer and more separate. Today we're together, we can get in the car and go almost everywhere. So this virus has many more opportunities to spread widely as it's doing now. BURNETT: Well, you make a really good point, because I think we all now remember as you were saying that maybe other people's memories were jogged as well, right? All of the experts were saying that in the summer, they did think it would get a little bit better, right, because of all of the statistics that CDC has put out, right? We know that the half life of the virus plunges in humidity and heat and in sunlight and they said, go outdoor and they really expected there to be a benefit. And yet we've been at this a thousand deaths a day now non-stop. So what does that say to you that the experts and with all the information that they had were wrong about that? SCHAFFNER: Well, we were very careful about it. We said we didn't know whether this virus would do that. It's human cousins, the ones that caused us colds. They are somewhat seasonal, so we thought that cousins would behave similarly. This virus said, nope, not going to do that. We're going to keep spreading. This virus is not going to just disappear and we need a vaccine. But the vaccine is not the complete answer. This virus has to be also combatted with masks, social distancing and avoiding large groups. That's going to be part of the program for months ongoing. Otherwise, we'll continue to suffer these deaths. BURNETT: Dr. Schaffner, thank you. SCHAFFNER: Thank you. BURNETT: And next, Trump claiming the Postal Service is not prepared to handle 51 million ballots, which is anticipated to have to. The judge from Florida's 2000 recount is my guest to talk about why he is deeply concerned about this upcoming election. Plus, President Trump going after the Democrats convention. Does his attack add up? TRUMP: Democrats held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history.

W.H.O.: Virus Not Showing "Wave-Like Pattern" Like 1918 Pandemic

W.H.O: Virus Zeigt Kein \„Wellenähnliches Muster\“ Wie die Pandemie von 1918

世卫组织称：病毒没有表现出1918年流感大流行那样的“波浪式模式”

ASHER: All right. We're returning to our top story tonight. Joe Biden has accepted the Democratic nomination for president. His former speechwriter Dylan Loewe joins us live now from Los Angeles. So, Dylan, I know that we had some technical difficult. I'm not sure if you heard before the break, we actually played two sound bites, one with Joe Biden essentially calling for unity and saying that he would be a president for all Americans. ASHER: And the other with Donald Trump essentially saying that if Joe Biden was to be elected, there would be chaos and mayhem on the streets in this country. Just explain to us the two sort of divergent strategies in terms of how both these men are appealing to voters. LOEWE: Sure. Well, I think, you know, with Joe Biden, first of all, he's the most optimistic person that I have ever met. And so, it's not surprising to me at all, but he's focusing on a positive vision and trying to give us a sense of hope. Donald Trump is, you know, more or less than authoritarian who's a white nationalist and a racist. And I think that he takes a great deal of pride in his cruelty and his callousness. And so that is reflected in the message that he puts forward and in the way that he sees the race. And so that's why I think you're going to hear that from him. But I think, you know, Joe Biden was very powerful last night and giving us a sense of an alternative reality that we can have here in this country if he and Kamala Harris are elected, and I was struck that the speech felt less like a political convention speech and more like a presidential address. And I didn't -- I honestly didn't realize how much I needed to hear that until last night, you know, here in the United States, we are only four percent of the population, but we're one in four of the COVID deaths. And we haven't had any public grieving at all here. I mean, our president won't even speak of the dead. And so just having somebody standing up there who can console us and inspire us and lift us up, it was a reminder of what is possible out of the White House and out of this country. And I think it gave people a lot of hope about what we -- what we can do together if we're able to prevail this November. ASHER: Right. So, he talks a lot about -- I mean, his message, you know, I think objectively was inspiring, and certainly it showcased his empathy. But do you think he did a good job of actually outlining why he should be president, especially in terms of policies as opposed to why Donald Trump should not be president? LOEWE: Yes, I think he put forward a really important affirmative case for his vision. And certainly, you know, I think one of the things he hit on is that we cannot get our lives back here in the United States, until we have gotten this virus under control. And so certainly that will be the first and highest priority, you know, of anything that he's doing when he comes into office, he's getting this virus under control, helping us to manage the economic calamity, the public health crisis, the racial justice crisis. You know, and hopefully helping us to move past this Democratic legitimacy crisis that we're facing in here in United States as the president and his allies work to sabotage the election and try to prevent a free and fair election from happening in November, knowing that that's the only way that they're going to be able to prevail. ASHER: And there are a lot of Americans who are not really that engaged in politics. I mean, even in normal time, they're not that engaged, especially now because there's so much going on in terms of job losses and what's happening in, you know, people's lives financially. Do you think that Joe Biden, and I guess the Democrats in general, do they do a good job of really trying to reengage those voters and bring them into the fold? LOEWE: You know, I do. And I think one of the things about American politics is that though the presidential election seems to be endless, it's really around this time of year, that voters who are not normally high information consuming political voters start to engage. And so, I do think this is the opportunity for that. But the other thing is that I think it has been a long time since it has been so easy for Americans to understand exactly what's at stake. You know, parents have no sense yet of whether or not their kids are going to be able to go to school, but have a pretty good idea that it's not going to work out. And the jobless claims in this country are going up by the millions every single week. And so, there's just not a whole lot of explaining you have to do about what has gone wrong in this country and how important it is to make that change. Joe Biden is not only somebody who can console us, but he's somebody who is an expert in the administration of government. And we've never needed anything more important than that in these kinds of contexts. And so, I think he speaks to those issues. And I think he's going to speak to them in a way that will engage those voters and hopefully bring them to the polls in November because we need that very badly. ASHER: Right. Dylan Loewe live for us there. Thank you so much. LOEWE: Thank you. ASHER: The U.S. is calling for punitive sanctions against Iran despite objections from allies and adversaries at the United Nations. President Donald Trump pulled the us out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. Even so, the Secretary of State went to the U.N. Thursday to argue that Iran has broken the agreement. Secretary Mike Pompeo says the U.N. must restore so called snapback sanctions in response. Other countries still party to the nuclear deal, opposed that idea. Joining me live now from Washington is Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative Iran. Brian, thank you so much for being with us. So, there are some people especially -- BRIAN HOOK, UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE FOR IRAN: Glad to be here with you. ASHER: Thank you. There are some people, especially leaders in Europe who say that the U.S. doesn't really have a sway here, given that they pulled out of the JCPOA in 2018. What do you say to that? HOOK: Well, the right to restore U.N. sanctions, something that has always existed independently of one's participation in the Iran Nuclear Deal. This is something which President Obama and Vice President Biden made clear repeatedly that if Iran is in violation of its voluntary commitments under the Iran Nuclear Deal, the United States has the ability to go to the Security Council and restore the U.N. sanctions that were lifted in 2015. And so, they said at the time, we don't need anybody's permission to do it. And so, we are following the letter of U.N. Security Council resolutions to restore U.N. sanctions. ASHER: So, in terms of what is legal and what is not just putting that aside, just in terms of the wider risk that is happening now between the U.S. and Europe, would it have been easier do you think, would it have been easier to stay within the JCPOA and make reforms from the inside as opposed to leaving the JCPOA in 2018 and then trying to make reforms when the U.S. is out of it? HOOK: Well, we tried to fix it. And I had spent six months in shuttle diplomacy between Washington, Paris, Berlin and London at President Trump's direction to see if we could fix the deficiencies of the Iran Nuclear Deal. And we were able to get agreement on a much tougher U.N. inspections regime. We were also able to get agreement on intercontinental ballistic missiles but we were not able to get agreement on the sunset clauses of the Iran deal. What people often need to remember is that the Iran Nuclear Deal is going to expire. It's a temporary arrange. And we thought that it needed to be extended in perpetuity. It shouldn't -- it shouldn't expire. And we were unable to get agreement as a consequence, the president left the deal. ASHER: So, what's the solution just in terms of the wider rift that is happening right now between the U.S. and Europe over this? HOOK: Well, when we look at Iran's terrorism in Europe since 1985, we're baffled that the European governments can't find a way to extend the arms embargo on Iran. It's going to expire on October 18th. There has been a 13- year arms embargo in place on the Iranian regime, and it's going to expire in only a few weeks. And since 1985, Iran has conducted terrorist operations in Europe repeatedly. And I'm talking about hijacking commercial jetliners bombs that murder many innocent Europeans, assassinations of political dissidents, bomb plots of Jewish synagogues, bomb plots of political rallies. I don't know who thinks it's a good idea to allow the Iranian regime to have more weapons. And so, we were disappointed that the council didn't live up to its charter, but we're going to make sure the arms embargo gets extended. ASHER: So, Boris Johnson though specifically has talked about this idea several months ago that the maybe one solution is that the Trump administration actually negotiates another deal separate from the JCPOA. A different Iran Nuclear Deal? Is that something that, you know, is perhaps on the table, just in terms of a future solution to this? HOOK: Well, we would love that. And I remember the remarks that Prime Minister Johnson made, I think it was a number of months ago. He said that the Iran deal has many, many deficiencies, and perhaps we should be looking at a Trump deal, and the President has called upon the current members of the Iran deal to join our foreign policy, which has been very successful in weakening the Iranian regime, and in weakening its proxy. And so, now that we are in the process of restoring all the U.N. sanctions, we hope that people will join it. We need a better deal. We need a deal that addresses all of Iran's threats to peace and security and not just the nuclear threat. We're talking regional aggression, ballistic missile testing, hostage taking all of the things that the Iranian regime is notorious for. ASHER: Brian Hook life for us there. Thank you so much for joining us. HOOK: Thank you for having me on. ASHER: Of course. After a summer without blockbusters, movie theaters start reopening across the U.S. We'll try to gauge their outlook just ahead.

Senators Grill U.S. Postmaster General Over Mail-In Voting

Senatoren nehmen U.S. Postmaster General wegen Briefwahl in die Mangel

参议员就邮寄投票问题拷问美国邮政局长。

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump has referred to as nasty, a sort of madwoman, a disaster, the meanest, most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the U.S. Senate. How do -- how do you define what you hear from the President? SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You know, listen, I really, I, I think that there is so much about what comes out of Donald Trump's mouth that is designed to distract the American people from what he is doing every day that is about neglect, negligence and harm to the American people. JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: And incompetence. HARRIS: Absolutely. Absolutely. BLACKWELL: That's Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in their first joint interview since accepting their party's nomination for president and vice president reacting to the President's name calling. The campaign says, along with the DNC, it raised $70 million over the party's four- day convention. And the President calls it the darkest and angriest in history. His acceptance speech will come on Thursday, we're talking about the President, and it's being teased as more optimistic. Let's talk now with Don Baer, he served as Chief Speechwriter and as White House Communications Director under Former President Bill Clinton. Don, thanks for spending some time with us this morning. BLACKWELL: So, first, let's start with your reaction to the response to this name calling because it will continue and we saw in 2016, a spate of candidates struggle with how to respond with the president's strategy, what do you make of how Biden and Harris are responding? BAER: Well, so far, so good, but they're going to have to step it up. It's not enough just to sort of laugh at it and sort of be, if you will, reasonable about it. We've seen before in campaigns, especially when you have a challenger, a Democratic challenger, who has gotten out ahead as the Biden-Harris Team has done. That the Republicans are going to come back hard, and they're going to try to redefine them in negative ways. And clearly, they've decided that they've got a chance to do that with Senator Harris. And they're going to have to be more aggressive, I think around it. You know, it's an interesting analog, not just 2016, you can go all the way back to 1988, which is when I was a reporter, and I covered the campaign against George Herbert Walker Bush, Bush I, and Michael Dukakis. And Michael Dukakis came out of that convention, his Democratic Convention, 17 points ahead of Bush. And Bush wound up beating him by eight points. In a landslide. And it was all about negative campaigning, and running the kind of campaign that was redefining what the Democrats were about. And so, this is going to have to be something they're going to have to grapple with. BLACKWELL: And speaking about what redefining what the Democrats are about. The President tried to do that in his summation of what he saw through the last Monday through Friday of this week. Here's what the President said about the convention. TRUMP: Over the last week, the Democrats held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history. They spent four straight days attacking America as racist, and a horrible country that must be redeemed. BLACKWELL: How does this get him what he needs which is to expand beyond the base that's going to vote for him as he says, you know, if you shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, how does this this characterization of the party and the convention grow that support for the president? BAER: Well, you know, he's like a dog that keeps going back to what worked for him before. And this is all that has worked for him for four years now, longer than that really going all the way back all the way back to 2015, when he announced his candidacy, which is to go dark, go negative, to denigrate his opponents as much as possible, pull them down. He doesn't elevate himself, and he doesn't elevate the country. And so, what he's doing now is firming up his base, but he's also doing all that he knows how to do. The question will be whether or not in his speech, he begins to offer some kind of a second term agenda. Where will he take the country? First off, how is he going to move the country out of the COVID crisis? How is he going to restore the economy? And how is he going to get the American people in this country back on track again? That's the job of a second term agenda and what an incumbent president usually has to do in order to win re-election. So, we'll see whether he does it, there's no indication that he's going to do it, that he's done it before, but that would be the trick for him. BLACKWELL: You know, there was a lot of focus during the DNC about character that Joe Biden is a decent man, a good man who understands you. And the latest CNN polls show that he far out performs the President on it. Let's put the numbers up. The poll about cares about people like me, shares my values, honest and trustworthy, will unite the country and not divide it. But when it comes to who will better handle the economy, the President has expanded his lead from June to August in the CNN poll, from five points to eight points over button. Should this had been an opportunity for them to double down or play to the strength, I should say, versus strengthen a weakness did they miss an opportunity by not talking more about the economy and his plan for it? BAER: Well, first we have to we have to say and give them credit for doing what they did. BLACKWELL: Yes. BAER: And you know, the most important line in Biden's speech, which was the most important moment in the convention was when he said character is on the ballot. And they needed to introduce Joe Biden, believe it or not, even though he's been in American politics for more than 50 years, they needed to make sure that people understood what kind of man this was, what kind of person he is. And so, they did that. But you're right, they did not put forward a positive agenda about what they're going to do with the economy, what they're going to do to move the country forward, and that's very important. And so, now, it's a long campaign. They need to be doing that now. And my advice would be they need to be doing it. They should counter program it, program. During the Republican Convention, they need to be putting forward what their plan is and how they're going to be moving it forward and make it real, show it in terms of real people, much as they did very successfully with some of the things they did during the convention this past week. And that is going to be where this will be fought out. But on character, the character alone won't do it; it's got to be about the American people and what the plan is for them. BLACKWELL: Yes. Your former boss, President Clinton had a much smaller role at this convention than he has in the several conventions past. He spoke for under five minutes on tape, Tuesday night, in the first hour, the Primetime presentation, the 9:00 hour. There was some cool question how he should be included at all, especially in the #MeToo era. Do you think he should have had a more prominent role? Or do you think that what we saw was appropriate, a better slot, more time, what do you think? BAER: Well, look, I think the what he did with this time is what matters. And, and, and what he did with his time and going back to what I was talking about before, go and look at his speech and this is, this is a hallmark of every one of Bill Clinton speeches to Democratic conventions over the decades. They are very substantive. He really talked about what kind of economic policy we need to have. You know, you remember in his 1992 campaign, the slogan was "It's the economy's stupid." BLACKWELL: Yes. BAER: He's still talking about the economy. He's still talking. It's a different economy today. It's got different kinds of challenges and problems for people. But he was still talking about the kinds of specific programs that we need to put in place. So, to that extent, I think he actually served a really good purpose in this convention to remind the Democrats and remind the country, there is an agenda to go forward. Now, he didn't get a chance to elaborate it. Bill Clinton loves our long speeches and these kinds of settings. He didn't get that opportunity this time. But you know what, that's what Joe Biden has to do. And, and it is right to leave it to Biden-Harris to be the ones to put that forward. BLACKWELL: Yes, we remember the '88 speech. Don Baer for us there. Thank you so much, Don. Let's do it again, this cycle. BAER: Right, Victor, Thank you. BLACKWELL: Thank you. Christi? PAUL: So, Victor, the CDC is out with these new ways schools can limit risks when reopening. We're talking about that when we return. And we've got some expert advice for parents for a lot of you I know who are having a tough time with this homeschooling thing. We'll talk about it, stay close.

Biden And Harris Give Joint Interview

Biden und Harris geben gemeinsames Interview

拜登和哈里斯接受联合采访

HOLMES: Now an update for you on the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny after a suspected poisoning. His chief of staff says he's in stable condition under the care of doctors in Berlin. Navalny's family and coworkers managed to get him out of Russia but they did have to fight for it. The British foreign secretary Dominic Raab says he is relieved that Navalny is now getting the care he needs and that there must be a, quote, "full and transparent investigation" into what started at all. Matthew Chance is in Moscow for us. MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He was evacuated from the Siberian city of Omsk on Saturday morning. Now Alexei Navalny is said to be unconscious but stable at the Berlin clinic. Doctors there are now working to save his life and to find out what caused one of the Kremlin's most outspoken critics to fall so ill so suddenly. Navalny is a prominent anticorruption campaigner in Russia. He's pictured here drinking a cup of tea in an airport cafe on Thursday before boarding a flight to Moscow from the Russian far east. After that plane was forced to make an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, HOLMES: Now Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion, chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative and longtime critic of Russia's Vladimir Putin, doesn't have any doubts about this case. He spoke with CNN's Bianna Golodryga a little earlier. GARRY KASPAROV, CHAIRMAN, RENEW DEMOCRACY INITIATIVE: As for the case of Navalny, of course he was poisoned and of course it is Putin. I say this with confidence not because I also oppose Putin or because I have inside information but because the evidence is obvious and overwhelming. There is no benefit of the doubt for a known murderer. Putin's enemies have been poisoned, dying of blunt force heart attacks or being gunned down. I believe in coincidences but I also believe in the KGB. And asking "why would Putin bother" helps the Kremlin propaganda liars. Putin critics keep dying, keep being poisoned. It's a murderous mafia regime. And trying to find reasons and excuses for Putin is disgusting. HOLMES: That was former world chess champion and chairman of the chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative, Garry Kasparov, on the Russian activist Alexei Navalny. NATO is dismissing claims that it's conducting a military buildup on the Belarus border. An alliance spokeswoman called the allegations by the embattled Belarusian president "baseless." The country has seen two weeks of protests now over the disputed August 9th elections. Protesters and the opposition say it was rigged and they are demanding a new poll. HOLMES: President Alexander Lukashenko says he will be closing factories where workers have demonstrated and is vowing to, overall, shut down the protest. The French president condemning an act of vandalism at a World War II memorial in central France. Officials say the memorial was defaced with graffiti denying the Holocaust. They say the word "liar" was painted over the word "martyr." The memorial marks a brutal massacre at a French village by German troops. Police are investigating the incident which follows repeated vandalism attacks at Jewish cemeteries in France. Coming up, right here on CNN NEWSROOM, no relief in sight as California firefighters battle hundreds of wildfires in extreme weather. Just ahead, we will take a look at some of the damage this major emergency has already caused.

Russian Opposition Leader In Stable Condition In Berlin Hospital

Russischer Oppositionsführer In Stabilem Zustand Im Berliner Krankenhaus

俄罗斯反对派领导人在柏林医院病情稳定

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. President Donald Trump calls it a historic breakthrough. Critics say it is a political ploy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives the go ahead for a new emergency use of coronavirus treatment. Senior Trump aide Kellyanne Conway announces says she's leaving her White House post just as her boss gears up for the Republican National Convention. All of this while not just one but two powerful storms barrel toward the U.S. gulf coast. Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to you, our viewers here in United States and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber and this is CNN NEWSROOM. Well we are now just hours away from the start of the Republican National Convention. And ahead of that, U.S. President Donald Trump is touting what he calls a powerful therapy to treat COVID-19 patients. He's talking about convalescent plasma. And it's now been given as an emergency use authorization by the FDA, though many question whether there's enough data to support its use. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The FDA has issued an emergency use authorization. And that's such a powerful term, emergency use authorization for a treatment known as convalescent plasma. This is a powerful therapy that transfuses very, very strong antibodies from the blood of recovered patients to help treat patients battling a current infection. BRUNHUBER: Several medical experts believe the FDA's decision was made under pressure from the White House. The head of that agency denies it and defends the move saying all decisions are based solely on data. DR. STEPHEN HAHN, COMMISSIONER, U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: We know we're going to continue to collect data. We do that for all of our emergency use authorizations. So, for example, remdesivir was approved or authorized on May 1st. We are still collecting data and we will continue to do that with plasma as well. So, it's the nuances of the language around the authorization that we use and the legal aspect of it. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a promising treatment. You can't say it's very effective just yet. HAHN: So, I would say if you're one of those 35 out of 100 people who these data suggest or show survive as a result of it, this is pretty significant for that person and their family. BRUNHUBER: CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more on the announcement from the White House. JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump on Sunday announcing that the FDA has approved an emergency use authorization for potential coronavirus treatment and that is convalescent plasma. Now convalescent plasma certainly has been used already in about 70,000 patients here in the United States alone and there is some promising data behind it. But certainly, randomized controlled clinical trials have not yet reached a conclusion about this convalescent plasma's efficacy. But nonetheless, the President insisting that this is an historic breakthrough. Now while this may be certainly an incremental improvement, something that will widen the availability of plasma. To call this a breakthrough simply is not the case. But the President insisting able to overcome what he called a logjam at the FDA. TRUMP: Well, I think that might have been a hold up, but we broke the log jam over the last week to be honest. I think that there are people in the FDA and actually, in your logic department that can see things being held up and wouldn't mind so much, that's my opinion, a very strong opinion and that's for political reasons. This has nothing to do with politics. This has to do with life or death. DIAMOND: Those comments followed a tweet that the President issued which he made similar accusations about the FDA accusing members of the quote, unquote, deep state are trying to undermine him by slow walking the approval of vaccines and coronavirus treatments. We should note, there is absolutely no evidence to back that up. And what is interesting here, of course, is that the President appears to have put some significant pressure, political pressure on the FDA to grant this emergency use authorization. And the timing, of course, is very notable. The President is set to begin the Republican National Committee over the coming week. And the President certainly looking for a win. So, this appears to be the one the President was able to find for himself. But again, the way that the President described this as a breakthrough, as something historic, not the case. Jury is still out on convalescent plasma but there is some promising data behind it. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House. BRUNHUBER: Let's bring in Dr. Keith Neal who has over 30 years of experience controlling infectious diseases. He joins us joins us now from Anglesey, Wales. Thank you so much for speaking with us. A lot to unpack here. And the key question, of course is, is there any proof this works? DR. KEITH NEAL, INFECTIOUS DISEASE PHYSICIAN: I've not seen any. And I added to journals and I read 100 papers a week on this sort of subject. And I would expect that any successful trial is going to hit the new England Journal of Medicine or announce it very quickly. BRUNHUBER: So, then what do you think is behind this? Why would they seemingly rush this? NEAL: I really have no idea because I'm not sure how the legislation licensing works in the States. It certainly wouldn't happen in this country although you can have compassionate use. That's mainly used for people with terminal cancer and new drugs that haven't really been even close to being tested. What worries me is you've giving the plasma to 70,000 people and it would have been easy you get 70,000 controls. And we have the answer, does it work? I think one of the big questions BRUNHUBER: OK, so let's take it from the other side. Then the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration says the treatment was safe and had the potential to be helpful. So, with such a deadly disease, even if we don't have solid proof that it works, isn't there merit to the argument that if it's not outright dangerous, we should, you know, try everything? I'm not quite sure we can even say it's not outride dangerous. Giving a blood product which could covet transmit infections, although this would be screened out in most cases, and not do any good. We also know that some of the problems with COVID-19 are due to a cytokine storm which is an over stimulation of the immune system. And too many antibodies, particularly from those people who are seriously ill who made more of it. It might actually be deleterious. We just don't know. BRUNHUBER: So, you know, we know that just recently the FDA wasn't ready to approve this and President Trump tweeted that the FDA is slow walking a treatment and then, presto, it was approved. It's hard not to be under the impression that the FDA's been pressured here. So as a scientist, how do you feel seeing, for instance, the Trump -- that President Trump is suggesting that it's the deep state rather than the scientific method that's delaying potential treatments? I think there's always a caution on behalf of the regulators, so they don't initiate treatments that are unhelpful or even dangerous. I think the best case would be for the FDA to publish the evidence that they've actually use to make this decision. And then other regulatory bodies around the world can use this information to make informed decisions. BRUNHUBER: Thank you very much, Dr. Keith Neal. Right now, we are hours away from the start of the Republican National Convention. President Trump will make his case to Americans for a second term but there won't be a new party platform this year. The Republican National Committee says they won't release one opting instead to support Mr. Trump's agenda. His family members feature heavily on the list of speakers. Mr. Trump's acceptance speech is Thursday, but he will appear every day. Mr. Trump is expected to arrive in Charlotte, North Carolina, Monday morning. And that's where we find our Ryan Nobles with what to expect from the convention this week. RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The city of Charlotte, North Carolina, will play an important role in the Republican National Convention this year. Perhaps not the big role they expected to play when they won the bid for the convention more than a year ago. But a lot of the activity taking place here on Monday will be very important for President Trump's campaign. That's where the delegates will come from around the country, more than 300 of them, and cast their ballots for President Trump and Mike Pence to be the ticket for this year's presidential election. And President Trump will actually be here. He and the Vice President will thank the delegates for their participation. He'll deliver belief remarks. Now this is not his formal acceptance. That's not going to happen until later in the week on Thursday when President Trump officially accepts his nomination and that will happen at the White House. In fact, most of the activity will shift from Charlotte to Washington almost immediately. Many of the speeches that will take place that will happen live will originate out of Washington. That includes speeches from second lady Karen Pence and Melania Trump will also deliver her remarks from Washington as well. The Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Baltimore and deliver his remarks from Fort McHenry. Now this is something that President Trump has a lot riding on. He of course, a former reality television show star himself, he's told his team that he wants this convention to be bigger and better than what we saw from the Democrats last week. He's even brought in some of his former colleagues from "The Apprentice" to help produce all of the events that take place this week. A lot riding for President Trump and we should forget that there are two hurricanes that could make their way onto the Gulf Coast sometime during the week of this convention which could add a further to this entire process. Ryan Nobles, CNN, Charlotte, North Carolina. BRUNHUBER: And you'll definitely want to tune in to CNN for coverage of the Republican National Convention starting Monday, here at 7 p.m. Eastern here in the US and for our international viewers, that's 12 a.m. Tuesday in London and 7 a.m. Tuesday in Hong Kong. Well you may have noticed White House counselor Kellyanne Conway among the list of primetime RNC speakers. Well, late Sunday she announced she's leaving her job at the end of this month, citing a desire to focus on her family. Now is not clear whether she will still speak at the RNC. Also Sunday her husband George Conway revealed he's stepping away from his role with the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump political action committee. Two powerful storms are barreling towards the U.S. Gulf Coast. Authorities are telling people to evacuate if they can or take all safety precautions. The first storm could make landfall in just a matter of hours. So, after the break we'll follow that and the latest on California's wildfires with hundreds burning across the state and no end in sight. Do stay with us.

FDA Gives Emergency Use Authorization for COVID Treatment; U.S. Republican National Convention Takes Place this Week; Trump to Make His Case for a Second Term This Week

FDA erteilt Notfallzulassung für COVID-Behandlung; US Republican National Convention findet diese Woche statt; Trump will diese Woche für eine zweite Amtszeit plädieren

美国食品和药物管理局批准新冠肺炎治疗紧急使用授权；美国共和党全国代表大会本周举行；特朗普将在本周为他的第二任期做陈述

HOLMES: When the coronavirus pandemic brought the sporting world to a screeching halt, it was uncertain whether the year's most prestigious football tournament, the UEFA Champions League would be able to crown a champion. Well, crown one it did. Germany's Bayern Munich adding another title to their growing legacy. Patrick Snell with the details. PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Lisbon (ph) assessing for the 2020 Champions League final, a match played behind closed doors on Sunday at the end of this COVID-19 curtailed competition. But PSG's Brazilian superstar Neymar would discover just what it is like to come up against a truly inspired Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer. While moments later, the prolific Robert Lewandowski could've put Bayern Munich ahead, but the Polish striker denied by the woodwork, much to the anxious concern of the 5,000 fans watching back in Paris. Both teams did have plausible claims for a penalty. Kylian Mbappe likely agreed this decision didn't go his way. And then just shy of the hour mark, the winner, it's Paris-born Kingsley Coman rising superbly to shatter the hopes and dreams of his former club. Nurtured in their own academy, the now-24 year old breaking the hearts of all connected with the lavishly-backed team from the French capital. The defeat just too much for Neymar. A picture of devastation at the final whistle. His dejection, in stark contrast to those jubilant Bayern players. And then party time. Bayern hoisting aloft the most coveted prize in European club football. Munich, also now the first team to win the champions league by winning every single match. And what a moment, too for 19 year old Alfonso Davies now, the first Canadian to win the champions league, and the youngest defender too. Bayern's sixth triumph in this competition, moving them on a level with Liverpool and behind only Milan and Real Madrid And the Bavarian giants are now also celebrating another historic treble after winning the Champions League, the Bundesliga and the German Cup for the second time in just seven years. Back to you. HOLMES: Patrick Snell, our thanks. And thank you for watching. I'm Michael Holmes. Don't go away though, I'll be back with another hour of CNN NEWSROOM after the break.

Bayern Munich Win Champions League.

Bayern München gewinnt Champions League.

拜仁慕尼黑赢得欧冠冠军。

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN HOST: After suggesting the FDA chief was part of the deep state, President Trump now praising him over a controversial call to combat the coronavirus. Preparing for a party of one in Charlotte, Trump booking himself to dominate all four nights of the Republican National Convention. Plus, evacuations in California and Louisiana as fires ravaged the west and the gulf coast prepares for a one-two punch from an angry sea. Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I am Michael Holmes and this is "CNN Newsroom." In just a few hours, the Republican National Convention kicks off in the U.S. state of North Carolina. And President Donald Trump making waves by touting a possible treatment in the fight against COVID-19. But already, there is debate over whether enough data is out there to prove it will work. The new treatment comes from convalescent plasma, from the blood of recovered COVID-19 patients. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given Emergency Use Authorization for it despite saying there wasn't enough evidence to support it just earlier this week. President Trump, blaming the FDA on Sunday for delaying the use of the treatment. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think that there might have been a holdup, but we broke the logjam over the last week to be honest. I think there were people in the FDA and actually in your larger department that can see things being held up, and wouldn't mind so much. That's my opinion, a very strong opinion. That's for political reasons. This has nothing to do with politics. This has to do with life and death. HOLMES: Now, the hold came after three top U.S. health officials argued that data was weak and there wasn't enough evidence to support the plasma treatment. CNN has spoken in many other experts who share that view. WILLIAM HASELTINE, CHAIRMAN & PRESIDENT, ACCESS HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: The data does not support the approval of the struck (ph). That is clear. I've seen the data. And secondly, this is not a breakthrough. This is a very modest improvement for people who take it very early, if it is an improvement at all. JONATHAN REINER, DIRECTOR OF CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION LAB, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Because there is no randomized arm to placebo, we don't know for sure the magnitude of the benefit. That's the problem with this. But this has been used in a lot of people. And the EUA, I am not sure it is going to change access all that much, it's mostly symbolic. MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN: By passing this EUA, it makes it less likely, potentially, that patients will enroll in trials. And so we may not get the gold standard evidence that we are looking for. PAUL OFFIT, INFECTIOUS DISEASE AND VACCINE SPECIALIST: The question is, is there more data than if we haven't seen? And if there were more data, you would think that they would have presented those data because it only makes their case better. By not presenting those new data, you wonder whether there really are any new data. And if there aren't, then what just happened? Is it the administration just bullied the FDA into approving something that they were uncomfortable about approving. HOLMES: Now, the FDA is responding to claims saying the agency was pressured by the White House into making that decision, Commissioner Stephen Hahn said, "I took an oath as a doctor 35 years ago to do no harm. I abide by that every day. I've never been asked to make a decision at the FDA based on politics. The decisions the scientists at the FDA are making are done on data only." I'm joined by Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, an internal medicine and viral specialist in Los Angeles. Good to see you again doctor. Let's talk about this announcement. It is a known potential therapy. It's been given to, I think 80 or 90,000 patients already. Not historic nor a breakthrough, as the president says. But talk about the fact that in a medical sense, shouldn't it be trialed to actually confirm its efficacy? JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: Absolutely. I think what is alarming to most people in the medical field is the fact that it does appear that politics is pushing science. So, let's start off with this. This is not a China virus. This is the SARS-CoV-2 virus. So we'll start from there. And people that have it, most of them have antibodies that with other infections, other viruses, have been able to give that plasma to people and those antibodies can help lessen, if not cure the disease. Well, right now since we are in such a state of alert with this pandemic, it's been tried sort of as a compassionate use for tens of thousands of people. The Mayo Clinic just did a retrospective analysis that looked at over 30,000 cases. And what they found was that if you gave it within three days, 8.9 percent of the people died that were very sick, and if you gave it within four days after people getting sick, it was almost 12 percent. But it doesn't prove that this really does save lives. You need to have a placebo arm. So the big danger that we're seeing is that in an act of desperation, we may be providing someone or people plasma that in the long run, A, it has not been proven to help, and B, we don't know the long term side effects. HOLMES: Right. RODRIGUEZ: This is not (inaudible) things are done. HOLMES: And, you know, the other thing too, that's really critical is the FDA actually pump the brakes on this only a few days ago, saying let's wait on this. And then, you know, you got the president on Saturday accusing the FDA, run by somebody he appointed, of holding back on vaccine trials approvals, therapeutics. And then within a day of the tweet, approval. I mean, do you think given what you have seen, there is at least the impression the FDA might have been pressured to do this and, if so, wow. RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. And that's the big danger. Listen, the politics could that Anthony Fauci, Dr. Collins, and Cliff Lane -- Dr. Cliff Lane, who is also at the NIH that I've known for years and worked with, who had research with it as far as HIV. These are respected scientists. And they did not think that the Mayo Clinic study proved anything. As a mater of fact, the Mayo Clinic conclusion was that more studies needed to be done. So, it does appear that on day one, the FDA did not approve this. And lo and behold, two days later after the president applies pressure, it's approved. The danger is, what will be next? What unproven regimen or medicine will be approved next? HOLMES: And I think the closer we get to the November 3, the chances of something popping up, grow. I mean, I wanted to ask you too that, you know, what India saying last night, it could have a vaccine by the end of the year. You've got Russia's vaccine, whatever else Donald Trump promises before the election. I'm wondering, do you think there are too many countries going at alone here. I mean, is there a risk of vaccine nationalism? Shouldn't everybody working together, a global effort here? RODRIGUEZ: yes, absolutely. And that is what's happening. And the more you think about that, you know, it's almost like -- it's almost a race. When you're thinking about human lives, it shouldn't be a race. And everybody wants to be first to try to see how many people they can save. Russia is trying a vaccine that hasn't even been tested, and this was my biggest concern when Trump said that he was going to leave the World Health Organization, that either we were not going to have access to a vaccine created in another country, or that we were not going to share our science. This is a pandemic. This needs to have worldwide cooperation from all countries. Otherwise, it's not going to be pretty. HOLMES: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez in Los Angeles, always a pleasure. Thanks so much for coming on. RODRIGUEZ: Thank you sir. HOLMES: Now, ahead of the Republican Convention, President Trump is getting ready to lose a key member of his administration. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway announcing that she is leaving her post at the end of the month. Her husband, George Conway, also announced that he is withdrawing from the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump political action committee. Both said, they wanted to focus on family. Meantime, a Republican source said the President Trump will make an appearance at the convention every. And the gathering will deliver an optimistic and upbeat message. That is going to be a challenge with more than 176,000 coronavirus deaths in the U.S. and the economy in a deep downturn. Now, at the convention, Mr. Trump needs to convince Americans, of course, that they can trust him with a second term. Between the pandemic and the economic downturn, he's got his work cut out for him. Here is CNN's chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta. TRUMP: We're going to win four more years. JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behind in the polls and weighed down by a deadly pandemic, President Trump is trying to pull off the ultimate sales pitch, and convince voters his first term is a success story. TRUMP: I'm the only one probably that ever ran for office in this country that's achieved more than I said I would. ACOSTA (voice-over): The way the president described his accomplishments in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, it sounds like Mr. Trump should be coasting to victory. TRUMP: We've secured our borders, brought back or manufacturing jobs, rebuilt our military, wiped out the ISIS caliphate 100 percent. Killed our terrorist enemies, achieved American energy independence. And guess what, we're just getting started. ACOSTA (voice-over): But hold on. On the president signature issue, the wall, there hasn't been that much winning. The administration has built less than 300 miles of new fencing along the border with Mexico, but most of that construction has replaced older barriers already in place. And no, Mexico did not pay for it, as the president promised four years ago. TRUMP: I will build a great, great wall on our southern border and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. ACOSTA (voice-over): Instead, Mr. Trump is diverting billions from the military to bankroll his pet project and he's floating the idea of setting up toll booths at the border to somehow force Mexico to foot the bill. TRUMP: We're going to do a toll, or we may do a toll for money being sent back and forth. ACOSTA (voice-over): The president's claims on Isis and energy independence are closer to reality. But on the economy, it's a mixed bag. TRUMP: They said manufacturing jobs will never come back. Remember, you need a magic wand. Where is the magic wand? Well, we have the magic wand. ACOSTA (voice-over): After inheriting a healthy economy from Barack Obama, Mr. Trump did preside over growth in the manufacturing sector. But most of the gains had been in the south and out west, while key swing states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin were losing factory jobs in the months before the coronavirus. Then, COVID-19 decimated the U.S. economy under Mr. Trump's watch, sending the unemployment rate skyrocketing. Jobs have come back, but the current recovery is far from certain. Polls show most Americans have simply rejected the president's handling of the virus. TRUMP: No doubt in my mind, it will go away. ACOSTA (voice-over): Mr. Trump's months of predictions that the virus will just go away have fallen flat, much like his recommendations of unproven treatments like hydroxychloroquine, an obsession he tweeted about once again over the weekend. Questionable medical advice from a president who unforgettably suggested Americans inject themselves with disinfectants. TRUMP: And then I see the disinfectant. It knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets on the lungs. ACOSTA (voice-over): The numbers are chilling, the U.S. leads the world in COVID-19 deaths just by making up only 4 percent of the global population. More than five million cases, more than 170,000 Americans death and climbing. When asked on Fox what he would do with the second term, the president failed to provide an answer. TRUMP: Well, one of the things that will be really great, you know, the word experience is still good. The word experience is a very important word, it's a very important meeting. ACOSTA (voice-over): With another four years in office, aides to the president say he'll continue his focus on immigration where his crackdown on the border has already resulted in the separation of thousands of children from their families. One area where the president would almost certainly leave his mark, the Supreme Court. Mr. Trump will have the ability to fill new vacancies on the high court, (inaudible) prospect for conservatives that comes with enormous consequence on critical issues facing the nation from gun control, to abortion rights. Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House. HOLMES: Doug Heye is a CNN political commentator, also the former director of communications for the RNC. A pleasure to see you again, Doug. I wanted to start off actually with one of your tweets, and then we can put out there for people to look at. It says, "GOP enthusiasm is unlikely to match the intensity of the last election given Trump's first term success in filling existing court vacancies. So often, you said, you see a team win a championship, then they lose the urgency for the repeat." What do you expect from this RNC convention, and what will be different to how the Democrats handle this? DOUGLAS HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think we know precisely how it will be different yet. You know, the Democrats were preparing for this inevitable virtual convention while the Republicans I think, honestly, we're kidding themselves for a while that they might be able to move locations and so forth. They may be less prepared than Democrats were. But what we've seen I think surprises a lot of people is you're not seeing a lot of senators or members of Congress who otherwise would clamor to be on a stage for a convention. It certainly worked four years ago. Ted Cruz being a very prominent example. I looked at the list today, and to some extent it resembled either the Adams family or a really bad Glastonbury where you look at the lineup for the bands and there is none of them that you want to see. Democrats were really trying to expand their base, expand their appeal to people, that's why you're very popular. Folks in the country like Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, to name the two most prominent examples. Republicans really seem to be doubling down on their base. We'll see if that's a successful strategy for them. HOLMES: Yes. I think half the keynote speakers are either married to or related to the president, which sort of says something in itself. I mean, it's going to be hard for the president to do what the Biden -- what the Biden's did pretty much in centering their narrative about the family around their message especially given the book by Trump's niece. And now his sister's rather withering comments about the president's character. The thing is, and tell me if I'm wrong, it's not like his base doesn't already know the character of the man. And this seems like a president though who doesn't really want to grow the 10th. HEYE: Yes. Look, voters made up their minds one way or another, by and large, on Donald Trump not just a long time ago, but well over four years ago. You are either very much for Trump or you decided you were not going to vote for Donald Trump. There is a very small sliver of voters who are trying to be in an area where they can be persuaded one way or another. And that's where I think the Trump campaign is really behind on things right now. Not just with the gender gap, but if you were talking to Democrats in January and February, obviously, everywhere in the world is a different conversation between now and then. But Democrats were really scared about Donald Trump being able to campaign it on a positive economy, and that that would whisk him for another four years in the White House because incumbents don't lose in positive economies. But we know right now we have a death toll that's above 170,000 people -- 170,000 Americans. And we have an economy with more than 10 percent unemployment, and so much on security, and pain in the country. It's really hard for it to see how they're going to be able to persuade people. This may be an election more on motivation, than it is persuasion. HOLMES: Yes. Well, that gave me a good point. The campaign adviser, Jason Miller, he was saying that Republicans are going to present, he called it an optimistic and upbeat convention this week, in contrast with what he describes as a massive grievance-fest by the Democrats. But, you know, we have seen the president constantly harp on negatives if Democrats win. And you've got speakers like Nick Sandmann. You've got the gun toting Missouri couple. I think (inaudible) exactly suggest the convention's going to be all positive and uplifting. Do you think there is danger in leaning in to cultural stuff like that? HEYE: Not just leaning in, but leading with it. And, you know, Jason Miller has been a friend of mine for more than 20 years, and a sincere friend, not just a Washington, D.C. friend when you say that and don't mean it. But it's really hard to see the optimism coming from him and other folks with the Trump campaign, except that they're paid to be because of the bad news that you have throughout the country. You know, one of the things that the Trump campaign is talking about right now is violence I n the streets and how that maybe Joe Biden's America. But we're really in Donald Trump's America right now so how you sell that vision of what may happen under somebody else's leadership when it's happening under your leadership is a really tough sell I think, even if you are reported to be the great salesman. HOLMES: It is a good point. He said think of the small ring ruins of Minneapolis, the anarchy of Portland, the bloodstained sidewalks of Chicago, which is all happening on his watch. So, it's an interesting thing to try to push out as negative. I wanted to ask you this too. With all his talk of what he calls the dangers of mail-in voting, and literally saying, he said, "The only way they're going to win, the Democrats, is by rigged election." Is he setting the theme for a loss? And also, aren't comments like that, just dangerous for the public's faith in the democracy. The only way I can lose is if it's rigged. HEYE: You know, it hurts me as somebody, you mentioned I used to run communications for the Republican National Committee, to say that the president from my party is saying dangerous things. Well, they're also hypocritical things and I wish I had sitting right next to me instead about 10 feet behind me. I received a mail piece from the North Carolina Republican Party just yesterday, urging me to send in an absentee ballot for Donald Trump. Now, I haven't lived in North Carolina since 2004. It might have been a piece directed towards my father, who died in 2016, in which case, that's either bad list management or they're trying to get somebody to vote fraudulently. And I would literally point out, the last time I had dinner with my father before he passed away, he said to me he's very reluctantly voting to Trump, this is in 2016. But man, if Joe Biden is running, he'd vote for Joe in a second. So, probably not the target audience one way or another. HOLMES: Wow. Interesting. Doug Heye, always good to see you. Thank you so much. HEYE: Thank you. HOLMES: And tune in to CNN for coverage of the Republican National Convention starting Monday, 7:00 p.m. eastern time here in the U.S. For our international viewers, that is 12:00 a.m. Tuesday in London, 7:00 a.m. Tuesday in Hong Kong. And heading into the convention, you've got a new CBS News/YouGov poll putting Joe Biden ahead of President Trump by a 10-point margin among likely voters. But that is exactly what the polling look like before the Democrats launched their convention a week ago. No post-convention bump. On Sunday, Biden responded in a TV interview to one of Mr. Trump's many personal attacks. DAVID MUIR, ABC NEWS HOST: I want to turn to the blistering attacks we've seen from President Trump just this week alone on your mental fitness, whether you are up for the job. His campaign has called you diminished. And I'm curious how you'd respond to that. JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Watch me. Mr. President, watch me. Look at us both, what we say, what we do, what we control, what we know, what kind of shape we're in. Come on. Just look. I think it's a legitimate question to ask anybody over 70 years old whether or not they are fit and whether they're ready. But I just -- only and I can say to the American people, it's a legitimate question to ask anybody. Watch me. HOLMES: Well, a history making event as two dangerous storms make their way towards the gulf coast of the United States. CNN tracking the destructive paths of Marco and Laura. We will bring you the latest from the CNN Weather Center when we come back.

Convalescent Plasma Gets Emergency Use Authorization from FDA; Trump Plans to Appear Every Night at Republican National Convention; Joe Biden Responds to Trump Attacks Before RNC

Rekonvaleszentes Plasma erhält Notfallgenehmigung von der FDA; Trump plant, jeden Abend bei der Republican National Convention aufzutreten; Joe Biden reagiert auf Trump-Angriffe vor RNC

恢复期血浆获得美国食品和药物管理局紧急使用许可；特朗普计划每晚现身共和党全国代表大会；拜登回应特朗普在共和党全国委员会面前对他的攻击

REP. GERRY CONNOLLY (D-VA): You want to create some efficiency and save some money and make us work better. When you think though that you might take into consideration the context and if you didn't a good CEO when you saw unintended consequences which your testimony would have us believe, these are unintended. You take measures quickly to ameliorate the unintended consequences, namely scaring the public health to death about the reliability of the postal service. Lots of anecdotal if not empirical data that in fact it materially affected the delivery of mail as the new Postmaster General you don't want to be seen as the guy who actually damaged the 244 reputation of the postal service and scared voters into believing that their ballots won't get on time because of your service, do you? LOUIS DEJOY, POSTMASTER GENRAL, U.S. POSTAL SERVICE: So I - I understand the context and I think when we took in terms of the context it was a summertime. Mail volume was down. You know, significantly. So it was not at a - we are getting ready for the peak season and election is three months away. It was a good time to start to try to roll this out. Again, the request was just run your trucks on time. Put a plan to run your trucks on time. OK? CONNOLLY: OK. DEJOY: I mean, the impact, the impact is probably about - for that, because if the mail gets processed and the truck leaves, that mail will move on the next truck or the next day, all right? So these long stories of nine days and so forth were not impacted. Those service levels if we add one day-- CONNOLLY: Forgive me for interrupting. I have limited time that's why I have to interrupt you. You made a statement before the Senate the other day to Senator Gary Peters; you have had no contact with the Trump Campaign during your tenure. Is that correct? DEJOY: I have not - I've not contact with the Trump Campaign. I have not - I mean I've spoken to the president. I have spoken to Steve Mnuchin. I have spoken to other people but I have not - I have no contact - I've not spoke to anybody about the Postal Service. CONNOLLY: Did you not tell the Board of Governors this month in August that in fact you have had contact with the Trump Campaign to ask them to stop their attacks on the Postal Service and voting by mail? DEJOY: I have put word around to different people that this is not helpful to-- CONNOLLY: So you did have contact with the Trump Campaign for a good purpose? DEJOY: I'm trying to think of where - the Trump - when you say the Trump Campaign, I have not spoken to Trump Campaign leadership in that regard. I have spoken to people that are friends of mine that are associated with the campaign, yes. CONNOLLY: One of whom was Steve Mnuchin? DEJOY: Steve Mnuchin is Secretary of Treasury. CONNOLLY: I know. DEJOY: Yes. I never spoke to Steve about telling the president to not do something. CONNOLLY: I thank you, Mr. DeJoy. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The gentleman's time is expired but you may answer his question, OK. DEJOY: What was the question? CONNOLLY: I'm sorry. The question was what conversations did you have with the Secretary of Treasury Mr. Mnuchin about the Postal Service, your hiring and the consequences that seem to have unfolded with these operational efficiencies? DEJOY: The conversation I had with the Secretary been when I came here we had this note that was kind of stuck in the mud and I worked with him to get the note done. It was really, you know, we are going to - it was I'm going to try and control cost and grow revenue and it was very high level thing and let's tries and gets the deal done so we have the loan. That was really it. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Mr. Jordan is now recognized. REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): Thank you, Madame Chair. Mr. DeJoy, was it the Postal Service's fault that it took six weeks after the June 23rd Chairwoman Maloney's primary election for her to be declared the winner? Was that you guys fault? DEJOY: I'm not fulfilled with the details but I know it took a long time. JORDAN: But I'm asking, that wasn't your fault, was it? DEJOY: No. JORDAN: Was it the Postal Service's fault that New Jersey was still counting ballots four weeks after the primary election last month? DEJOY: No, sir. JORDAN: How about the Democrats' Iowa Caucuses? Was that the post office's fault that we didn't know who won the Democratic - I don't know if we still figured out who won the Democrat Iowa Caucus? Is that the post office's fault? DEJOY: No, sir. JORDAN: So just a couple of facts, I want to just be clear. You got $14 billion cash on hand; you got $10 billion line of credit. Is that right? DEJOY: Yes, sir. JORDAN: And changing out the sorting machines and removing and changing out mail collection boxes is nothing different than happened before, right? Every Postmaster General, every year we do those sorts of things. Is that right? DEJOY: Yes, sir. JORDAN: Yes. So there's no different. In fact what was the number? JORDAN: I think between 2011 to 2016 it was like 12,000 mail collection boxes that were removed changed out by the Obama/Biden Administration. Is that right? DEJOY: It was a lot. JORDAN: Yes, it was a lot. And you didn't order a reduction in overtime or reduction of hours? I think you testified that earlier? DEJOY: I did not. JORDAN: So why are these guys out to get you? What is it? DEJOY: I don't - they have their own concerns. I assume they're legitimate with them and-- JORDAN: Well, you assume they're legitimate? Why are they out to get you? Mr. DeJoy, they have people protesting at your house last night. They have been doing it for weeks and neither some of these have already called for you to resign. They passed a bill before they even talked to you, before they even had a hearing. They're not interested in a bipartisan solution. As evidence by the fact that the Chairwoman wouldn't even contact the White House Chief of Staff who had a bill that he worked with the previous Chairman the late Chairman Cummings a bipartisan bill to address concerns at the post office. So I'm asking why they are after you. You were appointed by the Board of Governors, right? DEJOY: I was appointed by unanimous by bipartisan of Governors. JORDAN: Unanimous vote, bipartisan not all Republicans. Democrats thought you were the right guy for the job, right? DEJOY: Yes. JORDAN: So why are they out to get you? DEJOY: I have - I have no idea. I do have a lot of support out there amongst the employees and people in America, though. I receive it every day. JORDAN: you got an amazing record in business. You got an amazing history of community service. You help kids with their education. You serve your community; serve our country and these people out to get you. None of the facts - as "The Wall Street Journal" said this is one giant conspiracy from the Democrats. I'm just - I just want to know what could be their reason? What could it be, Mr. DeJoy? We know it's not based on the facts. What could it be? Might it be politics? Might it be? Might it be the election coming up? Might it be the fact that they actually want to wait and count votes after Election Day? Maybe they want six weeks after the election. Maybe they want to be counting votes six weeks after the election, the presidential election, the biggest election we're going to have. Maybe they want to be counting votes six weeks after like they did in the Chairwoman's race or four weeks after like they did in New Jersey or maybe they want to wait forever like they did in the Democrat Iowa Caucuses. Might that be the reason? The chaos and confusion that we saw with all three of those elections maybe that's what they want, could that be the reason, Mr. DeJoy? DEJOY: I don't know what motivates people to have different opinions of me. JORDAN: Well, they have called you all kinds of names today already. Protesting outside your house last night, weren't they? DEJOY: Yes, sir. JORDAN: Banging pots and pans outside your house, disrupting your neighbors and disrupting you. The facts as you've testified are not anything close to what they've been saying for the last three weeks. What they said Saturday on the House floor? This is - we know what this is about. We all know what this is about. This is about these guys wanting chaos and confusion because they - I think they know this. I think they know on election night President Trump is going to win. They know on Election Day the vote count on Election Day President Trump's going to win. And they want to keep counting, six weeks, four weeks, Iowa Caucus, whenever, I don't know when they decided that and I still don't know if they've declared a win. I don't know it was Bernie or Biden or whoever was running then. That's what they want. And they're willing to go after a guy like you who has served our country, served his community, helps kids with their education, amazing record in business. They're willing to go after you and you've been on the job 70 days and everything you've testified is nothing new, same thing's been done by other Postmaster Generals and yet they come after you because that's how much they want do get this president. It's disgusting. We all know what's going on and the fact that you know it, too. You won't say it. I think that shows your character, as well. But I'll say it because it's the truth and the American people understand it and see right through it. I yield back. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The gentleman yields back. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi? You're now recognized. REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Good morning, Mr. DeJoy. DEJOY: Good morning. KRISHNAMOORTHI: Before becoming Postmaster General I believe you appropriately resigned from being the finance Chair for the Republican National Convention, correct? DEJOY: I did, sir. KRISHNAMOORTHI: And I say you appropriately resigned because even in your written testimony you said we should keep the nonpartisan tradition of the USPS and in this case occupying a high level political post at the same time you'd be occupying a high level USPS post would create at the least appearance problems if not more right? JOHN KING, CNN HOST: I'm John King in Washington. We're going to take you now. We're watching a contentious hearing up on Capitol Hill the House Committee with the Postmaster General. In Florida right now the President of the United States if you look at the right of your screen has now gone over the top. Donald Trump has been re-nominated as the Republican - Nevada, the State of Nevada, I'm told did that just moments ago. The President of the United States has been re-nominated as the Republican nominee. He is on his way to Charlotte. KING: Just moments ago the Vice President of the United States spoke at that meeting, down there the Republicans doing it a bit differently from the Democrats. Number one they have a daytime session. Number two, both the president and the vice president in a room in the presence of delegates as we go into this convention. The president will speak momentarily. When he gets there we'll bring you that live. I believe to discuss this moment, we have with us our Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, Ryan Nobles is on the scene for us in Charlotte Seung Min Kim of "The Washington Post" with us as well. Ryan, you are there on the ground, a daytime session. Delegates in the room, a very different look from the Democrats and most importantly the President of the United States re-nominated for the first time four years ago at a contentious convention. There was a talk of a floor fight when Donald Trump arrived at the coronation in 2016, this very much a coronation in 2020? RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. You know, this is something that the Republicans have been working on essentially since President Trump won the election four years ago. They wanted this convention to be smooth sailing for the Trump/Pence ticket, they didn't want there to be any kind of disagreement as to who the Republican standard bearer was going to be and even in the midst of Coronavirus and all the other things that have been thrown at President Trump and this ticket they were able to pull that off. In many ways the Republican Convention this week not only what we're seeing here this morning but what we're going to see during the prime time programming throughout the week is really all about Donald Trump, even more than it is about the Republican Party broadly. You are going to see a member of the Trump family speaking every night of the week. You're going to see the president himself making an appearance in some respect every night of the week and even as you go through the roll call from all the various states across the country as they cast their delegates and their ballots in favor of President Trump there are some sort of nod to the work that President Trump has done over the past four years. So if there was any ambiguity about where the Republican Party stood since 2016 it has been made very clear here this morning and will be throughout the rest of the week. This is Donald Trump's party and he hopes to continue that on with a win in the fall. John? KING: And, Dana that point, you could in some ways call this Trump National Convention. Donald Trump Jr. will speak, Eric Trump will speak, Ivanka Trump will speak, Tiffany Trump will speak, Melania Trump will speak and more members of the Trump family will speak as well in addition to the president appearing every night. And I say that - oh. Sorry, we're going to go back to the proceedings now. Listen to a little bit of the roll call. Hang tight. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump. New Mexico, 22 delegates with following banned delegates, 22 President Trump. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madame Chair? On behalf of the good people of the State of New Mexico, a land of blue skies, limitless horizons and - a land where faith, freedom and family dominate our values. We all saw Mr. Trump come down that escalator and he gave voice to the fears and the anguish that we all felt for this country. And then he began to speak words of strength and purpose, words like courage and liberty, prosperity, truth, hope and life. And we saw him begin to rebuild this country. Then we saw that rebuilding interrupted by the COVID-19. So now we have a choice, a choice to continue the rebuilding, the revival, the renewing of this great land. New Mexico is proud to vote for that renewal, that revival by casting its 22 votes for Donald J. Trump, the next President of the United States of America! KING: See more of - State of New Mexico adding to President Trump's total. He of course not challenged at this convention in Charlotte. Sorry for the interruption our panel. Ryan Nobles is in Charlotte Seung Min Kim of "The Washington Post" is with and our Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash. And Dana, the RNC member from New Mexico there as he gave the state's votes to Donald Trump essentially framing what this convention is about. If you watch the Democratic Convention Joe Biden and his team want to say this is about the pandemic, this is about from late January to today and what their view as Donald Trump's failed leadership in the pandemic. Yes, they raised character questions from before then but the Democrats want this to be a referendum on the last seven months and then through the election on American life. You heard the New Mexico delegate three saying well, this country was doing great. The economy had rebounded up until the pandemic let's go back to those days. DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. We heard even more broadly, we were listening while we were also in the coverage of the hearing, the postal hearing on Capitol Hill, the Vice President giving a real indicator of where the themes are going to be this week? Talking a little bit about what we heard from the gentleman from New Mexico, but even kind of at a higher level about the fact that Joe Biden is part of the radical left that is probably a term that can be easily used for a drinking game this coming week. BASH: Then we heard about lower taxes, about as you say getting the economy back on but also, they're trying to frame it as freedom, as an idea that Democrats will curb and will put the screws on your freedoms and we will make sure that that won't happen. I think that is the kind of thing that the vice president was talking about and that is the kind of thing that we are going to hear as the through line throughout this week. One of the things you can't miss is law and order. The vice president talked about the thin blue line of law enforcement, back the blue, back the blue is another term I think we're going to hear a lot this week as the prime time events begin to start. KING: Reminiscent in many ways, a lot of people drawn this comparison. My first campaign was 1988; Michael Dukakis came out of his convention with a lead. George H.W. Bush then the Vice President of the United States at the time running a law and order campaign especially targeting American suburbs. Look at those results. Look at the Philadelphia suburbs; look at the Cleveland suburbs 32 years ago. Seung Min Kim, again I was talking about before head about how much this is a Trump party now, so much so the president will appear every night, his family members are speaking just about every night. Missing are a lot of Republicans you would normally expect to see at a convention this close to the election. We are now ten weeks away. Endangered Republican Senators like a Cory Gardner of Colorado like a Susan Collins of Maine. Traditionally you would see the party saying OK, we have embattled incumbents, let's find a way to highlight them, give them a boost given them a national profile at this key moment but the Trump's party doesn't work that way. SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. Republican Senators that you mentioned, also missing from the list are the previous living presidents and the party's presidential nominee Mitt Romney and George W. Bush not on the speaking list for this convention. What are more surprising - Republican Senators who will not get a speaking list I thought was Thom Tillis of North Carolina. We know he is fighting a tough re-election race. But remember, the Republican festivities are in Charlotte North Carolina so for the home state Senator to not have a position at least that we know of is speaking position in a Republican National Convention is a pretty surprising move. Because you do see while Republican Senators can't completely extricate themselves from Trump he is the top of the ticket after all, you do see how they're trying to distance themselves in their campaign back home and focusing on their own record. KING: Especially in North Carolina, a state where they're having this convention there they had to get special permission to put the delegates in that convention center hall there the state is still grappling very much with the Coronavirus pandemic as are many others. But the numbers still pretty high in North Carolina. I would ask everybody to stand by. We're going to take a quick break. We're tracking the Republican National Convention. You see the count. The president now has surpassed by 200 just about, just shy of 200. The delegates needed to clinch the nomination. Donald Trump the incumbent president is the Republican Nominee now officially for 2020. Also tracking that contentious hearing for the Postmaster General up on Capitol Hill, we'll be right back.

USPS Chief: "Outrageous" To Ask If He Compensated Others For Trump Donations; USPS Chief: "Fully Capable" Of Delivering Ballots On Time; USPS Chief: "No We Do Not" Need More Funding To Deliver Ballots; Trump Formally Nominated For President At Day 1 Of RNC; Trump's Sister Says "He Has No Principles" In Secret Recording.

USPS-Chef: \"Unerhört\" zu fragen, ob er andere für Trump-Spenden entschädigt hat; USPS-Chef: \"Voll und ganz in der Lage\", Stimmzettel pünktlich zuzustellen; USPS-Chef: \"Nein, wir brauchen nicht\" mehr Mittel für die Auslieferung von Stimmzetteln; Trump am ersten Tag des RNC offiziell zum Präsidenten nominiert; Trumps Schwester sagt in einer geheimen Aufnahme: \"Er hat keine Prinzipien\".

USPS负责人：“反常地”询问他是否为特朗普的捐款向其他人进行了补偿；USPS负责人：“完全有能力”按时交付选票；USPS负责人：“不，我们不需要”更多的资金来进行投票；特朗普在RNC第一天就正式提名了总统候选人；特朗普的妹妹在秘密录音中说“他毫无原则”。

COOPER: President Trump has now been formally nominated to lead his party for another four years on day one at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. We just heard the president's largely negative remarks that were riddled with false claims, unfortunately. The president is expected to buck tradition, making appearance every night of this week's Republican National Convention. I want to talk about this Tony Schwartz. He is the author of the Art of the Deal. Tony, first, I'm wondering what you make of the president breaking with tradition, insisting on speaking every night at the convention, probably not much of a surprise. More of a surprise, the GOP not adapting a platform and basically just backing whatever the president wants to do, which he has not been able to really elaborate on in two interviews. TONY SCHWARTZ, CO-AUTHOR, THE ART OF THE DEAL: Well, they have stood down for four years, no surprise, they're standing down again. You're right that it's not surprising. And I think the idea of no platform is a reflection of the fact that there is no guidance to a platform from a man who has no platform other than some of your previous guests have said, grievance. The more fear, Trump is now singly focused on the notion that the more fear he can create, the more chaos he can create, the better the chance he has. I don't necessarily believe that's true but it's all he's got left. COOPER: So what you expect then for the next 75-plus days or 70-plus days, however long it is until the election, it sounds like you are expecting kind of a scorched earth attempt by the president. SCHWARTZ: Yes, I am. The question, the reason I smiling is because I'm wondering whose earth gets scorched. Because, on the one hand, Trump is going to get more and more extreme, every time you think you've seen the limits of what he can do, his own fear, his own concern, I think, not least that he will end up in jail if he's not the president, increases what he's willing to do. He is so openly the things he's been accused of being before now, such as racist. But on the other hand, the person Trump's earth -- the person that Trump is most capable of scorching is himself. And so the idea that his being at this convention for four nights, fine for his base, but we know his base is not enough to win the election. He will almost surely step on himself multiple times during these four days, so the more of Trump the better, although it isn't my plan to watch. COOPER: The president's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, these recordings of her bitterly criticizing her brother when secretly recorded by with her niece, Mary Trump, in one of the tapes, Barry was commenting on how her brother operated as president. I just want to play that. MARYANNE TRUMP BARRY, DONALD TRUMP'S SISTER: The goddamn tweet and the lies, oh, my God, I'm talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories, the lack of preparation, the lying, the -- holy shit. COOPER: It's kind of remarkable that if this was a -- you know, somebody in President Obama's family when he was president, this would have been a huge story. This would have been something that, you know, people were stunned by and said, oh, my God, opponents of the president would have used. I don't know if it's just that people know who Donald Trump is, for better, for worse, it is extraordinary to have the president's sister saying these things who is, herself, a respected federal judge, who's just retired. SCHWARTZ: Well, I think one of the dangers running up to this election, if you believe it's important for Trump to be defeated, is that we are somewhat anesthetized to any outrage, to any law that gets broken, to any number of lies that get told. There is nothing that's surprising with Trump anymore. And that isn't good because you do get numb and you stop recognizing that any given one of, say, the five things, six things that have happened in the past week, Bannon getting accused, Kellyanne Conway leaving the White House because her daughter is, you know, acting out, actually saying a lot of truth, all of these things that have happened are one after another and important in their own right. But when you get a flood of them, you tend to stop noticing. So keeping that reality check alive is critical. So, my fantasy, Anderson, is that after Claudia Conway comes forward, now Baron Trump comes forward. I mean, who could come forward that his base or at least the undecided voters would actually believe? Because you certainly wouldn't have voted for him on the basis of what Maryanne said, so maybe Baron, maybe his wife? Not sure who it is. COOPER: Yes. I mean, I hope families are left out of this because it's going to get ugly, as you said. Tony Schwartz, I really appreciate -- SCHWARTZ: Well, I think it's important -- COOPER: Yes? SCHWARTZ: I think it's really important that families have -- that members of the family have spoken up. I admire the bravery of Mary Trump very much. COOPER: Tony Schwartz, thank you. One of the most famous athletes in the world is now isolating after a coronavirus scare. Plus, the postmaster general grilled by House Democrats today as he denies accusations that he is trying to suppress voters. Plus, protests erupt in Wisconsin after a horrifying video shows a police officer shooting a black man at the back at close range and as his children sat inside the car. What we led up to this moment, what we know so far, ahead.

GOP Convention Begins, Trump Expected To Speak Every Night.

GOP-Kongress beginnt, Trump wird voraussichtlich jeden Abend sprechen.

共和党大会开始，特朗普或将每晚发表演讲。

CAMEROTA: The Republican National Convention gets underway in just hours. It comes as FOX News reports that more than two dozen former GOP members of Congress are now throwing their support behind a Republicans for Joe Biden effort. The list includes former senator -- Republican Senator Jeff Flake and many more. We'll get to that in a second. But joining us now is Jonathan Swann, national political reporter for Axios. CNN political commentator Amanda Carpenter. She's a former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz. And CNN political commentator, Scott Jennings. He's a former special assistant to President George W. Bush. Great to see all of you. So here's what we expect the first day in terms of these speakers, Amanda. It's Don Jr. It's Nikki Haley. It's Congressman Steve Scalise. It's Senator Tim Scott. I see all of the actual convention lineup faces. Is there anything on here that surprises you, anything you've heard so far? AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I mean, we expected a lot of family members. But the thing I'm most surprised in is not hearing from Donald Trump, because we hear from him almost every single day. It's watching how potential 2024 contenders, such as Nikki Haley, maybe a Kristi Noem, a Mike Pompeo, will be positioning themselves for a potential Trump endorsement. Because even if Donald Trump loses badly in 2020, he is not going to give up his grip as kingmaker of the Republican Party. And so I see those speakers angling to try to position themselves for that and split the difference between the Trump base and ambivalent Trump voters who might be listening tonight. BERMAN: Jonathan Swann, it is interesting, this Republicans for Biden effort. This list includes Jeff Flake. It includes people like Jim Leach, Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania, Bob Inglis of South Carolina, Jim Kolbe of Arizona. A list that may not be shocking, but a convention is about expanding, right? Addition. And when you have a dozen, maybe more, including Jeff Flake, a senator, come out and say, We are supporting your opponent, the day you're kicking off the convention, that does send a signal. JONATHAN SWANN, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: It also makes it harder for -- I mean, the key message of the Republican convention is going to be that Joe Biden is not this genial moderate man that you've known for the last half century. That, in fact, he is an empty vessel, mentally incapacitated, completely controlled by the radical left. And when -- when endorsements like this come out, it allows Joe Biden to provide soft Republicans, suburbanites, that sense of comfort that he's not what Donald Trump and the other side is portraying him as. So to that extent, it's very useful for Joe Biden and, to some extent, it neutralizes one of the key attacks you're going to see this week. CAMEROTA: I also thought that, Scott, that one of the things that neutralizes it are things like the interview that Joe Biden did, the long sit-down that he did with his running mate, Kamala Harris, last night on ABC. You know, it's hard to, I think, depict him as doddering when he has all sorts of plans and, you know, expresses them quite compellingly. Do you think that that's a note that they will hit over and over, and is it working? SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I do think they will -- they will hit the note over and over. Whether it works or not, I mean, I guess we'll have to wait and see. I think the greater issue here, frankly, is whether they can make it stick that the idea of electing Joe Biden and other Democrats is essentially a key to opening -- opening a Pandora's box of terrible liberal ideas. I mean, I think, ultimately, that's one thing I want to hear this week from the Republicans, is really the question of, if you go down this road of putting a Democrat in the White House, Democrats in the Senate, they're going to eliminate the filibuster. They are going to do a lot of things that you don't want as a country. So, sure, you know, Joe Biden could portray himself as a nice guy, a good guy, whatever, but that doesn't stop the ultimate Democratic Party agenda. That's why they didn't talk about it much last week, and here's what we would do instead. I think that's really the framing of the race that's going to benefit the president and the Republicans the most as we get past Labor Day. BERMAN: That's if the president can frame the race as about anything other than himself, right? Isn't that the big question, Jonathan? And you've got reporting on this, as to what the Republicans want to do. The big dilemma for the Republicans is that the president won't let this be about anything but himself. And he's putting himself in every night of the convention. So inevitably, it's going to be about what he says and what he does, and what Americans think of him. SWANN: That's true, but that is the inescapable, you know, reality. As long as Donald Trump's in office, that -- that's going to be a fact. But we do have some new reporting that he's not only going to leverage the setting of the White House, but he's also going to leverage the powers of the presidency, I'm told, during this convention. Think back to the State of the Union. His favorite moment during the State of the Union was when, mid-speech, he stops and awards Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing talk show host, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian order. This was a reality TV surprise, where he takes one of his executive powers and uses it in real time. I'm told that's the kind of idea he wanted to apply this week. So you're going to see a lot of that sort of television programming with Donald Trump. Not the traditional wait to see him at the end of the convention. He's going to have some role every night of this week. CAMEROTA: Well, in terms of big TV reveals, the other side had one, as well. I mean, there's -- Just prepare yourself. These will keep coming out, I think, from all corners, Amanda. But one of them is from Mary Trump. So the president's niece, I guess, surreptitiously, taped her aunt, the president's sister, Maryanne Barry. And we don't know much about the backstory. We do have one of the reporters who got the tapes on next to learn more about the backstory. But the upshot is that the president's sister thinks that he lies and is completely ill-equipped for the job. And she talked about it freely at these lunches with her niece. So here is a portion of that audiotape. MARYANNE TRUMP BARRY, DONALD TRUMP'S SISTER: This goddamn tweet and the lying. Oh, my God, I'm talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories, the lack of preparation, the lying, the -- holy shit. CAMEROTA: That says it all right there, Amanda. What do you think the upshot of that is? CARPENTER: I mean, it's all so strange. I've never heard of families taping each other like this until I heard of the Kushners and now the Trumps. But the thing that this makes me think of is that Mary Trump, the reason why she embarked on this journey, she says, the reason for her book, was that she wanted to give the story behind the family's finances. She was the source of that major "New York Times" story, showing how the Trump family got so rich through various tax-dodging schemes that Donald Trump participated in. And so she was so committed to that -- you know, regardless of the ethics, I can't get into those family dynamics -- she taped 15 hours of her aunt, wrote a book. And so I think there's something there that the public needs to know about. Maybe we'll find out as the Mazars case advances, eventually. But man, Donald Trump has a way of ripping families apart, doesn't he? BERMAN: Scott. JENNINGS: Yes, what kind of a creepy weirdo goes and tapes their family surreptitiously? I mean, think -- according to "The Washington Post," she taped this conversation because she was mad about an inheritance. And now she releases the tape on the heels of one of their family members dying, all to embarrass Donald Trump, who's currently grieving his brother. I mean, I just -- I don't -- I don't understand how or why people would do that, but here's what I think. Donald Trump is going to win or lose this race based on his record and based on whatever agenda he lays out and how he contrasts against Joe Biden. I don't think these tapes are going to make a bit of difference to people ultimately. And I don't know anybody, frankly, and I bet no one here knows anybody who's ambivalent about how they feel about Trump or his personal life or whatever. So I find this to be another sort of forgettable moment that we won't be talking about 24 hours from now. BERMAN: Yes, look, however -- however gross and creepy it is, there is a contrast, though. Right? We just finished a Democratic convention where you heard from people from security guards to kids, to people who campaigned against Joe Biden, telling you how much they love him. And now you have the president's own sister calling him a liar. So it's -- there is a contrast there. And I'm not disagreeing with anything anyone said about where this comes from. But it is out there and it does sit, I think, like a ton of bricks, as this thing starts. Whether it changes minds, I suppose, we'll never know -- Jonathan. SWANN: Well, I mean, one of the distinguishing features of Donald Trump has been, throughout his career in politics, I mean, I think it's inherent to him, but he's quite happy being this sort of antihero figure. He -- the usual idea of, you know, emphasizing your personal decency and character, he's never really done that. He's never tried to do that. He's never, even if it was a possible thing to do, he's never really sought to have people testify on his behalf in that manner. He's quite happy to be a figure of controversy. He saw that in his television career, and he's continued that on into his political career. So you know, it's quite notable that he hasn't even really put up much of a defense against it. He put out a dismissive statement, but they haven't been, you know, putting out all sorts of character references in, you know, combatting it. CAMEROTA: Amanda, we want to talk a little bit about Kellyanne Conway announcing that she will be leaving the White House. She certainly has carved her place in history. She was responsible for this successful campaign. I mean, certainly in large part. She stayed and survived in this White House longer than so many other people. Her -- she has four children. Her teenage daughter has generated some attention in the past couple of months on social media. And now here's part of Kellyanne Conway's resignation letter last night. She says, "This is completely my choice and my voice. In time, I will announce future plans. For now, and for my beloved children, it will be less drama, more mama." And interestingly, her husband also says he's stepping back from his career. I mean, it sounds like they're just all hands on deck and, you know, focused on their family right now. CARPENTER: Yes. And I'm reluctant to talk about their kids, but this is yet another example of a family becoming -- a firm, Republican family becoming divided over Trump. I mean, he does not bring people together. And going into this convention, you're going to see, like you mentioned earlier in the segment, more Republicans coming out against Trump. And that is because Donald Trump made very clear choices. He had a term to bring the party together. He doesn't even have a platform now, because there's nothing that unifies it besides his personality. And he made the choice to choose to bring morally conflicted people into his tent, like Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort. He endorsed Roy Moore while he derides people like Mitt Romney. And so those Republicans you see coming out, they're not going without a fight. They still care about their country, and Donald Trump hoped they would just go silently into the night, and they're not. BERMAN: We've got to go. I'm going to get yelled at for asking another question, but Scott, you worked in the Bush White House. Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, is going to speak at the convention. Secretaries of state don't do that. It's not something that happens in our country. Can you imagine Colin Powell or Condoleezza Rice have -- speaking at a Republican convention for George W. Bush? JENNINGS: No, I can't. In fact, when I worked there, we had a -- sort of a set of cabinet officials -- the secretary of state, the defense secretary, I think the Department of Homeland Security -- there was a group of people that were off-limits for any political events, including like a political convention. And so I was a little surprised to see that, although I think when you consider that Secretary Pompeo is a potential contender for 2024, I understand the impulse behind it. I hope they're following all the rules. But it is a bit of a departure from -- from the normal practice of sort of segregating your national security apparatus away from the political apparatus that certainly does exist around every administration. CAMEROTA: All right. Scott, Amanda, Jonathan, thank you all very much for the reporting and the insights. Now to this. The FDA issuing an emergency use authorization for a coronavirus treatment. But some top experts are concerned it has not been proven effective or safe. We have the facts, next.

Two Dozen Former GOP Congressional Members Back Biden; Trump's Sister Says He Has 'No Principles' in Secret Recordings.

Zwei Dutzende ehemalige GOP-Kongressmitglieder unterstützen Biden; Trumps Schwester sagt, er habe „keine Prinzipien“ bei geheimen Aufnahmen.

24名前共和党国会议员支持拜登；特朗普姐姐在秘密录音中指责特朗普没有原则

ASHER: Major cinema chains had their first big weekend in the U.S. but the box office isn't biting. North American ticket sales totaled 6.6 million. That's according to Box Office Mojo. While a record since mid-March, it's certainly a far cry from the more than 100 million pre-pandemic. Mooky Greidinger is the chief executive of Cineworld which runs Regal Cinemas. Regal reopened in the U.S. on Friday with new health procedures in place. He joins us live now from Israel via Skype. So, Mooky, thank you so much for being with us. So, what sort of numbers did Cineworld see specifically over the weekend? MOSHE GREIDINGER, CEO, CINEWORLD (via Skype): I think we had relatively good numbers. We need to remember that we opened only 190 cinemas, which is a third of what we open. We didn't have our big guns, the New York and California cinemas, but we had some very impressive results. We have some shows that were sold out. Although, it's sold out, in our days, it's not full capacity because of the restrictions and the social distancing. But still, we really felt and so the other ASHER: Yes, there's some excitement about "Tenet," and we'll see if that boosts revenues. But just in terms of the criteria you used to decide which specific cinemas and movie theaters to open. How did you reach your conclusions? GREIDINGER: So, first of all, a lot of the job was done by the governors of different states in the United States. It's not us because we're -- we were not allowed to open, so we did not open. And even though where we have two cinemas that are in very close proximity, we decided to open one this week and the one next week, in order also to get time for our teams to be back on the floor, and back on the show. And I think this was an important move. But in general, we are adding another 110 cinemas this weekend, and towards "Tenet," we'll be adding more. And we really hope to have the states that we're missing joining soon. I think that the move of cinema safe was very, very successful. This was bought by NATO Association, but also as Regal ourselves, we invested a lot of effort on the safety procedures. And this worked really well and people were, I would say even surprised a bit by how serious and how professional the safety measurements were. ASHER: Can you give us some specifics about the safety protocols that people can expect at Regal Cinemas, for example? GREIDINGER: So, first of all, mask is a must. And I think this is self- explanatory and nobody's arguing about this today. But if you want to go into the cinema, a mask is a must. Then, we have special sanitizing procedures. We have special cleaning sheets. All the team is trained, of course, also with masks in order to give the right treatment to the people. We have developed, by the way, a special app where you can in the lobby itself, if you don't feel comfortable to queue in the concession stand, you can order your food and this will be expecting you in a corner near the concession. Although, it's fully safe to queue for the concession because the social distancing is being kept. But if you don't feel comfortable with this, you can do it. It worked very well. It was this weekend, the first time we used this app. And we had a big number of transactions already there. And once people get used to it, it will become probably popular also for regular day. We are not going to live in the corner in the COVID-19 forever. ASHER: All right, Mooky Greidinger live for us there. Thank you so much. GREIDINGER: Thank you very much. ASHER: All right, let's turn now to the last few minutes of trade on Wall Street. Let's take a look and see how the Dow is faring. It has actually shot up. It's now up more than 300 points. Investors cheering the FDA's approval of plasma to treat COVID-19. The news has also pushed the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 higher. Both are on track for record closes. Busy week ahead for Wall Street. You've got U.S. Fed chair Jerome Powell speak at the Jackson Hole Symposium on Thursday, as well. We'll bring you that news when we get to later on this week on Thursday. And that is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, I'm Zain Asher in New York. The news continues right here on CNN.

Regal Cinemas Reopen With New Health & Safety Policies.

Regal Cinemas öffnen wieder mit neuen Gesundheits- und Sicherheitsrichtlinien.

随着新的健康和安全政策出台，富豪电影院重新开放。

CUOMO: It's interesting. One of the big lines at the Republican National Convention here on night one was, don't just listen to what they say, look at what they're trying to do. All right. Let's do that with the president. He is continually railing against mail-in voting. He is promising you that it can't be done well. He is promising you that it will lead to a contested election. He is promising you that the U.S. Postal Service will mess it up. Then there was this Trump tonight. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a postal worker. I deliver to the senior community during COVID-19. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good. And we're taking good care of our postal workers. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely. TRUMP: That I can tell you. Believe me, we're not getting rid of our postal workers, you know? They like to sort of put that out there. If anyone does, it's the Democrats, not the Republicans. CUOMO: My next guest is one of several officials across the country calling out this president and his attacks on mail-in voting. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold joins us now. It's good to see you, Secretary of state. Thank you for joining us. JENA GRISWOLD, COLORADO SECRETARY OF STATE: Thanks for having me on, Chris. CUOMO: First, you're taking legal action. Why? GRISWOLD: Because I will not allow the president to suppress voters. And that is exactly what he's trying to do. CUOMO: How so? GRISWOLD: You know, this president is willing -- well, he's willing to lie. He's willing to cheat. You know, our lawsuit specifically was about the Postal Service. He's been attacking the Postal Service because he has told us that he thinks it will stop mail ballots. And he thinks mail ballots will allow Democrats to win. And that's just untrue. We've seen in Colorado, all parties, Independents, Republicans and Democrats use mail ballots. In fact, in our statewide primary, a higher percentage of Republicans use mail ballots just this summer. So we're not going to allow the President to risk the lives of Coloradans to try to tilt this election into his favor. CUOMO: So I hear what you say about this past election. The basic attack by the president is fraud. And favoritism, you guys are all Democrats who want to do this, you're going to send it only to the Democratic neighborhoods, not the Republican neighborhoods. You countered that by saying, oh yes, then why did the Republicans use it more than the Democrats -- fine. So what about the initial attack which is, you don't know who you're sending them to. And that's going to create fraud. Just show up in person. GRISWOLD: Well, we do know who we're sending them to. We have a statewide poll book (ph). And, by the, way it's not just this last election that Republicans used mail ballots in a big way. We've had more Republicans use mail ballots in the last two out of three general elections than Democrats. So the president is hurting Republican voters, he's hurting Democrat voters. And I think it's just a shame that he's willing to risk the lives of Americans, of you and me to keep his political power. You know, I know you know COVID. I was so happy to see you get on the other side. My mom's a nurse. She's been working at a COVID ward. And I think we all can agree, at least, hopefully you and me that we shouldn't be forcing Americans into crowded polling centers in the middle of a pandemic. And that's why vote by mail is so important right now. CUOMO: Do you have any concerns as to whether or not you will be able to officiate the election with accuracy and completeness? GRISWODL: I have no concern whatsoever. Colorado, we have the highest percentage of eligible people registered. We often have the highest turnout rate in the nation and also we're considered the securest state to cast a ballot because Russia cannot hack a paper ballot. In fact, Chris, President Trump's own DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen commended us for our leading national security. It all comes down to vote by mail and every American should have the access to vote in their homes safely during a pandemic. CUOMO: And you believe the Postal Service can get it done? GRISWOLD: Well, I do think that the postal -- the postmaster general, excuse me, has been complicit with the president. And we need to call on him to return all the equipment that he has removed. And funding from Congress would also be nice, but in general, I do believe here in Colorado, we will have a great election. Our election withstands postmaster generals and pandemics. And what this nation can do is look towards us. We send out ballots about three weeks beforehand. We have hundreds of in person voting sites. We have early voting. We have hundreds of drop boxes. We believe in accessibility and we're going to have a great election in November. CUOMO: Secretary of State, thank you very much. Good luck in your state. GRISWOLD: Thank you. CUOMO: All right. It was a big night for the Republican National Convention. You now know the flavor of the message of what they want you to believe. What is it? Next.

Interview with Colorado Secretary of State

Interview mit Colorados Außenminister

对科罗拉多州国务卿的采访

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Live pictures tonight from Washington, D.C. on night two of the Republican National Convention. President Trump is getting more airtime tonight and breaking more norms by awarding a pardon in the middle of a political event. Welcome to CNN's special convention coverage. I'm Anderson Cooper. Tonight, the Republicans are going to new lengths to promote the President's re-election and raising serious ethics questions in the process. Let's go to Wolf Blitzer. Wolf, in addition to this pardon the President will grant, there's controversy surrounding one of tonight's headline speakers. WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST; There certainly is, Anderson. House Democrats are now opening an investigation at the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and whether his precedent shattering decision to address the convention from Jerusalem violate State Department policy or the law. Pompeo warned diplomats just last month against improperly engaging in politics. Republicans say he got legal clearance for the speech and claim he is speaking as a private citizen. Also to watch out tonight, the First Lady, Melania Trump. Republicans say her remarks from the White House Rose Garden will be positive and forward looking with about 75 people in the audience, including her husband. We're covering it all with our political team, Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, and Abby Phillip. They're here. Jake, what more can you tell us about the President's role tonight? JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Wolf, frankly, I have never seen any president so blatantly use and some will no doubt argue misuse the power of his office, his Article 2 powers under the Constitution for naked political purposes. Tonight, the President will issue a pardon for Jon Ponder, a convicted bank robber. Ponder is a worthy candidate for a pardon. He helps fellow former prisoners reemerge in the world. He has turned his life around. He was pardoned earlier this year by the State of Nevada, but for the President to do so as part of a political convention is highly unusual, if not completely inappropriate. Same with the President's other surprise tonight. He is going to preside over a naturalization ceremony for new citizens. This is a President accused of demonizing immigrants both undocumented and legal since he began his campaign. Now, to reiterate, these are worthy actions part of his presidential powers, but it cheapens them to make them convention stunts. It seems to be an attempt to help wipe the slate clean after years of racially incendiary, if not objectively racist acts and words. And Dana, the campaign obviously understands this is a real point of vulnerability for the President, the perception that he is racist, and they're trying to fight that including with new testimonials about how he has helped minorities. DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And we expect Republicans to try to take that up a notch tonight. Kentucky's first black Attorney General, Daniel Cameron will be speaking and Republicans who planned the convention are promoting him as a breakout star. Now, we're told that he will hit Joe Biden on race, hammer the Democratic nominee for saying that African-Americans who don't support him are quote, "anti-black," a comment that Biden quickly apologized for. And we anticipate more attacks on Biden from former Florida Attorney General, Pam Bondi. And we're told that she is going to pick up where she left off as a member of the President's impeachment defense team going after Joe Biden, his son, Hunter, and pressing allegations of nepotism. That as Trump's own children will play starring roles in his convention for another night. Check out two prominent speakers. His son, Eric; his daughter, Tiffany. So Abby, Republicans are shifting between attack mode and emotional appeals to voters. ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Dana, once again, some of the most compelling and emotional stories will come from everyday Americans like Officer Ryan Holets, who will talk about the President's efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. You might remember Holets and his wife because they adopted the baby of an addicted homeless woman and that story went viral. Their daughter, Hope is now thriving and her birth mother is in recovery. But there can be risks to featuring real people at a convention and we just learned that an advocate for tougher immigration laws, who was supposed to speak tonight has been abruptly pulled from the convention program. Just in the last couple of hours, Mary Ann Mendoza has been pulled from tonight's program after posting tweets on an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. We're going to have a lot more on this breaking story ahead, Anderson. COOPER: Abby, thanks very much. In fact, we are getting new information about that last minute change in speaking lineup. Jim Acosta is digging on that. Jim, what have you learned? JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Anderson, you know, we've talked so much about the President's embrace of the QAnon movement that conservative fringe movement that is so powerful online. Well, Exhibit Z, in that continuing saga is unfolding tonight. And that is just a few moments ago, we learned that Mary Ann Mendoza, who Abby just mentioned there, has been pulled from the lineup here at this Republican Convention. She was scheduled to speak about her experience as an angel mom. She's one of the angel moms who's grown close to President Trump and this administration. ACOSTA: Well, in a tweet that she posted earlier today, we can put it up on screen, she says, "Do yourself a favor and read this tweet." The tweet goes on to -- read this thread, she said -- it goes on to lay out views expressed by the QAnon movement and also included some anti- Semitic views. At one point, the thread talks about a Jewish plot to enslave people in the United States, as well as other views expressed by the QAnon movement. Just in the last hour or so, Mary Ann Mendoza posted a tweet apologizing for all of this and we could put that up on screen. It says, "I retweeted a very long thread earlier without reading every post within the thread. My apologies for not paying attention to the intent of the whole message that does not reflect my feelings or personal thoughts whatsoever." That apology aside, she appears to have been booted from the lineup tonight at least according to the latest lineup provided to the television pool covering tonight's G.O.P. convention. Now in the meantime, we should point out speaking of QAnon, a G.O.P. congressional candidate who has embraced the QAnon movement tweeted earlier today that she has been invited to attend the last night of this Republican Convention to watch the President's speech here at the White House. And obviously, it's just another example, Anderson, of how the President and his team have embraced this QAnon movement, but sometimes with unintended consequences that often blow up in their faces, and this is one of those examples this evening. This activist who is supportive of the President, Mary Ann Mendoza has been pulled from the lineup tonight because of her extreme views -- Anderson. COOPER: I don't quite understand why she would be pulled from the lineup. The President has called the woman you just talked about, that G.O.P. candidate from Georgia, a future star of the Republican Party. She has backed QAnon and has been a 9/11 truther in the past. So, interesting that she is a star according the President -- a future star of the Republican Party, yet this person gets booted from a convention speaking. We'll see if there's any explanation of that double standard. ACOSTA: We're not getting one yet -- Anderson. COOPER: Yes. Jim Acosta, thanks. Going now to Gloria and David and Nia-Malika Henderson. Gloria, I mean, this whole QAnon thing is obviously, it's an anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic based conspiracy theory about deranged and just ludicrous on its face about a cabal of Democratic leaders and Hollywood celebrities drinking the blood of children, worshipping Satan and engaging in child sex trafficking from a pizza parlor. But it has -- the President has had multiple opportunities to distance himself from it, and he has not done so. GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: No, as he said the other day, well, I hear they like me, and that's all that matters to Donald Trump. I hear they like me. So let's invite her to the, you know, to the convention. I mean, and this is the problem they have, in reintroducing an incumbent President who has been around for four years, they're trying in this convention to have it be an affirmation of Donald Trump, a kinder, gentler Donald Trump, if you will, and they're trying to get the American public to buy into that picture. And in doing so, they're saying, okay, he is an empathetic. Look at all of these wonderful people we are presenting to you, average Americans for whom Donald Trump has meant so much. And on the other hand, you see the QAnon stuff and the question is, will the American public buy the people he wants actually to buy -- will they buy the fact that this is an empathetic President, who has done a great job in dealing with COVID, who is really there to combat racism? And will they buy that Joe Biden is a leftist radical? That's what it's about. COOPER: David Axelrod, it is interesting because Vice President Pence, you know, got upset when he was asked about QAnon, whereas -- you know and pretends as if it's not an issue at all, whereas the President, I mean, the President himself has said this person is a future star of the Republican Party. DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Well, I quite agree with Gloria. I mean, this is -- the way to Donald Trump's heart is to like Donald Trump, to say you like Donald Trump, to embrace Donald Trump, and all is forgiven if you do that. That has been the history of him. You know, Lindsey Graham has spoken about this at length that I want to be effective, and the way to be effective is to be really nice to Trump and then he'll be nice to you and it doesn't really matter who you are. But you know, on the speaker who was booted from the lineup, it would have been a little awkward to have a speaker who was spreading anti- Semitic tropes on the same night you have the Secretary of State speaking from the roof of the King David Hotel to the American people at the convention. Look, Donald Trump is a -- Fox News did a poll in mid-August, 36 percent said they thought Donald Trump had the compassion to be an effective President. I don't think he's going to fix that problem at this convention. AXELROD: He is going to make these passing attempts. That's what a lot of this stuff is about, but in the main, you know, this is about the base, and he is going after -- he needs to rile up that base, because Anderson, if you can find me, you know, we talked about Trump, Obama, Trump voters -- if you could find me, a Clinton-Trump voter, I would suggest we put that person in a field museum because they are a rare species. He needs to stoke up his base and he needs to find more people like his base and that's what this convention is really about. NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, and one of things I think you'll see tonight is the G.O.P. really target African- American men. You saw some of that last night, a lot of the prominent speakers were African-American men. If you look at the voting behavior of African-American men in 2016, about 13 percent voted for Donald Trump. So they really, I think want to connect with that group of African-Americans which might essentially make it harder for Biden to get the kind of numbers among African-Americans that he needs to beat Donald Trump. I think you'll see that a play out tonight. They'll have the Attorney General from Kentucky, for instance, talking about Biden's record on race. So that's one of the things. It goes to this whole idea of Donald Trump isn't the racist, but many people see him as in these poll numbers, and we'll see again if that works, given his record on race and racial rhetoric over these last many years. COOPER: We're getting new information right now about Melania Trump's speech tonight and who helped her write it. We're also learning more about the ethical questions surrounding Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's convention speech. That's ahead. COOPER: Closing in the second night of the Republican Convention, two appearances by President Trump to break with convention. First Lady Melania Trump also in the spotlight as she prepares to deliver the final speech of the night. Let's check in with more of our correspondents covering the convention. First, Kate Bennett who covers the First Lady, Melania Trump. Kate, what are you learning about her speech tonight? KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, like most things with Melania Trump, she did not vet this speech with the West Wing. In fact, not with the campaign either as she was working on it. This is a completely Melania Trump East Wing shop speech, something very unusual for most First Ladies historically who work in tandem with the West Wing to make sure that messaging is on point and that things feel cohesive. However, you know, as we learned in 2016, when she decided to go with a speech writer who was essentially a staffer at the Trump Organization, we know how that went with the plagiarism that followed her, you know, basically into the White House. This time again, she has said no to professional speech writers. She does not like or trust outsiders, and instead, she mainly relied on one of her senior staffers. We're hearing that Stephanie Grisham was the primary writer of the First Lady's speech tonight. Grisham has written her speeches before. Again, it is a departure for most traditional First Ladies that this First Lady is opting to act on her own especially in light of how things went in 2016, which was actually her last public address to the nation. This is a First Lady we do not hear from a lot. Also Anderson, I should know this is actually the first campaign appearance from the First Lady and it might be her last. We've reported she has no other campaign events or travel or fundraisers on her schedule moving ahead. COOPER: Let's go to Kaitlan Collins. Now, Kaitlan, you have new reporting on Mike Pompeo's speech. KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it hasn't even aired yet and it has already drawn a ton of scrutiny over the last several days because of the fact that the Secretary of State is recording a speech for a political convention, something you do not see that's breaking precedent, but also because he recorded it while he is overseas on an official diplomatic trip. And I am being told tonight that that speech has been vetted by attorneys, attorneys to the White House, the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign. What's unclear still, Anderson, though is whether or not State Department attorneys have actually looked over what Mike Pompeo is expected to say tonight. Because right now, he is facing accusations that he is violating State Department legal guidance by giving this speech, but also he is being accused by a Democratic House Member that he is potentially violating Federal law by making this appearance tonight. Now, White House officials have not seemed concerned about these accusations given this review that underwent all of these speeches, not just Mike Pompeo's, but every speech that you're seeing at this convention has been reviewed by this group of attorneys in the days before it is scheduled to air. And so that's the question and it comes amid a larger backdrop of not only whether or not his violates these diplomatic traditions, but also Melania Trump's being in the Rose Garden, using a Federal government property to make a political pitch to voters. COOPER: We will watch. Kaitlan, thanks very much. Kate as well. Let's go to our panelists. Senator Santorum, it is certainly unconventional, both Mike Pompeo and even First Lady Melania Trump from the Rose Garden. Is it inappropriate? RICK SANTORUM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I mean, I would say that I can't speak to the State Department rules, but certainly for Cabinet officials. I mean, I wish I had a dollar for every Cabinet official I campaigned with during my time in politics. I could buy everybody here a nice dinner. I mean, Cabinet officials often, you know, gives very political speeches, not just to convention or other places. I don't know where Congresswoman Castor is coming off of that -- any form of illegality. It is. I would agree with you. For Secretary of State, usually Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Attorney General don't do a lot of political events or very, very few at all. Mike Pompeo is a little different. COOPER: And on an official Trip. SANTORUM: I mean, Mike is -- right. Well, Mike, yes. Mike -- look, I was in Iowa with Mike Pompeo. I mean, you know, Mike is very focused on you know, obviously getting the President reelected, but he is also focused on preparing himself for I think a run in four years. I think that makes a difference. And then finally, he is in Israel because the President just pulled off an enormous foreign policy victory with the Israeli-UAE peace treaty. So I think that's probably the reason you're seeing this President bring because they want to highlight you know, the President has got something very big done for the country. COOPER: Van? VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I don't agree that this is a good thing. First of all, everybody -- we are talking about yesterday, lawlessness. We had law and order. This is lawlessness on the part of the administration. The Hatch Act is very clear and the reason that Hatch Act is clear is this. That's my taxpayer money, too. I'm paying for that White House. I'm paying for these flights overseas. I'm not paying for the Trump campaign, and that's what's going on here. It's an abuse of office. It is an abuse of taxpayer money to be to be hijacking all of these opportunities and nobody has done it before because it's in poor form. COOPER: David Urban, is it in poor form? DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hey, look, I agree with the Van. Taxpayer dollars shouldn't be used. Especially with what the Hatch Act says, and I guarantee you that the lawyers who vetted this made sure not one penny of taxpayer dollars were being used. Secretary Pompeo has every right under the Hatch Act to express his personal opinion on his free time. He only gets paid, ladies and gentlemen, to work 60 hours a week, so he's -- I'm sure he's burned a lot more than 60 hours a week. COOPER: But David, when you're Secretary of State, or you know, Ambassador to a place, aren't you -- I mean, do you have free time? I mean, you're the Secretary of State making a statement, is saying you're saying this as a person? URBAN: Anderson -- COOPER: Yes, go ahead. URBAN: Of course, he has. Of course, he has free time. Of course, he does. COOPER: Really? Okay. I mean, I'm not allowed. You know, I wouldn't go out and make a political statement. You know, about supporting a candidate. SANTORUM: Anderson. Yes, Anderson. I mean, look, as I said, Cabinet officials campaign all the time. I mean, all the time. For every person I can think of, I mean, the three that don't, as I mentioned before, but there's no legal prohibition for a Secretary of commerce to go and do a -- ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Anderson, let's talk about the hypocrisy here -- SANTORUM: Because they can't paint for me, like I said many, many times. COOPER: Right. NAVARRO: Let's talk about the hypocrisy of -- let's talk about the hypocrisy of Secretary Pompeo sending out a memo to Department of State employees, telling them not to use their jobs or their positions in order to campaign and do politics. Look, this idea that he is there in a personal capacity is a load of malarkey. Okay. He didn't fly there on United, he flew there on a government plane. He's not sitting in his living room in Kansas. He's not in Israel because he's going to get a facial with mud from the Dead Sea. He is there as Secretary of State, and he's there to highlight something that they feel has not gotten enough attention as Rick Santorum or it was David who said. He is there abusing and exploiting his personal capacity in order to highlight a Trump administration policy. And he flew there and is on the government dime. Period. COOPER: We're going to take a quick break. We're going to have more of this. Obviously, we'll see a lot of the Trump family tonight and throughout this convention. The President's son, Eric and daughter, Tiffany have speaking roles tonight. All of that ahead. We'll be right back. BLITZER: All right, the beautiful Mellon Auditorium here in Washington, D.C., where several of the speakers will be featured later tonight. We're just a minute or so away from the start of the second night of the Republican National Convention. Jake, what specifically are you looking for? TAPER: Well, I think that we should expect a night full of erosions of norms and standards. I mean, there was an expectation in this country that Secretaries of State, a tradition, Secretaries of State will not speak at conventions. I cannot imagine the outcry if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had spoken at the Democratic Convention in 2012. Colin Powell in 2004 said he was obliged not to participate in any way, shape, fashion or form in parochial political debates, "I have to take no sides in this matter." And yet, Mike Pompeo is going to be doing exactly that. Just one of many erosions of standards. We're also going to have the President issuing a pardon during a political convention. I mean, this is an individual who no doubt deserves a pardon. He was pardoned earlier this year by the State of Nevada, but the idea that this would be done as part of a political convention, it's just a completely normal eroding, norm busting tradition. And I think we're going to see a lot of that during this convention. And I just can't even imagine what Republicans on Capitol Hill would be doing if Democrats were doing these types of activities during a convention, Wolf. It just -- they'd be rioting, frankly. BLITZER: And there's a second appearance later in the evening by the President, a naturalization of new citizens, a naturalization ceremony. TAPPER: And again, a completely worthy and important part of the presidential powers he has, but not for a political convention, although obviously he has a political goal here, to make it seem as though he's not hostile to minorities or to immigrants -- Wolf. BLITZER: The second night of this a Republican National Convention is now about to begin with a video just like last night. Watch this. It's important. JON VOIGHT, ACTOR: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Without life there can be no liberty. Without liberty, there is no happiness. Without equality, there is no opportunity. America has strived since its founding to promote equality under the law to correct injustices and to ensure opportunity for all. It is a work in progress not always perfect. Some look at American opportunity and see only problems. They want equal outcome, not equal opportunities. They criticize without solutions, demand wealth without work. Their ways are historical failures evidenced by tyranny and poverty, a prevailing darkness in every country has been tried. The American Dream inspired by American opportunity is the engine of entrepreneurship. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's beautiful VOIGHT: The inspiration to the greatest inventions, the highest achievements, and establishing a quantity of life, second to none, providing jobs, creating futures, fulfilling dreams. In America opportunity preserves individual freedom. It leads to exceptionalism. It's a bright shining light an example for all to see. Tonight, we explore together America. Land of opportunity. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From Washington, D.C. Welcome to the 2020 Republican National Convention. Tonight, celebrating America as the land of opportunity. NORMA URRABAZO, INTERNATIONAL CHURCH OF LAS VEGAS: I'm going to invite you to join your faith with mine and let's pray in agreement. Lord, we come before you to ask for your spirit of peace to come over hurting communities in Wisconsin tonight. We pray for healing and comfort to Jacob Blake and his family. We pray for your protection over those who put their lives in harm's way to bring safety and security to our streets. We pray that the truth and justice will be at the heart of all decisions that are made by our leaders. And that we as a people will seek reconciliation with you, as we do the same with each other. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness over our lives, for your blessing over our nation, for your guiding hand over every person that calls the United States of America, their home. Lord, we thank you for all that have gone before us and have sowed seeds of sacrifice. For our freedom, for our prosperity, and for our peace. Those that gave their lives so that we could live and achieve the American Dream. Your word declares in II Corinthians where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. This country was founded by the people for their God, liberty, freedom, equality. It's what we want in our country. Lord, we invite you into our homes, into our lives. Give us revelation that will overthrow any enemies that stand against this, so that we will be victorious in this next season. We need you. Let your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We surrender to your plans and purpose for our lives. We ask, bring heaven down to earth, over every person here and all those watching today. As we move into this next chapter in our journey to greatness. We asked for your presence to be with us. Lead us, Lord, give us strategies from heaven. I decree the words of Isaiah 11.12 over a president, vice president and all government authorities from every state in our nation. May the Spirit of the Lord rests on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel in might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. I release a blessing over every person in every home. Lord, release health, healing, peace, strength and courage. Let us stand together in unity as we embrace another chapter on our journey to greatness. I decree and declare America, the best is yet to come. And I asked all this in the name of Jesus. Amen. LEIGHANNE BALL, MILITARY SPOUSE: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. JON PONDER, HOPE FOR PRISONERS: I always had this unshakable sense that I know that I know that life has to be more than what it was I've been living. I caught my very first felony conviction at 16 years old and that type of behavior had led me into more and more arrest, get in trouble until the age of 37 years old. I was arrested for a string of bank robberies. And based off of my criminal history, there is a potential that a federal judge can sentence me up to 23 years in a maximum security United States Federal Penitentiary. And then that moment, I played a les make a deal with God. And I asked God to climb into the robe of that judge, whether it's 10 years or 15 years, I'm going to invest the rest of my life serving you. And I stood before that federal judge, Judge Mahan took his glasses off, lean back and said, I don't know why I'm going to do this. But he said I'm not going to give you what you deserve. Then he gave me a lesser sentence. And as he laid on that stainless steel cell shack of hands and my feet. I heard God otter into my spirit. My son I honored what you asked me to do. He said, never forget the promise that you made to me. And ever since that day, I got up off the floor in my life with a 180-degree turn in the other direction. RICHARD BEASLEY, FMR FBI AGENT: When Jon got that sentence, I just shook my head and said, well, Jon, you are destined for bigger things than prison. My name is Richard Beasley, I was a FBI special agent for about 25 and a half years. PONDER: It was something about his demeanor when he walked into that room. I had this feeling like everything's going to be OK. BEASLEY: Then when he got out, he gave me a call says, hey, Rich, let's have lunch. So I met him at the McDonald's, and he's got a Bible with him. I've seen that before where guys have used a Bible as a prop. It took me about 30 seconds to understand that this was not a proper Jon. He was a change guy. From the man that I arrested, you know, several years before, PONDER: When I saw the way that he treated me fairly, you know, I saw the man behind the suit. I started thinking, man, if that worked for me with this law enforcement officer, how can I multiply that and get more law enforcement officers involved so that we can impact this on a larger scale? President Trump, he had made a bunch of promises. Let me just be transparent with you first started talking about the things he was going to do. I'm sitting there going, wait a minute here. I mean, is he serious because everything that he was saying that he wanted to do was the stuff that needs to be done. And before he walked out that meeting that day, I promise I'll make it out there to, you know, come speak at one of your graduations. I heard that they were phenomenal. When he stood there in that graduate and he went out of his way to shake the hand of every one of those 29 graduates, set them on a whole another DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: Two years ago, I was honored to tell Jon Ponder his story of transformation in the Rose Garden on the National Day of Prayer. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome him back to the White House. Jon's life is a beautiful testament to the power of redemption. Jon grew up without his father, as he tells it, my mother was strong, but she wasn't able to keep us out of the gangs and off of the streets, and they were violent streets. At the age of 38, he was arrested for bank robbery. While Jon was in prison. He began reading the Bible and listening to Christian radio. One day he heard Reverend Billy Graham on the radio proclaim, Jesus wants to be Lord of your life. On that day Jon dedicated his life to Christ. He spent the rest of his time in prison studying the Bible. When he was released, he heard a knock at his door. It was the officer who put him in jail. FBI Special Agent Richard Beasley who said, I want you to know that I've been praying for you. Now Richard and Jon are best friends. And we are grateful that Richard is here with us today. In the last 10 years since Jon was released, he has created one of the most successful reentry programs Hope for Prisoners in Las Vegas. I was led to speak there earlier this year. As Jon says, Hope for Prisoners is a movement that began as a dream in a tiny prison cell and is now making a difference in the lives of thousands truly bringing hope that there is an opportunity and a community that is working and willing to offer them a second chance. Jon, we honor your devotion to showing returning citizens that they are not forgotten. We believe that each person is made by God for a purpose. I will continue to give all Americans including former inmates the best chance to build a new life and achieve their own American dream and a great American Dream it is. Now I'd like to ask Jon and Richard, to say a few words. PONDER: I can't tell you how grateful I am to have the opportunity to speak to you today. Not so long ago, my life was running from the police, fearing the police, and avoiding the police, not because of anything that the police had done to me personally, but due to the animosity I had allowed to grow inside of me, making me believe that they were my enemy. But today, praise God. I am filled with hope. A proud American citizen who has been given a second chance. My transformation began in a prison cell. While I found myself a three time convicted felon facing yet another sentence. I gave my life to Jesus and made him a promise that I was spending the rest of my days helping others like me. My first help and support came from the unlikeliest of places. The FBI agent who arrested me Richard Beasley, he is now a dear friend, and has been a source of encouragement to me throughout my entire journey. I am grateful for the men and women of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department who volunteer their time to people who return into our local community after incarceration. These are the real life heroes who put their lives on the line everyday, armed with the promise that they made to protect and to serve have made a tremendous impact in the lives of men and women, we integrate them back into our society. My hope for America is that formerly incarcerated people will be afforded the opportunity to take advantage of the future that we live in a nation of second chances. My hope for America is that law enforcement and people into communities across the country can come together and realize that as Americans, we have more in common than we have differences. My hope for our great nation is to continue on this path we are on of being the most prosperous country in the world. BEASLEY: I'm so proud of Jon with his life's turnaround, and for all the lives that he's helped to change. It may be hard to believe that as a retired FBI agent, one of my best friends is a person I arrested for bank robbery. When I met Jon 15 years ago, he was angry, scared, frustrated, and anxious about his future. On the drive to prison, I stopped at a convenience store and bought Jon a coffee and a doughnut. After he was sentenced, Jon sent me a necktie and a note thanking me for treating him like a gentleman. Five years later, when he got out of prison, Jon called me and wanted to meet for lunch. He was a different man. He talked about starting a reentry program for men and women coming out of prison. Over time, Jon earned the trust and respect of the law enforcement community, many of whom volunteer in Jon's Hope for Prisoners Program. I'm grateful for President Trump's commitment to criminal justice reform. On February 20th of this year, he was the guest speaker at the Hope for Prisoners graduation. He stayed much longer than scheduled to hand out diplomas to the 29 men and women who graduated that day. Or to cite the most important man in the free world shaking hands and pledging his administration support to ex-offenders. Their families were there, the community was there. What a great second chance. I also appreciate President Trump's support for law enforcement. I always felt like I had strong support as an FBI agent. But there's nothing worse than knowing you're being second guessed when you're doing your job. In certain parts of our country right now, law enforcement doesn't feel like they have the support from their local leaders. They're being painted with a broad brush, unfairly with calls for defunding. But as President Trump knows the overwhelming percentage of law enforcement officers are good, smart people are doing their jobs very well. And they can change the world working with people like Jon. Thank you. TRUMP: So now I'd like to invite Jon's wife Jamie to join us as I grant Jon. I'm not sure you know this a full pardon. So I don't know if you know that, Jamie, come on over here. It's just an honor. And you've done incredible work. PONDER: Thank you, sir. TRUMP: And all of Las Vegas and all of Nevada and all of every place in this country is very proud of you, the job you've done. Bringing people back in your, and I was supposed to be there for five minutes. I stayed for an hour. JAMIE PONDER, WIFE OF JON PONDER: You did. TRUMP: Because it was so interesting to me. Congratulations to both of. PONDER: Thank you sir. TRUMP: Richard, thank you very much for the job you do. BEASLEY: Thank you. TRUMP: Fantastic. BEASLEY: Thank you. TRUMP: OK, I think I'll give it to Jamie ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: President of United States pardoning Jon Ponder in the midst of the Republican National Convention. Somewhat unprecedented. Probably, in fact, fair to say just unprecedented. Van Jones is joining us. Van, you've worked with this White House on criminal justice issues in the past. What do you make of what we just wish you to witness. It's a presidential pardon. I mean, it is also a political convention stunt. VAN JONES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, I love that he did it. I don't like where he did it and the way he did it. So I feel torn. But let me just say, my only complaint or criticism about the part is that I just wish there were more of them. There are so many people like him who are deserving. So many people have turned their lives around. And I work with this White House, I work with the Obama White House, I work with many governors to get more of that to happen. So it's a very good thing to show the country that redemption is possible. But I think it cheapens it. When you do it in a political convention. You do it in a political way, because then it begins to look like you're just doing it as a stunt. And so for me, you know, I, you're sitting, you're torn. That is a beautiful story. That man, as Jake Tapper said many times he is deserving. But what we need to do is fix the whole pardon and clemency process, make it rational, take it out of Department of Justice, put it in the White House, and let's get a lot of people home and do a good job. But I don't think it's appropriate to do it at a political convention. Because I think you take up something that's very sacred, it's a sacred power the President has, only executive has it. And you wind up cheapening it, and you're using it as a political stunt when I don't think that that is necessary. This is this is an issue that has brought people together, and we should stay together on it and not politicize it. I think in this way. COOPER: Mr. Ponder who's clearly doing remarkable work. One of the things I thought was interesting he talked about when he was facing the judge, the judge could have given him a variable sentence and saw something in him and decided not to, according to Mr. Ponder, clearly there's an awful lot of other people who aren't so lucky when facing the criminal justice system. JONES: And that's the challenge that we have. You know, the Obama administration did well, administratively and put a lot of protections in place of trying to get people a home earlier, Obama actually did a lot more pardons than any president before him, including also including Trump. But legislatively, they weren't able to get it done. Trump is the opposite. On the legislative side, they got the first step act done, but there are still people at the Department of Justice who are doing everything they can to drive the car in reverse. And so, you got two administrations back to back. The good thing is both working on criminal justice, but they haven't been able to get across the finish line, I think is one of the few areas that people have come together on. I'm glad he did it. But I tell you, this is not -- we shouldn't I don't want the politicization of the White House as a building. I pay for that building, you pay for that building. It shouldn't be used as a political prop or political backdrop. These sacred acts of the President should not be being used for political purposes. It's great that we're educating the public, but I don't think it should be doing -- I just -- it's going to make it very hard for people to really celebrate it and see the beauty of it. If it seems like it's justice done. COOPER: Van Jones thanks very much. Still ahead First Lady Melania Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Our coverage of the Republican National Convention continues after a quick break. BLITZER: Live pictures are White House a beautiful shot of Washington D.C. A lot of events taking place at the White House during this, the second night of the Republican National Convention. We'll be hearing from Melania Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, but here's Jason Joyce of Maine. JASON JOYCE, MAINE LOBSTERMAN: Good evening. My name is Jason Joyce, and I'm an eighth generation lobster fisherman from Swans Island, Maine. I make my living from lobster fishing, oyster farming and providing eco tours in the beautiful waters near Acadia National Park, where I have over 200 years of family history. I have to confess, I didn't support Trump in 2016 skeptical that he shared my conservative views. I expected him to flip flop on his campaign promises. But he his follow through and his promises including last week when he brokered a deal to end European Union tariffs of 8% on Main live lobsters and up to 20% on Main lobster products, which is great news for mains lobster men and women. I live in an island with 370 residents and lobstering is how we provide for our families, Maine's lobstermen, our true environmentalist, we practice conservation every day. If we didn't, we'd be putting ourselves out of business. Four years ago, the Obama-Biden administration used the Antiquities Act to order thousands of square miles of ocean off limits to commercial fishermen. They did it to cater to environmental activists. Although Maine's lobstermen don't fish there, Obama's executive order offended us greatly. It's circumvented the fisheries council's input. President Trump reversed that decision, reinstating the rules that allow stakeholder input and he supports a process that seeks and respects fisherman's views. As long as Trump is president, fishing families like mine will have a voice. But if Biden wins, he'll be controlled by the environmental extremists who wants to circumvent long standing rules and impose radical changes that hurt our coastal communities. I strongly support President Trump's reelection. When he sees something isn't right. He's fearless in fixing it. He listens to work in people. He nominates judges who respect the constitution and the right to life. He keeps his word, like eliminating the European tariffs and moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. I hope you will join me this time in voting for President Trump. Stand up for your country. Thank you. CRIS PETERSON, WISCONSIN DAIRY FARMER: Good evening. My name is Chris Peterson. My husband Gary our family and I milk 1,000 cows on a dairy farm in Grantsburg, Wisconsin, a small middle of American town. Truth be told, until I married my cute farmer from Grantsburg. A long time ago, I was a city slicker from Minneapolis, which is about 70 miles south of us. Donald Trump became president in the middle of the Great Depression for dairy farmers in Wisconsin. In 2016, prices were horrible and longtime generational farmers across the nation were going out of business. In 2017, our 120 year old barn, which served as our milking center caught fire and burned to the ground. Our cows were spared but because they needed to be milked three times a day, farmers, friends and complete strangers from all over northern Wisconsin helped haul them to other farms where they stayed until we could rebuild. By the end of 2018, we had a new state of the art robotic milking facility that allows our cows to milk themselves three times a day. At about the same time, President Trump's economic boon began helping dairy farmers across the nation. As a businessman, President Trump understands that farming is a complicated, capital intensive and risky business. More than any president in my lifetime, he's acknowledged the importance of farmers and agriculture.

Second Night Of Republican National Convention.

Zweite Nacht des Republikanischen Nationalkonvents.

共和党全国代表大会的第二晚活动。

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: A very good morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto. As Trump administration officials reportedly raise the possibility of rushing a vaccine before important late-stage trials are finished, Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning that that would be a mistake. He says doing so could damage efforts to develop other vaccines and crucially get people to take them with confidence. And even as parts of the south are seeing signs of hope, that's important. Look at those green states there, officials are looking at potential surge in America's heartland, more on what is causing those worries in a moment. Even is a the country sees more than 177,000 coronavirus deaths and counting, the GOP last night was touting President Trump's pandemic response during that first night of the Republican National Convention. There were also many attacks on Joe Biden and a dark future, they say the country faces, if he wins in November. Lots of hyperbole last night. We're also following new developments as protests in Wisconsin are ramping up after a black man was shot by police in front of his children. We're going to be live in Kenosha with the latest on those protests, what we know about the investigation. But, first, CNN's Randi Kaye joins me now on those concerns about coronavirus surges in the Midwest. Where exactly and why do public health officials believe this is happening now? RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first, the good news, Jim, that parts of the country who saw the worst of the pandemic are now seeing an improvement. As you said, the Sunbelt is certainly looking better but the Midwest is a concern. There're spikes in cases there. The infections are certainly trending upwards. So, one area is Kentucky. The Kentucky governor saying that they have seen more deaths from COVID in the last week than they saw in any week since the pandemic started, and in Kansas, the governor there reporting at least one case of coronavirus in every single county. CDC's Dr. Robert Redfield warning of a third wave possibly in the nation's heartland, so that is certainly a concern. On the issue of vaccines, Jim, two sources telling CNN that the White House is raising the possibility of an emergency use authorization to get a vaccine to market. That means it would go to market before the late-stage trials are even completed. Dr. Fauci, as you said, certainly voicing concern about this, calling it dangerous. He says that they may not know how effective that vaccine actually is if they don't finish those trials and it could put an end to other vaccine trials if one does hit the market. Fauci saying, quote, we would hope nothing interferes with the full demonstration that a vaccine is safe and effective. And as you know, Jim, finally, the president has certainly been suggesting that we will see a vaccine soon, is his words, or by the end of the year, and now the Department of Health and Human Services saying they are denying that they are fast-tracking a vaccine for political purposes. Jim? SCIUTTO: Randi Kaye, thanks so much. This morning, Florida education officials are appealing after a judge blocked a state order requiring schools to reopen for in-person classes five days a week. CNN's Bianna Golodryga joins us now with more. So this is an interesting case, right, because you have the states trying to force schools' hands to reopen five days a week in person. Judge, saying, no, you've got to follow safety measures here. Where does this go next? BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes. Jim, good morning. This is a temporary victory at least for the state's teachers and a temporary injunction. A Florida judge blocked the state's requirement that all public schools must offer in-person classes starting August 31st, just a few days away. And the ruling favors Florida's statewide teachers union, which sued Governor DeSantis and the education commissioner. The union had been pushing for delay to the start of school because of coronavirus surges. Remember, there have been 602,000 cases that were confirmed in this state, over 10,000 deaths. The judge saying in his decision that the State Department of Education essentially ignored the requirement of school safety when they ordered the reopening of in-person classes this month. And the judge saying that the state was putting the school system in an untenable situation, saying they should either sacrifice their own health or public funding. Of course, as you mentioned, the state is appealing that ruling. And, meantime, we seem to see what's going on on campuses across the country, university campuses. They are starting to and continuing to crack down on students who are not following the rules. One school, Ohio State University, suspended 228 students who they say were engaging in off-campus parties and gatherings of larger than ten people. So Ohio State really cracking down. And then take a look at the University of Alabama system. They had over 500 confirmed cases of coronavirus, so what did they do? They gathered together with the city, the mayor of Tuscaloosa is going to be shutting down bars and limiting alcohol sales in restaurants for at least two weeks, saying this is a public/private partnership here. We've got to join forces for the overall health and well-being of our system and our city. SCIUTTO: Yes, schools before bars perhaps. Bianna Golodryga -- GOLODRYGA: That should have always been the case, yes. SCIUTTO: Yes, exactly, though not in practice, sadly. Thanks so much, Bianna. We know you're staying on top of it. The head of the Food and Drug Administration is clarifying comments he made about the benefits of convalescent plasma. Here is what he originally said Sunday and then listen to how he clarified those comments this morning. DR. STEPHEN HAHN, FDA COMMISSIONER: Let me just put this in perspective. Many of you know I was a cancer doctor before I became FDA commissioner and a 35 percent improvement in survival is a pretty substantial clinical benefit. what that means is, and if the data continue to pan out, 100 people who are sick with COVID-19, 35 would have been saved because of the administration of plasma. First thing I would like to say is that I personally could have done a better job and should have done a better job at that press conference explaining what the data show regarding convalescent plasma. And I can assure the American people that this decision was made based upon sound science and data. SCIUTTO: All right. Let's look at the difference there. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, you've been speaking to Dr. Hahn, could have done a better job or was that 35 out of 100 figure misleading? DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIE MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, it was definitely misleading. And, you know, it was wrong, to be fair. Dr. Hahn called me last night before he put out a few tweets sort of trying to explain this, but it's -- it's a really important point, Jim, because I think, you know, we're all being forced to look at data and a try to evaluate this data, and we want to have the conclusions, you know, be absolutely accurate. So let me just show you for a second. I know this is math first thing in the morning, Jim, but let me just show you because I spent a lot of time going through the studies that the FDA was looking at. I went over these with Dr. Hahn last night, and if we can put these up. But, basically, the study that they were talking about was the study of some 35,000 people who received convalescent plasma. They basically broke it down into two groups, people who got the high dose and people who got the low dose, okay, No placebo, no group that got no dose, just comparing high dose versus low dose. And what they found was that those who got the lower dose had a higher mortality, 13.7 percent, those who had the higher dose had a lower mortality. So there was benefit if you used the higher dose compared to lower dose and that was the 35 percent relative improvement in mortality. That doesn't mean what Dr. Hahn initially said was that 35 people out of 100 would survive who otherwise wouldn't. When you actually do the math, we find that it's closer to four-and-a-half to five people out of 100 would survive at the higher dose compared to the lower dose of the antibodies. I hope that makes sense. I know there's a lot there. SCIUTTO: Well, it does. GUPTA: But here is the point, Jim. SCIUTTO: But, Dr. Gupta, that's a seven times, right? I mean, he said from the White House podium as the White House fast-tracked this, that 35 out of 100 people would live. I mean, that translate, as you look at our number there, to tens of thousands of lives. It's actually 1/7 of that figure? I mean -- GUPTA: Yes. SCIUTTO: How does the FDA make that mistake? GUPTA: It's a significant mistake. I mean, I -- I don't know. When he called me last night, he said, look, you know, first, he said I could have explained it better and I said that was wrong. It was a question of explaining it better and he acknowledged that and said it was live T.V., he just sort of said that and it was a mistake. Clearly, he's an oncologist, he used to be the head of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. So, I mean, this is his bread and butter. So it was surprising, Jim. I don't know what more to make of that. I will say this as well, that, you know, convalescent plasma, a lot of people have said, we're excited about this, enthusiastic at least, but this -- the data still is not adequate, right, for the reasons we just mentioned. But also in these studies, people were also getting steroids. People were also getting remdesivir. We saw -- when I really looked at the data, 50 percent of the people were getting steroids as well, which we know has benefit. So now, you have to ask yourself, well, is it the plasma or is it the steroids or is it something else all together? That's why you do studies. I'm getting so many people saying to me, well, just give it. If it shows some benefit, why not just give it? What you'd like to know, A, that it actually does work, B, who should receive it, C, when should they get it, D, what's the right dose. There is a process in this in order to get the maximum benefit, and we don't have that. SCIUTTO: But this is the thing, Sanjay. It's not the first time, right? I mean, you had the administration pushing hydroxychloroquine even when you didn't have the studies to back that up. And now you have concerns expressed by Dr. Fauci, right, about fast-tracking a vaccine before you complete the science of large-scale studies. I mean, I just wonder how confident should people at home be that it's the science driving this response and not politics here? GUPTA: Well, these are some cautionary tales right now. We can't ignore, Jim, I think to your point. We've got to pay attention to what has happened so far and make sure, I think, as journalists, as scientists, as everybody, that the data is clearly available, that people can look at this themselves and this independent review. One thing I will say, Jim. I think with vaccines, the bar has to be higher, right? If you're talking about hospitalized patients receiving convalescent plasma, sick patients, that's different than saying these are perfectly healthy people that you're about to give a substance to. If the data is not clear on safety and efficacy, that's a huge, huge problem. And I think that's part of the reason where we're really beating the drum on this particular issue to make sure that it doesn't happen again. SCIUTTO: I mean, you look to these folks for hard answers and hard data, really disappointing. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, great to have you on to break it all down. GUPTA: You got it. Thanks, Jim. SCIUTTO: Turning now to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and that's where we're now learning more about the extent of injuries to a black man, Jacob Blake, that he suffered after being shot multiple times in his back by police. You may have seen the video. The video of a shooting has sparked protests, some of them violent, damaging overnight. CNN's Sara Sidner, who recently spoke with Jacob Blake's father, joins us now. So, Sara, tell us what you've learned about his injuries and also what you're seeing in terms of the protests there. SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, Jacob Blake's father told us that his son has dealt with multiple surgeries from the bullet holes in his body and that, at this point, he is paralyzed from his waist down. They are not sure, the doctors, as to whether or not this is going to be a permanent paralyzation or not, whether this will be temporary. But at the moment, the family obviously distraught and Jacob himself distraught, because, at this moment, he is unable to move anything below his waist on his own. So there is that element. We also talked to his uncle, Justin Blake. And Justin Blake said that Jacob was a strong guy and he cannot believe after looking at the video that he is actually still with us, still alive. And so the family thankful on one hand that he is still alive, that he is still present and with them, and, on the other hand, looking at what his quality of life will be and the quality of life of his family. We know that his -- three of his children, a three-year-old, five- year-old and eight-year-old, were inside of the car when the police officer opened fire on him. And so they are traumatized. The uncle saying that they are being loved on, as he put it, but that they are certainly traumatized and will need help getting through this. Jim? SCIUTTO: Okay. Tell us about the protests that you saw last night, the extent of them, the damage, injuries, et cetera and how are officials responding. SIDNER: You know, we've seen this so many times over and over again for so many years when something like this happens. In the daytime, the protests are generally peaceful, you know, people are raising their voices but not doing anything destructive. And as night falls, things start to get complicate. We know that there was tear gas, a lot of that that was sort of sprayed out as police and protesters came face-to-face here outside the courthouse. We also -- you can see some of the damage there. They brought in garbage trucks to try and stop people from being able to drive down. Those garbage trucks set on fire. We also saw several buildings ablaze in the neighborhood, fully engulfed and are destroyed this morning. And you sort of get a reaction in two different ways. You have folks that live in this community that understand the outrage, that feel that pain, that feel that this is the way to sort of show everyone how much pain there is and that they want change. And there are other folks in the community who are saying, look, we have to live with this. After this, all this destruction is going to make life extremely hard in our neighborhood, and they don't want to see local businesses being burned down. Jim? SCIUTTO: No, understandably. Sara Sidner, good to have you there. Thanks very much. Well, the shooting of Jacob Blake is also stirring an impassioned reaction from NBA superstar LeBron James. He has recently become a leading voice in the broader calls for social justice. Have a listen. LEBRON JAMES, NBA STAR: They could have grabbed him, you know? They could have done that. And why does it always have to get to a point where we see the guns firing? Quite frankly, it's just SCIUTTO: Well, the NBA resumed its season in July with a clear message on its courts. See it there, Black Lives Matter, on players' jerseys as well. First Lady Melania Trump headlines night two of the Republican National Convention from the newly renovated White House rose garden. So how can she help the president win over voters for Team Trump? We'll discuss. Plus, the coast of Texas and Louisiana now on high alert as Hurricane Laura enters the gulf. It's getting a lot stronger. The water is very warm and it's making it a lot stronger. And the Big Apple is already going through huge changes in the wake of coronavirus, so what could the city look like when the virus is over?

Officials Warn of Troubling COVID-19 Signs across Heartland; Jacob Blake's Father Says, Police Shooting Paralyzed my Son

Beamte warnen vor beunruhigenden COVID-19-Symptomen in ganz Heartland; Jacob Blakes Vater sagt, Polizisten haben meinen Sohn gelähmt

官员警告称中部地区出现令人不安的新冠疫情迹象；雅各布·布莱克的父亲说，警察开枪导致我儿子瘫痪

SCIUTTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is now demanding a full and transparent investigation after a German hospital confirms that the Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was poisoned last week. Merkel's comments remain in stark contrast to President Trump, who has yet to make any substantial statement himself regarding the poisoning of a high-profile critic of Putin. Remember, Russia has a history of poisoning dissidents and opposition leaders. So far, just a spokesperson on behalf of the U.S. ambassador to Russia has tweeted similar sentiments to Merkel, awaiting the president's comments himself. So far, he has just said they are looking into it. Navalny remains in a medically induced coma. Another story we're following, "The Wall Street Journal" is now reporting that the president of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr., has officially resigned. During a phone call late last night after -- well, a strange back-and-forth over whether or not he was really stepping down, Falwell Jr. agreed to resign Monday after admitting that his wife had an affair with a pool attendant. Hours later, he withdrew. That investigation now, it appears to be back on. CNN national correspondent Athena Jones. Falwell Jr., he's saying the whole ordeal is due to blackmail. What are the facts? ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jim. Well, look, Jerry Falwell says this is about blackmail. The man in question -- his name is Giancarlo Granda -- says actually it's about a business dispute he's having with the Falwells, with whom he had invested in a hotel- type property down in South Florida. But let's rewind here. This affair that Jerry Falwell's wife Becki Falwell had with this man, Giancarlo Granda, began back in 2012 when the couple met this man while he was a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau in Miami. Granda, telling Reuters that he and Becki Falwell had a years-long affair and that Jerry Falwell would -- enjoyed watching them have sex. This is something that Jerry Falwell denies. He admits the affair happened, but that he had no -- says he had no involvement. Now, he had already been on an indefinite leave from his post as president of Liberty University after he posted photographs on Instagram earlier this month of his pants unzipped or unbuttoned, opened, revealing some of his underpants and -- along with the assistant of his wife. And so that caused the university to put him on indefinite leave. He had a long back-and-forth with "The Wall Street Journal" last night, at one point, saying, look, they put me on leave because of self-righteous people. Later on, saying, I've given my life to this university, to building it. And then finally, calling back before midnight saying, well, you know, he's embarrassed the school and so he's going to step down and do what's best for the school. Now, this further confusion. So today is when this board -- the school's board, the executive committee along with the full board are meeting to decide his final fate. But it's certainly an unflattering situation to find himself in. And I should remind our viewers, this is one of President Trump's earliest evangelical supporters, and it's now yet another ally of the president's who's dealing with a very unflattering situation -- Jim. SCIUTTO: Athena Jones on the story, thanks very much. And thanks so much to you for joining us today -- so much news to follow. I'm Jim Sciutto. NEWSROOM with Kate Bolduan will start right after a short break.

Jerry Falwell Jr. Withdraws Liberty University Resignation and Is Under Investigation.

Jerry Falwell Jr. zieht seinen Rücktritt von der Liberty University zurück und wird untersucht.

小杰里·福尔韦尔撤回向利伯缇大学的辞呈并接受调查。

ANDERSON: Tennis' U.S. Open begins next week, in New York with many top players deciding not to participate due to COVID-19, but there is another virus in the game, and that of online abuse. For more, we are joined by my colleague Don Riddell. Don? DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Hi, Becky, thank you. Tennis players will tell you that their sport is one of the toughest, if not the toughest. It's uncompromising it can be very cruel and lonely at times. You don't just have to be a top athlete with incredibly skill, but you have to be mentally robust. There is nobody to help you out on the court. And now with the advent of social media, this generation of players also has to deal with degrading and demoralizing abuse online. And as the U.S. Open approaches in New York City, they know it's going to get ugly again. Two of those players have been telling our Christina McFarland why they think it happens. TAYLOR TOWNSEND, AMERICAN TENNIS PLAYER: You're such a piece of --, it's not even funny. Are you - serious? You get braked on every serve; you're a Serena Williams who want nothing in life because the physical sides are the same. People attack all points, I mean, anything you're - come for that you think is a weakness body image, my race, my skin color. BENJAMIN HASSAN, GERMAN TENNIS PLAYER: They're calling me a - Muslim terrorist. My whole family - I'll see you in your next tournament, I'm going to kill you - you will die on cancer. I hope you die - an accident. CHRISTINA MCFARLAND, CNN WORLD SPORT: This is tennis today, unseen abuse poisoning the game at every level. The players unable to make it stop. Taylor Townsend and Benjamin Hassan are among many top tennis players who get abused online every time they play. MCFARLAND: Most of it, they say from strangers fueled by online betting. TOWNSEND: It's definitely the worse at the slams or the bigger events, like the masters. I would probably say 99 percent is betting because it's something on the line. HASSAN: Heavy loss. That confidence is just broken after such a match, and you're just afraid to play just afraid. MCFARLAND: But the years of torment they've endured maybe coming to an end because of help from an unlikely source, a betting and sports data company. Sportradar provide live tennis schools and statistics for book makers, but recently they've been using their technology to investigate in unmasked trolls. 44 from twelve different countries sending abused players a tournament in the U.S. and Germany. Already six of those trolls' identities have been handed over to police. ANDREAS KRANNICH, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SPORTRADAR INTEGRITY SERVICES: Our intelligence investigation service can locate other social media accounts which belong to the same individual. We aim to discover the users' real names, their location, and if possible, their telephone number to stand up for the - or the sport organization to decide, okay, do we want to take this further? MCFARLAND: They may seem unusual regulators given they facilitate the betting players say fuels this abuse. But Sportradar say their data insights give them a unique advantage. KRANNICH: Without this specific information at insight into the world of sports betting, we would never, ever be able to provide this detailed service. MCFARLAND: If the tools now exist, do sports governing bodies have the will to stamp this out? The international tennis federation told us, we've not yet worked with Sportradar's social media service specifically, but effective measures to combat online social abuse will be welcomed by the ITF and the players. For now Townsend and his son are relieved someone is paying attention. TOWNSEND: I just feel as though it's important for people to kind of, like, have this topic and have this conversation because it's not talked about a lot. And I think that this is one that is a part of sport that we do need to kind of address, because if it's not addressed and people don't talk about it, then nobody really knows. MCFARLAND: Christina McFarland, CNN, London. RIDDELL: Our thanks to Christina for that report. And Becky, as I hand it back to you, we have just learned that the eight-time Olympics Sprint Champion Usain Bolt has tested positive for COVID-19. That's a story we've been following over the last 24 hours. Of course this coming just days after he celebrated his 34th birthday party with lots of people and what looked like not much social distancing or mask wearing, back to you. ANDERSON: Yes, more on that as we get it, of course. Thank you, Don. That is it for today's show. On tomorrow's show, though, we'll be joined by once presidential hopeful Andrew Yang and Former Governor of Ohio, John Kasich. Plus, in this part of the world, Iraq's Deputy Health Minister joins me to talk about Coronavirus picking up pace there across his country. Thank you for joining us. See you tomorrow. Do stay safe and stay well.

Tennis Players Reveal Vile Online Abuse.

Tennisspieler enthüllen dem abscheulichen Online-Schimpf.

网球运动员揭露了网上可恶的虐待行为。

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Jacob Blake is 29 years old. He's black. But you see parallels. So describe those to us. MICHAEL BELL, SON FATALLY SHOT BY KENOSHA POLICE IN 2004: There's a lot of parallels. Essentially, Jacob's family watched his shooting and my own son was killed in front of his mother and sister. There are some distinctions, though. Back in 2004 when my son was killed, the police department -- the co-workers of the officers involved found the officers justified within just two days. They investigated themselves and we passed a law that changed departments investigating themselves. Today, Jacob Blake's family has the luxury of having an outside agency do that. And so welcome to ground zero for horrific police shootings here in Kenosha. CAMEROTA; Yes. BELL: This is exactly what we've lived through for 16 years. CAMEROTA; Gosh, we're so sorry for your loss. And has anything changed in those 16 years? Has the action that you took after your son's death -- I mean, as I understand it, that was a, you know, so-called routine traffic stop that then escalated. And so was there new training? Had anything changed in the Kenosha Police Department since then? BELL: You know, I think the biggest change has probably become in attitudes. I think the police officers aren't as headstrong as they used to be. I think there's been some change that way. And that's the good thing. Once again, in 2014, a group of us spearheaded a movement and Wisconsin became the first state in the United States to ensure that police officers don't investigate themselves after a shooting. And this week I know that we have been working on another legislation and we're going to be taking a look at police-involved deaths and we're going to have a review board, kind of like the NTSB, take a look at all the root cause analysis and try to determine what was the real factors involved and how can we make sure that this doesn't happen again. About 30 percent of all police deaths are labeled as mistake effect or use of force errors. In my own son's death, the police officer hooked his gun on a car mirror and mistaken it as my son grabbing his weapon and then another officer placed his gun directly to my son's temple, and killed him right in front of his mother and sister. So we can go back to those types of cases and we can figure out what went wrong. Was it a human condition? Was it communications? And we can try to say, what can prevent these types of deaths from happening? And this legislation that's going to be introduced this week will be in a first-in-the-nation type. CAMEROTA; It's so shocking. I mean, really the details of your son's death are so gut wrenching. And I know that you say that the police decided that they were not at fault but then you hired your own private investigator and got more of the real story. BELL: Yes. In 2010, the city of Kenosha has settled a record civil rights settlement with our family and we refused the accept the nondisclosure or confidentiality agreement, and that's why we're able to go ahead and bring this information forward. And so our -- my son's death has been one of the poster child deaths of police shootings throughout the nation. CAMEROTA; And so when something like this happens, when you hear the story of Jacob Blake being shot multiple times in the black in front of his children, when you've heard -- I mean, this has obviously been a violent time with police-involved shootings over these past months, what happens in your family? BELL: Well, one of the things that I have to tell you is that I saw the video for the first time and my eyes went right to the woman that was just standing outside the door. She was obviously a family member of Jacob Blake's and she jumping up and down, and I immediately knew the horror that she was experiencing because our own family experienced that type of thing. You have to understand that this is more than just racism. This is raw police brutality. Now, I know the shooting looks really bad on camera, but I want to give a moment here to allow the investigation to proceed forward because we really don't know all the facts. And so instead of me rushing to judgement and saying it was wrong, we're still waiting for those findings. CAMEROTA; That is very judicious of you. I mean, really after everything that your family went through, it is just so reasonable and judicious, and of course right that we all do need to take a breath and wait for the investigation and let's hope that it happens with alacrity, unlike some of the cases that we have seen this summer. I'm sorry, Mr. Bell. We're out of time. But do you have final thoughts in the last few seconds? BELL: Final thought is don't let the local D.A. review the case. Have an outside prosecutor take a look at it like in New York, New Jersey. That would be a very important thing. So thank you, Alisyn. I appreciate you having me on. CAMEROTA; Mr. Bell, we appreciate you. Thanks so much for being here and we'll talk to you again. Meanwhile, was Vladimir Putin's most prominent Russian critic poisoned? What doctors who are treating him now say about this mysterious case.

Protests Turn Violent in Wisconsin After Police Shoot Black Man; Republicans Try to Rewrite History, Paint Dark Picture Under Biden.

Proteste werden in Wisconsin gewalttätig, nachdem die Polizei einen Schwarzen erschossen hat; Republikaner versuchen, die Geschichte umzuschreiben und zeichnen ein düsteres Bild unter Biden.

警察枪杀黑人后，威斯康星州抗议活动演变成暴动；共和党试图改写历史，丑化拜登。

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: It's path of damage and destruction, people very concerned right there about what some, not all, but some demonstrators are going in terms of the violence. SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's true, and like you said, it's not all. It's a few people. But it has been very destructive in this town of about 100,000 people. There were clashes between police and protesters, the National Guard called out. But I also want to talk to you about what happened before the shooting of Jacob Blake. And what we are hearing now from a witness who actually took that video that went viral, is he saw what happened before there was the actual shooting, the seven times in the back by the police officer. Here's what he said he saw in the lead-up to all of this. RAYSEAN WHITE, WITNESS: I seen this black man get out the truck. His son was on the lawn. He told his son get in the truck now. His son ran to the truck like he was happy because he said, daddy, when he seen his dad. So he ran to the truck and he walked in the house behind one of the women. I don't know if she was arguing but I just seen her walk in the house behind one of these women that was outside. I stepped away and I came back and I see the police wrestling him. SIDNER: So you hear him say he saw the police wrestling with him. He also mentions that there was a taser. Now, attorney Benjamin Crump has said that there was a taser involved in this as well. Everyone is wondering exactly what led up to police going after him. We hear from witnesses and from family members that there was some sort of altercation between two young ladies that he stepped into the middle of. We do not know what the scenario and circumstance is there, but there's a lot more to be told and there's a lot of frustration here that after 48 hours there's still no new details coming out from the police investigation. Although the State Department of Justice is investigating this case and is trying to go through that so they can get through it without leaking out information to the public they may need to complete their investigation -- Jake. TAPPER: Sara, three years ago body cameras were unanimously endorsed in Kenosha, Wisconsin. But as I understand it, there still aren't any body cameras for police. Why not? SIDNER: Yes, so there are no body cameras for police. No body cameras I think for the sheriff's department as well. And it's a matter of them -- the common council talking about parameters and policy surrounding it and budgeting for it. And so, there are a lot of questions being asked now. We would be able to see exactly what led up to all this if the officers had body cameras on. And so, there's a lot of talk about that because there are towns right next door that do, in fact, have body cameras for their officers. And a lot of folks believe that, look, those body cameras can both protect the officers and the public to show exactly what has happened. Now it is going to be a matter of, you know, what police say and what witnesses say and whether those match or not -- Jake. TAPPER: All right, Sara Sidner in Kenosha, Wisconsin, thank you so much. Appreciate it as always. Next to Virginia, where scandal has rocked Liberty University. The question's in limbo for the Christian school and its leader Jerry Falwell Jr. as he deals with a sex scandal. Stay with us.

Kenosha, Wisconsin Center of Nationwide Protests After Unarmed Black Man Shot in Back by Police

Kenosha, Wisconsin Zentrum von Nationwide protestiert, nachdem ein unbewaffneter schwarzer Mann von der Polizei in den Rücken geschossen wurde

一名手无寸铁的黑人男子被警察从背后开枪打死后,威斯康星州肯诺莎市成为全国抗议活动的中心

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, TRUMP CAMPAIGN OFFICIAL: They want to destroy this country and everything that we have fought for and hold dear. RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The four-day event kicked off with a series of speeches that offered an often misleading portrayal of the Trump presidency, from his record on race relations to his handling of the coronavirus response. NARRATOR: One leader took decisive actions to save lives, President Donald Trump. NOBLES: Campaign officials had previewed a hopeful vision. Much of the evening was filled with dire warnings about the prospect of a Biden presidency. PATRICIA MCCLOSKEY, RESIDENT OF SAINT LOUIS: What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country. MARK MCCLOSKEY, RESIDENT OF SAINT LOUIS: President Trump will defend the God-given right of every American to protect their homes and their families. NOBLES: A theme echoed by the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. DONALD TRUMP JR., SON OF DONALD TRUMP: It's almost like this election is shaping up to be church, work, and school vs. rioting, looting, and vandalism, or, in the words of Biden and the Democrats, peaceful protesting. NOBLES: Trump also seeking to turn Biden's decades of Washington experience into a liability. TRUMP JR. Joe Biden is basically the Loch Ness Monster of the swamp. NOBLES: Well, Kimberly Guilfoyle charged that a Biden/Harris ticket would put the country on a path to socialism. GUILFOYLE: They want to steal, your liberty, your freedom. They want to control what you see and think and believe, so that they can control how you live. NOBLES: Amid those grim warnings were efforts to reach out to voters beyond the president's base, from speakers such as South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): Our family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime. And that's why I believe the next American century can be better than the last. NOBLES: And former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who spoke about being the daughter of immigrants. NIKKI HALEY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: America is not a racist country. This is personal for me. NOBLES: Haley spending the morning defending her comments. HALEY: They want to call us a racist country. And I will tell you, ask my parents. They do not believe this as a racist country. Ask Tim Scott. This is not a racist country. NOBLES: And we ended up seeing President Trump twice last night during prime-time programming. That is out of the ordinary for a national convention. And his campaign said to expect more of that tonight. They say the president will appear at least more than one time tonight. Now, they're not telling us exactly what those appearances will entail. But they said it won't be a speech. The president won't be speaking from prepared remarks. Instead, they're just dubbing these presidential surprises. So, Jake, I guess we will have to wait and see. TAPPER: All right, Ryan Nobles, thanks so much. Joining us now to discuss, Scott walker, the former Republican governor of Wisconsin and a 2016 GOP presidential candidate. Governor Walker, good to see you again. I want to play for our viewers a snippet of what we heard last night from the president's son. TRUMP JR.: This time, the other party is attacking the very principles on which our nation was founded, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the rule of law. It's almost like this election is shaping up to be church, work, and school vs. rioting, looting, and vandalism. TAPPER: Do you agree that Democrats oppose church, work and school and support rioting, looting, and vandalism? That seems like kind of a crazy charge to me. FMR. GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R-WI): Well, I think there is a real contrast. What I think he's talking about is not the principle of church, but whether or not you can go to church. In many places, in many states, you can't go to church, you can't go to school. But you can go out and protest. You can riot without leaders even like the governor here in Wisconsin calling people out for things such as that. I think the larger issue I talked about last week is how Joe Biden has really outsourced his agenda to the radical left, including his running mate, Senator Harris, who "Newsweek" says has a voting record more liberal than Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders said at that convention that ideas that were considered radical just a few years ago are now considered mainstream. They may be mainstream at that convention, but they're not mainstream here in Wisconsin. And what I heard were mainstream ideas, as you just mentioned, from Tim Scott, from Nikki Haley, and I thought a lot of other great speakers, the woman who was recovering from cancer, who talked about right to try and going from hopelessness to hopefulness. That's the sort of message I hope we continue to hear tonight and the coming days. TAPPER: Do you think that there needs to be more of that? There was a lot of rather stark language about the unruly mobs in the street. I think probably a lot of voters have a difficult time imagining that Joe Biden supports lawlessness in the streets. Even your governor to whom you lost in the last election, a liberal Democrat who now runs Wisconsin, has just a declared a state of emergency because of all the rioting in the streets in Kenosha. I don't think any -- I mean, do you really think that Wisconsinites think that Joe Biden supports anarchy? WALKER: No, but silence is complicit. While the president, the vice president, Republicans across the country spoke out against the travesty that happened in Minnesota with George Floyd, as did Democrats across the board, we haven't heard a word from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and others about the rioting, not just in Kenosha recently, but in Chicago, in New York and Portland in Oregon. And I think, while he may not be advocating for it, what we saw even in Kenosha in the last few days is, when you have a Democrat governor and the Democrat nominee both immediately leapfrogging over an independent investigation that will look into all the facts on this and ultimately make recommendations on potential charges or not, they went right to the argument that the police were at fault, without even going through that investigation. That basically sends a green light to many of the rioters out there that it's OK to do this. TAPPER: Wait a second. WALKER: Instead, now, sadly, the governor -- no. TAPPER: You think expressing -- I mean, you saw the video of Jacob Blake being shot in the back. I mean, you don't -- you don't think -- expressing empathy and outrage is the same thing as now go destroy furniture stores? WALKER: No, no, I'm saying, when you immediately say that you -- it's tragic. I have talked about the situation being tragic for that family, being tragic for the police department, being tragic for the city of Kenosha as a whole. But then I didn't leap to say that automatically I knew whether someone was guilty of something or not. When you start saying that the police are at fault, before you go through the process we have here in Wisconsin to have an independent investigation, they may very well find that. But when you start saying that, instead of saying, hey, we all need to calm down -- I actually think the family members were very effective in saying, violence does not help the situation. Violence only makes it worse. TAPPER: Right. WALKER: We need to go through this process. That's not what we heard from neither the governor nor Joe Biden. The family members were much stately when it comes to responding to this issue. And I think that's the point that's being made all across America. We're not hearing that kind of call from Democrats. It's almost like they're looking the other way. They're not advocating it. At least the former vice president isn't advocating it. But he's also not speaking out about -- against it. I think that's the kind of leadership America needs, regardless of party, is to say, it's one thing to peacefully protest. And that's what America -- we're founded on the ability to do just that. TAPPER: Right. WALKER: But rioting is not the same. And leaders of either party need to call that out. TAPPER: Well, the governor of your state just declared a national emergency and has -- is getting the National Guard involved. I don't know what more you need from him to suggest that he doesn't support the rioting that is destroying businesses in Kenosha. WALKER: Finally, a day after the flames came and the protests came, and the buildings were burnt down. Same sort of thing happened a month or so ago in the city of Madison, where rioters came and tore statutes down and beat up a state senator. It wasn't until a day later when they brought in the state National Guard and when they called the Capitol Police in. You have to take action immediately to make sure that things that might have began peacefully, others don't -- aren't able to hijack into something reckless up there. TAPPER: Well... WALKER: And I think that's the concern that many Americans have, is you can't look one way and the other. He had to call the National Guard because it was so out of control. That should have been something that was taken care of immediately. TAPPER: I guess the point I'm making here is, you see this incident, we all saw it, a man who appears to be completely unarmed walking away from police, getting in his car, and he -- we saw -- we all saw the video, shot in the back seven times. Now, I agree that, before any verdict comes down, there needs to be an investigation. But I don't understand why expressing sympathy for what happened and outrage that once again an unarmed black man is shot and, in this case, paralyzed, at least temporarily, hopefully just temporarily, by police officers, this keeps happening in this country. Do you not think it's a problem? Do you not think that there is a problem when it comes to black men, usually, not black women, who are not armed being shot and killed unnecessarily by white police officers? Is that not a problem in this nation? Does that not happen too often? WALKER: If it happens one time, it's a problem. Actually, the numbers show clearly that unarmed individuals -- and, again, we don't know -- we won't know until this investigation is completed... TAPPER: Absolutely. WALKER: ... whether there was a firearm in the vehicle or not. I don't know. I'm not going to prejudge that. But, to me, whether it's an African-American individual, a Hispanic individual, a white individual, one individual who's unarmed, who's unnecessarily injured, or in the worst case killed is absolutely wrong. But I'm just saying we shouldn't leap to conclusions until we know all the evidence. In the case of George Floyd, where we did know, where we clearly saw it, where the evidence was presented, I think it was fairly universal across party lines, across demographics. People said that is wrong and we need to hone in on that. And those are the things we should be focused on, which is why Tim Scott mentioned it again last night, which is why it was so disheartening that Tim Scott, Senator Scott, had something he'd worked on for years, and yet he couldn't get Democrats to compromise to even pass the simplest of reforms. And, as he said, he believes, unfortunately, it was more likely Senate Democrats wanted to use it as an issue to rile people up in the election, as opposed to actually passing comprehensive reform. TAPPER: I think Democrats would disagree with that. And they would also disagree with the idea that, because somebody expresses sympathy, they're therefore giving a green light to rioters. But, Governor Scott Walker, it's been too long. It's always good to talk to you. Thanks so much for joining us today. Hope you enjoy the convention this evening. WALKER: Thank you. Good to be with you. TAPPER: Speaking tonight at the convention, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, first lady Melania Trump. Our live coverage begins at 7:00 Eastern here on CNN. And as this pandemic weighs heavily on the Trump administration today, the explosion of cases on yet another college campus, adding to more concerns about in-person learning. Plus, we are waiting to hear from the family of Jacob Blake and attorney Benjamin Crump at any moment. Stay with us.

Interview With Fmr. Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI); Unrest in Wisconsin Following Police Shooting; RNC Speakers Deliver Message of Fear

Interview mit dem ehemaligen Gouverneur Scott Walker (R-WI); Unruhen in Wisconsin nach einer Schießerei der Polizei; RNC-Redner übermitteln eine Botschaft der Angst

采访前威斯康星州州长斯科特·沃克；警察枪击案引发威斯康星州的骚乱；共和党全国委员会的演讲者传递恐惧的信息

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: They're saying look what the left wants to be OK. And bring to your cities in the form of Cory Booker -- DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Yes. CUOMO: A black guy. LEMON: Well, that's the thing they say. CUOMO: And it's moving the polls. LEMON: That these are -- well, that's all B.S. They say these are -- they call them Democrat cities -- I hate it, it's like terrible grammar. It's Democratic cities. CUOMO: But it works. LEMON: It's not the Democrat Party -- CUOMO: It works with white voters. LEMON: It's the Democratic Party. LEMON: . It's the Democratic Party. CUOMO: . Seeing it in the polls. LEMON: But here's the reality. If you say that most liberals or these cities are blue places then your folks don't live there. So then why are you concerned about it? CUOMO: There are plenty -- LEMON: These people -- CUOMO: -- of red cities -- LEMON: I get it. CUOMO: -- that have problems. LEMON: I'm making -- CUOMO: Of the same nature. LEMON: Absolutely. But I'm doing this to make a point. You understand what I'm saying. And if you -- they're telling you -- this president is telling you look out, this is going to come to your neighborhood. There's no riots in suburban neighborhoods, there's too much suburbia to cover. People, the rioters, the people who are out there and up to no good, they want to be in big places where the cameras are so that they can get attention. And also, they're not coming to your neighborhood. They want to go to places where there's a Gucci or an Yves Saint Laurent or whatever. They want a big store so that they can go loot and rob, they're not coming to your neighborhood. You don't have enough jewelry, you don't have enough furs. CUOMO: The fear has always worked. LEMON: There's too much suburbia. CUOMO: McCarthy did it in 1953. LEMON: It's fear. And all -- CUOMO: It's always been done. LEMON: . But it's all -- CUOMO: . It's what NIMBY is, Not In My Backyard. LEMON: I get you. It's B.S. CUOMO: Whites don't like the idea of blacks moving in. LEMON: It's B.S. CUOMO: But the president is using it now because demagoguery works. LEMON:. I -- CUOMO: . And these movements in the polls. If the democrats don't counter it, it can beat them. LEMON: I agree with you on that. I'm just telling you -- but we have to point out the truth, and the truth is that it's B.S. Is it working in the polls, yes, I agree with you. I said that at the top of the show. CUOMO: Perception is reality in politics. LEMON: OK. All right. CUOMO: Feel over fact. LEMON: Let's go -- let's move on. Are we going to run animation? CUOMO: Two more hours. Whoo. LEMON: Do I start now? Do you see how that worked? My little pen from the hotel said boom, and they ran the animation -- like a wand. CUOMO: Wow. LEMON: Magic. CUOMO: Nice. LEMON: Television is like magic. Hey, Chris Cuomo, how you doing? CUOMO: How you doing, D. Lemon? LEMON: Are you ready? Two more hours. You feeling strong? CUOMO: All day long. LEMON: Yes. We need some coffee here. Welcome back to CNN's special live coverage of the second night of the Republican National Convention. I'm Don Lemon, he is Chris Cuomo. If you want it real, you're in the right place. We're not going to sit here -- can we sit here and do -- let's do our regular analysis. So, Chris, how did you feel about what happened tonight at the convention? CUOMO: Well, I must say the presentation was very impressive. LEMON: It was fantastic. CUOMO: I think her outfit bespoke the kind of seriousness of the night. LEMON: I thought -- CUOMO: But also a little bit of levity, yes. LEMON: And when she walked down to the Rose Garden -- CUOMO: Yes. Very good. LEMON: -- as (inaudible) second runway model (ph). It's amazing. CUOMO: Rose Garden? Don't know how I feel about it. It's really not their house. LEMON: Did you expect -- actually expect the First Lady of the United States to say something horrible about her husband on national television? Hell, no. Really, c'mon. What do you think? Of course she's going to say (inaudible) things. CUOMO: You can just see all those people at home in America tonight. "Should they be using the White House? Is this a Hatch Act violation?" LEMON: Yes, yes. CUOMO: This is what they expect from politics and politicians now. LEMON: Yes. It was great. Guess what? She was a birther. I mean, c'mon, she believes all of it. She's in. In like Flynn. President Trump putting the United States government to help his reelection. During tonight's convention programming, we saw a presidential pardon. Believe that? Stagecraft. Naturalization ceremony at the white house and a blatantly political speech by the secretary of state. CUOMO: Were any of them from Norway? They didn't look Norwegian. LEMON: This is off the rails, come on now. CUOMO: No, it's not. That's what he said. Why can't we have more people like from Norway? LEMON: Yes, he did. CUOMO: This is a president who enlisted his administration to reduce legal immigration. LEMON: Well, that's the whole point. Remember the "s-hole countries?" And now they're saying he's great on immigration, he's doing the ceremony. C'mon, people. CUOMO: Where are the Norwegians at? And -- LEMON: My neighbor's, the guys. You know them. CUOMO: They are not necessarily the best proof of the policy. Melania spoke very passionately and I think very compellingly about the yearning to come to this country and how hard she worked and her family worked to make it here. If her husband had his way, she would not have been able to succeed in bringing her family here. LEMON: What about chain migration? CUOMO: That's the policy. LEMON: Reunification. CUOMO: They call it reunification. He calls it chain migration -- LEMON: Right. CUOMO: -- because it's pejorative, like everything else about immigration. He has spoke about it in the negative until this convention. But it is too little too late in terms of changing the reality. Now how it works in the election, we'll see. And he's doing something else that's unusual. Usually, family of any age they come on, they say, look, obviously, I'm going to tell you to vote for my father, my mother. Whoever's running. But here is how they are personally. And Eric Trump was there tonight using his father's distraction technique. Name checking everything from monuments to athletes taking a knee to protest police brutality and systematic racism. Nothing about my daddy's a good guy. ERIC TRUMP: They want to destroy the monuments of our forefathers. They want to disrespect our flag, burn the stars and stripes that represent patriotism and the American Dream. They want to disrespect our national anthem by taking a knee while our armed forces lay down their lives every day to protect our freedom. CUOMO: Look, they make a decision. When they enter the political fray, they're going to start getting scrutiny. Obviously, i grew up in politics. I'm sensitive to leaving families alone, but they're all adults here. And one of the things I feel is most pernicious, it's kind of a wicked spin is they want to take down monuments of the forefathers. That is B.S. I don't know who the "they" is. But conflating the desire to remove confederate leaders and founding fathers are very, very different things. Yes, I'm sure they could pin it on some fringe leftie but they are tacitly, by ignoring the confederate flag, by ignoring the confederate symbols, they are empowering the vestige of that legacy of enslaving people. LEMON: . Yes. LEMON: . That's the code. LEMON: I know. And I know not to cut you off. When that finger goes up like this, I'm like don't cut him off because he will start yelling at me. But do you think any of those people who talk about the issues of monuments, do you think they've ever actually done any research on these monuments and on these figures? Yes, there are some figures -- as you say, some of the -- as you said blaming it on the liberal leftie. They go too far, they take down the wrong monument. That should not happen. Or there's an argument about is that true that that they don't understand, meaning the people who want to take it down. But did do you ever do the real research on the monuments? When they were put up -- CUOMO: And when they came. When they put them up. LEMON: When they were put up, why they put them up. And are you really upset? And people have asked them for decades, please take these down. These should be taken down, can we vote? CUOMO: Nikki Haley took down that confederate flag, it almost launched a presidential bid. For her. LEMON: Can we vote on taking them down? No. Can we please -- can we come to a consensus about taking them down? I'm insulted by them, I'm a person of color. This this person owned people, this person fought against me, said I should be property for the rest of my existence and my ancestor's existence. Can we please take these down? No. Some people say, OK, fine. Now -- especially the young folk, they say these damn things are coming down. Many people say, as the president says, you had your chance to do it the right way, to figure out which ones you wanted to come down. So you have an actual argument about them and you didn't do it. So now here we are. It is what it is. CUOMO: It is what it is. LEMON: Yes. CUOMO: And he is who he is. LEMON: Yes. CUOMO: And they're trying to depict him differently. That's what a convention is about, that's what an election's about. That's fine. I thought using the first lady to do that is protocol. LEMON: Yes. CUOMO: That's what you do. The wife is supposed to come in and bolster. I thought, if anything, Melania Trump's speech should stand out for how much she talked about her own record versus her husband's record. But when she did turn to her husband -- and look, I think it's good for her to be proud about what she did there. Look, let's be honest. She has no chance at success with "Be Best" because she is tied to a man who makes that a complete hypocrisy every time he opens his mouth. How can you be against cyberbullying, which is a great cause for a first lady -- LEMON: When your husband is a cyberbully? CUOMO: Yes. LEMON: Well, she wasn't the only one who spoke, Eric wasn't the only one who spoke as well -- and they all attacked the media. You got that line about the media and the liberal media and the media making things up. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Tiffany Trump was there as well, his youngest daughter. CUOMO: Yes. LEMON: Baron's his youngest son. She spoke out tonight and also talked about the media as well. Here she is. TIFFANY TRUMP: If you tune into the media, you get one biased opinion or another. And what you share if it does not fit into the narrative that they seek to promote then it is either ignored or deemed a lie, regardless of the truth. This manipulation of what information we receive impedes our freedoms. Rather than allowing Americans the right to form our own beliefs this misinformation system keeps people mentally enslaved to the ideas they deem correct. This has fostered unnecessary fear and divisiveness amongst us. LEMON: Was she talking about her dad and his administration? CUOMO: No. Look, again, it's like no win. It's her daddy. Obviously, she's going to see him differently than other people do. But look, you can't make a case that Donald Trump is honest. He is a liar when the truth is a better story for him. He is inherently deceptive and always has been. He's just expanded as president. And if they don't know it, better for them. But for the rest of us, we've got to deal with the real guy. Not who we idolize him as, as you do with a parent. And that's the problem with having your kids involved in the campaign, and that's why so many don't. But you know the reality is, Don? This president doesn't have enough people who aren't related to him to sing his praises to not use his family. That's the reality. But if you're going to sit here and take the stage and say that this president is honest, whether we like it or not, even if you're the first lady, even if you're Melania Trump -- who I believe deserves some insulation from her husband, not complete insulation -- LEMON: I assume (ph) you'll say why. CUOMO: Birtherism and calling him honesty, honesty incarnate, authentic? LEMON: Why would you want to say she deserves some insulation from her husband? CUOMO: Well, sometimes I believe -- LEMON: She's there. She's a grown -- CUOMO: -- that you don't blame the first lady for everything a president does. LEMON: No. It's not blaming her for everything a president does. But you certainly blame for her role in it, her complicity. CUOMO: Absolutely. LEMON: What she had to do with birtherism for her -- on a night like tonight saying the president helped people with the coronavirus. And talking about "Be Best" and cyberbullying. And -- CUOMO: And then saying you want to keep families safe -- LEMON: And -- CUOMO: -- when her son as has comfort? LEMON: Right. So -- CUOMO: And she has a comfort with her son? And look, I'm happy she does. I'm happy their kid can get tested and I'm happy the people around him are being tested so that he can stay safe. But that's what he should be fighting for -- LEMON: Right. CUOMO: -- and she should be fighting for, for the rest of us. And they're not. LEMON: I say first ladies are grown people and they can handle their own. And she is a smart lady like the former first lady and the first lady before that are smart women who can handle their own. So I think it's all fair criticism. She's going to put herself out there to do a speech in the Rose Garden for the convention then she has fair criticism. And I don't want to hear that stuff about, "Oh, my gosh, they attacked the first lady with" -- no, it's not like the first lady chose not to speak, it's not like she chose not to be involved in politics at all. It's not like he chose not to do an interview on a CNN network, HLN, with Joy Behar and talk about how she believed in Trump's birtherism, her husband's birtherism. She chose to do all those things as a grown woman. She is fair game for criticism. CUOMO: Agreed. LEMON: There is no attacking. CUOMO: And her saying that we all deserve honesty from the president and then saying he's an example of it. LEMON: Yes. CUOMO: She knows that that's B.S. She has to know it is. LEMON: Yes. But it goes beyond family because it's also -- there was also a sitting secretary of state. I'm talking about -- CUOMO: In in Jerusalem. LEMON: Yes. Boy, wait till we get to that. I'm talking about Mike Pompeo. A blatantly political speech to the convention, the Republican Convention, while he is supposed to be recommending this country abroad. Chris said Jerusalem. Well -- and we're going to have more fact checks on some of tonight's false claims. We'll be back.

RNC Special Live Coverage Night 2; Republican Convention

RNC Spezial-Live-Berichterstattung Nacht 2; Republikanische Konvention

美国共和党全国委员会特别现场报道之夜2；共和党大会

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Welcome back to CNN's special live coverage of the second night of the Republican National Convention, Chris Cuomo here with Don Lemon. DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It's 2:00 am! It's 2:00 am, Chris. CUOMO: Not on the West Coast. LEMON: OK. CUOMO: Speakers on this second night tried to convince Americans that the president is not the man you have all seen in action all these years. It was a distraction from your lying eyes and ears, Don? LEMON: Yes, well, you know, he has done everything perfectly. Always tells the truth. He is a Boy Scout, he is like Abe Lincoln, I cannot tell a lie. He is an epidemiologist. CUOMO: Pandemic -- LEMON: -- he is a scientist. Everything, yes. And then there was his economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, in the mix as well, barely touching the economic downturn that was brought on by the coronavirus because of this president's mishandling of the coronavirus. Right? And then the first lady was there as well, pretty much she was the only one to acknowledge the pandemic, one that has cost this country more than 178,000 lives. So you have the president who acts way he acts every single day, tweets, retweets racist things, controversial things. And then says, "Well, I was just retweeting it. It's not what I have to say," and does all kinds of just unnecessary things and unbelievably -- and does things that are beneath the dignity of -- certainly beneath the dignity of the Oval Office. And then you have the person we have tonight. Do the two match up in your eyes? CUOMO: No. Look. A little bit of that is politics. Right? That's what conventions are. LEMON: A lot of it is. CUOMO: They are trying put it up there as here's the ideal. It's harder for an incumbent because they have a record. But if you are trying to get the base to feel good and to give them permission to vote for you again, I bet you tonight was very effective. LEMON: Hmm. Go on, why? CUOMO: Because the first lady is somewhat of a symbol of the grandeur that Trump can present to certain Americans. And her -- what is she going to do? CUOMO: She is not going to go after her own husband, nobody expects that from anybody that position. But having his kids, even though they are saying things that are demonstrably false, hearing them gives you the permission to believe them. And we are in a position to have to disabuse people of that notion because a lot is demonstrably false. But in politics, perception is often reality. And feel often beats fact and you got a good feel that he is fighting for you against you, Don Lemon, and me, Chris Cuomo, and everyone on the Left, fighting against all of us to take care of American families. LEMON: Bad, bad news anchors, bad news anchor, bad. Trump supporter, good. Even when it's not true and it does not live up to reality at all. I -- quite frankly, you remember the first night of the Democratic convention and I came on and I said, it was boring. People really didn't get it. People at home were really enjoying it. I'm not so sure about this, maybe people at home really are enjoying this, but I do think tonight was particularly a bit dull until the first lady. I know that Mike Shields said that, oh, he loved the vice president's portion of the thing. I didn't. I found it just kind of boring. But I did, I thought that the first lady was interesting in that even, not necessarily with substance, although she did mention some things that were not mentioned by other people but didn't necessarily have the -- her facts straight when it comes to those issues as well. But because of the pageantry of it, she walked in and people were calling it the first lady's runway moment, right, because she walked down the -- CUOMO: The runway. LEMON: -- the runway -- LEMON: -- and as she got to her spot in the Rose Garden. And so, I enjoyed that element of it. CUOMO: Right. LEMON: Because I was saying, well what, what is going on here? It was a real show. This president is a showman. He is a reality TV star. It's interesting to me how people talk about -- at the convention when they started the night saying, we are not going to have celebrities. It's going to be real people and that Eva Longoria is not a real housewife. CUOMO: I told you that was a mistake. LEMON: I know Eva Longoria is a housewife and she is a mother. CUOMO: Yes, but you gave them a shtick, they're all Hollywood. LEMON: OK, but who cares? People that work in Hollywood are a part of America as well. That is a job and a profession. So I think people should stop letting people in Hollywood and certain professions be demonized -- CUOMO: What's the goal of the election? LEMON: -- that's real work as well. So it's real work. What's wrong -- tell me what's wrong with Hollywood. CUOMO: What's the goal of the election? LEMON: To win. But why is bringing up someone who has worked her ass off in Hollywood -- CUOMO: Rich, entitled, disconnected, elitist. LEMON: Oh. CUOMO: She is part of the Them. LEMON: So Trump is part of the working class? Not elitist, not rich, not entitled, didn't get -- CUOMO: He is "their" rich elite guy. LEMON: Oh, give me a -- CUOMO: Hey, that's why he won. That's why he won. LEMON: For lying to people? CUOMO: He connected -- LEMON: For pulling the wool over people's eyes? CUOMO: He connected with working class people who saw him as an agent of their anger. LEMON: You're not listening. You're not going to get me to -- I'm not defending Hollywood. But I'm also saying there's nothing wrong with Hollywood and people should stop demonizing people in Hollywood for making money. LEMON: You can make money as well. Part of the American dream is to make money. CUOMO: I told you that was what would happen when they used those people and I was right. I'm not saying that they are right to do it. LEMON: But it turns out they were wrong. CUOMO: How do you know? LEMON: Because people connected. The Trump -- Trump and his fans, whatever, believe in ratings so much, the ratings for the Democratic convention were higher. More people were tuned in. It's just that what I'm saying to you is that the Republicans and the Trumpsters are complaining about the Hollywood folks and people actually connected to them. CUOMO: How do you know they connected to them? LEMON: People watched. CUOMO: -- they hate Trump and they wanted to see Biden get energy around him. LEMON: Anyway what is the goal? To win. CUOMO: To win. LEMON: They won the ratings. CUOMO: I don't even look at the ratings right now, I'm trying to sleep during the day. LEMON: You are trying to sleep right now. CUOMO: I'm wishing this was a bad dream, listening to you. CUOMO: No, look, I'm just saying that, this is, this is the advantage. LEMON: Yes. CUOMO: When you are willing to do whatever it takes to win, you are formidable in politics and this president has no sense of shame. He has no concern of any kind of qualification of any degree of hubris. He will have anybody say anything about him as long as it works. They will actually say -- CUOMO: Even Mike Shields. Look, Mike Shields and I got hot in that segment. LEMON: He can take it, he keeps coming back. CUOMO: So do I but that's OK -- I'm not having anyone on my watch tell me that this administration is doing everything that they can when it comes to testing. We are nowhere where we need to be on rapid testing and that's why my kids are in a box about going back to school. And that's the only reason. If we had rapid testing and we could watch our kids in real time, people could work and the kids would be in school and we would be able to control it to a satisfactory degree. Not perfect but satisfactory. And the president's OK with you saying, he has been great on the pandemic. And he knows he hasn't. And he knows two-thirds of the American people don't believe that BS. LEMON: So here is what I was saying and I was trying to get to the point. CUOMO: You take too long, I don't have all night. I guess I do. LEMON: Here's the thing, you have been doing most of the talking. I was talking about Eva Longoria. CUOMO: You still on Eva Longoria. LEMON: Let me finish. Tracee Ellis Ross, Carrie Washington, diversity. And there's real diversity in the Democratic Party, real diversity in Democratic administrations. CUOMO: Yes. LEMON: For the Obama administration, the Clinton administration. CUOMO: Remember the two pictures of the Congress members? LEMON: Yes, yes, so what I'm saying is that people who work in Hollywood are reflections -- are Americans. And they reflect that and they also reflect the diversity. That's where I'm going with this. The Republican Party tonight, there was a pretend, a performative diversity. The party is not so diverse. Yes, there are African Americans and people of color in the party. Not to the degree that they are in the Democratic Party. CUOMO: No, not to that degree. LEMON: And not to the degree that there are in Democratic administrations. Certainly not in this administration there were more Black people in that opening video than there have been as part of the entire administration. The party is fake diversity. Fake diversity on display at this convention. CUOMO: And he pardoned a Black guy. That's because he is against racism. LEMON: Everyone says, oh, see, he is not racist, he pardoned a Black guy. CUOMO: And Herschel Walker. LEMON: "Give me a Black guy, give me a this, give me a that, give me some immigrants. Let me do this." I mean, come on. Give me a break. CUOMO: And he naturalized all those people, pro immigration. Just saw it on TV. LEMON: Were any from shithole countries? CUOMO: They're from Norway. LEMON: Oh. Hmm. CUOMO: I don't know that any were from Norway but that's where they are supposed to come from. CUOMO: I think the biggest irony and not just hypocrisy is his wife, to me, the most positively impressive part of the speech was her own success story. That always gets me, about people fighting to get to the country and making it once they got here. She was able to bring her parents over. Her own husband wants to stop the ability of people to do what she did. LEMON: Exactly what her family did. CUOMO: And that there's no trace of irony in her saying it. She knows her husband is trying to stop it. LEMON: It's OK, it's OK for her because she is -- because she is part of his family. It's OK for nepotism in the Trump family but it cannot happen in the Biden family. even though with Biden, it was not nepotism. He never hired people in his own company. The whole Burisma thing was not Joe Biden's company. It wasn't Joe Biden's administration. This is another company that hired Joe Biden's son. Yes, did it look bad? Even Hunter Biden said it looked bad, he should not have done it. But Trump has hired had his own kids in his own company and in his administration. That is the definition of nepotism. So the Biden thing was not even nepotism. CUOMO: Got his son figuring out Middle East peace. LEMON: Oh, well, there's peace in the Middle East right now, the fixer of everything has fixed everything. CUOMO: Secretary of state is in Jerusalem. LEMON: Oh, that's right. CUOMO: Anything to win, baby, as the Raiders say. Just win, baby, just win and everything winds up being justified. That's where we are. We are literally in "A Tale of Two Cities." LEMON: How are we going back to doing our regular shows next week? CUOMO: Getting a lot more sleep. LEMON: They don't even write -- they said after the first night, don't write anything for those two, just let them talk. We are like, oh, boy, we are going to get in trouble. CUOMO: Look, we think about good trouble, though. May he rest in peace, Brother Lewis. Good trouble. LEMON: Amen. CUOMO: You have to -- if you stay with the status quo, if you go with the group and talk about, you know, all the typical things, we are not in a typical time. We are in the middle of a pandemic right now. Right? You and I are going to put masks on when we go home. This is really messed up. LEMON: You know what, Chris, the first lady is the greatest imprimatur for the president of the United States, she did a wonderful job in the Rose Garden tonight, what do you think? CUOMO: I think I was sitting with my kid in the water today and she was lamenting that she is not sure if she is going to be able to go to college. LEMON: Yes, I know. CUOMO: And her last year of high school and how weird it will be that she will not see anybody in her class for months. And what am I going to say? "Well, you never know." No, I'm not saying anything like that. I don't know what will happen? I don't know if it will start a new strain. I can't even test. LEMON: Remember, we just reported yesterday on that -- CUOMO: The guy in Hong Kong. LEMON: He was reinfected. CUOMO: We don't know what's going on with it. And I'm hearing about the symptoms. Don, if one more woman, not a joke. One more woman sends me a picture of a plate or a table or a bowl filled with hair, people who have had COVID are losing clumps of hair. It's coming back for most of them, thank God. LEMON: Obviously, when people see me, they say, how is your buddy doing and I say he's fine. And then they say, you know what my son had or friend had, perfect health but at weird times they are out of breath. They have shortness of breath. Out of nowhere, for no reason. Runs marathons, blah, blah, blah, and can be exercising and running and then all of a sudden in the middle of the night or in the middle of lunch, you are out of breath. These weird things happen. CUOMO: People are getting hypertension, all types of these derivative illnesses. We don't know. LEMON: None of that addressed in the Republican convention. CUOMO: They say, it will be OK. LEMON: Thank you for inviting me over to your house to swim tonight. But what was my answer? I'm at work already. CUOMO: No, it was funnier than that. You said, they are yelling at us to go to break again. This is the story of our lives. We are the only people that you guys like seeing on TV that are constantly being told to stop talking. I said, Don, I'm going to the house, come take a swim. He said, where my house? I'm in the city. CUOMO: And I was laughing, I said, maybe we will go there and see if he left the door open, he has good snacks. CUOMO: I love you Don Lemon, I cannot spend enough time with you, but apparently we have spent too much right now. We have to go to break. And after commercial, we will talk about where the Trump campaign believes itself to be and where they think they can win because now we know. And we will discuss it next.

RNC Special Live Coverage Night 2; COVID And Kenosha: Defining Election Themes; Second Night of RNC: The President is Not the Man You Know Him to Be.

RNC Spezial-Live-Berichterstattung Nacht 2; COVID und Kenosha: Definition von Wahlthemen; Zweite Nacht von RNC: Der Präsident ist nicht der Mann, als den Sie ihn kennen.

RNC特别直播夜2；新冠病毒和基诺沙：确定选举主题；RNC第二晚：总统与你想象中的不一样。

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and from all around the world. You're watching CNN Newsroom. And I'm Rosemary Church. Donald Trump's family took center stage on the second night of the Republican National Convention. First Lady Melania Trump and two of the president's children, Eric and Tiffany, made the case for a second term. The theme for the night was land of opportunity. Other speakers included a farmer, a fisherman, and the Reverend Billy Graham's granddaughter, President Trump appeared into pre-recorded segments. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I would like to invite Jon's wife, Jaime, to join us as I grant Jon, I'm not sure you know this, a full pardon. CHURCH: That is convicted bank robber Jon Ponder who converted to Christianity and is now an advocate for prison reform. The first lady offered sympathy to the families of those lost to the coronavirus. She also called for unity, and understanding as the nation wrestles with the economic crisis and racial division. MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: As you have heard this evening, I don't want to use this precious time attacking the other side because, as we saw last week, that kind of talk only serves to divide the country further. I'm here because we need my husband to be our president and commander in chief for four more years. He is what is best for our country. We all know Donald Trump makes no secrets about how he feels about things. Total honesty is what we, as citizens, deserve from our president, whether you like it or not. You always know what he is thinking. And that is because he's an authentic person, who loves this country and its people, and wants to continue to make it better. Donald wants to keep your family safe. He wants to help your family succeed. He wants nothing more than for this country to prosper, and he doesn't waste time playing politics. CHURCH: America's top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, delivered one of the more controversial speeches of the night, less for its content then its location. He spoke from Jerusalem, breaking with long-standing tradition that secretaries of state avoid partisan politics, especially while overseas. Pompeo offered praise for President Trump on his foreign policy. MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: He has ended the ridiculously unfair trade arrangement with China that punched a hole in our economy. Those jobs, those jobs are coming back home. In North Korea, the president lowered the temperature, and against all odds got the North Korean leadership to the table. No nuclear test, no long-range missile tests, and Americas held captive in North Korean came home to their families. As the precious remains of scores of heroes who fought in Korea. CHURCH: Maria Cardona is a CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist. And Alice Stewart is a CNN political commentator, and a Republican strategist. They co-host a podcast called Hot Mics From Left to Right, and join me now with more. Welcome to you both. MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you for having me. ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you. Great to be here. CHURCH: Wonderful. So, two nights into the RNC, and we have seen a blatant attempt to rewrite history, calling President Trump's handling of the pandemic decisive, even as the U.S. makes up 4 percent of the U.S. population, but 20 percent of all virus deaths. We heard speeches about the greatest economy in history, but no mention of the 28 million unemployed, or the endless cues at food banks. So, Alice, will voters by this effort to rewrite the president's record? STEWART: I think this was -- it's been a good two nights for a couple of reasons, Rosemary. Let me just say, first of all, what the president aims to do here is really to energize his base and rally his base, but also to reach out to swing voters and those who are undecided. And what we saw in day two of this convention was, I saw very inspirational, talking about the United States being the land of opportunity and how we work hard and you can achieve great success. And we saw that through example after example of the farmers, the people that work and live in middle America and the benefits that this president has made, which strengthens their lives. And look, there are certain things, as you, say that might not pass the fact check, but at the end of the day, the inspirational message that people can take away from this convention will go a long way to swing voters. CHURCH: Maria, how successful was this whitewashing of the president's history be with voters? CARDONA: I don't think it will be very successful. It is very hard to feel inspired by president and by an administration that has stood by, idly by, when 180,000 Americans have died of the COVID pandemic, and we still have yet to see a national strategy, a national solution to deal with it. There is a ton of rewriting of history, but that isn't the least of it, Rosemary. Tonight, I was deeply offended as a naturalized citizen myself to watch the president of the United States sit there and politicize a ceremony that is sacred to so many people who are looking to become Americans. I went through the ceremony. My parents went through the ceremony. There is nothing more important in our civic life that as we became Americans, and to see a president politicize it, almost weaponize it, using it during the Republican National Convention, I'm sorry, it was nothing less than disgusting. And I think it turned off a lot of people around the country, and a lot of folks really sought through what it was, a desperate attempt to try to fix the president's numbers in the polls, but I don't think it's going to work. CHURCH: Alice, the Trump administration is also pushing back on accusations he's a racist. President Trump even going so far Tuesday night to pardon a black man who's a convicted bank robber turned prisoner advocate. Was this a political stunt, or a genuine effort to reform the criminal justice system? STEWART: A specific act there, Rosemary, was a continuation of what the president has done with regard to his First Step Act. And giving people a second chance at life, and showing redemption for people, and that person you are specifically talking about had served his time and came out, and he really wanted to make a change. And to see the president get so vested and involved and supporting not just this person, but the program that he outlined was truly inspirational. And to that -- to this issue, the first night, we heard from Senator Tim Scott who talked about his relationship with the president, and how close they were, and how much he knew that the president supported him, not just because he was a senator from the great state of South Carolina, but as an African-American senator. We also heard from Herschel Walker, a football player from the University of Georgia, and went on to play pro football. So, there are countless people we've heard from and we'll continue to hear from who can give firsthand accounts of how the president has supported them because there are first Americans, and second African-Americans that he wants to see not just thrive, but really succeed in this country. CHURCH: Maria, how likely is it that RNC speakers can convince voters that Trump is not a racist and has done a lot for black and Latino voters as he keeps suggesting. CARDONA: Not very likely at all, Rosemary. What we have seen in the past two days is complete and total desperate pandering. Pandering to a country that this president knows sees him as a racist. Pandering to a country whose diversity is exploding and the only thing he has done in the last four years is used rhetoric that is denigrating, dehumanizing and divisive. Here is a president who called Mexicans rapists and criminals, who put immigrant children in cages, ripped babies from the arms of their mothers for simply trying to come here to seek a better life. No one is buying it. They are trotting out their token people of color to speak to the camera, to try to convince America that what they have seen and heard in the last three years they haven't seen and heard in the last three years. We are smarter than that. CHURCH: We will have to leave it there. Maria Cardona and Alice Stewart, many thanks to you both. CARDONA: Thank you, Rosemary. STEWART: Thank you. CHURCH: In Kenosha, Wisconsin a third night of protests sparked by the police shooting an unarmed black man in front of his children. Protesters are demanding justice for Jacob Blake who was paralyzed after police shot him multiple times on Sunday. Wisconsin's governor has declared a state of emergency and increased the number of National Guard troops in Kenosha, but that didn't stop at least 200 people from defying curfew and challenging law enforcement again with bottle rockets and fireworks. Police were also seen deploying tear gas and shooting pellets into the crowds of protesters. Meantime, CNN has obtained new video of the police shooting, and we must warn you, it is disturbing. It shows Jacob Blake struggling with officers before he is shot. Here's CNN's Sara Sidner. SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Lives forever altered, new video showing the chaotic scene where Jacob Blake on the ground, struggles with police officers before he walks around his vehicle and a shot multiple times in the back. JACOB BLAKE SR., JACOB BLAKE'S FATHER: They shot my son seven times, seven times, like he didn't matter, but my son matters. MEGAN BELCHER, JACOB BLAKE'S SISTER: This family is hurting, he loves his family. I just want my brother. SIDNER: Still in intensive care, Blake now paralyzed from the waist down, likely a permanent injury. BENJAMIN CRUMP, BLAKE FAMILY ATTORNEY: Those bullets severed his spinal cord and shattered some of his vertebrae. It is going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr. to ever walk again. SIDNER: Blake's attorney calling for action. CRUMP: We are demanding that the prosecutor arrest the officer who shot Jacob Blake, and we also are asking that these officers who violated the policies and their training be terminated immediately. SIDNER: The Department of Justice announcing an investigation into the incident, but so far offering few details about the events that led up to the shooting. The man who took one of the viral videos shares what he witnessed but did not capture on camera. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just see him m walk in the house behind one of these women that was outside. I stepped away, and I came back, and I see the police wrestling him, and I was kind of confused because it happened so quick. SIDNER: We may never see exactly what happened before the disturbing moment because police in Kenosha do not have body worn cameras. But city leaders are promising justice will prevail. MAYOR JOHN ANTARAMIAN, KENOSHA, WISCONSIN: People will be held responsible for their actions, and we will know the truth. SIDNER: Blake's family demanding justice not just for Jacob but his three children now traumatized, they say, by what they witnessed. BLAKE SR.: They are stuck right now. We are going to seek out some of the best child psychologists in the United States, and we are going to work with them and let the whole picture that it plays over and over in front of their little faces. All my grandson asked repeatedly, is why did the police shoot my daddy in the back? JUSTIN BLAKE, JACOB BLAKE'S UNCLE: We are going to get justice, we are going to demand justice, but we're going to do that without tearing up our own communities. SIDNER: Still, protests erupted in destruction for the second night, a familiar scene of tear gas, smoke bombs, and fires, protesters clashing with police and the National Guard, Kenosha waking up to destruction, another community rocked by police violence. JULIA JACKSON, JACOB BLAKE'S MOTHER: If Jacob was going on, as far as that goes, the violence and the destruction, he would be very unpleased. SIDNER: The frustration from yet another black man shot by police felt far outside of Wisconsin. LEBRON JAMES, NBA PLAYER, LOS ANGELES LAKERS: Why does always have to get to a point where we see the guns firing? And his family is there, the kids are there, we are scared as black people in America. Black men, black women, black kids, we are -- we are terrified. SIDNER: We are not learning the extent of the injuries that Jacob Blake has suffered. He had a bullet, according to his attorney, severe or almost completely severed his spinal cord, has holes in his stomach, had his small intestine, most of that removed as well as his colon, and he was shot also in the arm. He will be recovering for a very long time, but he is expected to survive. His family is asking for calm. They say they are behind those who protest peacefully, but they don't want to see any more destruction. Sara Sidner, CNN, Kenosha, Wisconsin. CHURCH: Next hour, I will interview award winning journalist Jarrett Hill about the Kenosha shooting. Jarrett is also an officer with the National Association of Black Journalists. And still ahead, President Trump called it a breakthrough against the coronavirus, but now a top regulator is walking back, promising claims about a certain type of blood plasma. Plus, we are tracking the movements of hurricane Laura. It's getting stronger as it gets closer to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Millions could be in its path. We'll take a look.

First Family Call Voters' Support; Black Man Left Like a Veggie in Wisconsin; New Life Outside Cell for Jon Ponder; Speakers Cite Economic Progress, Stoke Culture Wars; Second Night of RNC Brings More Messages to Trump's Base

Erste Familie ruft die Unterstützung der Wähler auf; Schwarzer Mann in Wisconsin wie ein Veggie zurückgelassen; Neues Leben außerhalb der Zelle für Jon Ponder; Redner zitieren den wirtschaftlichen Fortschritt, schüren Kulturkriege; Zweite Nacht von RNC bringt weitere Botschaften an Trumps Basis

第一家庭呼吁选民支持；黑人在威斯康星州像个蔬菜一样被抛弃；乔恩·庞德在牢房外的新生活；演讲者提到经济进步，强调文化战争；共和党全国委员会第二晚给特朗普的支持者带来了更多信息

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Without any explanation, the CDC has made several changes to their COVID guidelines. And it's confusing and alarming many. One major change has to do with testing. Let's show you what the change is. As you can see on the screen, the CDC's guidance used to be that anyone who comes in close contact with someone who has COVID or suspected of having COVID that they should also get tested. Now the same Web site says that if you don't have any symptoms, even if you've been in that same close contact, you no longer need to be tested. What is going on here? Joining me right now is Dr. Celine Gounder, CNN medical analyst and former New York City assistant health commissioner. Dr. Gounder, it's nice to see you again. Does this make any sense to you? DR. CELINE GOUNDER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Kate, at best, this represents real confusion among the scientists at the CDC about what is a clinical, diagnostic approach to testing and what is a public health surveillance approach. I confess, I think it is more likely that this is an intentional effort by the administration to conceal the true extent of transmission and the numbers. We've known for the last couple of months now that asymptomatic transmission or transmission by people who have no symptoms is contributing significantly to this pandemic. And without being able to have the data on who those people are and being able to isolate them and separate them from people who are not infected, we're shooting ourselves in the foot. And we're leaving one of the most important tools we have to control this on the table. BOLDUAN: I do want to ask you about what you just said. You believe, you suspect, I would say you probably fear that this has something to do with political pressure coming from the White House. Because no one has shown evidence that less testing is going help the crisis. And there's lots of data showing that many people spread the virus without showing any symptoms. And I just want to get your take on what is this going to mean, going to happen right now. And do you think there's any other possibility, other than what you suspect, which is this is coming from pressure from the White House. GOUNDER: Well, I think this week both the CDC and the FDA have suffered real blows to their credibility as scientific public health agencies that are there to advocate for what is in the best interest of the public. Whether that is the emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma in the absence of adequate data, now this changed to CDC guidelines. This is very concerning. We, those of us in the public health community and scientific experts, epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists, have been advocating for more testing, not less testing. If we were doing mass testing, cheaply equivalent to the urine test strip, where you could potentially do that every day or every couple of days, that is a way to reopen the economy. That is a way to reopen our schools. But this is -- not only is it not mass testing. This is a reversal of what we should be doing. BOLDUAN: In general, though, is this how it should work? Changing guidance for how the public should be operating during a pandemic by putting it up on your Web site with no public announcement and no explanation? GOUNDER: We should be getting press conference briefings by the CDC at least on a weekly basis, if not on a daily basis, just as the White House Coronavirus Task Force was at one point giving regular briefings. That's really something we should be hearing from the CDC. We should be hearing from the scientists who have their pulse or have their finger on the pulse of the science, who know exactly what are the latest developments, what does it mean, and to interpret that from the perspective of the science and public health interests. Unfortunately, what we are hearing over and over again now is politicized messaging and really a lack of transparency about the real -- what the real extent of the pandemic is. BOLDUAN: Another change coming from the CDC is it's removing its guidance that you should quarantine, stay home for 14 days after returning from international travel or from an area with a high level of COVID. What do you think of that? GOUNDER: Well, again, this makes no sense. One of our most important tools rid now is right now is to prevent transmission from person to person. That includes wearing masks and that includes the social distancing from six feet apart from people, especially when you're indoors. And in addition to that, that also means that if you're coming from a place where you may well have been exposed, whether it's in the airport or the city itself where you're traveling from, that we wouldn't want you to be spreading that infection to others in your community and creating a new hot spot in your community. So without these tools, whether it's quarantine and whether it's testing and whether it's isolation, you're really putting ourselves in a very difficult position in terms of containing the virus. BOLDUAN: Yes. It's just -- one thing we don't need right now is more confusion, more confusion and people -- and less people following actual public health, sound public health advice. Dr. Gounder, thanks for coming on. I really appreciate it. Coming up for us, night two of the Republican convention is in the books. First lady, Melania Trump, her speech getting a lot of attention. She, for one, went where the president won't when it comes to coronavirus. But also because of her declaration that you deserve total honesty from your president.

CDC Changes COVID Guidelines Without Explanation

CDC ändert COVID-Richtlinien ohne Erklärung

疾病控制与预防中心更改新冠病毒指南而没做出任何解释

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Been on the streets overnight in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Reports, accounts coming out of there, they're conflicting. The view of the violence on the street, though, very concerning. Let's take a look at that then we'll tell you what we know at this point. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clear the area. Multiple shooters. Call on the alarm. Clear the area now. SCIUTTO: You hear the gunshots there. Goodness. It sounds like it's coming from a warzone. This is near a gas station in Kenosha. Of course you heard the police there attempting to clear the area. Right now this is what we know. Two people have been shot and killed. Another person is in the hospital with serious injuries, and here's where it gets particularly concerning. "The New York Times" is reporting that there were confrontations between protesters and a group of armed individuals, not members of police or law enforcement. The sheriff has told the "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" that those were vigilantes that had been patrolling the streets before the shootings. This is the third night of unrest in that city following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man who's shot in the back in front of his three young children. We're going to have a live report from Wisconsin on what we're learning, the latest we know in just a moment. But we have this other news. Following breaking news as Hurricane Laura is rapidly intensifying as it barrels towards the Gulf Coast. Now a category 3 hurricane it is rolling over very warm waters there. That intensifies these storms. It is now forecast to grow into an extremely dangerous category 4 later today before making landfall. That is just a deadly, dangerous combination. Also this. Hard questions of ethics violations as the administration multiple times used the power of the office for political gains. Something that is prohibited by law. The Republican National Convention in full swing and the party's message on the Trump presidency just at odds with reality. We're going to break down the highlights and the facts of what we know and what was said there, but first, let's begin with that first story we're following today. CNN's Sara Sidner is in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on the latest on these shootings overnight. So, Sara, I know that it is difficult to discern at this point exactly who was shooting at whom. What do we know at this hour? SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, what we have seen is some very clear video of one of the people who was shooting. It is stark, it is disturbing. You see a man with what appears to be an AR- style rifle strapped across his chest walking straight down the middle of the street. And then you hear shots ring out. There are people chasing him, saying he just shot somebody. He just shot somebody. That man then trips and falls on his own in the middle of the street. Starts to turn. People are coming at them, looking like the protesters were trying to grab him themselves because they were saying he had just shot someone. And he fires the gun. He hits someone. That person falls to the ground. You see him fire again. Very close range at someone else. He then gets up, walks down the street and police are coming towards him. He has his rifle, his long gun, strapped across his chest. He walks up to police officers who are rolling past him and literally three officers in vehicles, huge vehicles roll right past him while he's got his hands up with a long gun strapped across his chest after he had just fired -- you can see him at least twice firing at people who were coming towards him. One of them laying on the ground in the street. We now know that there are two people have been shot and killed. We know that the sheriff has talked to the "Milwaukee Journal" and that sheriff saying that there were militia members in the streets that trolling around this town and he called this vigilantism. We do not know if this man with the long gun was a part of any kind of militia. We do know what we saw with our own eyes in that video and I was able to talk to a witness just a few moments ago who said that they saw this all unfold, and were extremely disturbed about this. Also, angry that here you have a man who is armed, a white man armed, and the police let him walk right by them, even though it appears he is going towards them with his hands up as if he is surrendering. So a lot of questions here but we should also mention this is all happening surrounding the shooting of Jacob Blake who is now paralyzed from his waist down. He was shot seven times in the back. In that case people are saying he had no long gun, he had no visible gun at all. And here he still gets shot in the back while this man who has just shot someone did not get apprehend. There is a manhunt currently under way -- Jim. SCIUTTO: Sarah, and again, I know you're still reporting this out, but just to be clear from what you saw in that video and speaking to witnesses, that person with the long gun, not a member of law enforcement, a civilian? SIDNER: Yes, from what we know, and this is also sort of coming from the words of the sheriff who has not returned our calls but who has talked to the "Milwaukee Journal," that he used the word vigilantes. People who are not members of the police or the sheriff's department, who have taken things into their own hands and, you know, there's a lot of concern about that now because the sheriff is saying there are militia members out here. I myself saw folks out here carrying weapons on their hips, sort of looking around and assessing the situation and what they're saying is, you should leave this up to the law enforcement to deal with what is going on here. SCIUTTO: Of course. SIDNER: But, yes, at this point in time, we have no indication that this person was a member of any of the law enforcement offices here in Kenosha. SCIUTTO: Right. Listen, Sara, I know you're going to keep working it. Thanks very much. And folks, we're going to bring you information as it comes. We want to know it before we report it. Joining me now is CNN law enforcement analyst, Charles Ramsey. He's the former Philadelphia police commissioner as well as former police chief here in Washington, D.C. Chief Ramsey, good to have you here. CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Thank you. SCIUTTO: There's a lot we still don't know about the situation unfolding in Kenosha. But when you hear accounts of what appears to be a civilian patrolling the streets with an automatic or semiautomatic weapon, tell us your concerns about that combination. RAMSEY: Well, I mean, it's not good, it's not good at all. And you're starting to see it more and more where these vigilantes, militia, whatever you want to refer to them as taking the law into their own hands. SCIUTTO: Yes. RAMSEY: Feeling as if they've got to, you know, take to the streets to protect -- I don't know what they call themselves protecting. But it is a dangerous situation. There's no question about it. I mean, you've seen them show up at state capitols, you see them on the streets. SCIUTTO: Yes. RAMSEY: Some -- things like this which is just bound to eventually happen and so we've got to find the balance. I mean, people's right to have and bear arms certainly, but to bring those arms to a protest? Again, you know, you start to wonder whether or not that makes any sense. And so you have things like this take place. Fortunately, there's a pretty good video of the guy running down the streets so they should be able to I.D. hopefully anyway and apprehend him. But this is a troubling situation. SCIUTTO: Yes. I mean, maybe after he's killed or horribly injured people. RAMSEY: Yes. SCIUTTO: And you're right, we've seen this. We saw heavily armed people going to the statehouse in Wisconsin -- in Michigan, rather. We saw them at other protests weeks ago. OK, what do police need to do now? Because you do have a crisis of confidence particularly in black communities here. Here is another shooting, the circumstances of which concerning to say the least. And if you have vigilantes on the streets as well -- you've led the police departments in two major cities, what do they need to do right now to keep the peace? RAMSEY: Well, there's a couple of things. First of all, information needs to get out around the circumstances surrounding the shooting. It's been, what, three days now? And there's still been no real information. Now I believe the state police has taken over the investigation. I don't know if the communications lapses is on their part or not. But they've got to get information out, whether that information is good, bad or whatever. They need to get something out to let people know exactly what's going on. The second thing as far as the protests go, I know there's a curfew. People need to pay attention to that curfew. It is not safe and whatever resources they have off their own street, whether it's police, state police, local police, National Guard, they need to beef it up. They've got to get a handle on this because the next step unfortunately could very well be people that are protesting feel like they need to be armed in order to protect themselves. Then you've got other people, this militia or vigilante out there with guns. I mean, absolutely nothing good can come from that. SCIUTTO: Yes. RAMSEY: So they've got to tamp this down. They've got to shut it down. And there's no other way to describe it. I mean, public safety is key. I understand people's right to protest and so forth and there will still be some people out there protesting but there needs to be a very heavy, heavy police presence. SCIUTTO: Finally, just before I let you go, as a former police officer with decades in uniform, what can you tell or know from looking at the video what we've seen so far regarding the shooting of Jacob Blake? RAMSEY: Well, there's one video that shows a struggle taking place just before the shooting. So he's clearly resisting arrest but resisting arrest by itself does not justify the use of deadly force. And so they follow him around, he opens the car door. One officer seems to be pulling at him and then someone opens fire. I don't know if it's that officer or his partner who opens fire. Unless there's a gun that they can clearly see, he's reaching for a gun or whatever, I don't see where the use of deadly force was justified. I mean, it needs to be reasonable, necessary and certainly proportional. And unless there's something that we aren't seeing on this video, then they're going to be hard pressed to call this a justified shooting. Whether it's criminal or not, that's up to a district attorney to determine, but this is going to be one that is very, very questionable and in my opinion from what I see now, without any more evidence, would be an unjustified deadly use of force. SCIUTTO: Charles Ramsey, thanks very much. It's always good to have your experience to help us understand these things. RAMSEY: Thank you. SCIUTTO: To the other developing story this morning, there's a lot of news, and this is Hurricane Laura. It has intensified and rapidly. Now a major category 3 storm. It could hit the Gulf Coast as an extremely dangerous category 4 storm. That later today. We have team coverage tracking the system. First let's go to CNN meteorologist Chad Myers. He's in the CNN Weather Center. Chad, as this lays out exactly as you laid out yesterday, right, those warm waters. it gets stronger, it intensifies as it gets closer, what is it going to look like when it hits land? CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's going to look like a category 4 storm. It's going to have a storm surge of 15 feet, maybe even higher because now the bubble of water is truly building. It's going to be like Bay St. Louis and Waveland and Biloxi when we had Katrina. The water is just going to push onshore. I've already seen some pictures here in the bayous of Louisiana where the water is already up past the fishing docks and over them. And people were thinking they're going to stay. If you're in these areas that I show you, you need to leave now. It's going to be that dangerous. There's going to be so much water with this storm. We know that the storm is getting stronger. 116 miles per hour was the latest fly through and at this time yesterday we were 70. And we had all those graphics about rapid intensification. What does it mean? Could it happen? Well, it did. And now we're going to be at probably a cat 3, maybe losing a little strength right as it comes on shore tonight but the bubble of water will still be a category 4 bubble. Here is what the rainfall is going to look like. You look around the eye itself. It's pretty big. About 30 miles around, but it's going to be spreading out. We are going to see significant wind damage and surge damage along the path of this. Even some wind damage to the left of the storm. We know it carries about the right. No, this even have some wind speeds over hurricane strength on the left side of the eye. The western eyewall. Because the whole thing is going to be 130. So of course the west side is still going to have winds and there it goes all the way up to tropical storm force even up into Shreveport. And wind gusts of 110, 115, maybe up to 130, and all of this surge, all of this water, getting all the way to even Lake Charles. This is a devastating storm, Jim. SCIUTTO: Goodness. Seeing the storm surge already, that's alarming. Thanks very much, Chad Myers. Derek Van Dam, he's in Beaumont, Texas, which is in the path of that storm. I'm curious about preparations there. Are folks listening to the evacuation orders as we already see storm surge rising? DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Well, mandatory evacuations here in Jefferson County and Beaumont, Texas. People recognize the dangers that major Hurricane Laura poses because they remember Hurricane Harvey, they remember Rita, they remember Ike. And they know from previous lessons that they need to take this storm seriously. And they know that this is not the same storm that they went to bed with last night because it has changed as Chad just described. And this particular location is so vulnerable to storm surge and localized flash flooding as well, but the hurricane preparations here are on a different scale. Something people have never done before, experienced amongst the backdrop of a global pandemic, so this is really changing things and it's complicating the evacuation efforts and complicating the decisions for the residents who are located here. Even though there's mandatory evacuations, people are still weighing up the options, do I shelter in place at home? Am I safer there because of COVID-19? Or do I leave and move to an area where there could be large gatherings of people? That's what people are weighing up right now. I have spoken to individuals who are gathering all the available supplies, doing whatever they can to prepare for Hurricane Laura and its arrival tonight. It's amazing to think that we're starting our day with sunshine and we are going to be ending our day with a potential for hurricane-force winds, maybe topping 100 miles per hour, right where I'm located here. But the level of coordination, Jim, is amazing. I visited the FEMA National Incident Command Center at the Ford Arena here. And they have ambulances lined up, charter buses as well as communication vehicles and swift water rescue boats ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. Back to you. SCIUTTO: Calm before the storm as they say. Derek Van Dam, thank you very much. Good to have you there. VAN DAM: Right. SCIUTTO: Please be safe. Also this morning, and we know there's a lot to digest, a major shift from the CDC. New guidelines say people may not need to be tested even if they have been exposed to the virus. That's a change. A big one. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen joins me now with more. Elizabeth, we've seen a lot of changes from the CDC lately. What's going on here? Of course there's a requisite question, is there political influence or they're following the science here? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN HOST: Jim, you really do have to ask if there's political pressure. That's a really good question because they haven't noted any scientific changes. There haven't been changes that would point to this. They didn't say that in their statement. What they're saying now is if you don't have symptoms you don't necessarily need testing which is so perplexing given that we've been talking for months about how up to 50 percent of transmission of this virus is by people who do not have symptoms. Why would you not want them to be tested; it is quite puzzling. So let's take look at exactly what happened with the CDC. Here's what they were saying before; testing is recommended for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Up close contact is defined as within six feet for 15 minutes or more of someone who has coronavirus. What they're saying now is; if you have been in close contact within six feet of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but do not have symptoms you do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual. Meaning elderly or underlying conditions or your healthcare provider or state or local public health officials recommend you take one. So basically they're kind of punting to the doctors or to state or local health officials to make this decision when the experts will all tell you; you need to get a test if you've been in close contact; it doesn't matter if you don't have symptoms. Jim. SCIUTTO: That's remarkable considering of course it's been proven there is asymptomatic transmission of this. We'll continue to follow that I'm sure it's confusing for people at home. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much. Still to come this hour; a Trump campaign official says that Vice President Mike Pence will quote "take some lumber to Joe Biden during the convention tonight. How will the vice president handle a somewhat unfamiliar role of attack dog. An NBA player is discussing boycotting games following the shooting of Jacob Blake. Now one of the NBA star coaches, Doc Rivers is not holding back. Ahead we're going to hear his power statement.

Two Dead, One Injured in Overnight Shooting in Kenosha; Hurricane Laura Rapidly Intensifies, Closes in on Gulf Coast.

Zwei Tote, ein Verletzter bei nächtlicher Schießerei in Kenosha; Hurrikan Laura verstärkt sich schnell und nähert sich der Golfküste.

肯诺莎连夜发生枪击案,两死一伤；飓风劳拉迅速增强，逼近墨西哥湾沿岸。

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Welcome to viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing a busy news day with us. We are at the halfway point now of the Republican Convention. A very sharp focus so far on the people and places the president sees as pivotal to his re-election chances. Plus a very determined effort to both distort Joe Biden's record and to distort your Coronavirus reality. First thought, this is a day of angst and anxiety here in the United States. Hurricane Laura now a category 3 storm sending millions in Texas and Louisiana into a rush to get ready or get out. In Wisconsin, a new fracture over how this country threats black men and a new debate over line between making a point through protests and undermining your argument through destruction. Kenosha is the latest tinderbox here in the United States. Two people were killed and a third wounded last night in a shooting that during the third night of protests over the police shooting of a black man. The shooting last night took place just before midnight. Police are trying to sort exactly what happened in that chaotic scene. County is demanding the Governor call up more national guardsmen to police those protests. Jacob Blake was shot by police Sunday seven times. The Blake family attorney says the 29-year-old was trying to stop a fight between two women. When police followed him to his car and opened fire. His family says Blake is now paralyzed from the waist down. CNN Sara Sidner is live for us on the scene in Kenosha. Sara, what's the latest? SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A couple bits of new information, the family attorney talking about whether or not Jacob Blake had a weapon on him? There's been a lot of talk about what led up to the shooting where he ended up being shot in the back seven times by police. So I want to let you hear that and then we'll talk about what happened in the streets here in Kenosha where two people were shot and killed and a third person wounded. First, let's listen to what the attorney is now saying about whether or not Jacob Blake actually had a weapon. Leading up to this altercation with police, where police ended up shooting him. JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Do we know if Mr. Blake owned a weapon or was in possession of are one? PATRICK SALVI JR., ATTORNEY FOR JACOB BLAKE'S FAMILY: He did not. So in the vehicle he did not have a weapon. I can't speak directly to what he owned. SIDNER: So you hear there, him saying he did not have a weapon in the vehicle and why that is significant? And this is according, of course, to those who are representing Jacob Blake, why that's significant is there was a lot of questions as to whether or not he was reaching in his car for something that could harm police or not? His attorney emphatically saying he did not have a weapon inside of that car, where, by the way, his three children were sitting and witnessed all of this. Now I want to jump to what happened in the streets here overnight in Kenosha just quickly. There was, there is great consternation here in this city that this situation has become so untenable that violence is exploding and now two people are dead. We saw a man with a long gun going down the street. A lot of people chasing after him trying to grab on to him, and it turns out that indeed he ended up shooting someone and you see it on camera. And we are now sort of hearing there's a manhunt under way for this man. There is also, searching for someone else possibly who ended up shooting someone in the head. We talked to a witness today who witnessed all of that and more on that coming up in a bit. KING: Sara Sidner for us live on the ground in Kenosha. Sara, grateful for the live reporting keep in touch with us. Let's continue the conversation now with one of the community leaders concerned about all this, the Kenosha County Supervisor Andy Berg. Mr. Berg, thank you for being with us. Supervisor Berg, I should say. Let's walk through this a lot to talk about. Number one, the county has asked for more National Guard troops an increase in the National Guard presence to try to prevent what happened last night. What is response from the Governor? Do you have one? ANDY BERG, KENOSHA COUNTY SUPERVISOR: I have not heard a response from the Governor as to additional troops. I know we have doubled our troops yesterday in the 125 on Monday to the 250 yesterday. As to the additional beyond that I'm not aware of. KING: And what do you know and are you getting information that you think as quickly as you need about what happened last night? Obviously, you've seen the video. You're there in the community. You had these protests in the street and then there was a shooting. Do we know what caused it and who was the person who opened fire? BERG: Well, there was apparently a citizens' brigade that decided they wanted to rally up the American patriots, if you want to call them, and come arms to Kenosha to protect our city. We didn't ask them to come here. BERG: We don't need them here, as was the result of last night is what you saw. KING: Are you certain they're not from Kenosha, when you say "they came here"? BERG: Well, I'll say the shooters not from Kenosha, the suspect, but others in our community, yes; they did show up with long guns most certainly. KING: One of the ways to perhaps dial back the protests, those mad about the shooting of Mr. Blake is to get results from the investigation. Where does that stand? BERG: Word is - the results are that what you're asking? KING: Yes. Where is the Kenosha Police Department in the tone of investigation of what happened to Mr. Blake? BERG: Well, the Kenosha Police Department is not investigating the event because it was a police involved shooting. The state is taking on that investigation. Where that investigation right now, I'm not privy to that information. KING: Just tell me what's it like to be a leader in the community? You've watched this play out, sadly, in other American cities. You have a black man shot by a police. We have every right to get to an investigation, get to the bottom of all this, but then you have legitimate anger in the streets and then you have the escalation of that into more sadness. What is it like to be in a community, that I'm assuming if I talk you - ran into you a month ago somewhere you would not bet expecting this to playing out in Kenosha? BERG: I'm not - I don't know if I wouldn't be expecting it. I wouldn't be surprised. I represent one of the second - the second most diverse district in my county, and it's been talked about. People have talked about what needs to be changed, changes that need to happen in the community and we've failed as elected leaders to make those changes for people in our community. People are scared right now. People are leaving Kenosha. Residents are leaving Kenosha not only because of the protests but because of what happened last night. Businesses are being burned. A lot of the destruction is happening; it's not from people of Kenosha. It's people coming in. Everybody - across the board - all residents of Kenosha are asking people to not come here and they're asking residents to stay in their homes so that the world sees that it's not us. It's people coming in. KING: Supervisor Andy Berg, appreciate your thoughts and perspective today. We'll keep in touch as this plays out and we hope it is more peace tonight in Kenosha. BERG: Thank you. KING: Thank you sir. Hurricane Laura now churning through the Gulf of Mexico as a category 3 storm expected to come ashore tonight or very early tomorrow morning as a powerful cat 4. This morning the Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards tweeted, that people "Only have a few hours to prepare and that wherever you are by noon local time, that's coming up, is where you'll have to ride out the storm". CNN's Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center with the latest. Chad this storm has been intensifying rapidly? CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Exactly. Exactly what we expected when it got over this warm water the same warm water that had Katrina, Charley and Rita, as you know and Ivan it was the rapid intensification of the warm water in the Southern Gulf of Mexico. This went from a 65 mile-per-hour storm yesterday about this time to 125. And it's going to 145. John, it's not turning. This is something that I'm very concerned with. I mean, we have it on the left side of this cone, almost the entire time. European model has said left side of the cone, left side of the cone. We need this to turn. We need this to get to the right, or Houston, millions, millions more people, are going to be in trouble. Now, that said, Lake Charles, if it does turn, you are in trouble. You are the place where the wind will come in somewhere around 125, 130 miles per hour. And also a storm surge up to 20 feet. You need to be away from the water and away from the wind. There's no good place for this to go. So I know I said we need it to turn and we don't need it to turn. What I'm saying is that if millions of people in Houston won't be devastated, but this will have to turn and it's not. It's simply isn't making that right-hand turn yet. We'll continue to see if it does. It is going to be very close to the Beaumont, Port Arthur area. Winds are going to 130, 145. There's no good place for this to land. Once the storm gets in the Gulf of Mexico, John, there's no good place for it. That's what's going to happen here. It's in the Gulf of Mexico, it's still very strong. Look at the Lake Charles winds. 127. Can you imagine that over downtown Houston? Imagine the windows out of the buildings and things like that? This continues to move to the north, loses some steam, but still Shreveport, 85 miles per hour later on tonight. So this continues to be a major storm. Major surge and the Hurricane Center calling it un-survivable storm surge at 15 to 20 feet. KING: Critical warnings there and critical for anybody in the area especially given the unpredictability, as Chad just said. Keep in touch here at CNN and listen to your local officials. Chad, appreciate the update. I'm sure I'll be in touch as we go through the next several hours. KING: And up next for us, the CDC make as major change to its Coronavirus testing guidance and a lot of the experts have concerns.

Family Attorney Says Blake Did Not Have A Weapon In His Car; Two Dead, One Injured In Overnight Shooting In Kenosha

Anwalt der Familie sagt, Blake habe keine Waffe in seinem Auto gehabt; Zwei Tote, ein Verletzter bei nächtlicher Schießerei in Kenosha

家庭律师说布莱克的车里没有武器；两人在基诺沙发生的连夜枪击事件中死亡，一人受伤

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, August 26, 6 a.m. here in New York. We do begin with breaking news. Pandemonium on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, overnight. Police are searching for a man with a long gun who apparently opened fire on protesters and agitators. Police say two people are dead this morning and one injured after a group of heavily-armed vigilantes took it upon themselves to police the streets. Many videos on social media show the chaos as some of these shootings played out. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, CAMEROTA: It's been three days since Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven times in front of his children. His family says he is paralyzed. Police have still not explained what happened or why they shot him. This morning, we have new video of the moments right before that shooting. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also breaking just moments ago, we just got word that Hurricane Laura is rapidly gaining strength and is now forecast to become a very powerful Category 4 storm today, as it barrels toward the Gulf Coast. You need to pay attention to this. This is a look at the storm from space. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate in Texas and Louisiana. We will get the latest forecast track in just a moment. More breaking news overnight. The CDC issued new guidelines on coronavirus testing. Guidelines that have left medical experts just dumbfounded and wondering if it's all designed to actually find fewer cases. Also, we have fresh reaction to night two of the Republican convention, where the president exploited the powers and trappings of government for his campaign in ways that have never been done before, never even close. This wasn't blurring lines; it was obliterating them. And we will discuss why the simple act of expressing sympathy for coronavirus victims from the first lady stood out so much at a convention proceeding, as if a pandemic that has killed nearly 180,000 Americans is barely happening. We want to begin, though, with the breaking news on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Sara Sidner is there. And Sara, let's just stipulate from the beginning, there is so much we don't know. But what we do know is that the sheriff there has noted the presence of armed counter-protesters, vigilantes, who are on the streets, as well. SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the sheriff has actually said there have been armed militia members out in the streets. We are not sure if the person who is accused of shooting two people and killing them and wounding others is a part of any sort of militia, but the sheriff using the word "vigilantes" are in the streets. We should also mention that we have seen more video, social media video of a man holding a long gun, running down the street, as people are chasing after him, after they say he shot someone. And then you see him trip and fall. And then you see him firing off several rounds. And there is definitely someone hit in that scenario. We are -- as we understand it, there is a manhunt underway, at this hour, for the people that the sheriff had referred to as vigilantes. That happened just down the street from the courthouse here where the protests have been breaking out between police and protesters. But as we understand it, there is definitely a manhunt underway for someone who had a long gun. There is also questions from protesters as to whether there were other people who were also -- multiple shooters, who were also firing off. We're trying to get some of the details now. But this is what is breaking at this hour. Overnight, there were more clashes between police and protesters, with protesters throwing water bottles, police responding with tear gas. And so that blew up again, but this is new. We now know from the sheriff that there are, as he put it, vigilantes in the streets. He says that they've been out several nights during these protests. And now two people are dead. Several people, as we understand it, were injured. But we are seeing this extremely disturbing video of a man running down the street with a gun. You can hear people, you know, yelling at him and him yelling back, to back up. But very, very, very serious situation here, as there is a manhunt underway for someone accused of shooting and killing two people here in Kenosha -- John. BERMAN: And again, we still have no answers for why Jacob Blake was shot or the incident that proceeded that. That is something that, I know, is very disturbing to the people in Wisconsin, as well. Sara Sidner, please keep us posted. Again, this is developing throughout the morning. We'll have much more in just a minute. Breaking overnight, Hurricane Laura rapidly intensified, and it is now forecast to hit the Gulf Coast, possibly as a powerful Category 4 storm, in just a few hours. Look at that. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers with this new, intensified forecast and track -- Chad. CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: John, this storm here doesn't look anything like when we went to bed last night. Now there's an eye. The storm is breathing; it's getting stronger. It's getting lower in pressure, and the winds are picking up. And the bubble of storm surge is going up. So now we don't have a 9 to 12 surge. It's going to be higher than that. This is what happened to Katrina. When Katrina was a 5 in the southern Gulf, it built that bubble that hit waves in Bay St. Louis and over toward Waveland and into Biloxi. This is what's happening here. Now, the good news is where this overwash is going to take place as a Category 4 or possibly going down to a 3 by landfall. There's not a lot there. Holly Beach is going to be there. But just a little bit inland, then you get to Lake Charles. That's the problem. Inland from here, this storm isn't going to hit land and die, because the land between Holly Beach and Lake Charles is very swampy. It's very wet. There's water there. Usually we say, oh, there's land; it's going to die. The computer models still have the potential for this to be closer to Galveston. And in the overnight hours, I think I've seen a little bit of a westward jog, which would be bad news for Houston. The closer you get, obviously, the higher the winds would be. We know that the winds are going to approach tropical storm force somewhere around 2 p.m. this afternoon along the coast. So after that, you can't do anything. You can't put boards up. You can't do anything. You need to prep now or get out now, if you are in the zone here from probably the Sabine Pass and off to the east. That's really Cameron, Louisiana, population somewhere between 1 and 3,000, depending on the season. So here you go. The winds are going to be 110 in this entire area, but even if you get up to Shreveport, your winds are going to be somewhere in the ballpark of 80 miles per hour. This isn't going to die off anytime soon. Landfall likely takes place somewhere plus or minus two hours from 1 a.m. tonight, with a storm surge of 10 to 15 feet. Those barrier islands, Alisyn, are not 10 to 15 feet high. The water will go right over the top. You must be gone. CAMEROTA: OK. I hope everyone is -- MYERS: Honestly. CAMEROTA: -- heeding this warning. Chad, we'll check in with you throughout the program. Half a million Americans are under mandatory evacuation orders in Texas and Louisiana, as Hurricane Laura barrels towards the Gulf Coast. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam is live in Beaumont, Texas, with more. What's the situation there, Derek? DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Alisyn. People are waking up to a completely different storm. Here in Jefferson County in Beaumont, Texas, the city is on edge. The not-so-distant memory for residents here would be Hurricane Harvey, Rita, and Ike. They know how much destruction and how much flooding can be brought to this very susceptible city. But of course, the preparations for Hurricane Laura are completely different, because they're amongst the backdrop of a global pandemic. Just take a listen to what this individual had to do in order to prepare for a hurricane amongst COVID-19. RUDY LASSAINT, BEAUMONT RESIDENT: Trying to be safe and be prepared for the storm and do the necessary things that need to be done. I'm trying to stay covered up. You know, I have medicine if I need some, whatever that nature. And I'd just like for everybody to be safe out there. Stay to yourselves, social distance, and all of that, so you won't catch COVID-19. VAN DAM: Even though there are mandatory evacuations along the southeast coast of Texas, COVID-19 is complicating people's decisions. Do they evacuate or do they shelter in place? We heard from the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott yesterday, stating that, just because a hurricane is approaching southeast Texas doesn't mean that COVID-19 is going away from the state. We know that Texas is still a hot spot, even though trends in the cases have gone down over the past 14 days, which is, of course, good news. But of course, this is complicating the evacuation efforts here. Talking about the immediate threats to Beaumont and the coastal areas of southeast Texas, we talked about storm surge with Chad just a few moments ago, with the potential of that storm surge moving inland as far as 30 miles from the coastline and winds in excess of 110 miles per hour. This is a fast-moving storm. So rainfall threat here is high, but as it moves on, we're only anticipating the 5 to 10 inches of rain within this area. But inland, localized flash flooding certainly a possibility -- John. BERMAN: All right. Derek Van Dam, stay safe. Keep us posted. Thank you very much for being there. Appreciate it. We have new reaction this morning to the Republican convention. President Trump using the trappings of government and official business in ways we have never seen before in a campaign. And we heard last night at the convention for the first time from the first lady, Melania Trump, praising the president for his honesty. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is live in Washington with the very latest on what we've seen so far -- Jeff. JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, John. It was the power of the presidency mixed with politics, as you said, like we've never seen before, essentially a national convention being broadcast from the White House. Now, it was an attempt to broaden the president's appeal beyond the divisions of his first term, but it was capped off by a speech from the first lady, Melania Trump, as we've never seen her before. ZELENY (voice-over): The second night of the Republican National Convention smashing political norms and blurring the lines between government and politics. CHAD WOLF, ACTING HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Congratulations. You're now citizens of the United States of America. ZELENY: The president appearing in a naturalization ceremony in the White House, conducted by acting homeland security secretary, Chad Wolf. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is no higher honor and no greater privilege; and it's an honor for me to be your president. ZELENY: The event raising concerns it could have violated the Hatch Act, which prevents members of the executive branch, except the president and vice president, from taking part in political activity. In a late-night statement, a White House official defending the move: "The campaign decided to use the publicly available content for campaign purposes. There was no violation of law." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo breaking with precedent, making an appearance at the convention from Jerusalem. Pompeo made a full- throated endorsement of the administration's foreign policy, praising policies in the Middle East, China, and North Korea. MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Delivering on this duty to keep us safe and our freedoms intact, this president has led bold initiatives in nearly every corner of the world. ZELENY: Two of the president's children, Eric and Tiffany Trump, continuing the dark themes from night one of the convention, painting a Joe Biden presidency as a threat to America. ERIC TRUMP, SON OF DONALD TRUMP: And in view of the radical Democrats, America is a source of the world's problems. They want to destroy the monuments of our forefathers. They want to disrespect our flag. TIFFANY TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF DONALD TRUMP: This is a fight for freedom versus oppression, for opportunity versus stagnation, a fight to keep America true to America. ZELENY: And Kentucky's attorney general slamming Biden for his past comments about black Americans. DANIEL CAMERON, KENTUCKY ATTORNEY GENERAL: I also think about Joe Biden, who says, if you aren't voting for me, you ain't black; who argued that Republicans would put us back in chains; who says there is no diversity of thought in the black community. Mr. Vice President, look at me. I am black. We are not all the same, sir. Joe Biden is a backwards thinker in a world that is craving forward- looking leadership. ZELENY: Melania Trump striking a different tone than most of the night's speakers during the closing speech of the evening, refusing to attack Biden or Kamala Harris. Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, the first lady was one of the few who addressed the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 179,000 Americans. MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to acknowledge the fact that since March, our lives have changed drastically. The invisible enemy, COVID-19, swept across our beautiful country and impacted all of us. My deepest sympathy goes out to everyone who has lost a loved one. ZELENY: The first lady also addressing the racial unrest in America, calling for unity and empathy. M. TRUMP: It is a harsh reality that we are not proud of parts of our history. I encourage people to focus on our future while still learning from our past. ZELENY: Now, those moments of empathy certainly stood out in the convention and certainly will be on display here tonight, as well, as more racial unrest is, indeed, unfolding in America. Vice President Mike Pence will be here at Ft. McHenry in Baltimore, where he will be delivering his speech this evening. Of course, this is an historic monument and shrine where the national anthem was written back in 1814. But John, certainly a moment of challenge for this administration, as well, as we see the events unfolding in Wisconsin. BERMAN: Yes, think about that imagery, where Mike Pence will no doubt, at least explicitly or implicitly send the message that he does not approve of people kneeling during the national anthem, and this in the midst of protests over racial injustice and real questions around the country. Jeff Zeleny, keep us posted. Thank you very much. The breaking news we're following this morning, we have just learned two people are dead in shootings on the streets of Kenosha in Wisconsin. The major development appears to be the sheriff saying there has been a presence of vigilantes. He even used the word "militia groups" to counter the protesters. We're going to bring you the very latest, next.

Shooter Kills Two at Kenosha Protests; Hurricane Laura Forecast to Hit Gulf Coast as Category 4 Storm; Melania Trump Speaks at Republican Convention.

Schütze tötet zwei Menschen bei Protesten in Kenosha; Hurrikan Laura wird voraussichtlich als Sturm der Kategorie 4 auf die Golfküste treffen; Melania Trump spricht auf dem Parteitag der Republikaner.

肯诺莎抗议活动中枪手造成两人死亡；飓风劳拉预计将袭击墨西哥湾沿岸，为4级风暴；梅拉尼娅·特朗普在共和党大会上讲话。

DANIEL MISKINIS, KENOSHA, WISCONSIN, POLICE CHIEF: This is not a police action. This is not the action, I believe, of those who set out to do protests. It is involved -- it is the persons who were involved after the legal time, involved in illegal activity that brought violence to this community. So, last night, unfortunately, a 26-year-old Silver Lake resident, and a 36-year-old Kenosha resident lost their lives to the senseless violence. A 26-year-old West Allis resident was also injured, but is expected to survive. This case is still very active. We have investigators out now still following leads and then doing what we can to bring around -- excuse me -- to bring about the closure to that. The names of those involved are not being released at this time. As I said, it's a very active investigation. And we have a person in custody out of state. I'll be working to bring that person to Wisconsin to face appropriate charges. JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. You have been watching an update from officials in Kenosha, Wisconsin, giving an update on the unrest in Wisconsin following the police killing of Jacob Blake there earlier in the week and violence afterwards. For the first time, the chief of police spoke about Jacob Blake, saying that he cannot talk about the incident. This comes as we have gotten some brand-new information in the last few minutes about the suspect who was taken into custody for separate shootings that occurred last night. According to the police department, two people were shot and killed. Another one was injured. CNN's Sara Sidner joins me now on the phone from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Sara, what do we know about the suspect? SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's really interesting to note that, so far, we haven't heard the police, nor the sheriff of Kenosha talking about the violence that erupted last night, where two people were shot and killed and one person injured. You're listening and seeing, I think, the video there of one of those shootings. What we now know is that a 17-year-old teenager is in custody. That TAPPER: And, Sara, you probably were leaving the room getting ready to talk to us. And so you didn't hear when the Kenosha police chief, Miskinis, I believe is his name, identified -- he did speak about the shooting last night, not about who the perpetrator was that I heard. SIDNER: Yes. TAPPER: He said that one of the victims was -- one of the victims killed was a 26-year-old resident of Silver Lake, Wisconsin, and another was a 36-year-old Kenosha, Wisconsin, resident. Have we been able to ascertain, any of your sources in law enforcement or through any other way, what -- who this 17-year-old was, what his motivation was, whether he's claiming he was acting in self-defense, whether he was just running around shooting protesters? Do we have any idea? SIDNER: No. I mean, we do know one thing that, when we talked to one of the witnesses of one of these shootings, we know that there were two separate shootings. One person was, allegedly, according to witnesses, hit in the head, another person hit somewhere in the torso, in the body, and then one person hit the arm. We are hearing from people that this -- that the person they saw is very young, so matches the description of the 17-year-old who has been arrested by Antioch police. But we do not know any kind of motivation. We don't know why, for example, the 17-year-old was in town, if he was taking part in the protests, or if he was here for some other reason. Those are all questions that I'm sure police are trying to ascertain, and, certainly, the folks who have witnessed this horrific shooting are trying to figure out as well. But we do that he is from out of town, so that he isn't somebody who's just a resident who happened to be in the streets, that this person actively came into town for some reason or another, and he was armed. TAPPER: Yes, that's right. He's being described as a 17-year-old resident of the state of Illinois, so not only not in -- not from Kenosha, but not even from Wisconsin. Sara Sidner, keeps us up to speed as to what you're learning. Joining us now to talk about this all, CNN's political commentator Bakari Sellers and also James Gagliano, who is a CNN law enforcement analyst. James, let me start with you. And let's start a few days ago with Jacob Blake. The police chief just minutes ago said that he has no details on the incident. He cannot talk about it. This is, in part, of course, because the state is handling the investigation. Is it normal protocol for law enforcement at this point to have not have even offered any sort of explanation, any sort of fuller picture that they are claiming might be important context? JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Jake, that's a fair question. And I know a lot of people are unnerved because the officer's name has not been released. But we have to look at this from the perspective that these officers are entitled to due process. And there is a system in place. And, yes, there are unions involved and collective bargaining and what the rules are as far as releasing information about the officers. Look, I thought the police chief threaded the needle expertly. He stated on camera, he stated at a press conference, we are not going to hide behind any preconceived thin blue line of silence. He says, we're going to get to the bottom of this. We are not conducting the investigation. And, Jake, I think more facts are going to come out in regards to the officers involved, whether or not there were body camera footage available and things like that. The investigation has to play itself out. It just doesn't help when we have riots like this, when we have people attacking innocent officers and businesses. That doesn't help the situation for us, Jake. TAPPER: Well, obviously, nobody is saying that it does. But -- well, let me ask Bakari a question. I'll come back to you, James. Bakari, there's now two more dead people -- or two dead people, because Jacob Blake is alive -- and others injured, Jacob Blake and then somebody else who was injured. We know that the two individuals who were killed we know, it's a 26-year-old Silver Like, Wisconsin, resident and a 36-year-old Kenosha, Wisconsin, resident. What's your reaction to what we're seeing? BAKARI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: So, I hear James and I hear everything that he's saying. And let me start by being unequivocal in saying that I condemn the rioting. I condemn the looting. I believe that everybody has the right to a peaceful protest. And I want people to take to the streets peacefully, to echo the words of Jacob Blake's mother, in giving their son -- and making sure his life matters and making sure, when you have a grievance, you can air it fairly. The biggest problem I have, though, is that people are asking for us to give due process and benefit of the doubt to law enforcement where there's not that trust and where that same benefit of the doubt was not given to Jacob Blake. He was shot seven times in the back. He wasn't Tased. He wasn't billy clubbed. He wasn't tackled. He was shot, lethal force, seven times in the back. And so while I hear the echoes and the calls for due process and benefit of the doubt, just recall and remember that that wasn't given to Jacob. That's first. The second thing is, I hear people condemning the rioting and looting and asking us and especially black folk to come on TV and condemn the rioting and the looting. I will do that. But I also want people to stand up and condemn these unlawful shootings that we're seeing against particularly men of color, and also condemn these vigilantes, which are making it more difficult for law enforcement to do their job. You had vigilantes attack the Kentucky capitol. You had them attack in march around the Michigan capitol, and nobody said anything? And now you have them in Wisconsin. They're not counterprotesters. They're vigilantes. We have two more dead and another injured. TAPPER: All right, Bakari Sellers, James Gagliano, thank you so much. In our health lead today: a shocking change from the CDC. The CDC now suggesting fewer people be tested for the novel coronavirus, which is the exact opposite of what so many health experts say is needed to identify and isolate the virus in order to save lives. A senior federal health officials tell CNN that this new change by the CDC was made after pressure from the top of the Trump administration. Now, we know that President Trump has been lamenting that so much testing results in higher numbers of cases. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We test more than anybody by far. And when you test, you create cases, so we have created cases. TAPPER: Of course, testing doesn't create cases. It uncovers cases. It uncovers an infection. As a top health expert put it, people without symptoms are -- quote -- "exactly the people who should be tested," given that the CDC estimates that about half of the transmission of coronavirus in the United States happens before any symptoms appear. Let's bring in Michael Osterholm. He's the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Michael, good to see you. The CDC's guidance on testing was until recently -- quote -- "Testing is recommended for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection." But now the CDC says, "If you have been in close contact, within six feet of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 days -- for at least 15 minutes, but do not have symptoms, you do not necessarily need a test, unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or state or local public health officials recommend you take one" -- unquote. Does this new guidance make any medical sense? DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH: All I can say, Jake, is, I'm dumbfounded by this recommendation, not just the fact that they made it, but how they made it, kind of under the cover of night. When someone has been exposed to the coronavirus, it's true that, in the first two or three days, they won't be positive. And we, of course, counsel people at that point not to be tested. But, by day four and five, it is important to know if they're positive, because, one, it reinforces the reason why they need to be isolated and not transmitting to others. And also it gives them warning that they very well may need to seek health care. So I can think of no conceivable reason why this recommendation was made, other than just to reduce testing. TAPPER: And if the Trump administration is effectively pressuring the CDC's health guidance, where should Americans turn to get safe and accurate medical advice? Their state health agencies? OSTERHOLM: At this point, in 45 years in this business, I have never sensed a time when both the FDA and the CDC, two very critical agencies that have always operated on the top level of science and good public policy, are now, in a sense, really under attack, meaning that they're being asked do things that are not in keeping with science. And this is dangerous, because our lives, in fact, depend on having the kind of accurate information about what public practices to -- public health practices to pursue, what drugs to trust, what vaccines to trust. And this seems to be not, just the CDC, but both FDA and CDC right now are in real jeopardy of being trusted by the very people who have counted on them most, those in the public health community. TAPPER: So, what you're saying is, because there will now be fewer tests, because an individual who comes in contact with somebody who has COVID isn't necessarily going to be tested unless they're in a vulnerable group, that means -- tell me if I'm getting this right -- that means that that person, because they're no longer going to be tested, will not be aware if he or she is infected, which means that he or she will be more likely to spread the virus. So, what you're basically saying is that the president's desire for lower numbers, for apparent political reasons, will cost American lives? OSTERHOLM: What I can say with certainty is that, when I tell someone who has been exposed to a patient, you need to isolate for 14 days, that is a very tall order to ask someone to do if they don't believe that they really are infected. So, part of the whole point of keeping them from being in the public, to motivate them to actually complete that kind of isolation or quarantine, is to, in fact, be tested, to know, am I likely to transmit this virus? So this is an important part of the entire effort to get people not to expose others. So, you're right. We're taking that away now. And if there were data that supported, well, in fact, it doesn't work, it's using up precious resources we need elsewhere, then we could at least have that discussion. We have not even had an opportunity to have this discussion. This recommendation just literally appeared overnight, without any scientific review that anyone that I'm aware of has seen. And on top of that, I too can confirm from my own discussions with senior CDC personnel today this did come down from on top. This was not a science review issue. This was a policy issue that is, in fact, I think, a very dangerous precedent. TAPPER: Briefly, if you could, so what's the worst thing that happens because of this new rule? OSTERHOLM: We will see more cases, more transmission. And this pandemic is just going to continue to grow, as we have talked about many times. What we're seeing right now in college campuses, around the country, we're seeing in high schools, the case numbers are going to go up substantially in the days ahead. We're going to see more cases, more deaths. We're far from done with this pandemic yet. Only 8 to 10 percent of Americans have been infected with this virus to date. There are a lot of additional people that will get infected between now and the time we might achieve herd immunity of 50 to 70 percent of the population protected by either disease or vaccine. And this is a huge concern right now. TAPPER: Michael Osterholm, thank you so much for your expertise and your time. OSTERHOLM: Thank you. TAPPER: We appreciate it. Coming up, the challenges this pandemic has created along the Gulf Coast, as this now major Category 4 hurricane closes in. Plus, warnings of unrest and danger from the Republican Convention. We're learning how tonight's headliner, Vice President Mike Pence, plans to use them to frame his speech -- next.

Did Trump Administration Order CDC to Change COVID-19 Testing Protocols?; 17- Year-Old Suspect Arrested in Deadly Kenosha Shootings.

Hat die Trump-Administration die CDC angewiesen, die COVID-19-Testprotokolle zu ändern?; 17-jähriger Verdächtiger bei tödlichen Schießereien in Kenosha festgenommen.

特朗普政府是否命令疾控中心改变新冠测试方案？17岁的嫌犯在致命的基诺沙枪击案中被捕。

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Obviously, Milwaukee Bucks, Kenosha, Wisconsin, proximity there, of course, cannot be denied. They're looking out for their community. They're looking out for people of color. The continuation of the shooting of unarmed black men is something that NBA players far and wide have been speaking out about, LeBron James, you name it. People are sick and tired of seeing this. Doc Rivers, coach of the L.A. Clippers, an impassioned talk at his press conference yesterday, Jake. And so all put together, this is the NBA doing what the NBA does best. And that is speak with one voice for a culture that needs a voice. And I think that is exactly what we're seeing here today. JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Do you expect to see other NBA teams follow suit? BRENNAN: I do. What I'm seeing -- just some quick reporting that I have been trying to do, Jake, is that there are real conversations here about what every other time team is going to do. As I understand it, the Orlando Magic also -- that was the team that the Milwaukee Bucks were playing -- that the -- I'm seeing the wording saying -- and I'm not -- I have not confirmed this 100 percent -- but that both Orlando and Milwaukee decided not to play. We need to check on that. But what that would indicate, if true, is that the Orlando Magic decided to join the Milwaukee Bucks. So it wouldn't be that one team was boycotting or forfeiting, that they both did it together. And I think that is a sign -- and no surprise to me, that's a sign exactly how the NBA would want to do this. I wouldn't be surprised if behind the scenes right now, Jake, the commissioner, Adam Silver, and others are talking about this, looking at the big picture, looking at the concern from this week in particular about the shooting of unarmed black men in this country and saying, maybe we need to look at this, big picture, and maybe have to make some decisions about more than just this one game. TAPPER: And this also happens during the Republican National Convention. We're told that Vice President Pence, who is expected to speak this evening accepting his nomination, renomination, as vice president at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, we're told that he was going to talk about the players who kneel during the national anthem and NFL games. They do that to protest police violence, to protest the kinds of things that we're talking about here. But this is a bigger statement than kneeling before the national anthem, although that's obviously a very significant statement, and has cost Colin Kaepernick his career and more. This is boycotting a game, a playoff game, no less. BRENNAN: Exactly. It is a huge statement, the NBA once again leading the conversation. They did it back on March 11, Jake, when the NBA was the first really big entity to shut down leading into the pandemic and, of course, our national shutdown. The NBA leads in so many ways. And Doc Rivers I mentioned a few moments ago, the coach of the L.A. Clippers, a longtime great in the NBA, he said it best, I think, in terms of what the feeling is in the NBA. He said, we keep loving this country even though it doesn't love us. And he talked about the Republican Convention. He brought that up. This is again an NBA coach, head coach, saying, we're hearing this talk about fear at our Republican Convention in our suburbs and all of these things that we have been hearing last few days. And he brought up the fact that this just doesn't coincide with what they are thinking in the NBA and what we are seeing on the streets, in this case, in Kenosha, very close, of course, to Milwaukee. So, absolutely, this is linked, politics, sports and the NBA right in the middle of it once again in a very powerful way. TAPPER: All right, Christine Brennan, thank you so much. CNN' Sara Sidner is live for us from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Sara, this is a strong message from the Milwaukee Bucks. This is all happening, of course, because of what's going on where you are. NBA coach Doc Rivers, of course, had strong words about the aftermath, as you heard from Christine Brennan, Republicans, of course, repeating themes of fear at their convention. Here's Doc Rivers, the coach of the L.A. Clippers. Take a listen. Looks like we don't have that sound bite ready. But, in any case, Sara Sidner, tell us about, first of all, where you're standing right now with that destruction behind you. SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So this was the part of the Department of Corrections here, like a parole office here in Kenosha, burned to the ground. There are other buildings around us that were also burned to the ground. We should mention this was part of the reaction from the shooting of Jacob Blake, the 29-year-old father who was headed to his car, got into a tussle with police, and then headed around to his car trying to get into his car, and an officer shoots him seven times in the back, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. His family has been adamant that the protests that happened in his name be peaceful protest, but that is just not what has happened overnight. There have been several incidents where not only are sort of protesters and police going back and forth, but there have been two people killed and one person very badly injured in a shooting incident. We now know that a 17-year-old young man has been arrested. That 17-year-old came in from out of town because the Antioch Police Department says that he is an Antioch resident. Where is Antioch? It's about 13 miles from here in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in Illinois. And so, for whatever reason, he showed up here and ended up, according to police, shooting and killing someone. We have seen two horrific incidents that were captured on camera by people in the crowds by livestreamers, by folks who are just out there protesting, one of which a man is shot in the head, which is extremely disturbing, and another of which someone is shot and then another person is shot in the arm. And we see someone walking down the street with a huge long gun across his chest, holding his hands up towards police. Police never arrested that man. But now one person is under arrest, a 17-year-old from about 13 miles from here in Antioch -- Jake. TAPPER: And, Sara, the Milwaukee Bucks -- as I'm sure you know, the Milwaukee Bucks are supposed to be playing a playoff game about now. But they have refused to come out of their locker room. SIDNER: Yes. TAPPER: They are protesting because of the shooting of Jacob Blake in their home state, Wisconsin, which is, Milwaukee, not far from Kenosha. SIDNER: Yes, I mean, this is a huge statement in reaction to what happened to Jacob Blake, in reaction to what is happening here in Kenosha. It is an incredibly big statement for an NBA team. And we're seeing this more and more. We're seeing people wearing the shirts of people who have shot and killed by police, of black people, to be specific, who have been shot and killed by police, whether it is Breonna Taylor or George Floyd. And now, in this scenario, you have a 29-year-old dad, who, by the way, survived this, and who is fighting in the hospital with many different injuries, but is expected to survive. But the video itself has stirred so many emotions in people because they are seeing this happen, in their minds, time after time after time, and that it doesn't seem to be letting up, and because there was really a vacuum of information from police. We did not hear from any investigative authority. We didn't hear from the state police. We didn't hear from the sheriff. We didn't hear from the police here in Kenosha for several days. And so it left a vacuum of information, a lot of people not understanding, you know, what the circumstances of all of this was, not what happened before Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back. And so there is a lot of time consternation hear about that as well, although we do understand that the way that the laws work here is that the local police are not allowed to investigate themselves. That goes to the state Department of Justice. But there really has been a vacuum of information, and filling that void, filling that vacuum with a lot of rumors, a lot of people getting upset about a lot of different things, and certainly people out in the streets demanding not only answers, but justice. As they see it, this was an absolutely unnecessary and horrific shooting of Jacob Blake. We have not heard what police are saying or we have not heard their side, if you will, of the story. And so there are a lot of folks who are worried that this is going to escalate and escalate and escalate, especially since we are now seeing people coming to town, standing outside of businesses, saying they're only here to protect the businesses. They are strapped with weapons, some of them wearing some army fatigues. It just is a recipe for an explosion of potential violence. And we saw that happen and unfold last night -- Jake. TAPPER: Sara Sidner, stay with us. I want to go back Christine Brennan, our sports analyst. And, Christine, one of the things that I'm struck by is this year has been marked in so many ways by the NBA. One of the ways that the nation first sat up and realized how serious the coronavirus pandemic was, was after an NBA game was canceled on March 11, I believe. That was a moment. It was the same day that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were diagnosed, it was announced that they were diagnosed of having coronavirus. And now we have this moment of civil disobedience by the Milwaukee Bucks and possibly others, protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake. It really seems quite remarkable. BRENNAN: It does, Jake. And that March 11 date, I think there will be books, many books written on how the NBA basically was the North Star for so many of us, because when the NBA said, we're suspending operations, that -- everything followed. Within a day or two, the dominoes fell and the entire nation was shut down. I also think we're seeing something absolutely extraordinary here -- Sara described it as well -- of athletes -- what do we think of? We think they make -- they're millionaires, that they make so much money. This is -- they play a game. They're lucky in many ways. And the NBA players, unlike some of their counterparts in other leagues, Jake, they act like they know that, and they act like they get it. And we are seeing something that rarely happens, which is players actively saying, we're not going to play, taking themselves out of the thing they love the most. And, of course, it's the playoffs in the NBA bubble. We see this with the WNBA with the shirts that they're all wearing. We have seen Black Lives Matter, especially in basketball, with the NBA and then also the WNBA. And so this is a moment really of sacrifice for these players. They are making lots of money. They will continue to make lots of money, but they're giving up something that we will rarely see a player give up. I'm racking my brain to think of Sandy Koufax not pitching because of religious reasons in a World Series. You do see these things every now and then. But it's incredibly rare. And more often, we see a selfishness among many people, including athletes. This is not the case here. We are seeing the NBA stand up in a remarkable way that will once again be a part of the narrative of this incredible narrative of 2020. TAPPER: All right, Christine Brennan, stay with us. I want to bring in Bob Costas, the legend, sportscaster. Bob, I have not seen anything like this in my life of an NBA team boycotting as a way of civil disobedience, as a way of protest, the Milwaukee Bucks saying that they're not going to play. I believe that there are other playoff games that are going to take place this evening, but not them. Put this in some sort of historical perspective for us, if you would. BOB COSTAS, SPORTS COMMENTATOR: Yes, Jake. I have not seen anything exactly comparable to this. There have been gestures. I'm old enough to remember -- I was a teenager when Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. Of course, Muhammad Ali, not in a team sport, gave up three-plus years of his career. And that was remarkable and remains at the top of the pyramid in this respect. There have been concerted efforts by athletes at various times, but never anything that is comparable to this. Colin Kaepernick and others kneeling, yes. Black Lives Matter on the court at all the NBA playoff games, yes. The Detroit Lions yesterday not practicing, which was a significant statement. But, in this case, you're talking about a game, and a playoff game at that. And I don't know if others will follow, but, obviously, it's appropriate -- as Christine mentioned a moment ago, it's appropriate that the Milwaukee Bucks lead the way, because, if you live in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Bucks are your NBA team. TAPPER: And, Bob, obviously, sports leagues and the NBA in particular have been a place where players are speaking their minds, standing up for what they believe. This is obviously a stark example of civil disobedience and protest. Is it hurting the NBA with any fans who don't want politics in their professional athletics? COSTAS: I think there's no question that it's hurting the NBA in that respect, but that doesn't mean that it's wrong. And I think that Adam Silver, who, like his predecessor, David Stern, has always been a forward-looking commissioner, he's got something to balance here. But I think his basic sympathies are with the players in this situation. TAPPER: And, Bob, we're told now, CNN is learning -- and it's a possibility -- it has not been 100 percent confirmed -- that it's possible that all playoff games are going to be canceled this evening. Does that surprise you? Or is that exactly what you thought might happen, with the Milwaukee Bucks taking the lead? COSTAS: No, it doesn't surprise me. I guess there's a distinction here, if we're just thinking about it from a basketball standpoint and the ongoing playoffs, a distinction between canceled and postponed. They could make these games off. I don't think it makes any difference. If they make the games up, the statement has still been made. And then Adam Silver has got to figure out a way to navigate this, so that, yes, we can continue to play after this, but we have made a very, very strong statement by postponing all the games today. And one of the things I think works in Adam Silver's favor -- and this is not a criticism of the other commissioners. There are different dynamics at work in every sport. But I think it's safe to say that the relationship between the commissioner's office and the players in the NBA is the most healthy and the most cooperative, not that there aren't some disputes and disagreements, but the most healthy of any of the four men's team sports that we follow in North America. TAPPER: We have also seen some protests being permitted at NFL games. Not so much with Major League Baseball. What is the reason behind that, do you think? COSTAS: I think there might be multiple reasons. The NFL is some 70 percent African-American, the predominant number of players in the NBA the same. Baseball has many, many players of color, especially if you consider Hispanic players, who are a very significant part of baseball's playing population, but it is not primarily a sport of players of color. Does that have something to do with it? You would have to think it does. That doesn't mean that there aren't some very sympathetic players there, sympathetic to this cause. And there were people who knelt during the national anthem at the beginning of the resumption of the baseball season. But I would think that's the primary reason that you haven't seen it as much in baseball as in football and in basketball. TAPPER: And I'm old enough to remember, Bob -- I'm not old enough to remember the 1968 Olympics, but I am old enough to remember when Michael Jordan was pressured, guilted for not being more politically active when he was a star player, for not being more outspoken in support of Harvey Gantt, who was running for Senate against a racist incumbent Republican Senator Jesse Helms. And he said -- and I believe this was recently confirmed -- "Republicans buy sneakers too," although perhaps it's apocryphal. Either way, it has really been a sea change when it comes to athletes saying their politics. COSTAS: Yes, a couple of things, just in fairness to Michael Jordan. He says that he said that in jest on the Bulls team boss after a practice one day, and he has recently committed $100 million of his own money over 10 years to social justice causes. And I don't think that any individual needs to be pressured into doing something that is outside his or her beliefs, or what they're most comfortable with, or that they feel most equipped to do. TAPPER: Sure. COSTAS: So, I'm not critical of Michael Jordan for what he didn't do when he was a player, except in that one instance. And I said this before. I said it 20 years ago. Jesse Helms was a blatant racist. Harvey Gantt wasn't just, although it's significant, an African-American man running against a blatant racist, but that's the key. This wasn't your normal political differences. This was a stark moral question. And Michael Jordan sat that one out. TAPPER: Yes, I don't mean to shame Michael Jordan, of whom I'm a tremendous fan. I just mean that the times have changed. COSTAS: Yes, very much so. TAPPER: That's more of what I mean. COSTAS: Certainly. TAPPER: Yes. I mean, that was the 1980s. And it wasn't as though Dr. J. and Magic Johnson were running around endorsing progressive causes at the time. Really, very few people were. I mean, Muhammad Ali was the exception. And I'm just saying it's so widespread today. The culture has changed. COSTAS: Yes, the situation has reached critical mass. And I know people will get on me or us for saying this, but you cannot have a more stark contrast with this happening during the week of the Republican Convention, and most of those voices there standing not just in sympathy with -- you don't have to agree with everything. You don't have to agree with the rioting. You don't have to agree with every assertion made by every NBA player or every person who's in sympathy with the cause of Black Lives Matter. There are legitimate disagreements there. But so many of the voices among -- at the Republican National Convention stand in stark opposition and cannot even bring themselves to express basic sympathy with the overall issue, not just to say, oh, yes, there are one-offs and there are exceptions. No, there's a systemic problem here. And it resonates all the more because it has such historical antecedents. If you can't acknowledge that, no matter what -- where you fall generally speaking on the political spectrum, I think history has long since left you behind. TAPPER: If you're just joining us, we're following breaking news. The Milwaukee Bucks have announced that they are boycotting their playoff game in the NBA that was supposed to be happening right now. They're doing this because of the shooting by a white police officer or police officers of Jacob Blake. We have also just learned that all NBA games tonight are being postponed in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Joining me now to discuss, CNN senior political reporter named Nia- Malika Henderson and CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. Nia, this is a huge moment. And it's coming just hours before Vice President Pence, who has made an issue, a political issue, of opposing those NFL players, those football players who take a knee during the national anthem so as to protest police brutality and racial inequity. I remember him going to a Colts game and storming out angrily because he didn't like that the Colts, some of them had taken a knee. I believe it was the Colts. And he was going to, I think, address this, the taking a knee issue, in his speech tonight. And here we have the NBA taking it one huge step forward. NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: A huge, huge step forward. And if you remember, even as there were discussions about the NBA restarting during the -- after canceling mini games because of COVID, there were some discussion among some players about not even wanting to have a season because of what was going on in the country because of this social justice protest movement that sprang up this past summer. So, in some ways, you find this as an outgrowth of the frustrations that many of these players have had. And you do have this sea change. You talked about this. This isn't the era of Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson anymore. It's more like the era of Muhammad Ali of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, people like LeBron James, very, very active, not caring about the bottom line, not caring about maybe alienating some of those white fans who don't like this kind of thing, necessarily. But what a huge, huge move for the NBA to send this signal and really put the focus on what needs to be focused on, which is this police brutality problem in this country that has existed for decades and decades and decades, with black people prevailing on white people to pay attention to it, right? If you go back to Martin Luther King's speech, he talks about police brutality on his March on Washington speech. Nobody really likes to talk about that. They talk about sort of the platitudes, the other more sort of acceptable platitudes from that speech. So, this is them saying this cannot be ignored, and that white people need to sort of be shaken up to focus on this problem that is making black people all throughout this country fear the police and really upset about the racial inequity in this country. TAPPER: And, Ron, I think it was 2015. Hillary Clinton was in Missouri, and she was asked, I think it was the first time she'd ever heard the term black lives matter. And I'm not -- I don't mean to denigrate Secretary Clinton's response, because it really wasn't part of the conversation. But she said, all lives matter as a response. She thought that that was a helpful thing to say. Obviously, it is not perceived as being a helpful thing to say. Flash forward to 2020, the murder of George Floyd, and you actually have the 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, marching with Black Lives Matter protesters and saying black lives matter, again, a huge cultural change in the United States of America. RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: And a cultural change that has moved the center of gravity in the country further away from the Republican coalition. And I think we see that political backdrop very clearly this last two weeks. I thought, last week, Democrats talking about systemic racism more openly, explicitly and repeatedly than I at least have ever heard before -- and I have been at every convention since 1984. And this week, you have a Republican Convention that really is focused on portraying the protesters as -- quote -- "a mob" who is coming to get suburban white families in their home. I did think, however, that we really saw the first crack in the armor from President Trump, because all the effort that went into last night trying to, however implausibly, rewrite his history and say that he is a friend now of immigrants and African-Americans and women, I think was an implicit acknowledgement for the first time that I can remember that his strategy of stirring cultural and racial grievance by itself might not be enough to win, and that he has to convince a certain segment of voters that he is not a racist, not a sexist, not a xenophobe, before they will listen to him on other issues. I think that was an important concession, in effect, to the change in public attitudes that you're describing. But I would just say real quickly, 80 percent of Republicans still say police shootings of unarmed African men are isolated incidents, not part of a pattern, even as majority opinion in the country has moved very sharply in the other direction. So those very different visions are heading toward a collision in November. TAPPER: I believe there are studies suggesting that, if you're a black man, you are two to three times more likely to be shot than a white man. I would have to check on that. But I believe that's the case. And, Nia-Malika, let's talk for a second about what the Bucks are doing here, because one of the things that's interesting is, in addition to these horrific police shootings of unarmed black men, there has also been peaceful protest, and there has also been violent protest. And, today, Vice President Biden issued a statement that he tweeted out, his campaign tweeted out, in which he talked about talking with the family of Jacob Blake. He talked about the importance of stopping this problem. But he also condemned the violence taking place in Kenosha, the destruction of property, the destruction of stores, et cetera, by protesters. We have also heard Jacob Blake's family say similar things. What's interesting to me is what the Bucks just did refocuses the attention back on Jacob Blake, in a way, and away from the violence by protesters in Kenosha. HENDERSON: I think that's right, because, today, you heard, I think it was John Kasich, come out and say, listen, the Democrats really need to condemn the violence. And, by and large, Democrats have condemned the violence. You see Biden doing it. Keisha Lance Bottoms had a very strong statement in Atlanta when there was some violence going on there. So they have been on that side of things. And I think you're right. The Bucks doing this now says -- takes the focus off that violence and it puts it back on where the protesters, 99 percent of them, 90 percent, whatever figure you want to say, where they want this, which is on this systemic racism that exists in this country, and specifically when it comes to these police departments who oftentimes, when they see a black body, whether it be a man or a woman, they react in a way that they wouldn't react to a white person engaged in similar behavior. So, I think the Bucks have done something extraordinary. It looks like other teams are doing this. And we will see if this kind of goes into other different segments of the country and other different leagues going forward, but an extraordinary move from the NBA. And I think this is due to Adam Silver, and also some of these big, big superstars in the league who have just had enough and want to use their platform to move the country forward. TAPPER: And it's personal to them. They feel like it could happen to them or their loved ones or their sons and their or their friends. HENDERSON: Yes. TAPPER: Nia-Malika Henderson, Ron Brownstein, thank you so much. We are also, of course, following breaking in our national lead. Some areas of coastal Louisiana already under floodwaters, as Hurricane Laura approaches the Gulf Coast, this as the governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, warns residents of the impending and possible deadly storm surge. GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D-LA): You're going to hear ranges of storm surge that we haven't heard in Louisiana since Hurricane Audrey in 1957. You're going to hear the word unsurvivable to describe the storm surge that we are expecting. TAPPER: And that's not just bluster. That was the National, I think, Hurricane Center used the word unsurvivable. And that's not just bluster. That was the National, I think, Hurricane Center used the word unsurvivable. CNN's Jennifer Gray joins me now from the Weather Center. I have never -- and maybe I'm just not paying close enough attention -- unsurvivable used so openly as a warning. What more are you learning about this dangerous storm surge? JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I don't remember the last time I have heard that word either. We hear life-threatening, words like that. But unsurvivable is definitely one that you should take seriously. It's true. This is going to be an event where the storm surge is, by all means, going to be life-threatening. When you're talking about 20 feet of storm surge. And this part of the Gulf Coast, Louisiana, in particular is extremely vulnerable. It's very low-lying. We could have water all the way up to I-10, easily, 30 miles from the coast. And so you are talking about total inundation when you hear 20 feet of storm surge. In fact, we already have three and four feet of storm surge on the coast. And this is still 150 miles from the coast. So, 145 mile-per-hour winds, gusts of 175. This is a dangerous Category 4 storm. And what I fear is, this could strengthen even more. It has time to become a strong Category 4 or even a Category 5 before making landfall. I would actually not be surprised if that were the case. It is moving to the northwest at 15 miles per hour now. Here's the radar. We have already had some rain bands come onshore. We have had tornado warnings. Of course, that's always a concern when you have these storms come on shore. So, we are going to be talking about the flooding. But I think the bigger issue with this storm most definitely is going to be the wind, but also that storm surge that we cannot ignore. Already seeing more than three feet of storm surge in Calcasieu, Sabine Pass, more than two feet Freshwater, more than four feet. And like I mentioned, the storm is still 150 miles from the coast, 15 to 20 feet of storm surge right here in Cameron Parish. Cameron is already reporting rain. We have already had a rapid water rise along the coast there, Jake. So it is going to be something to watch overnight. Jennifer Gray, thank you so much. And if you are currently in the path of the storm and you're watching this, please turn off the TV and get the hell out of there. Get to safety. Join us tonight for CNN's special coverage of the Republican National Convention. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @JakeTapper. You can tweet the show @THELEADCNN. Our coverage on CNN continues right now. I will see you in a few hours.

Hurricane Laura Forces Evacuations; NBA Team Boycotts Playoff Game After Police Shooting.

Hurrikan Laura erzwingt Evakuierungen; NBA-Team boykottiert Playoff-Spiel nach Polizeibeschuss

飓风“劳拉”迫使人们疏散；NBA球队在警察枪击事件后抵制季后赛。