President Trump Set To Hold Campaign Event In Arizona; Dr. Fauci Warns Of Coronavirus Surge; Texas Governor Warns Safest Place Is At Home As New Cases Surge
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. This hour, President Trump is in Arizona, preparing to hold another indoor campaign event, in defiance of coronavirus concerns, in a state seeing record spikes in new cases and deaths. His response to the pandemic remains alarming and confusing. He now suggests that he did ask for a slowdown in testing here in the United States, as infections have surged, contradicting the White House spin that he was only kidding. All this as Dr. Anthony Fauci and other Coronavirus Task Force members have been painting a rather dire picture of the spread of the virus during hours of congressional testimony today, the CDC chief warning that COVID-19 has -- and I'm quoting now -- "brought this nation to its knees." Also breaking, the FBI says it's determined that NASCAR's only African-American star driver was not -- repeat -- not a target of a hate crime. Authorities say a rope fashioned like a noose found in a garage assigned to Bubba Wallace was a door pull that had been there as early as last fall. First, let's go straight to Arizona and our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. Jim, as the president prepares for tonight's rally, he's clearly not on the same page as health experts or his own top aides.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. President Trump is on his way to a campaign event in Phoenix after visiting his border wall earlier today. The president is in damage control mode, trying to clean up a comment that he told administration officials to slow down testing for the coronavirus. First, aides to the president said he was just joking about that. Then the president contradicted his own aides by saying he doesn't kid.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Even after more than 120,000 deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S., the president and his top aides are having a tough time explaining whether Mr. Trump is just kidding or being serious when it comes to testing for COVID-19.</s>QUESTION: Were you just kidding, or do you have a plan to slow down testing?</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't kid. Let me just tell you. Let me make it clear. By having more cases, it sounds bad. But, actually, what it is, we're finding people.</s>ACOSTA: The president is trying to talk his way out of the mess he started at his rally in Tulsa over the weekend, when he said he's ordered officials to slow down testing.</s>TRUMP: So, I said to my people, slow the testing down, please.</s>ACOSTA: White House officials first claimed the president was kidding.</s>KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It was a comment that he made in jest.</s>ACOSTA: Asked about Mr. Trump's comment that he does not kid, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters on Air Force One: "He was noting he was making a serious point, but he was using sarcasm to do that at the rally." At a hearing in the House, Dr. Anthony Fauci testified, the administration is not dialing back testing.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: I know for sure, but, to my knowledge, none of us have ever been told to slow down on testing. That just is a fact. In fact, we will be doing more testing.</s>ACOSTA: But the president's no-kidding claim runs counter to excuses he's used in the past, like when he suggested to Americans that they inject themselves with disinfectant to kill the virus.</s>TRUMP: When I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute.</s>ACOSTA: Mr. Trump later said he was kidding.</s>TRUMP: I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you, just to see what would happen.</s>ACOSTA: Or when he claimed to be chosen by God.</s>TRUMP: I am the chosen one.</s>ACOSTA: Mr. Trump tweeted: "The media knew I was kidding, being sarcastic." Contrast all of that with the somber warning from Fauci that the coronavirus is surging in some parts of the</s>U.S. FAUCI: We are now seeing a disturbing surge of infections. Right now, the next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surgings that we are seeing in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona, and in other states.</s>ACOSTA: That contradicts Mr. Trump's repeated claims the virus is disappearing.</s>TRUMP: If you look, the numbers are very minuscule compared to what it was. It's dying out.</s>ACOSTA: The president is visiting Arizona to tour parts of his border wall, the pet project he turns to when he needs to play to his base. Mr. Trump has only managed to build a fraction of the border barrier he sold to voters. Instead of Mexico paying for the wall, as he promised, American taxpayers are picking up the tab.</s>TRUMP: I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall.</s>ACOSTA: To rev up his supporters, the president is also seizing on the latest destruction left by demonstrators protesting police brutality with threats of jail time, tweeting: "Numerous people arrested in D.C. for the disgraceful vandalism in Lafayette Park of the magnificent statue of Andrew Jackson, 10 years in prison. Beware."</s>TRUMP: We actually had a nice crowd, despite the fact that we had some pretty bad people waiting there waiting. They shouldn't have been.</s>ACOSTA: Now, it's no secret why the president is in Arizona. Polls show former Vice President Joe Biden could win this state. If the president loses Arizona, it is hard to see how he wins a second term in office. On the coronavirus, the European Union may be about to construct a wall of its own, as E.U. officials are considering blocking American visitors from entering that part of the world due to the surge in COVID-19 cases. Now, back here, here in Arizona, as you can see from this wall behind me, building a fence is easier said than done. Plenty of wall behind us where we're standing right now, but where we are panning over to right now, you can see there is no wall. Crews are working on that stretch as we speak. And, Wolf, as we mentioned, this is a wall that Mexico is not paying for. Is the American taxpayers -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes, indeed. All right, Jim Acosta in Arizona, thanks very much. Let's stay in Arizona. Let's go to Phoenix right now, the site of the president's political event that's coming up fairly soon, we're told. Ryan Nobles is on the scene for us. Ryan, the city of Phoenix has an ordinance requiring face masks in public. But at this event and the folks behind you, I saw earlier, I didn't see many face masks.</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, you're right, Wolf, very few, if any people complying with that ordinance that was passed by the City Council and the mayor not long ago, and it was passed because of a surge in coronavirus cases in the state of Arizona and specifically here in Phoenix. In fact, there's been very little, if any precautions taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus at this event. The folks that came into this venue that seats about 3,000 people did not get their temperatures checked. There's little to no social distancing and, as you mentioned, Wolf, no masks either. So, the president expected to be here in about a half-an-hour. There is six feet between him and the crowd, but we are inside a venue where there is a lot of people talking. As you can tell, they're very enthusiastic. There's a lot of cheering. It's a recipe for what many public health experts say could be a disaster when it comes to the spread of the coronavirus -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes, Saturday night, you were in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at that event where there were about 6,200 people in that arena. And we know that six of the president's advance team, campaign advance team, they tested positive. They didn't go to the event in Tulsa. They were there, two Secret Service agents as well. But two of the campaign advance personnel, they did go to the event, they did test positive. Were their tests before, and are there going to be tests after this event where you are in Phoenix?</s>NOBLES: It's a good question, Wolf. We haven't been given specific guidance on that, because this particular event, not run by the White House, not run by the Trump campaign, instead being run by a third- party organization called Turning Point Action and their subsidiary called Students For Trump. So they have not made us aware of any attempts to test folks that are here, the staffers that are associated with it, and those that are going to be surrounding the president. And, as I can tell you before, Wolf, very few people taking any sort of precaution to spread the -- for the potential of the spread of the coronavirus -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes, those young people there should all be wearing masks. Even if they think they're not going to get very sick, they could clearly pass it on to their moms and dads, their grandparents and others, if they get this disease. All right, thanks very much. We will stay in close touch with you, Ryan Nobles, on the scene in Phoenix for us. Let's bring in our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and our senior political commentator, David Axelrod. Sanjay, looking at how the United States has handled the virus, does it make sense for the E.U. to now consider a more long-term ban on American travelers trying to get into European countries?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's hard to believe this is a consideration, but there is some logic to it, Wolf. I mean, just look at the right side of your screen. I mean, out of the world, we represent now 25 percent, roughly, of the world's infections of this coronavirus, and, sadly, 25 percent of the world's deaths as well. So, that's what's driving the decision, I'm sure. That's the criteria. Other countries as well, such as Brazil and Russia, have also -- they're sort of these hot spots. So that's what's factoring into this. Having said that, just from a pure public health standpoint, it's not a silver bullet to think about these travel bans. I mean, they can be very disruptive. The World Health Organization is an organization that is generally against them, thinking that the risks outweigh the benefits of these things. There's other sort of stopgap measures you can put in place, like people who are traveling to a country, they may need to quarantine themselves for 14 days before they can actually go out into the country. Testing, which we talk about all the time, Wolf, if there was more testing in place, that would also obviate some of these concerns. People could be tested, and have some confidence that at least at the time that they are negative. But, again, because we don't have enough testing, that makes that more difficult to address as well.</s>BLITZER: It would be, Gloria, a big embarrassment to the president if the Europeans did impose this longer-term travel ban, at a time when he says it's dying out -- his words -- dying out here in the United States. How will he react, do you think, if they do this?</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Wolf, I think he will probably be pretty angry about it, because he likes to say that the that the curve is going down, which, of course, it isn't, as we know, in parts of the country. And he likes to say that the United States is having more success with its testing than any other country. It also brings to mind that the president, at the outset of all of this, was very fond of saying that: I acted first. I banned anybody flying in from China. And now, if the European countries are banning us from flying there, it kind of puts those -- U.S. and China, in a way, on a par that would not make the president happy. The notion of Americans being banned from going to European countries will, I think, make him crazy. He will be very upset about it, because he wants to portray the success the United States is having, not the failures.</s>BLITZER: Yes, that's an important point. David Axelrod, Dr. Fauci and other Coronavirus Task Force members, testifying before Congress today, said, the president never asked them to slow down coronavirus testing. But also today, the president said he wasn't joking when he made that comment Saturday night at that political rally in Tulsa. So what do you make of this mess on messaging, when more than 120,000, right now, more than 121,000 Americans are dead from this virus?</s>DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Wolf, first, let me say, I worked with Dr. Fauci back in 2009 when I worked in the White House on the H1N1 flu pandemic. And, yes, I saw what I think the country has come to see during this crisis, which is that he is a total straight shooter. I'm sure that if he says that the president never asked him to slow down on testing, then the president never asked him to slow down on testing. It doesn't mean the president hasn't expressed himself to others around him to slow down testing, including his most immediate aides. He's made his view on this very clear. He views it as inconvenient to know the truth about how pervasive this virus is. He wants to will it away. He thinks it is politically inconvenient. Look what he's doing today, modeling the wrong behavior. He's the president of the United States, and he is engaged in an activity here that completely contradicts the advice that public health experts are giving. And he's doing it in a state that is currently hurtling toward a public health disaster because of this pandemic. So, I believe Dr. Fauci, but I also believe the president when he says he doesn't want a lot of testing because he finds it inconvenient to know the numbers, because he has said that before. This wasn't the first time, Saturday night, that he said it. He's expressed that sentiment before. And it goes right back to the beginning of this pandemic, when he, for six weeks, ignored all the warning signs because he did not want to concede that this was going to be a crisis.</s>BLITZER: At the same time, Gloria, the president seems to be using Dr. Fauci's credibility, his trustworthiness to bolster his own response.</s>BORGER: Right, because, as David was saying, Fauci said, I haven't been told to do fewer tests, we're going to do more testing, not less. And he said, nobody told him to slow down. It was interesting to me today that the president in a tweet noted Dr. Fauci's popularity, which is at a stratospheric level of, I believe, 72 percent. And his whole point is, well, if you like him so much, and he says we're OK, why don't you like me? Why don't you believe me that I'm not doing better? So, also, by the way, anybody having a higher popularity rating than the president is a dangerous place to be for somebody working in the White House. But the president is saying, wait a minute, you trust Fauci, but what about me? He works for me.</s>BLITZER: Sanjay, let me get your thoughts on what the president's about to do. He is about to speak to these young people who support him. We're looking at live pictures, a pretty crowded room right there. A lot of young people. You heard Ryan Nobles tell us very few, if any of them are really wearing face masks. They're all jammed in pretty close together right now. The president is going to walk in there probably in a half-an-hour or an hour or so from now, deliver a speech. This could be awkward and potentially dangerous.</s>GUPTA: I don't think history will judge us very well for what's happening right now, Wolf. I mean, you can look at the right side of the screen. Again, we're not even 5 percent of the world's population, 25 percent of the world's cases, 25 percent of the world's deaths. The European Union is considering a travel ban for people coming from the United States. The numbers are going up in just about all these places where the president has been, Oklahoma, now Arizona. Arizona had an emergency order that went into place because they're concerned about their hospitals becoming potentially overwhelmed with patients. And you see the -- what's happening in this rally, basic public health measures not being followed. It's the worst-case scenario, from the CDC's perspective, indoors, lots of people close together, no physical distancing, not wearing masks, duration. If you're next to somebody for longer than 15 minutes, that adds another level of risk. People will then go home, potentially spread this virus to their -- to their families, to their communities. I mean, it defies logic to do this sort of thing, especially given where we are in the country right now.</s>BLITZER: Yes, it's a serious issue, indeed. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Gloria Borger, David Axelrod, guys, thank you very much. Just ahead, we're going to hear more from Dr. Fauci and other task force members testifying about alarming spikes in new coronavirus cases here in the United States. And the Texas governor now urging residents to simply stay home after that state was among the earliest to reopen.