Biden: Violence is Happening in Trump's America; Kenosha Officials Urge President Trump Not to Visit; New Trump Adviser Pushes Controversial Strategy
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Biden's strategy is to surrender to the left-wing mob.</s>ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The politics of protests. Joe Biden and Donald Trump each painting a very different picture of what life is like in America right now. And he is the pandemic advisor with no epidemiological experience, reportedly peddling a strategy that could kill millions. And flying the friendly skies, why the days of paying to change your travel plans may be coming to an end. Hi, welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I am Robyn Curnow.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Robyn Curnow.</s>CURNOW: In the coming day, the U.S. president Donald Trump will head to a city that is still reeling from another police shooting of a Black man and angry protests. It's been more than a week since an officer shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times in Wisconsin, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. It's still not clear why he was shot. But Kenosha's mayor and Wisconsin's governor said the president's visit will only inflame tensions.</s>MAYOR JOHN ANTARAMIAN (D-WI), KENOSHA: I'm disappointed that he is coming. Our community has gone through a great deal. There is no time right now for political politics to be played.</s>CURNOW: The protests in Kenosha, along with rioting and looting, are the central focus of the U.S. presidential campaign. Democrat Joe Biden turned the tables on Mr. Trump's law and order message on Monday, pointing out that this violence is happening in Donald Trump's America.</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Fires are burning and we have a president who fans the flames rather than fighting the flames. He may believe mouthing the words "law and order" makes him strong. But his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows how weak he is. Donald Trump looks at this violence and he sees a political lifeline.</s>CURNOW: The president blamed radical Democrats for not cracking down on protesters in Kenosha, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, and other cities.</s>TRUMP: The wave of violence and destruction than we have seen in recent weeks and months has occurred in cities exclusively controlled and dominated by the Biden, Joe Biden party. If you give the radical left power, what you are seeing in the Democrat cities will be brought to every city in this country.</s>CURNOW: Biden fired back, condemning violence on all sides on Monday, challenging the president to do the same. Take a listen to this.</s>BIDEN: Let me be clear about all of this. Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It is lawlessness, plain and simple. Those who do it should be prosecuted. Violence will not bring change. It will only bring destruction. It is wrong in every way.</s>CURNOW: Meantime, Mr. Trump defended his supporters who fired paintball guns and pepper spray at protesters in Portland on Saturday. He says they were peaceful and acting in self-defense. He also came to the defense of Kyle Rittenhouse. He is the 17-year-old Trump supporter accused of fatally shooting two protesters in Kenosha. The president says Rittenhouse was violently attacked and would probably have been killed by protesters angered over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.</s>TRUMP: We're looking at all of it. And that was an interesting situation. You saw the same tape as I saw. And he was trying to get away from them, I guess; it looks like. And he fell, and then they very violently attacked him. And it was something that we're looking at right now and it's under investigation. But I guess he was in very big trouble. He would have been -- I -- he probably would have been killed.</s>CURNOW: According to the criminal complaint, Rittenhouse was not on the ground when he first opened fire. Instead, he was clashing with police who had gathered near a car dealership. Trump says he will not meet with the family of Jacob Blake when he visits Wisconsin in the coming hours. He says they want their attorney involved and he thinks that is inappropriate. However, the president did claim he spoke with the Blake family pastor -- which is news to Jacob Blake's father.</s>JACOB BLAKE SR., JACOB BLAKE'S FATHER: First of all, I'm not going to play politics. This is my son's life we are talking about. second of all, we don't have a family past. I don't know who he talked to.</s>BLAKE: Furthermore, I don't care who he talked to.</s>CURNOW: So when the president gets to Kenosha, he plans to tour some of the businesses damaged in the past week but at least one prominent civil rights activist is skeptical about Mr. Trump's motives.</s>JESSE JACKSON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: The president's coming tomorrow, apparently, to do a commercial. Whites and blacks at each other's necks. He's coming tomorrow not to reconcile but to polarize, to scare white people into voting for him. To me, it's a sign they will not show up and be a part of his commercial.</s>CURNOW: Joining me now is political commentator Mo' Kelly. He's the host of "The Mo' Kelly Show" in Los Angeles. Thank you so much for joining us. Essentially what we are hearing now are accusations that President Trump is encouraging a breakdown in law and order while labeling himself the law and order president.</s>MO' KELLY, TV SHOW HOST: We should take the president at his word. He makes it clear that law and order is going to be the message. But it's not a consistent message of law and actual order. We heard the clip regarding Kyle Rittenhouse, he was more harsh in his commentary regarding Colin Kaepernick than Kyle Rittenhouse, who did kill two people allegedly and is on trial or will be on trial facing first degree murder charges. So it's not actually law and order, it is about sending a message that he is opposite the protesters. Historically, we would have a president who was going to offer a calming influence but this president is actively taking sides. We've already heard the mayor of Kenosha and the governor and also the lieutenant governor of Wisconsin are not wanting the president to come to that area. So his going there can only be seen through the light of politics and getting a pictorial view of America, which is politically advantageous to him.</s>CURNOW: I want to talk about that in a moment but also there's been accusations that the president is foreshadowing or warning how his supporters will act, because Mr. Rittenhouse seems to be a Trump supporter, will act if he does not win the election. What is the messaging behind these images?</s>KELLY: He's definitely making it very clear to his supporters and the supporters of Rittenhouse, that that behavior is not out of bounds, that it's not out of turn. In actuality, he did everything except endorse Kyle Rittenhouse, which should be alarming to most people, because if you send the message that it's OK for citizens and citizenry to illegally armed themselves, Kyle Rittenhouse did not have the right to arm himself in an open carry situation in Wisconsin at the age of 17. If he sends that message, which he has, then that is something that he approves of or it is something he endorses or understands or makes room for, then, yes, there will probably be other incidents like Kyle Rittenhouse, who was seen at a Trump rally. This is not something I want to see happen. But you have to see the president and the bully pulpit is real. That is a real strength which the president has to use at his disposal. It should not be understated.</s>CURNOW: You mentioned this is about politicking. Joe Biden says the same thing. How does a campaign that essentially says that America is on fire help the president right now?</s>KELLY: You can go back to 1968, where Richard Nixon, coming out of the RNC, he said, I am the law and order president, speaking to the fears of the nation because we were in racial unrest back then. Let's not also forget that governor George Wallace was also in that election running on the American independent ticket and he did garner 46 electoral college votes running, basically, talking about the racial animus of that time. So if you combine those 2 campaign messages, you have Donald Trump -- let's not forget, President Trump is speaking in a reminiscent way of the Republican Party of years past, with the law and order message, with the make America great again message. So it rings familiar to many Republicans and if you are old enough to remember 1968, as many Trump supporters are, it seems familiar to you and is almost inviting to you.</s>CURNOW: How does the racial dimension play in it, particularly when you say there is</s>KELLY: Everyone has a TV. Everyone has a tablet, you could say. When President Trump goes to Wisconsin, there would be people tuning in, in North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Those are those battleground states where he wants to be able to provide the imagery to reinforce his image, not only that he stands opposite the protesters but that he is the law and order president. And if there is a problem in America, he wants to make sure that it is seen as Democratic governors and Democratic mayors who are working against the president -- at least that is the picture he would like to present to all of America.</s>CURNOW: How do people who want to legitimately protest, to make a statement about social justice? How do they avoid becoming part of a presidential narrative, whether they like it or not? Also, the concern of Joe Biden when he came out that this is about real protests being hijacked by the Left and the Right? And that could as well play into political motives.</s>KELLY: Protesters have to be smarter. They have to understand that there are agitators. There are people who want to be there to incite and foment violence. It may mean that you have to stop protesting and not go protesting well into the night. You may have to observe those curfews. You may have to do as much as you can to at least remove the appearance of somehow condoning or participating in anything which can be construed as lawlessness. The protests and the message and also the success of it has to be bigger than just simply being seen on the news.</s>CURNOW: Mo' Kelly, I really appreciate you joining us. Live from Los Angeles, thank you so much.</s>KELLY: Thank you.</s>CURNOW: On Monday, the U.S. topped 6 million coronavirus cases. The virus has killed over 183,000 Americans as the country prepares for another big holiday weekend. Experts are pleading with the public to stick to safety guidelines. Now as Dianne Gallagher explains, there's certainly trouble brewing in the race for a vaccine -- Dianne.</s>DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is growing concern political pressure could be rushing the COVID-19 vaccine process after FDA commissioner, Dr. Stephen Hahn, said the agency might consider emergency use authorization or approve even if a vaccine developer applies before phase three trials are complete.</s>DR. SEEMA YASMIN, FORMER CDC DISEASE DETECTIVE: The problem here is the credibility of the FDA is crumbling before our eyes.</s>GALLAGHER: Hahn dismissed concerns, telling "The Financial Times," quote: We have a convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic with the political season and we're just going to have to get through that and stick to our core principles. Over the past two weeks, on average, daily new cases are down about 18 percent and new deaths per day by roughly 11 percent. That's even as the United States did surpass 6 million confirmed coronavirus cases today. White House task force member, Dr. Deborah Birx, is urging people to take precautions now, before there's a vaccine.</s>DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: Do the right thing today, because if we do the right thing today, we go into the fall with much fewer cases.</s>GALLAGHER: And yet, "The Washington Post" reports sources say President Trump's new pandemic adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, is pushing for the country to drop a herd immunity approach, similar to the strategy used in Sweden, which has one of the highest per capita infection and death rates in the world. Now some on the White House's own task force said this approach would likely cause a massive death toll.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If everyone got infected, the death toll would be enormous and totally unacceptable.</s>GALLAGHER: Today in Florida, Atlas denied those claims.</s>DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS ADVISER: The president does not have a strategy like that. I've never advocated that strategy.</s>GALLAGHER: But President Trump did retweet a false tweet from a QAnon supporter that misrepresented CDC data to claim the death toll was 9,000 instead of the more than 180,000 people that have actually died. That's simply not what the data says at all, so Twitter took down the tweet.</s>QUESTION: Is he trying to downplay the death toll?</s>KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No. He was -- he was highlighting new CDC information that came out that was worth noting.</s>GALLAGHER: College campuses are becoming an example of just how quickly the virus can spread. Cases at colleges and universities have now been reported in at least 36 states. At SUNY Oneonta, a lesson in exponential spread.</s>JIM MALATRAS, CHANCELLOR, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: We noticed that there was a large party early last week that resulted in several COVID cases. Twenty COVID cases became 105 cases. We stepped in immediately.</s>GALLAGHER: College campuses really are the source of so many of these asymptomatic outbreaks we are seeing in the United States right now. Temple university is going to temporarily back to online classes after it identified more than 100 cases at the University of Alabama. More than 1000 students have tested positive. Since school started back on August 19th and in part, that is why Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, has said that students who plan to go home and visit should quarantine after -- at their school for 14 days before doing so. So they don't unknowingly bring COVID-19 to their family members or back to their home community -- Dianne Gallagher, CNN, Atlanta.</s>CURNOW: Joining me now is CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner. What you make of the fact that America should, according perhaps to some of these reports, attain herd immunity? How concerned are you about the fact that this might be out there in terms of policy?</s>DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I'm very concerned.</s>REINER: The way to obtain herd immunity in the same way is to develop a safe and effective vaccine and then vaccinate everyone in the country. That is how we want to get to herd immunity, by vaccinating just about everyone in the United States. The notion from Dr. Atlas that perhaps we could allow the vast majority of the population to get infected is insanity. So let's look at this. We think that, in order for a population with a virus to obtain natural herd immunity, over 70 percent of the population would need to be infected with the virus. So in the United States, that would be about 220 million or so people would have to be infected with the virus. Now we don't know what the true mortality rate is for this virus, because we don't know how many people have actually been infected. We only know how many people have tested positive. We think many more than that have been actually infected. So let's use the most optimistic estimate of mortality with the virus. Let's assume -- and I think it is higher than this -- but let's assume for argument's sake that it is 0.5 percent -- only 0.5 percent, which would be five times higher than the seasonal flu. If 220 million people are infected with this virus in an effort to get to herd immunity, about 1.2 people million people would die. It is a monumental toll. It is insanity. We cannot do that. We should not do that.</s>CURNOW: There is a suggestion that it's the Swedish model, that the Swedes have done something right, saved themselves and their economic prosperity by creating this herd immunity. Is that a fallacy as well?</s>REINER: Yes. It has been a disaster in Sweden. It has been both an economic disaster and a medical disaster. If you look at the mortality in the world with this virus -- and we index it by population -- so look at the number of people killed by the virus per million population, the United States is among the worst in the world. The U.S. rate is about 566 deaths per million population. Sweden is even worse. Sweden is 574. Look at other countries, such as Germany, 112 per million, or Canada, about 240 per million. So we don't want to emulate Sweden, because they have not done very well with this.</s>CURNOW: Let's talk about fast-tracking vaccines. Again, mixed messages on whether that should be done and how it would be done and why.</s>REINER: Yes, There is no mixed message amongst physicians and scientists in the United States as a group. The American medical establishment has been clear on this. No vaccine should be released to the public before it is shown to be safe and effective. I think from the outset, the administration did a disservice to the vaccine movement as a whole and to this particular indication for a vaccine by emphasizing speed, calling it Warp Speed. What we should have been doing is calling it Operation Safe Vaccine. There's a lot of vaccine mistrust in the United States. In the best year, we only vaccinated about 45 percent of Americans for influenza; maybe 50 to 60 percent, if we are really lucky. So there is a lot of anti vaccine sentiment in the United States and rushing a vaccine before it is shown to be safe and effective is not the way to gain public trust. So I would like to hear the FDA say unequivocally that no vaccine will be either approved or issued as an emergency use authorization before it is proven to an independent panel of experts' satisfaction that it is safe and effective.</s>CURNOW: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, thank you very much for joining me. Thank you very much.</s>REINER: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.</s>CURNOW: To India now. Despite having the third highest number of coronavirus infections in the world, the country is taking more steps to reopen. It is moving into a new phase that includes restarting subway service for the first time in months. India's infection rate has skyrocketed in recent weeks and the country now has the fastest growing number of cases in the world. Its economy is also taking a hit with its worst second quarter decline in decades. Still ahead here on NEWSROOM, the UAE and Israel work to build new ties after a symbolic flight ushers in a new era of relations. Also, the French president is in Beirut, working to pull Lebanon out of its deepening crisis. A deep -- a live report from the region. That's next.