Soon: President Donald Trump Lands In Kenosha, Wisconsin After Being Told Not To Come; President Donald Trump: Police Officer Who Shot Jacob Blake "Choked"; New Book: Pence Told To Prepare To Assume Trump Duties; Virus Fight Faces Key Tests With Labor Day Weekend, Return To School.
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your day with us. The U.S. world worst Coronavirus case count now sits over 6 million infections. 183,000 have died. The United States accounts for 22 percent of the world's virus deaths even though it accounts for only 4 percent of the world's population and there is big worry this morning that number could grow perhaps exponentially. As a member of the White House Task Force argues the U.S. should pursue herd immunity more the urgent medical questions a bit later in the program. But we begin the hour with the president, nine weeks from Election Day off to a battleground state that at the moment is a racial tinderbox.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think a lot of people are looking at what's happening to these Democrat-run cities and they're disgusted. They see what's going on. And they can't believe this is taking place in our country. We have had such a big success in shutting down what would be right now a city that would have been Kenosha, a city that would have been burned to the ground by now. I think it's helping because I'm about law and order and if you look at the black community, they want the police to help them. Stop crime.</s>KING: That was the president last hour just before taking off for Wisconsin, important to note, nothing to do with the deployment of National Guard in Kenosha even though he is now taking credit for it. Both the Governor there and the city's Mayor say the president should not come to Kenosha today. On the ground the president plans to meet with law enforcement and tour businesses damaged by recent protests, not on his list though a meeting with the family of Jacob Blake. Jacob Blake of course the black man shot seven times in the back by police nine days ago. Elections are about choices, and the president has made his. He says the demonstrations in Kenosha and other cities mirror "Anarchy". He says Democratic Mayors and Governors are weak. He criticizes the "Black Lives Matter" movement and defends Trump supporters who fired paint balls on protesters this past weekend in Portland, Oregon. And he will not criticize his supporter now charged with killing two protesters in Kenosha. Last night, listen to this, the president was asked about the Blake shooting, a chance for him to show compassion or to make a statement about police brutality or even about police training but instead the president compared the officer who fired seven shots into Blake's back to a golfer missing a putt.</s>TRUMP: They choke. Shooting this guy in the back many times, couldn't you have done something different? They choke just like in a golf tournament, they miss a--</s>LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: We're not comparing it to golf? Because that's what the media will say.</s>TRUMP: I'm saying people choke. People choke.</s>INGRAHAM: People panic.</s>KING: Wow. Laura Ingraham tried to save him from himself there but no he did compare it to golf. Let's get straight to Kenosha, CNN's Ryan Nobles. Ryan, a tense day on the ground there as the president comes largely unwelcomed at least by the political establishment.</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right John. Things are quiet here in Kenosha right now and the president's brief in total is actually going to be a brief visit to this town. But you can tell things are very on edge now as you make your way here to this school where the president is going to appear in a couple of hours. Strip malls, entire strip malls boarded up because of all the violence and unrest that is taking place here since the shooting of Jacob Blake. And exactly what the president hopes to accomplish here is not really all that clear. As you mentioned in that sound that you just played from the Laura Ingraham Show he seems to indicate that the police officers here did not handle the situation all that well but when he comes to Kenosha he is going to be embracing law enforcement. In fact, all of his meetings here today are going to be based around that message of law and order. He is going to have a roundtable with some of the law enforcement leaders in the community to talk about how they're responding to all the violence here. And there seems to be a lot less focus on the original issue here, the shooting, the situation and the problems as it relates to policing in America as there is the outgrowth of that and the violence and all of the activity that takes place afterwards. So John we'll have to hear from the tone of the president as he comes here latter today and of course we should not - we're missing mentioning that this is of course a key battleground and not just specifically Wisconsin as a state, which is a state the president narrowly won on his path to an Electoral College victory here four years ago. But Kenosha itself is a swing area. This is a place that for the most part it voted for Democratic candidates for president up until last year. So it is a place the president wants to keep in his win column and it is clear that he's using this violence, this uncertainty and a city on edge hopefully to his advantage into the fall election. John?</s>KING: Incredibly delicate moment nine weeks until the election. Ryan Nobles, glad you are on the ground there as the president visits Kenosha. Joining me now to continue the conversation Tarini Parti of "The Wall Street Journal" and CNN Political Commentator Errol Lewis, Errol, I want to start with you just on the perspective of listening to a President of the United States talk about the shooting of any citizen but in this case a black man seven shots in the back point blank range and he compares it to a golfer missing a clutch putt. What?</s>ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is sad and shocking and disgusting. And unfortunately, entirely in keeping with Donald Trump's actions not only as president but his entire public career, John his entire public career I mean, decades ago when he was calling for the execution of what turned out to be completely innocent exonerated teenagers for which he never apologized. His entire public career has been based on callous, violent, racial division. It is what the whole Birtherism movement was about, it is what all of his actions have been about when it comes to this. The fact that he's not going to visit the family, the fact that he said absolutely nothing about racial reconciliation and creating some sense of peace and stability he has never said a word about it and he won't say it today. Frankly, I'd say based on his record the president is probably hoping for some kind of disturbance or even riots in his wake. That's what his public life is about, that's what his politics is about and it is again sad and disgusting that this is what we're dealing with about 60 odd days out from really an important election.</s>KING: And but Tarini to that point, the president clearly has made a choice here that he thinks is going to work. I want to get to a little more of what he said today but first I want you to listen here. This is the president talking about suburban women. Now the president is going to Kenosha as Ryan Nobles just noted Kenosha voted for Barack Obama in 2012 by more than ten points. Kenosha was essentially a draw in 2016. President Trump beat Hillary Clinton just barely. That can make a difference in the state as important as Wisconsin. One county, you swing it a little bit, it can make the difference. Listen to the president's take here on what his view of what suburban women want in this campaign.</s>TRUMP: For women, more than anything else, they want security. They want safety. They have to have safety. They talk about the suburban woman, what I did recently I ended the regulation that provided low income housing. Westchester was ground zero OK, for what they were trying to do? They were trying to destroy suburban beautiful - the American dream really.</s>KING: A lot of people read that as the president says I'm going to keep people of color out of the suburbs.</s>TARINI PARTI, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I think that's one way to look at it and the way that the president is talking about it is that - that seems to be the way that people are going to continue to perceive it because he is pretty clear in his messaging. He thinks that this law and order approach and especially his - the way he talks about how that will help him win this election, especially with suburban women, that's all he's been talking about and using this, you know, the racial tensions in a battleground State in Wisconsin to his benefit. And he's been pretty open in talking about it and we heard Vice President Biden this week try to really point that out to people, to say that, you know, Donald Trump might be talking about how it might be unsafe in a Joe Biden's America but currently it's Donald Trump's America. And so I think you will hear him continue to try to make this point as the president tries to use - as he says his law and order message that he tweets out in all caps every other day, you know, as he continues to push that message.</s>KING: And this - a lot is not new Errol, it is just always different and I'd like to use the term on steroids in the Trump age in the sense that we had the Willie Horton ad back in 1988 George H. W. Bush against Michael Dukakis. In 1992 we had the Rodney King riots and Bill Clinton and then President George H.W. Bush had a conversation about race and policing in the aftermath of that. But what struck me this morning was the president had a chance, he was asked do you want to talk about racial unity, racial reckoning? He said yes but then he said I'm the law and order president. And he said rightly so, black Americans want safety in their communities. Latino Americans want safety in their communities. They absolutely do but he would not continue the thought because he has made his tunnel vision choice. He did not continue the thought to say they also don't want their sons and daughters pulled over just because of the color of the color of their skin, they don't want their sons and daughters at risk of being shot more than a white guy because of the color of their skin. He never fills that sentence in.</s>LOUIS: That's right. Look. John, I grew up in Westchester County and it could not be more clear what those buzz words mean when he talks about this. Again he is not interested in any form of racial reconciliation. Frankly saying law and order is utterly inappropriate and almost senseless coming out of the words of this particular president whose lawyer is in prison today, whose campaign manager is in prison today and on and on and on.</s>LOUIS: In fact he said he wouldn't meet with the family of the man who was shot because there would be a lawyer in the room. This is someone that runs from the law. This is somebody who runs from accountability. This is someone who runs from accountability in particular when it comes to the heavy burden of doing what so many good men and women have done over the years which is try and bring about some sense of stability and reconciliation and better policing. That's what the country needs. If we're lucky we'll get some version of it but it's not going to be from Donald Trump.</s>KING: And to the point we are now nine weeks from the election, many people will start voting much sooner and then you can start casting a ballot in some states two weeks from now. Tarini, part of the president's argument is he beats up on the Mayor of Portland, he beats up on the officials in Wisconsin. He forgets sometimes that he is the president of the country I think and this is all happening in the America that he leads. But he tries to say that if Joe Biden is elected Portland will come to all 50 states. Joe Biden yesterday delivering a major speech in which he says, Mr. President, you are dead wrong, listen.</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'll be very clear about all of this. Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It's lawlessness plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted.</s>KING: There's an effort by the incumbent president to paint Joe Biden as something his history in politics tells us he is not. But you also clear them scheduling that trip when the vice president going to Pittsburgh to deliver that speech in the Biden campaign they clearly have to be a little nervous that even if it is not true it might stick.</s>PARTI: That's right. You are hearing that line from voters, I was in Pennsylvania recently and I spoke to a few Republican voters who said the same thing. They said we are seeing what's happening with democratically controlled cities and we don't want that to happen all over America. And I was surprised that exact line did come up with a few voters so it is something that some people are picking up on. Obviously these were voters in some cases who would not even consider Joe Biden. So they weren't necessarily up for grabs but it was a battleground state where both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are trying this week alone to pick up some votes. We saw Joe Biden in Pittsburgh yesterday. Mike Pence is supposed to be in Pennsylvania today. So you know this message could resonate with some voters, it is just interesting to see which type of voters if it's the suburban women that you know start repeating that line? If it's actually voters who are up for grabs who start thinking of that fear that the president is trying to incite?</s>KING: That's a critical point. We'll watch the president next hour in Kenosha. We'll continue this conversation through the election and beyond. Tarini Parti and Errol Louis very grateful for the reporting and the insights thank you both for coming in today. Up next for us, the president is firing back on a new report about the circumstances surrounding his unannounced visit to Walter Reed Hospital back last November.