Trump To Visit Border Wall Segment, Speak To Students In Phoenix.
SCIUTTO: Right now, President Trump is en route to Arizona, where coronavirus cases have nearly doubled in just the last two weeks. The president will make a stop at the border wall before heading to Phoenix to host a real for student supporters, no masks required.</s>HARLOW: Right. John Harwood is at the White House with more. Good morning, John.</s>JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. We saw the president as he was leaving look for things to feel good about after the bitter disappointment of the rally in Tulsa over the weekend. So the president in talking to reporters before getting on Marine One hailed the 200 miles of border wall that he's going to inspect, even though there was already a border barrier on 197 of those miles, just three miles of new border. He was talking about the Fox News ratings for the rally he had in Tulsa even though the arena was only one-third full on Saturday night, which was a very disappointing thing for him. And he also talked about leaning into the culture war that he sees as his political comfort zone after police stopped protesters in Lafayette Park outside the White House last night from ripping down a statue of Andrew Jackson.</s>TRUMP: We are looking at long-term jail sentences for these vandals and these hoodlums and these anarchists and agitators, and call them whatever you want. Some people don't like that language, but that's what they are. They are bad people. They don't love our country.</s>HARWOOD: Vandals, hoodlums, anarchists, bad people who don't love our country, that is how he lumping the protests across the country against police abuses. And it's consistent with the president's pattern of dividing Americans for his political benefit. The other thing he said was he completely debunked the explanation that his aides offered yesterday for his comments about testing. They had said he was kidding when he said that I want to slow down the testing because more testing means more cases. He told reporters a few minutes ago, I don't kid, and, in fact, more testing does show more cases, and he does not want to do that.</s>SCIUTTO: And a rising infection rate, we should note. That's a thing. The positivity rate is going up as they test more. John Harwood at the White House, thanks very much.</s>HARLOW: All right. Let's turn now to a brand-new ad that you may see soon targeting President Trump, this one on trade.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump lost a trade war that he started. Farmers bankrupted, steel workers betrayed, and manufacturing in a recession. Donald Trump lost, and we can't afford four more years of losing.</s>HARLOW: With me now is former Democratic presidential candidate, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg. Good morning, Mayor. Thanks for being here.</s>PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), FORMER 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good morning. Nice to be back with you.</s>HARLOW: It's an interesting ad for sure, and this is really the first unified DNC Biden campaign concerted negative attack on the president's handling of trade in China. And I wonder why you think this moment, this is the best way to go after the president given that it was last May that, as you know, the former vice president said that China is not competition for the U.S., only to walk that back a month later?</s>BUTTIGIEG: Well, the DNC is stepping up to clarify the record because we know that this president will continue to try to fog up his failure to stand up for American workers and American farmers when it comes to dealing with China. Look, the record and the facts are very clear. You've got a president who talks tough, went into a trade war without a strategy and then allowed American farmers and workers to pay the price. Our prices went up, it's consumers. In my part of the country, where there are a lot of soybean farmers, there was a lot of pain inflicted on farmers. And the president basically painted this country into a corner, negotiated a deal that did little more than make up for some of the damage he created, and meanwhile sold out all of our values in the process. I think this moment where Donald Trump is talking about China all the time is exactly the right moment to remind everybody of his failure to stand for American workers and American values.</s>HARLOW: So then the question becomes what would a President Biden do, right? You've got China's handling of the coronavirus and lack of transparency to say the least and global implications of that, and then you also have China's promised agricultural purchases from states like yours, states like mine in Minnesota or across the Midwest that have not come close to what they promised to do. So would a President Biden walk away from this phase one trade deal?</s>BUTTIGIEG: I think we could expect a President Biden to negotiate in a way that puts our farmers and workers first and that's consistent with our values. What you're not going to see is blundering into a trade war with no strategy. What you're not going to see is a President Biden doing what President Trump did, which is praising the Chinese regime's, quote, transparency on the issue of coronavirus in order to try to get in good. It is amazing how easy it has been for China to manipulate the current president. And someone with the experience that Joe Biden has with China specifically, with Xi Jinping in particular and with foreign policy more generally, means that we will have a president who actually knows what he's doing when he's fighting for us in trade deals and in international diplomacy.</s>HARLOW: I would like to get your take on another topic, and that is the vote to even begin debate that's going to happen tomorrow on the Republican proposed police bill or the Justice Act, because you're a guy who, when you were running for president, talked a lot about compromise and talked a lot about the middle. And at this point you've got some Senate Democrats signaling that they are prepared to block even debate. You've got the NAACP legal defense fund sending that letter saying that Democrats should not even debate this Republican proposal at this time. Do you think that Senate Democrats should vote to at least take up debate on it?</s>BUTTIGIEG: I think that Senate Republicans need to do better so that we can actually get the ball rolling. As what happens as --</s>HARLOW: So at this point you would support not even debating what's out there? I ask because if there isn't a debate about it, nothing may happen this year.</s>BUTTIGIEG: There's a lot of debate about it. The question is whether there's going to be action. And I think to get the ball rolling on action, there has to be an actual good-faith starting point from Senate Republicans. Another way of putting it is that if you're on the wrong side of the NAACP on the initial terms to get this debate going, we're going to have a lot of trouble getting anywhere. Look, this is a moment where one advocate has put it we have to raise the ceiling on what's possible and raise the floor on what's acceptable. And that means that at least table stakes is meaningful reform that will deliver real police accountability and look to the broader questions of systemic racism in this country, because this also goes beyond police reform. We had a number of successes and a number of humbling failures here in South Bend trying to deal with these issues. We need much more robust federal actions to try to support cities and departments trying to do the right thing.</s>HARLOW: Certainly. Of course, it was just about a year ago the fatal police shooting of Eric Logan. I know for you, and it's been something that you've thought a lot about especially in this moment. If I could ask you about a different topic, you did a really interesting interview after the Supreme Court decision last week with my colleague, Jim Sciutto, and you talked about wanting to start a family with your husband. Next year, next term, the Supreme Court is going to take up a case that involves 11 states where it is now currently legal to allow religious exemptions for organizations that would not allow same-sex couples to adopt or foster because of religious exemptions. And Indiana is not one of those 11 states. But I'm just wondering personally, have the two of you faced discrimination in this process?</s>BUTTIGIEG: Well, you know, when you start thinking about a family, as we are, you turn to the landscape of agencies and organizations to help. And because we're a same-sex couple, our options are limited. Look, this is about not just the situation of married couples like us, but about the values we have as a country. And the idea that the administration will try to proactively promote discrimination, proactively encourage laws to turn couples like us away, it doesn't just trouble me as a gay man, it troubles me as a Christian. Because I know that there are so many kids out there who are deserving of love and who need a good home. And to make them worse off in a pattern of discrimination that isn't consistent with the laws or the values of this country, I think it's just not lining up with at least my personal understanding of where faith can guide us.</s>HARLOW: Mayor Buttigieg, I appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much.</s>BUTTIGIEG: Same here. Thank you.</s>HARLOW: Jim?</s>SCIUTTO: Bubba Wallace is speaking out after someone put a noose in his garage at a NASCAR event. Now the FBI is getting involved. We're going to have more details coming up.