President ial felonies of all time. I think that the panic of every Single Family i called on face time to let them know their Family Member was dying, as that frontline provider, im furious. This is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is new day, september 10th, 6 00 here in new york. Fasten your seat belts. We have a lot to bring you in the next three hours. First, the death toll in the United States has now topped 190,000 people. More than a thousand new deaths were reported just yesterday. And this morning were hearing stunning new audio from President Trump. It turns out he knew how deadly the virus was back in february, but he intentionally downplayed it. Legendary Journalist Bob Woodward conducted and recorded 18 interviews with the president for his new book called rage. They show the president misled the public about the virus at the very time lives could have been saved. Cnn has obtained excerpts from extensive recordings. No hiding behind claims of anonymous sources. This is the president s own voice, own words, own lies. And you will hear them at length throughout this special broadcast. This is the headline from the Washington Post this morning. I always wanted to play it down. That was 190,000 deaths ago. This morning, we have new reporting on whats going on behind the scenes at the white house. New reaction from medical experts and victims families on the devastating impact of the president s lies. We also have a brandnew interview with democratic nominee joe biden. Jake tappers exclusive, coming up. We begin, though, with cnns joe johns live at the white house with the top headlines from this remarkable moment and the fallout, joe, in the west wing. Reporter thats right. The president and one of the top journalists of our time, the president sat down with bob woodward 18 times, talked with him 18 times over ten months on a wide range of issues, including what he knew and when he knew it in the early days of the pandemic. And now the president is calling the woodward book a political hit job, but its very difficult to argue with the president s own words on the record and woodwards recordings with the president s consent. President trump, in his own words, admitting on tape that he understood just how dangerous the coronavirus could be. The revelation from a series of recorded interviews for Journalist Bob Woodwards new book, rage. In early february, trump privately told woodward the disease was deadlier than the flu. Weeks before the first confirmed coronavirusrelated death in the United States. You know, the touch you dont have to touch things, right . But the air, you just breathe the air and thats how its passed. And so thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. Its also more deadly than your, you know, even your strenuous flus. Reporter but even 19 days later, heres what the president said to the public. Thats a little bit like the flu. Its a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for, and well essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner. Reporter but midmarch, trump admitted privately he was downplaying the coronavirus. I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down. Yes, sir. Because i dont want to create a panic. Reporter and despite the president s repeated claims, like this one last month about the effects of the disease on children if you look at children, theyre able to throw it off very easily. Their immune systems are very, very strong and theyre very powerful. Reporter trump told woodward months earlier that the coronavirus wasnt only harmful to the elderly. Now its turning out, its not just old people, bob, just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out, its not just older people, its plenty of young people. The white house denied the allegations from the book, even after the recordings were released. The president has never lied to the American Public on covid. The president s been very the president was expressing calm and his actions reflect that. The president never downplayed the virus. Hours later, the president responded to woodwards book himself and defended his handling of the pandemic. The fact is, im a cheerleader for this country. I love our country. And i dont want people to be frightened. I dont want to create panic, as you say, and certainly, im not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy. We want to show confidence. We want to show strength. Reporter trumps defense the same day the United States confirmed covid19 death toll topped 190,000, according to Johns Hopkins university. A grim milestone the president says he prevented from being even worse. So i think if we didnt do what we did, we would have had millions of people die. Reporter in an interview with cnn, joe biden slammed trumps leadership during the pandemic. Its disgusting. We learned this on a day that we turned 190,000 americans dead and he knew this. He waved the white flag. He walked away. He didnt do a damned thing. Think about it. Think about what he did not know. And its almost criminal. Reporter the book reports some of trumps top officials also questioned his abilities. Woodward writing, former defense secretary james mattis called the president dangerous and unfit for office. And dr. Anthony fauci said trumps Attention Span is like a minus number and his sole purpose is to get reelected. I dont really want to get involved in the kind of stuff that is very distracting to the kind of things that im trying to do and that were all trying to do with this outbreak. Reporter and as Racial Injustice has feudal protest and unrest across the country and is taking center stage as an election issue, trump dismissed concerns about black americans frustration. Do you have any sense that that privilege has isolated and put you in a cave, to a certain extent, as it put me, and i think, lots of whiteprivileged people in a cave, and that we have to work our way out of that to understand the anger and the pain, particularly black people feel in this country . Do you no. You really drank the koolaid, didnt you . Listen to you. No, i dont feel that at all so the biggest takeaway so far is that the president revealed all the way back that he knew, in fact, that this virus was contagious, that it was deadly, the seriousness of the situation, all the way back, february 4th of this year. And why is that important . Well, a study by Columbia University says that if the United States had put social distancing guidelines in place just one week earlier than we did in midmarch, 36,000 lives could have been saved. And if we had put social distancing in place two weeks earlier, 84 of deaths and 82 of cases could have been prevented. Alisyn . Yeah, those are important numbers, joe. Thank you very much. All right, joining us now, we have abby phillips, cnn political correspondent, dr. Peter hotez, hes the dean of the National School of tropical medicine at Baylor College of medicine, and myles taylor, cnn contributor and former chief of staff at the department of Homeland Security. Its great to have all of you. You know, we just need to play a little bit more of this sound, again, just to drive it home for everybody. Because this is the moment okay, february 7th is the moment that President Trump admits to bob woodward that he knows its airborne and he knows its more deadly than the seasonal flu, okay . Most of the public did not know that on february 7th. Thats not what the administration was saying. So just listen to this exchange with bob woodward. And so, what was president xi saying yesterday . Well, we were talking mostly about the virus. And i think hes going to have it in good shape, but its a very tricky situation. Indeed, it is. It goes through air, bob. Thats always tougher than the touch you know, the touch, you dont have to touch things. But the air, you just breathe the air and thats how its passed. So thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. Its also more deadly than your, you know, your even your strenuous flus. You know, people dont realize, we lose 25,000, 30,000 people a year here. Who would ever think that, right . I know, its its amazing the same thing you do for this is more deadly. This is 5 versus 1 and less than 1 , you know, so this is deadly stuff. Okay, so thats what the president knew on february 7th. Well after february 7th, here is what he was telling the American Public. This is like a flu. Of the 15 people, the original 15, as i call them, 8 of them have returned to their homes. Were going down, not up. Were going very substantially down, not up. And again, when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, thats a pretty good job weve done. I think the virus is going to be its going to be fine. You know, in april, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather, and thats a beautiful date to look forward to. We have it very much under control in this country. People are getting better. Theyre getting better. Theres a very good chance youre not going to die. In fact, were getting very close to a vaccine. One day, it will disappear, like a miracle, it will disappear. Dr. Hotez, your thoughts this morning as you listen to those two different stories . Alisyn, this is devastating. You mentioned that february 7th time. Thats now, in retrospect, we know when this virus was entering into new york city from europe and caused the single largest outbreak, single largest epidemic in the one year of this epidemic. It devastated new york city. And it went on undetected, despite all of the warnings that we had. It was allowed to come in from europe and remain undetected and cause that devastating epidemic. And then, there was a refusal by the white house and by the White House Coronavirus task force to launch a National Strategy, allowing a massive resurgence across the south. And devastated houston and texas and dont forget who paid the price the most for this. The hispanic community, the africanamerican community, the native american community. 20 of the deaths are under 65, but for hispanics, africanamericans, probably native americans, as well. 35 under the age of 65. Bottom line, this is the single largest Public Health failure in the modern history of the United States. Certainly in the last hundred years. And it happened because of the refusal by the white house to launch a National Campaign and a National Strategy against the virus. Its beyond upsetting. And were moving pretty quickly, soon the 200,000 dead americans by the end of this month and well probably hit 300,000 dead americans by december 1st. Its theres almost there are almost no words for this. Dr. Hotez, we heard on february 7th, the president says, out loud, on tape, this is five times deadlier than flu. He said that on february 7th. Yet for a month, if not longer, he was comparing it to the flu. Suggesting its no worse than the flu. In other words, he knew it was more deadly and he lied about it. So what was lost during that period when he was lying to the American People . Well, first of all, this was a horrible Disinformation Campaign thats still going on, right . You know, when he pushed for the openings of schools in areas where this high transmission, putting teachers and staff at risk, its more of the same. He tried to downplay it even then. This is a yearlong Disinformation Campaign. Remember all the words. This is harmless, lowest death rate. The hospital admissions are just catchup from not having elective surgery. They knew it was fake and the Scientific Community knew it was fake, and yet they kept on putting it out there. So they missed the boat when it came to the virus entering into new york from europe. They refused to prevent the resurgence across the south. They deliberately put schoolteachers and staff in harms way. This is beyond political failing. Its, you know, Vice President biden said, used the word stay with using disgusting, i can even use words stronger than that. I spent two and a half years in this administration. I thought i had seen it all. Theres no amount of hyperbole that does this justice. The president of the United States has effectively admitted his complicity in the deaths of tens of thousands of americans. Something i dont think any of us thought we would be saying on live television. But its the truth. And you dont have to take my word for it. The people around the president , as recently as yesterday, i met with people who at senior levels at the white house have been charged with helping to manage the response. They also feel like the president s poorly mismanaged response to this crises resulted in the deaths, needlessly of tens of thousands of americans. And look, we can point back to something we developed in the bush administration, back when we served in the bush administration, 15 years ago, we developed Pandemic Response plans that should have been followed to the t. The playbook was on the shelf, it was ready for him to use, but because he politicized the response and because more than anything he was worried about his reelection, they didnt follow those playbooks and again, we have dead americans because of that failure. I think thats what people should be concerned about and americans should be thinking about that in the runup to october 3rd. As you listen to this remarkable audio. Remember, this isnt reporting on. This is the president s own voice. This is the president telling us what he was doing and why and this was 190,000 deaths ago. So we heard what he said on february 7th. Lets hear what he said later in march about why he was doing this, ed. Now its turning out, its not just old people, bob, but just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. Its not just older yeah, exactly. Its plenty of young people. If you look at whats going on so give me a moment of talking to somebody, going through this with fauci or somebody who kind of, it caused a pivot in your mind. Because its clear, just from whats on the Public Record that you went through a pivot on this to, oh, my god, the gravity is almost inexplicable and unexplainable. Well, i think, bob, really, to be honest with you sure, i want you to be. I wanted to give to always play it down. I still like playing it down. Yes, sir. Because i dont want to create a panic. I always wanted to play it down, abby, i still like to play it down. Thats like a witness in the courtroom just admitting that he was guilty of lying. Yeah, absolutely. And thats effect i haively tha president is giving today, that he intentionally played it down because in his view, this is how leaders lead. The problem is that as Public Health experts and peter knows this better than anyone, you have to get people, including the millions of people who are followers and supporters of this president to follow the Public Health guidance, to take steps to protect themselves and protect others. And by playing it down, the president clearly lost time in doing that. You know, i was really fascinated listening to this after having covered this president and talked to him behind the scenes, several times. He often says in private exactly what he says in public. And what is striking about this is that the level of detail and specificity about the seriousness of the problem that he expressed behind the scenes, talking about how younger people are at risk. Talking about how it is fife times deadlier than the flu. These are very specific, clear things that should have been communicated to the public and werent. I remember at a press conference, the president saying, you know, 99 of people are totally fine. They just recover. And using that as an explanation for why the economy needed to open up as soon as possible, even before the pandemic had been contained. This is really extraordinary, because it is not that typical for this president to not, frankly, just say exactly what he thinks. He clearly believed very early on that this virus was deadly and that it was a problem. And he didnt act on it. And i think thats whats causing so many problems. You know, eveover in neverland where the president was on fox news last night, they spent a lot of time trying to defend him by saying other democrats were downplaying the virus. The difference is, this is a president of the United States who has access to all of the information. All of the information that we dont have access to. And thats why the responsibility is greater. Its not neverland, its through the looking glass. Jared kushner says its alice in wonderland, that is the white house. But an interesting analogy, to be injury. The idea that this president doesnt like to panic people. He recently said the suburbs are going up in flames and going away. Hes president panic. But we will dissect that, as well. Coming up, much more of President Trump saying things that we have never heard before about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Gillette proglide and proglide gel. Five blades and a pivoting flexball designed to get virtually every hair on the first stroke, while washing away dirt and oil. So youre ready for the day with a clean shave and a clean face. These days, businesses are adapting to new ways of working. And innovation is at the heart of it. Verizon 5g ultra wideband is the fastest 5g in the world, with speeds up to 25 times todays 4g networks. Its massive capacity and ultralow lag time is already available in parts of select cities around the country. 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Matt pottinger also was comparing it to the 1918 flu at the end of january, so they knew. That was more of Bob Woodwards explosive reporting, raising major questions about President Trumps handling of coronavirus, why he didnt listen well, you know, he did listen to the dire warnings. He did hear the dire warnings. He admitted he heard the dire warnings in february. Thats what we know now and he admitted he lied about it for months. Back with us, abby phillip, dr. Peter hotez, and miles taylor. And beyond that, now we have the president s defense of it all saying the reason he lied for months is because he didnt want to create a panic. Really . President trump says he didnt want to create a panic. Now, i was going to call him captain panic. Alisyn promoted him to president panic. Panic is his thing. Its what he does. Listen. Your home will go down in value and crime rates will rapidly rise. The end result is you will totally destroy the beautiful suburbs. Suburbia will be no longer. We must never allow mob rule. Rioting, looting, arson and violence. There is violence and danger in the streets of many democraticrun cities throughout america. So panic in suburbia, with every syllable pronounced meticulously, okay. Panic about a pandemic that has now killed 190,000 people, not okay. Professor hotez, this is not about panic. John barry who wrote the book about the great influenza says the single most important lesson from the 1918 flu, the single most important lesson, tell the truth. Why is that so important . Panic be damned. Why is the truth so important . Well, its clear that what the president did is by continuing to downplay it, its not the reality what the American People were seeing. They were seeing their parents, their brothers, their sisters go into hospitals, go into intensive care units and they saw this day in and day out. And all you had was the president denying the problem. Or you had the White House Coronavirus task force, never doing the fundamentals of what needed to be done, which was to, one, articulate the problem. Say, look, these are the three things that really worry us. This is where we think this could head if we dont do something. Heres what were going to do about that. We never saw that either from the president or the White House Coronavirus task force. They could never organize themselves to create a response. And thats what created the panic. And weve said this multiple times, john, about how the president allowed what started as a Public Health problem to become a fullblown Homeland Security threat, to the point where people were terrified about going outside, terrified about sending their kids to school. And this is all, now, we know, the president engendered that by his absence of leadership. And again, were still in this. Its not like this is something historical. Were heading towards 200,000 deaths very soon and the numbers are continuing to climb. Abby, theres one thing about trying to be a calming presence, which of course, we would hope that any president would be. And then theres the what ended up happening, which was actively misleading the public in terms of important Public Health information. And because youve covered the white house and the president for so long, was there audible snorting when he said he doesnt like to panic people. This is his m. O. weve seen it throughout this president ial race. He does rely on fearmongering. Yeah, i mean, theres very little credibility to that statement considering that his entire Reelection Campaign effectively has boiled down to scaring people about the suburbs being invaded by antifa and anarchists. You know, i think thats a notverycredible explanation for all of this. Because, obviously, the objective here is to keep people safe and to keep the country going. I mean, the president said it to woodward himself in terms of what he thinks the number one priority of being president is. Its keeping americans safe and preserving the prosperity, effectively, of the United States. On both accounts, the handling of the pandemic really has been a failure on both levels. You know, 190,000 americans dead, the economy shut down for a protracted period of time, because the pandemic keeps leveling off at this extraordinarily high number. And you know, President Trump never seemed to really understand the role of the government, in taking early action to prevent that from happening. I think hes always wanted to just ignore it and pretend like this wasnt happening. Stop testing people so the numbers didnt look as bad as they were. And the result was that, you know, his supporters you know, you would see them at rallies and at protests, protesting mask ordinances, protesting stayathome orders, and using the language that he used, comparing it to the flu. Saying that we dont shut the country down for the flu. Well, that rhetoric that he expressed publicly had real consequences and it prevented people, his own supporters, the people who listen to him the most from taking action early. It did and it does. Look at North Carolina, two nights ago. That crowd packed, you know, cheektojowl if thats the actual term, thank you, people right on top of each other without masks. Miles, the president and some of his supporters like to compare him to winston churchill, which is absurd. This is antichurchill. All churchhill did was tell the people in Great Britain how bad things were and they had to be courageous to get through them. All he did was outline the truth and say, were beginning to get out of it. This is the antichurchill not telling the truth to begin with at all. And anthony fauci, there are quotes in the book that bob woodward has. There is no sound on this. There are people who say that fauci told him, quote, that the president s leadership and lack thereof was rudderless, his Attention Span is like a minus number. His sole purpose is to get reelected. Now, youve been in the room where it happens. What do you think of that analysis . Well, i would point back to what abby just said, which is that the man quite literally seems unable to do his job. And i will tell you, thats usually the sentiment we came away with. Whether it was leaving a meeting in the oval office or leaving a meeting in the white house situation room, donald trump, four years in, still does not know how to do his job. Fundamentally, he doesnt know what cabinet secretary to turn to to get the job done in a national crises. He tells the secretary of state to do things the attorney general should do. He tells the secretary of Homeland Security to do things that the secretary of agriculture should do. And thats the president that we currently have right now. He hasnt learned how to do his job. And when it comes to what happened with the coronavirus response, that has been absolutely damning. Again, i go back to, after september 11th, t2001, we painstakingly built out plans to respond to national crises, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorist attacks, and yes, pandemics. The president did not respond to those plans, he had no interest in using the levers of government the way they needed to be used to save the lives of americans, and instead governed on the basis of personal selfinterest and momentary whim. You would walk out of these meetings with the president and turn to each other wideeyed and say, that guy has no idea whats going on. He cannot stay focused. And i can tell you from folks who led this Pandemic Response at the white house, theyve said the same things as fauci about the response being rudderless and the president being clinically unfocused. His Attention Span is like a minus number. Pretty vivid descriptions. And we would note that much of the sound we have played so far is from 190,000 deaths ago. All right. Theres a lot more for to play for you this morning. And a lot more from Bob Woodwards book, and what he revealed about a secret new weapons system. Thats next. Come on in, were open. All we do is hand you the bag. Simple. Done. We adapt and we change. You know, you just figure it out. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. Weve just been finding a wayits just that its. Lavender, yes it is. Old spice, its for men. But i like the smell of it. [music playing] burke should have been watching the stove instead. customer movie night. customer tell me something i dont know. burke with your farmers policy perk, home guaranteed replacement cos, this can be rebuilt, no matter how much. customer thats really something. burke get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. We are farmers. 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Available over the counter for mild ashtma. Primatene mist. Breathe easy again. In new audio, President Trump is heard revealing the existence of a new Nuclear Weapons system to bob woodward. This is information that had never been made public before. But i have built a nuclear i have built a weapons system, a weapons system that nobody has ever had in this country before. We have stuff that you havent even seen or heard about. We have stuff that putin and xi have never heard about before. Theres nobody what we have is incredible. Well, im glad hes telling bob woodward about it before he tells anybody else. Thats helpful. Ward woodwards book also reveals that two of his top officials considered speaking out against him. Jim mattis is quoted as describing trump as dangerous, unfit, and without a moral compass. Abby phillip and miles taylor are back with us. Miles, what do you know about this new Nuclear Weapons system that was revealed . Well, unlike the president , alisyn, i wouldnt disclose what i did or did not know about something along those lines. But i think what we just heard in that audio is absolutely damning. Its one of the president s top responsibilities, as abby noted in a previous segment, to protect the United States and one of those aspects of that responsibility is to keep americas secret secret. So in this case, the president has suggested, allegedly, that theres a program that now the russians and chinese know about, that they can task their Intelligence Officers to find out more about. This ultimately puts american lives in danger. It puts multibilliondollar programs in danger to make these type of suggestions. But this isnt the first time weve seen it. So there have been allegations that the president revealed to the Russian Ambassador in the oval Office Information about sensitive spy activities in syria. That hes revealed in other circumstances details about operations that weve undertaken overseas. That he had classified information up in bedminster that was in view of reporters while he was talking to the japanese prime minister. And i can tell you firsthand that ive been in the west wing when the president has picked up classified information off of his desk and waved it at people in the room who were not cleared to see that information. Donald trump is failing at one of the most fundamental sponl responsibilities of his job, which is to safeguard classified information, and therefore safeguard the American People. This is stunning. I think theres no other way to describe it. And genuinely, i got chills when you just played that clip. And i think other National Security officials probably feel the same way. Thank goodness he makes people in the white house sign nondisclosure agreements, because its doing a really good job keeping secrets like Nuclear Weapons system being disclosed from people who shouldnt hear it. I want to read one more quote. Dan coats, the director of national intelligence, woodward reports, never got over his questions about whether the russians had sthuomething on th president. Coates continued to harbor the secret belief, one had that grown rather than lessened, that putin had something on trump. There was no proof, period, but coates doubts continued, never fully dissipating. How else to explain the president s behavior. Coates could see no other explanation. Coates, who is obviously a private citizen now, could talk about this more if he wanted to. A lot more audio, abby, including the president talking about race. Bob woodward had a conversation with him, i think his two days after the president had the protesters cleared out from the white house. He walked across to the church and held up the bible. Bob woodward asked him questions about race and systemic racism. Liste listen. But let me ask you this. I mean, we share one thing in common. Were white, privileged, who my father was a lawyer and a judge in illinois and we know what your dad did. Do you have any sense that that privilege has isolated and put you in a cave, to a certain extent, as it put me, and i think lots of white, privileged people in a cave, and that we have to work our way out of it to understand the anger and the pain, particularly black people feel in this country . Do you no youve really drank the koolaid, didnt you . Listen to you wow no, i dont feel that at all mocking, abby. Literally scoffing at the notion that somehow there is systemic racism. And the timing of this so important. This is right at the very beginning of all of the protests and sort of this national awakening. To hear the president closing his ears to it at that point is interesting. Yeah, not even a second of thought was given to even considering the idea that black americans have a different experience than he might have had, as a wealthy white man in this country. And thats not really a surprise, when you look at the president s actions and his words over the last several months, that is what he believes. And you know, when i hear things like that, i think back to an old clip, an old interview that trump did back in the 80s, in which he talked about how he believed that it was better for you in the United States of america to be a black person applying for a job than a white person applying for a job. And that black people, in his view, had advantages in the workforce, in terms of applying for jobs and getting jobs. That is not even remotely close to the truth today. It wasnt the truth back in the late 80s when he said it. And even if he didnt see all the studies that have borne this out, the pay disparity that exists, he doesnt have any interest in even asking black people what their lives are like. And i think thats what hes basically saying in this clip, is that he doesnt belief that any of this is true and he doesnt care to know. Abby phillip, miles taylor, thank you both very much for helping us understand what were hearing in the president s own words. Now to this other major story. The wildfires on the west coast. They have turned the sky in Northern California this eerie orange, everywhere, even where you cant see flames, its an orange sky. We have an update on the conditions making it so hard for the firefighters. Were all finding ways to keep moving. But how do we make sure the direction were headed is forward . At fidelity, youll get the planning and advice to prepare you for the future, without sacrificing the things that are important to you today. 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Tide pods childguard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. To close, twist until it clicks. Tide pods childguard packaging. Hey allergy muddlers. Achoo . Do your sneezes turn heads . Try zyrtec. It starts working hard at hour one. And works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Zyrtec muddle no more. All right, breaking overnight. Wildfires burning out of control along the west coast have now killed at least seven people. And san francisco, just remarkable pictures. The sky lit up orange as fires blazed on the hill. We have video showing the terrifying scene as one woman drove through the fire. I want to get right to meteorologist chad myers with the forecast. Chad, these pictures are remarkable. They really are. And those pictures you showed of the fire that looked like the Golden Gate Bridge, that was lake oroville, further north. This is what the Golden Gate Bridge looblked like, like a constant sunset all day long. It was always orange, all day long. It was the weirdest thing. This weather is brought to you by ckay, where your love story s always the most important of all. Today a little bit better than yesterday. No critical areas, but still the evident e relatived risk because theres so many fires alone. You dont have enough firefighters to fight this. A lot of smoke and haze out there. Its going to be that way for a couple more days. The smoke is blowing offshore for most of the day yesterday, but by time we get into the weekend, its going to go the other direction. Watch where this smoke goes. In fact, youll get some hazy sunsets over bismarck, minneapolis, maybe towards chicago by monday and tuesday of next week. So here it is. 100 large, active fires over to the u. S. , the cold air all the way down to Oklahoma City and albuquerque, but still pretty warm out west, john. Watching that very carefully. What theyre going through there is truly historic. Vice president Pence Insists he knows nothing he insisted he knew nothing about the controversial conspiracy theories behind qanon, so why is he going to a fundraiser hosted by qanon supporters . Thats next. After being a part of millions of love stories, at kay, we believe that nothing should get in the way of love. Shop your way, instore or online. Kay jewelers. Love is unstoppable. A lot goes through your mind. With fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. Thats the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. And tailored recommendations. Tempurpedics mission truly transformative sleep. So, no more tossing and turning. Because only tempurpedics proprietary material adapts and responds to your body so you get deep, uninterrupted sleep. Take advantage of our best offer of the year, with savings up to 500. The president says they love america, so how do those beliefs embody a love of america . Well, you said the president seemed to embrace it. I didnt hear that. He said, they love america, mr. Vice president. I dont know anything i heard the president talk about he appreciates people who support him. Do you believe they love america . Do you believe they love america . I dont know anything about that Conspiracy Theory. Well, hes had weeks to learn, because that interview was three weeks ago. So clearly, the Vice President knows about qanon now. And developing overnight, cnn has learned that Vice President pence is expected to attend a fundraiser in montana next week, hosted by this man, Michael Boreland and his wife, who will both express support for the qanon conspiracy theories on social media. The fbi has labeled qanon a potential domestic terror threat. Abby phillip back with us. The Vice President going to their house. Yeah, john. It appears that the white house has no plans to scrap this, at least for now. They havent responded to these questions about this fundraiser. But this couple appears to have reiterated some of these qanon conspiracy theories online. And like many of these people who are believers of this idea, the idea is that there is some kind of deep state within the government that is protecting a cabal of leftist pedophiles. And as you noted, Vice President mike pence has said that the white house does not entertain conspiracy theories, but there appears to be no efforts to pull him out of this fundraiser or address this issue. And this is one of several in the last several weeks. There is a republican congressional candidate, Marjory Taylor green, who is also a qanon believer, who was invited to the president s speech on the white house lawn for the Republican National convention. When this was brought to the white houses attention, there was no attempt to distance themselves. White house officials and Campaign Officials have appeared in public with her. So its just one of many examples of this Conspiracy Theory seeming to permeate into the ranks of the republican party. And now the president s campaign. Maybe they should talk to that North Carolina guy whos doing time because he fell for one of the qanon conspiracy theories and showed up to a pizza parlor with a gun and now says he was completely misled. Maybe they could Just Research some of that. Abby, thanks. Sorry to make you sit there while i opine. The nfl season kicking off tonight in kansas city with fans in the stands. Andy scholes has more in the bleacher report. Hows this going to work, andy . Reporter well, well wait and see, alisyn. This is a day we werent sure we were going to get to with the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, but the chiefs and texans set to kick off the nfl season tonight here in kansas city and fans will be allowed inside Arrowhead Stadium. The chiefs, one of two teams on Opening Weekend along with the jaguars that will have fans in the stands. Theyll allow about 17,000 into arrowhead tonight. The normal capacity is about 76,000. Fans will be required to wear masks unless theyre eating or drinking, theyll have to sit in groups of four or six. Its certainly going to look much different. This is the first nfl game since the super bowl and the league is planning many social justice initiatives this season. The chiefs and texans expected to do a show of unity together tonight. Before all of the games, the nfl is planning on playing lift every voice and sing, which is considered the black national anthem. Players will also be wearing decals on their helmets to honor victims of systemic racism and police brutality. The message is to end racism and it takes all of us will be on some of those helmets and will be painted in the end zones around the league this week. Alisyn, its a gloomy day here in kansas city, raining all day. Its expected to rain for most of the night, as well, but should be an exciting night for these chiefs fans. Theyll unveil their first ever super bowl championship banner. And Arrowhead Stadium usually one of the loudest stadiums in the nfl. Well see how loud those 17,000 fans will be tonight. Thank you very much for the preview. There are new audio clips of President Trump essentially admitting the down plaplaying t coronavirus pandemic. We have all of the sound to play for you. groans hmph. food grunting menacingly when the food you love doesnt love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. Tum tumtum tum tums with tums smoothies. That life of the party look walk it off look one more mile look reply all look own your look. With fewer lines. Theres only one botox® cosmetic. Its the only one. Fda approved. To temporarily make frown lines. Crows feet. And forehead lines. Look better. The effects of botox® cosmetic, may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. 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