A lot of breaking news, tonight. John berman here, in for anderson. We have more, new reporting on this russian interference in the election, that dovetails, almost perfectly, with President Trumps own efforts to sow distrust in mailin voting. Yeah. 2016 is calling, asking for its alleged collusion back. First, though. Another reason to be worried. Very, very worried that the Public Health officials we all count on for potentially lifeordeath information in a pandemic, are facing growing pressure from the president to deliver, politically, for him. Breaking cnn reporting with government officials and experts now outlining what they see as a fullon rush to deliver a Silver Bullet to end the crisis, and rescue the president s reelection bid. Now, weve seen bits and pieces of it, for months. Whether its pressure, from the top, to approve unproven drugs, like hydroxychloroquine. Or the president openly, and without evidence, accusing the fda of deliberately delaying a vaccine until after the election. So, its not like some of this hasnt been plain to see, already. But tonights reporting pulls it all together, and draws on inside sourcing to capture the full scope of this injection of politics into the realm of Public Health. And this effort to deliver or, perhaps only seem to deliver, the positive lives alongside Something Else the president has been drawn to, from the beginning. Downplaying or denying the negative. The words and phrases have changed, as one death became a thousand, then 100,000. Now, an estimated 200,000 or more by the end of the month. Thats according to a brand new forecast by the cdc. The president has said and done whatever he can to gaslight the public on the single biggest threat facing the country and the world. Its at the point, now, that he is even latching on to bogus notions that most covid deaths arent, really, covid deaths. By the way, i saw a statistic come out the other day. Talking about only 6 of the people actually died from covid. Which is very interest well, they had comorbidities. But the covid might, ultimately, have been the key morbidity to hit them. But its an interesting statistic. Mr. President , you still having fun . So, before we go any further, that notion, which is circulating widely on social media and among the president s supporters, is false. Dr. Anthony fauci. Remember him . Americas longestserving and most highly regarded Public Health official, the one on the president s own task force . He has debunked it. And yesterday, the cdcs own head of mortality statistics put out a detailed statement backing dr. Fauci up. Among all the details, here is the bottom line. Quote. The underlying cause of death, in this case, covid, is the condition that began the chain of events that ultimately led to the persons death. Thats no matter what other conditions the patient had. So, again, what the president and his supporters are spreading is false. Its a lie. And the idea that, at this late date, this is taking up even one iota of bandwidth is simply nuts. Not only does it divert time and energy from the wholeofgovernment effort the white house likes to tout, it also insults each and every Family Member who could not hold a loved ones hand, comfort them, or simply look into their eyes one last time. Thats how they know their father or wife or child actually died of covid. And to say otherwise is grotesque. Then again, the president isnt exactly new to saying such things. A month ago, today, the president said this. I think its under control. How . A thousand americans are dying a day. They are dying. Thats true. And you have it is what it is. It is what it is. So when he said that, 156,082 americans had died. Tonight, with 30,000 more lives lost 30,000 in just four weeks the president , now, seems to be saying it is not what it is. More, now, on the breaking news from cnns kaitlan collins, at the white house. Kaitlan, what are you learning about the kind of pressure that President Trump is putting on administration Health Officials . Its high. There is a lot of pressure, coming from the president , to achieve, not just a vaccine but, some kind of viable treatment for coronavirus. And of course, what he wants, ultimately, with that, is to be able to signal to voters, before november 3rd, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, here. And of course, this is what everyone wants. Everyone wants a vaccine or some kind of treatment for this. But the reason the president is increasing the pressure, so much, on the officials who work in this administration, not just political appointees, but career officials, career scientists, as well, is because he wants to have some kind of signal because he thinks it will help him before the election. And, right now, the focus of that pressure from the president , thats come into sharp view, is the fda and fda commissioner, dr. Steven hahn. Because, of course, thats the point weve gotten. They are hoping for a vaccine and of course, the fda is at the center of that. A vaccine takes time. Something President Trump doesnt have a lot of before election day. Well, here is a new thing the president has learned about and has focused on during this pandemic. And thats an emergencyuse authorization. And thats what weve seen happen with the fda over the summer when it came to hydroxychloroquine. Which, of course, we know how much the president pushed that. He pushed the fda, along with aides, like peter navarro, to approve that emergencyuse authorization because they believed it could help. Of course, we saw how that ended, john. They ended up reversing that approval because the data found that it did not have any benefit in that, and so the fda said it needed to be studied more. Their second one was on convalescent plasma. And we watched that play out in public view. Where officials are telling us they did not think the fda was moving quickly enough on that. And we saw the botched announcement, where you later had the fda commissioner had to walk back his statement because medical experts were incredibly critical of him. And said basically, he had over compani overstated the lifesaving benefits of it. We know an eua for a vaccine is on the table. Maybe, potentially for frontline workers, elderly people, just on a limited basis. But the concern, of course, is if they go forward with that before theres a consensus that its ready. People believe theyve seen politics have its play in hand with these other euas. They fear it could be that way with a vaccine. Though, we should note, commissioner hahn and other officials have said they are basing these decisions on data, not on politics. You just mentioned, kaitlan, concern in the Scientific Community about fda commissioner steven hahn and how hes handled things. But i understand in this new reporting, theres also concern, i guess of a different kind, within the administration about dr. Hahn. Can you tell us about that . Yeah. And it depends who you are looking at. There are career scientists at the fda who have not been on board with everything dr. Hahn has said, including what he said about convalescent plasma. But also, west wing officials that were not happy he apologized for what he said. They said he didnt clear that statement with the west wing beforehand. They did not think he had anything really to apologize for. So west wing aides did not think that was something he should have done. So basically, hes been in this zone where he doesnt want to hurt or damage his reputation with the career officials at fda. But also, he doesnt want to be on the wrong end of the white house. And at times, you know, hes found himself like that, just in the last week. Where weve seen fda, they had to walk back that statement. He had to apologize. He fired and removed a top political appointee that the white house had put at the fda from her role as chief spokesperson. So now, she just works there but doesnt have a clearly defined role. So now, we are seeing how much pressure you are seeing not only on the commissioner of the fda but also, weve been described this Work Environment thats like a Pressure Cooker at the fda because, of course, they want this to go right. They want it to go well. But they, also, are on the receiving end of this pressure from President Trump and top west wing officials who want them to speed it up. And theyve got to respond to accusations like these from people like the president saying they believe career scientists at the fda are deliberately delaying progress here because the president thinks they want to be able to hurt his election chances. What a mess. And these are the people charged with saving our lives. I want to bring in cnn chief medical correspondent, sanjay gupta. Also, katherine sebelius. Clearly, this is not how things are supposed to work. So i wonder, as someone who ran health and human services, what kind of impact does pressure from the president of the United States, like this, have . Well, i, fortunately, didnt have to live with this kind of pressure or reach in, from the white house. We had a president , at the time, and a Vice President , who believed in science. And president obama and Vice President biden made it very clear that, while we wanted to keep americans safe and secure, the only way to do that is build public trust and let the scientists tell the people what they knew and what they didnt know. They did this in both the h1n1 outbreak and mass Vaccination Campaign. And they did it, again, during ebola. Both, very scary situations. But it was led by the publicHealth Officials and by the scientists. This is a total mess. What kaitlan talked about, within the fda, has an additional chapter. Two days ago, National Institutes of health, again, under the umbrella of hhs, put out a statement about convalescent plasma. Saying they think it needs to be studied more. They, also, agree that it is not ready for prime time. That there need to be Clinical Trials run, in an objective fashion, before it is widely recommended for treatment. So not only did the fda walk back its statement, but you have another, sort of, brother agency. And thats very, very unusual, i think, to have, if you will, contradictory statements coming out. But its a mess, and we need the public to be able to trust that, when a vaccine is safe and efficacious and ready to roll, that they will step up and get the vaccine. And nothing that this administration is doing, discounting covid deaths, you know, having political reach into agencies that, then, have to walk back the statements. Nothing will give the public any confidence that when announcement is made, we have a good vaccine. One of the key ingredients to Public Health may be the key ingredient to Public Health is public trust. Sanjay, along those lines, what happens to the science . What happens to the research, if scientists start to cut corners because they are feeling political pressure . Well, i mean, i think you you you do lose that. You do have that erosion of trust, which i think affects, you know, so many things, going forward. You know, theres going to be lots of different developments, progress, that we want to make with regard to covid. And if you lose that trust, and some of that trust has already been eroded, candidly, it makes it much harder to get these things done. And when it comes to this vaccine, obviously, you know, when you cut corners, the concern is that the vaccine may not be as safe or as effective as youd want. I mean, those those are the criteria. Now, when when you think about these these applying the Scientific Method to this, i think, oftentimes, john, people think about this like math. Two plus two equals four. Just, its very, very clear. There is always some degree of subjectivity to this. What is going to be acceptable . How efficacious does it have to be to actually warrant an authorization or approval, ultimately . Some of these things are objective decisions that get made, usually in conjunction with other scientists. But there is a subjectivity in this entire process. Kaitlan, you also have some new reporting on how the president views any efforts to slow down the approval that he, so clearly, wants. So what can you tell us about that . Basically, he thinks that its just a political play. That its actually not based on science. And thats how hes viewed so many things. Hydroxychloroquine is one of the clearest examples. But also, with convalescent plasma where it doesnt seem like they know for sure, given what nih said since then about it, it needs to be studied more. Were actually told the nih director and dr. Fauci were not on board with the decision. Now, someone pointed out its not up to them, to nih or dr. Fauci to make that decision. Thats a decision that rests with the commissioner and the fda. So they pushed back. Saying we are not making these decisions based on politics. But you really do see just how immense that pressure is because they already feel that pressure. The pandemic is sweeping the nation. Killing, you nknow, over six figures in americans. But also, the president , himself, whos got his eye on the calendar and november 3rd. So what we heard as we were reporting this out with my colleague, kevin, is that there was a concern, basically, that dr. Hahn could bend to the pressure of the white house and of the west wing, which has been obvious. Theyre not even really trying to hide that pressure. They argue its for different reasons. But its been obvious. And so, commissioner hahn has said, in multiple statements, he will not bend to pressure. He will make a decision, based off of that. But, you know, when you are in the west wing on a regular basis, meeting with the president , meeting with the Vice President , talking about this, you certainly feel that pressure. Not just while youre at the fda but even when you are here at the white house. So that is why so many people have talked about what they are feeling from people at the white house. Of course, starting with the president. So, secretary sebelius, one of the things about vaccines is that, among some parts of the community, theres already an inherent distrust. There are people who are reluctant to take it, already. Obviously, when a Coronavirus Vaccine becomes available, it will be imperative that people feel comfortable taking it. So what does all this do to that level of comfort that people are going to need . Well, its back to the issue of of trust. Do i believe this is some sort of political ploy being jammed out the door . What we know or what we think we know is that the vaccine is likely to require two doses. More complicated than most vaccines that people get. Only shingles, in my knowledge, right now, requires that two doses. And thats difficult for people to do. They dont follow up. But, as you say, a portion of the population, understandably, has real reservations about being used as experiments in science. We had a big Vaccination Campaign in the gerald ford reelection era that went very wrong. More people got the syndrome than got the flu that they were na vaccinating against. So we know that there can be issues and problems. What we need to be able to assure the American Public is that this is being done scientifically. That we know, from widespread Clinical Trials, and theyre in phase three. Phase three is you actually vaccinate a lot of people, with a lot of different, you know, body types and underlying conditions and ages. And you need to see that its safe and effective with all the different groups. And then, youre able to give that information to the public. And say weve tested it. We tried it. We believe this is how were best going to fight the virus. And encourage people, as much as possible, to step up and be willing to be vaccinated, vaccinate their kids, vaccinate their parents. Because if that doesnt happen, we will continue to see this virus raging in our country, and well see deaths continuing at the rate that they are. Sanjay, very quickly, one of the things that this article reporting highlights is this panel of scientists and researchers that are going to review the data that is available. And theres actually like a date circled on the calendar, apparently, inside the administration, of october 22nd, when that review will happen. What do we know about the power this panel will have, and what influence they might be subject to . Well, they dont really have any any power. You know, i mean, they they, ultimately, are going to be the first to look at this data. Theyre not the ones who are going to, you know, submit foran eua. They are going to, then, basically, say, yeah, we think this is good to go. Send it over to the fda. Fda is still the one fda is still the organization that decide on this. But this is an influential panel. Its usually people who are made up of scientists, people looking at the epidemiology of a particular area. So, you know, its a very important, you know, group of people and that will be a very important date. I do hope that they share this data with the broad public. I mean, id like to look at the data. I know a lot of other people would as well. Id like you to look at the data. Id feel much more comfortable if you got a good look at this data and other scientists as well. Thank you all for being with us. Next, some of what joe biden said after speaking with jacob blake during his visit to wisconsin. Blake family attorney, benjamin crump, joins us. And later, more breaking news on Kremlin Campaign interference that looks and sounds a lot like a central focus of President Trumps campaign. 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. Actually, youre really thahelping actors. Ing restaurants right now. Uh, no. 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