Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Poppy Harlow And Jim

Action and tonight a Democratic National Convention Like you have never seen before, the party looking to try to ramp up support with virtual speeches, and with no crowds in milwaukee. This as a new poll out this morning trump cnn shows that bidens lead is tightening. Next hour, the president heads for Campaign Events in minnesota and wisconsin, were watching for any comments ahead of that. Lets begin at the white house with john harwood. John, there are many headlines. I do think that the cnn poll is really interesting that you now have the president within four points of joe biden. It has narrowed and right in line with the margin of error. Do we know why . Reporter not clear why. Other polls have shown a somewhat larger biden lead. If you average all the polls together we show that joe bidens got a lead of roughly eight points in the polling aggregates. But joe bidens got a consistent lead and thats one of the reasons why weve got this battle over mailin balloting, and the integrity of the Postal Service that nancy pelosi is trying to raise attention on and the president of the United States again this morning was on fox friends casting doubt on mailin balloting and casting doubt on the integrity of the Postal Service itself. Take a listen. This has been one of the disasters of the world, the way its been run. Its been run horribly, and were going to make it good. Now, what am i supposed to do . Let it continue to run badly . So if you fix it they say oh, hes tampering with the election. No, were not tampering. Reporter what the president was doing was justifying those service cuts that his postmaster general has been implementing that nancy pelosi and the House Democrats are trying to stop. The president did say he was open to other methods, expanding other methods of inperson voegt, movoeg voting, more polling locations. This is where the Republican Party is opposing early voting, expanded opening hours. The reason is simple, over the last number of years as the countrys changed culturally and democrat graphically Public Opinion and voting has moved to the democrats and the response for republicans is curtail measures to make it easier to vote because the votes are going against them more often than not, and thats what President Trump is trying to do with mailin balloting. To connect the dots here on a number of policy moves over the course of years, john harwood, thanks very much. Lets get to capitol hill and the democrats plans to take on the changes at the post office. Cnn Congressional Correspondent sundlun safati joins us. What are they going to do exa exactly and when . Reporter the House Democrats will be hopping on a Conference Call together to sort out the details of the return early from summer recess and Speaker Pelosi over the weekend really laying out the stakes. Lives, livelihood and the life of our american democracy are under threat from the president , im calling on the house to return to session later this week to vote on oversight and Reform Committee chairwoman maloneys delivering for america act which prohibits the Postal Service from implementing changes to operations or level of service it had in place on january 1, 2020. Most likely we are told according to sources they will move to a vote on that bill in the house in a very rare saturday session. Now, this is all part of a very ramped up, very new, aggressive approach we are seeing House Democrats take this week including the House Oversight committee calling for an Emergency Committee hearing, one week from the day on monday of next week. Theyve called for the postmaster general, they have called for the chairman of the postal board to come in to testify on capitol hill about all these problems. Additionally just this morning, two democrats in the House Judiciary Committee are calling on the fbi to look into whether any crimes were committed by the postmaster general and others in charge, amid all of these policy changes, so certainly jim and poppy, tons of movement for House Democrats over here on capitol hill, especially when they return early from summer recess and underscores how theyre trying to ramp up their aggressive approach in taking this on. Sundlen, before you go, how notable the person they will call, dejoy, next to him or calling for the head of the board of governors here on all of this to talk, and its notable is it not the board of governors republicans and democratic governors have both been saying we need 25 billion to shore up the Postal Service to actually handle mailin voting correctly, right . Reporter its absolutely right, poppy, why the pressure increases on potentially the testimony on monday, why you have democrats certainly putting much more importance on that hearing, calling it an Emergency Committee hearing, wanting to see these two not only the postmaster general but the chairman of the board there answering questions in front of cameras as so many americans, voters and people across the country are worried about the changes at the post office. For sure. Sundlen, thanks very much. Good to see you. As students return to university across the country, look at this video. Lets roll it. This shows a packed offcampus party near the university of north georgia. You dont see many people wearing masks, although its hard to see their faces, i get it, its dark. But face coverings we know are not mandatory in georgia. And you wonder how common this scene is at college campuses. Cnns nick valencia is in atlanta. What is the school saying about the party, and to our knowledge, is this an isolated incident or something youre seeing more of . Reporter were starting to see more videos emerge online, jim and poppy. University of north georgia in delonaga, georgia, officially starting classes today but the partying started over the weekend, the shocking images youre seeing as poppy mentioned people not social distancing, not wearing masks. There is no current mask mandate in the state of georgia but the university replying to these, this party they saw over the weekend saying they are disappointed and that everyone has an individual responsibility to stop the spread of the virus. Look, guys, this Party Happening as the sevenday moving average of new cases in the state of georgia is trending upwards, hovering around 3,000 new cases. The moving average of deaths over the last seven days trending upwards here in georgia and one School District in particular thats facing a lot of challenges, Cherokee County School District about an hour north of metro atlanta, where i spoke to one parent this morning who says although one of her children has been entered into the Digital Learning program, her fourth grader is being forced to attend facetoface, putting her child she says in danger. My daughter is very concerned. Shes already concerned about why mom has to get up and go out of the house just to go to work every day. Being in a new district and already having to deal with, you know, learning new people but also wondering whats going to happen once she gets in the classroom with this virus. Reporter the School District has repeatedly declined our request for an interview, but last week, i spoke to a teacher and parent who says that people in the district can be divided into believers and nonbelievers. It really is saying something that here we are six months, guy, into the pandemic and theres still people who dont believe this is a real thing. Jim, poppy . A lot of disinformation out here and disinformation works, sadly. Nick valencia, thanks very much. Joining me is dr. Meghan rami, emergency physician and researcher and associate professor of emergency medicine at brown university. Doctor, great to have you on. Youve written the u. S. Has not shown the will power to control the virus. When you look at the videos of college kids together and it appears at least anecdotally thats not an isolated event, what are you thinking when that happens and what does that mean as school continues in the fall . So we have two separate things here. We have the colleges which are going back to school and then weve got the elementary, middle and high schools. The colleges, it is just not paying attention to human psychology, if you think youre going to be able to put those kids back together and not have them go and party. Any of us who were young adults know what its like to be in your late teens and early 20s. Its up to those colleges to make it easy for those kids to do the right thing, to do regular testing, have mask mandates, have masks easily available, and if needed, to shut down those campuses. So our younger kids for our high School Students, middle School Students and elementary School Students thats on us as parents and on teachers. If the community rates of covid are too high, it is simply not safe to reopen those kids schools, and listen, im a parent. I want my kids to be back in school, but if i were living in georgia, where the rates are as high as they are, again, well over 300 per 100,000, i would be unlikely to be sending my kids back to physical school. Now the flipside is communities with high rates, not safe but dr. Fauci and others have said that if the community has the outbreak under control, it can be safe with mitigation. I understand you decided to send your own kids back to school. Is it based on that measure and how should parents around the country look at that . My community has it under control, should my kids be able to go back to school . Yes, jim, its a really difficult question, and there are no clear black and white right answers, but in general, yes, if ones community has covid under control, so under about 100 cases per 100,000 or under a 5 positivity, and theres mandatory masking in schools, and there are protocols for testing symptomatic kids or teachers and better yet protocols for testing the asymptomatic kids, because we know that about 40 of kids are asymptomatic, and your family is not super high risk, if all those things are in place, then it may make sense to send your children back to school, and thats the position that im in. Im lucky to be in one of the few communities in the United States right now where i think it is safe to send my kids back to school. So why isnt that happening nationally . I mean, you just cited what are the cdc guidelines, right, Positivity Rate under 5 , 100 per 100,000. These are ought thet there. Why isnt it happening around the country. Folks look at the numbers. We meet the standards, we dont. Why isnt that happening around the country . Same reason we dont have a mask mandate around the country, same reason we heard yesterday that a student went back to school in oklahoma despite a positive test and supposed to be on quarn teeantine. The kid was asymptomatic and the parents thought it was okay for him to come back. Were not consistent with Public Health messaging and individual state and federal level we lack National Strategy and consistent messaging. Its amazing this far in. The guidelines are out there. Doctor, always good to have you on and good luck to you and your family. Thank you, jim. Still to come this hour, at least half a dozen states say they are looking at legal action now to stop the Trump Administration from slowing mail service in the runup to the election. The North Carolina attorney general will join us next, right in the middle of it. Also the pressure is on to rally support as the Democratic National Convention Kicks off tonight, and a new cnn poll out this morning shows the race is getting tighter. Also california facing multiple crises, coronavirus, recordbreaking heat and wildfires. Well have a live update from there. Night. T, try pure zzzs all unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. And longer. Zzzquil pure zzzs all night. Fall asleep. Stay asleep. Welcome back. Several states say theyre considering legal action against the Trump Administration over new operational changes taking place inside the u. S. Postal service. North carolina one of those states considering such action. Joining me is the states attorney general, josh stein. Mr. Stein, thanks so much for taking the time this morning. Jim, pleasure to be with you. So first lets begin on the lawsuit. Are you going to join forces with other attorney generals and sue the administration . Have you decided . We are exploring our legal options. A number of states share the concerns. The Postal Service is the definition of an essential service. Its a lifeline to carolina, Small Businesses depend on it. In an era of pandemic its a way for peoples voice to be heard in a selection by voting so we will protect the Postal Service this cycle. This morning, the president just a few minutes ago said this is just about making the Postal Service more efficient. Do you believe him or do you suspect the president s trying to restrict mailin voting because he sees political advantage . The president last week admitted that he did not want to provide funding for the Postal Service because he wanted to make it harder for people to vote absentee. Those were the words he spoke out loud. You combine that with his political appointee donor postmaster general taking a series of actions, all of which have the effect of slowing down mail delivery. This is the cause of our grave concern. I want to show you what some North Carolina voters received in the mail this past week, which i know youre aware of. Its an absentee ballot request form that came from the trump campaign, i believe we have an image of it and has the president s face on there, Trump Victory campaign slogan. What is this exactly . Its a shame. Its a shame. Its hypocrisy. Hes making false and unfounded assertions that theres widespread fraud, when theres no evidence. Hes making a false distinction between mailin voting and absentee voting, when they are the same thing. His own legal filings in federal court admit they are the same thing. In North Carolina, it is actually called no excuse absentee voting. Anyone who wants to vote by mail can do it. All you have to do is put in your request, and if you put in your request today, in North Carolina, were the first state in the country, 18 days from now, the ballot will be mailed to you and you can have your vote counted or put into the box in midseptember. So much of what the president does is about disinformation. Its about raising doubts, et cetera. You have an important job there, as the attorney general. Is it working in North Carolina . Is it confusing voters . Is reducing interest in mailin voting . It has not reduced interest. Mailin vote requests are up eight or ninefold from where we were four years ago and thats obviously driven by the pandemic. But the damage hes doing is really to the fabric of our democracy. The way our system works is we have peaceful transfer of power between parties, and have done so successfully since our founding, because people have faith that the final result reflects the will of our voters, and hes trying to damage that belief and its incredibly harmful. And as you say, its often in his words themselves. So congress, nancy pelosi says shes going to Bring Congress back saturday to take urgent action. What does congress have to do to fix this problem, or to prevent really a further trimming of the post office ability to handle that increased demand . What do you need from congress now . Congress plays a critical role. They provide oversight so they can make sure that its not being mismanaged and they provide funding, and i urge them to do both of those things. Theres a role for state legislatures. They need to review their laws to make sure that if somebody postmarks their mailin ballot by election day and gets there days afterwards, that vote still counts, because a lot of states the law says it has to have arrived on election day, even if you mailed it in a week earlier, and then ultimately, though, jim, its the voters. The voters have to have confidence and know their vote will count. They just have to participate. In North Carolina its incredibly easy. You can vote on election day safely. Theyll have all kinds of protective measures in place. 17 days of early voting, including two weekends, and if you want to vote by mail for any reason, you can do that. Your ballot will be mailed to you in 19 days, if you send in your request and you can put it in the post and track it through the state boards website to make sure it got there or hand deliver it to the county board of elections any time before election day. So people need to know, they can vote. Their vote will count and it will reflect the will. Im glad you said that. Were going to be doing that as often as we can, get the information. If youre North Carolina, listen to what the man says. You have multiple ways to vote. Dont