Transcripts For CNNW CNN Special Report 20200927 : vimarsana

Your off. All right. The crises he has faced. We will defeat the virus and emerge stronger than ever before. Reporter hear from the people who were there. I was in the early meetings in the oval office. Reporter in the rooms where it happened. Why does he seem to like putin . Reporter this is a cnn special report. Fight for the white house Donald Trumps presidency. Together we will crush the virus. [ applause ] reporter against the backdrop of a Global Pandemic President Trump was making his case for a second term. And from the looks of it, no real concerns about an extremely contagious and deadly virus. What the white house was trying to do was say look, we believe that covid is gone. You saw donald trump try to sort of put lipstick on a pig last night. We will defeat the pandemic. But there may have been an accidental clue this was not the whole story. Thanks to advances, we have pioneered the fatality rate. Reporter pioneered the fatality rate . In fact, President Trump and his administration have been pioneers of a mishandled response and flawed leadership. From the very beginning. New details on the deadly coronavirus outbreak in china and spreading across the globe. Reporter as early as january President Trump was warned about the Novel Coronavirus according to author bob woodward. In a january 28 briefing, obrien told President Trump covid19 would be the, quote, Biggest National Security Threat of his presidency. President trump says he does not remember that briefing. There were also briefings with other intelligence and Public Health officials. Washington post white house reporting and cnn contributor josh dawsey. Hhs secretary alex azar called to brief the president and they talked about it briefly and the president soon moved the conversation to vaping. And azar later said to others that he was quite frustrated. I was in the early meetings in the oval office. Reporter former white house counselor kellyanne conway, however, tells a different story. He did take it seriously. He banned travel from china in january. Nobody thought we should do it. Zero cases. Zero deaths. Reporter it was not a full ban on travel from china. Tens of thousands of people were allowed to travel to the u. S. Even after it was ordered. Perhaps more importantly, President Trump was publicly dismissing the threat. With cdc efforts to come up with a test botched and no comprehensive effort to identify and isolate the virus nationwide. Still the president would continue to point to partial travel bans to argue that he was on the case. Cnns White House Correspondent kaitlan collins. If you talk to experts, by the time the president put those in place the virus was already circulating inside the United States. Reporter all of this was accompanied by a nearly daily barrage of president ial lies. We have it totally under control. Its one person. Coming in from china. We think we have it very well under control. The consensus among his own Health Experts was that we needed to shift to a strategy of trying to limit the number of illnesses and deaths instead of just trying block it from entering the United States. Reporter according to New York Times Investigative Reporter eric lip ton. Trump was unwilling to accept that advice. This has a fatality rate of 2 and 3 . We dont know exactly. Based on the numbers so far. And the flu is higher than that. It turns out privately weeks earlier trump was saying something very different. You just breathe the air and thats how it is passed, and so thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. It is also more deadly than your you know, even your strenuous flus. Trump says he down played the virus to not panic americans, something he continued to do into early march. It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away. A message at odds with Health Experts. Cases kept increasing and increasing. A the coronavirus death toll that jumped again today. Finally, on march 11th, the day tom hanks and his wife rita wilson, game the first highprofile to test positive and the day nba shut down the season, trump set out to assure the nation. My fellow americans. The president was uncomfortable heading into it. New york times White House Correspondent and cnn political analyst maggie haberman. The president looked unfamiliar with the material as he was reading it. It contained at least three errors. That speech was probably the single most important moment in the u. S. Response to the coronavirus, but for all of the wrong reasons. Cnns abby phillip. It really highlighted that the administration was not prepared to deal with the crisis. It was an historic day on wall street. The next day the New York Stock Exchange halted trading for 15 minutes after the s p 500 fell 7 . The white house scrambled to try to fix the errors about travel bans and insurance coverage. Then, one day later today i am officially declaring a national emergency. The country had lost two months really to ramp up testing and production of key supplies such as ppe and ventilators. He had it at his fingertips. President trump says historian could have nationalized the response and invoked the defense production act to immediately force companies to manufacture what was needed. He had an opportunity with covid19 to use the enormous power of the presidency in a moment of national crisis. Governors were left to fend for their states. It was just mass pandemonium. Maryland republican governor, larry hogan. It was a 50state strategy, some states doing better than other. Hogan secretly sourced half a million tests for his state from south korea. I asked the president about that at a briefing we had. Could have saved a lot of money but thats okay. Go to south korea for testing kits . I dont think he needed to go to south korea. He needed to get knowledge would have been helpful. He had been assuring testing was available in the United States. The question was, why if thats true is the governor of maryland having to go to another country. Testing was lagging far behind despite the president s spin. Anybody that wants a test can get a test, and thats the bottom line. That was a lie. Experts agree one of the singular reasons we still have so many cases and so many deaths is because the u. S. Lagged in its ability to identify the virus through testing and isolate it. I said earlier today that i hope we can do this by easter. Trump then tried to pressure governors to open up their states and their economies. I really do believe a lot of the governors should be opening up states. What mistakes do you think have been made by the president . Allowing some of the governors to make decisions and mayors to make decisions about whether and when to lockdown and how the lockdown also made this more fraught. It was not a health strategy. It was a political strategy, allowing the white house to blame the governors no matter what and accept zero responsibility. This while the president also sought to undermine the nations leading Infectious Disease expert, dr. Anthony fauci, for telling the truth, including acknowledging the fact that the president s delay in action cost lives. Obviously you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously no one is going to deny that. The president tried to control the message, minimizing the risk. Young people are almost immune to this disease. Pushing unproven, potentially dangerous drugs to treat covid19 such as hydroxychloroquine. What do you have to lose . Ill say it again, what do you have to lose . Take it. Or this jawdropping moment. I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way that we can do Something Like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning . The president s briefings ended for a while and he let the experts take the lead. He pushed guidelines on social distancing and wearing a mask, and he finally wore a mask himself. The Trump Administration did eventually invoke the dpa for key supplies such as testing swab. Progress has been made when it comes to treatment and the Trump Administration is optimistic about developing a vaccine. Dr. Collins that spent decades along dr. Fauci has said he has never seen vaccines come together as quickly as they are. But the facts sadly speak for themselves. The u. S. , with less than 5 of the worlds population, has a much higher case count and death count than the rest of the western world, the worst response of any western wealthy nation according to this data, and it is not even close. And recently the president seems to be back to undermining efforts to save lives, whether it is Holding Events with seemingly no social distancing or required mask wearing or even mocking joe biden for wearing a mask, again. Did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him . We wanted to ask President Trump about all of this and more, but he turned down repeated requests for an interview. He views this virus as standing in the way of him being reelected. Covid19 was not of his making, but covid19 was his opportunity to be a great president. He looked at covid19 and backed away, not wanting to take a chance. The quality donald trump values perhaps the most, that when we come back. Im a physician, but my dream is to help young women feel empowered. Id like to have online courses teaching them body positivity and selfconfidence. But when covid hit, i needed a Financial Plan to make it a reality. Without andrea, my Financial Advisor from northwestern mutual, it didnt feel possible. 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New from Revitalift Derm intensives 10 percent pure glycolic acid serum. With our highest concentration of glycolic acid in a serum. Resurfaces skin to visibly reduce dark spots starting in just two weeks and reduces wrinkles for a more even skin tone. Powerful results. Validated by dermatologists. Theres a reason dermatologist love it. New revitalift glycolic acid serum. From loreal. Were worth it. You know, some of these people have like a 10 loyalty, meaning if they sneeze in the wrong direction, theyre gone. Loyalty. Good morning. Welcome to your new day. It is monday, december 19th. Texas electors sealing the deal for donald trump. To make Donald Trumps victory official today. It was the day trumps win was officially certified by the electoral college. The president elect was reportedly celebrating with top aides at his private club in palm beach, florida. The conversation turned to whom he should hire. They focussed on Campaign Advisers and supporters who had been loyal to him during the 2016 campaign at a time when most republicans were trying to distance themselves from him. That dinners certainly been consistent with everything that weve seen from this president. He has been obsessed. Obsessed with loyalty. He always has been. Here he is in 1980. I learned that there were some great, loyal people, and i have learned that there were some people that could have been more loyal, and those people i have discarded totally. And once donald trump became president , he didnt just look for it, he demanded it. It is a tradition that president s bring a little clique with them, whether it is the boston mafia of john f. Kennedy, the georgia mafia of jimmy carter. Loyalty is not new in the white house. But trumps brand of loyalty was new. The trump people said essentially, if we could ever find that you publicly posted something negative about the president , you are very unlikely to get a position. I have never heard of that kind of vetting of people for negative comments about the president in their past lives. His early hires were loyalists throughout the campaign and in the early months of the presidency. He did hire a few onetime opponents who have been loyal since. Thank you, mr. President. Including secretary of housings and urban development, ben carson. Our president , donald j. Trump, he makes promises and he keeps them. And secretary of energy, former governor rick perry. Mr. President , i know there are people that say you said you were the chosen one, and you were. But it would not take long for President Trump to learn others loyalty was fleeting. I have a very, very good idea of who the leakers are, who the senior leakers are in the white house. Former White House Communications director Anthony Scaramucci was hired six months into trumps presidency to weed out disloyal leakers. There were three or four people that were probably the biggest leakers and he wanted them gone, so the loyalty goes one way towards him. This demand for loyalty could be a problem when it seems to supersede ethics. Loyalty means you do what i need you to do, even if it is unethical. You work for me. That may be a good strategy if you run a small, private business, but it is absolutely unacceptable for a constitutional officer in a republic. He immediately tests you to see if you are going to be on his side or if you are going to be his enemy. What do you say about it was an unfamiliar situation for someone such as andrew mccabe, then acting director of the fbi. He had served four administrations at the fbi for both republican and democratic president s. As career Government Servants dedicated first and foremost to the constitution and to the rule of law, those folks are not going to simply cede to the president s will. Does working for President Trump ultimately mean you have to agree with him all the time if you want to keep your job . Yeah, i think thats the case. Theyre going to do what they think is their job. Director comey. And that is a very tough decision for people to make, and it is one that will likely bring you great personal pain and sacrifice. And so if you are committed to doing that work, youre likely going to run headlong into a conflict with President Trump. I have now decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the campaign for president of the United States. For instance, jeff sessions, an incredibly loyal guy, but made one decision, you know, complying with ethics suggestions from doj and thats it. Hes dead to President Trump. He could run you over with a steamroller at any time. I need you to do things and i need you to be willing to take the blame for me when things go poorly. Perhaps contributing to unprecedented turnover. 89 of his senior staff, trumps ateam, have left. Thats more turnover than all of the past five president s had in their entire first terms. And one more number. Trump has had 40 of his top positions replaced more than once. Former White House Press secretary sean spicer. There were some people that werent qualified but they had been loyal to the president. And when people have left, several formers found themselves eventually speaking out against President Trump. It was challenging for me to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesnt read briefing reports. The only person in the military that mr. Trump doesnt think is overrated is colonel sanders. The ultimate betrayal for trump, who resorted to name calling. Former National Security adviser john bolton, a wacko. Former secretary of defense, jim mattis, the worlds most overrated general. Former secretary of state rex tillerson, dumb as a rock. He would turn on them in a really aggressive way, in a way that ive never seen or heard of president s doing before. I think, you know, turnover is natural in any white house. Former trump adviser david urban. I think this Administration May be more high pressure, more issues that are pressing. A demand for loyalty that trump relied on for what he hoped to be his first big policy win, repealing and replacing obamacare. We have so many unbelievable alternatives, much less expensive. I think donald trump believed that his iron grip on Republican Voters would get him all republican votes. Two months after the trump inauguration, the republicans had a bill that would begin the dismantling of obamacare. The bill is passed and without objection and while the bill did make it through the house, the senate posed some issues. I think that there would have to be fundamentally change. The senate bill was known as skinny repeal going into that vote in july 2017. Trumps hopes for success rested with Arizona Republican senator