Antivaccine rhetoric that they are talking right now. It undermines science. Reporter but trump is mischaracterizing harris answer when asked if she would trust a vaccine touted by trump. I will say that i would not trust donald trump. I would trust the word of Public Health experts and scientists but not donald trump. Reporter trump, who has repeatedly undermined Public Health experts and pressured Government Agencies to rush a vaccine, insisting harris is playing politics. Shes talking about disparaging a vaccine so that people dont think the achievement was a great achievement. Reporter even as he continues to suggest without any evidence that a vaccine could be ready by election day. Were going to have a vaccine very soon, maybe even before a very special date. You know what date im talking about. Reporter trump is also still defending himself from an atlantic magazine bombshell, insisting he never referred to Fallen Service members as suck errors and losers and touting a new denial by a former aid. I was happy to see that zach fuentes came out and said its not true. He just came out. And its a disgrace. Who would say a thing like that . Only an animal would say a thing like that. Reporter fuentes saying in a statement he, quote, did not hear potus call anyone losers when he told trump he could not fly to a world war i ceremony because of weather. But fuentes also suggesting trump may have similar comments another time, saying sources may be, quote, conflating stories. Even as trump said he would never attack the military. Im not saying the militarys in love with me, the soldiers are. The top people in the pentagon probably arent because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those Wonderful Companies that make the bombs, that make the planes and make Everything Else stay happy. Reporter trump taking questions today after delivering charged political attacks on the front steps of the white house. Bidens a stupid person. Reporter and falsely claiming the u. S. Is leading the world in suppressing the coronavirus. Were hopefully rounding the final turn in the pandemic we are an absolute leader in every way. Reporter and, pam, on this labor day, schools across the country are preparing to reopen amid a pandemic, but they dont have the funding needed to reopen safely. Thats because negotiations on capitol hill have stalled amid gridlock between the president and democratic negotiators. The president of course has refused to sit down with House Speaker nancy pelosi or Senate Minority leader chuck schumer. He insisted again today when he was pressed on it that nothing would change if he did sit down with them. He said he was instead taking the, quote, high road by not sitting down and negotiating directly. Jeremy diamond, thanks so much. And any minute now, president ial candidate joe biden will join a Virtual Event in harrisburg, pennsylvania. He spent labor day visiting the largest federation of union in the United States. He met with afl cio president. Seeing as jessica dean joins us now. Lets start with those comments from President Trump. He said biden and harris should apologize for their, vote, antivaccine rhetoric. What has biden said today . He did talk about it today briefly on the campaign trail. Pam, he is in that critical battleground state of pennsylvania. And when asked by a reporter if he would take a Covid Vaccine if it was made before election day, here is what joe biden said earlier today. Hes said so many things that arent true. Im worried if we do have a really good vaccine, people are going to be reluctant to take it. And so hes undermining public confidence. But pray god we have it. If i can get a vaccine tomorrow, id do it. If it would cost me the election id do it. Biden also called for full transparency around the vaccine process and also added, we also heard Kamala Harris earlier in the show talking about it that they must listen to the scientists, that they are going to be guided by scientists and what they say is correct and safe when it comes to a vaccine. Pam . All right, jessica dean, thank you so much for that. And joining us now, cnns john harwood, a Washington Post reporter. Thanks so much for coming on this labor day. Great to have you here. John, i want to start with you. Today President Trump said biden and harris are casting a possible vaccine in a negative light for political reasons. But then when asked if trump is pushing a vaccine for political reasons, heres what he said. No, im saying that because we want to save a lot of lives. With me, its the faster the better. With somebody else, maybe they would say it politically. But im saying in terms of this is what we need. If we get the vaccine early thats a great thing, whether its politics or not. Do benefits if youre able to get something years ahead of schedule, i guess maybe they do. So, john, how much weight does this potential vaccine really have on the election . Well, i think it would be a significant effect, pam, on the mood of the country if people had the credible news that a vaccine was on the way and try to lift this cloud that has shrouded the entire country for the last six months. Look, i think if you discount for the fact that anything any president ial candidate says they hope for political effects. The president has injected himself into the scientific process multiple times, shunted aside Public Health advice. He is the one who has undermined confidence in what his administration is doing on coronavirus. Thats why the polls show about a third or maybe 40 of americans approve of the administrations response and a substantial mamjority disapprov. It is the president who is concerned about his trailing position in the election trying to push this forward as rapidly as possible. Its also why hes pushed unproven treatments like hydroxychloroquine. He is accusing biden of what precisely what he is doing. That was striking that he was accusing them of politicizing the vaccine when he made clear today that he would like this vaccine before the election. And we also heard harris say that she would not trust President Trump alone on a vaccine and that Health Experts would likely be muzzled or suppressed under this administration. Are those comments going to hurt the Biden Harris Campaign if People Choose to not get a vaccine . Well, i do think theyve tried to clean up their comments over the past 24 to 48 hours to try to clarify that they make a difference between trusting the president , President Trump, and trusting the Health Experts. Obviously theyve talked about the things that President Trump has said over the past several months in which hes talked about injecting disinfectant and hydroxychloroquine. But theyve tried to make a very clear distinction saying that if someone like dr. Fauci or the Public Health experts within the government said that the vaccine was safe and effective, then they would take it. But we have heard from the Trump Campaign trying to push back against this narrative sort of describing biden and harris as antivaxxers, saying that they are pushing disinformation, pushing conspiracy theories. I think thats part of the reason theyve tried to be more clear in their answers over the past 24 hours. But i think this is an issue that voters are looking at very closely, especially as the president talks about a vaccine before election day. Thats something you dont hear many trusted Health Experts saying. Gives biden and harris an argument to make a distinction between trusting the president and trusting the Public Health experts. And this is the time, john, look, its labor day. This is the time that the campaigns really ramp up before the election, just a couple of months away. And lets look back. Today joe bidens in pennsylvania. Before 2016 pennsylvanias voted for democrats in six straight president ial elections. How important is this state for both contenders . Its very important, pam. And if the president can somehow come back, overcome the deficit that hes looking at and win it, that would cut off one of joe bidens paths to 270 electoral votes. But donald trump became president because he narrowly defeated Hillary Clinton in three midwestern states. The shortest path for joe biden to win the white house back is to take those states. Hes got leads in all three. Weve had polls showing different size of leads in pennsylvania. I think the average of polls is right around four to five points. That is not an overwhelming advantage. The president still has a chance. Hes trying to rally that white workingclass base. But one of the things weve seen, pam, in this race is that both nationally and in the battleground states, the advantages for biden have been substantial. But they havent moved all that much. Certainly the two conventions didnt do anything fundamental to this race. So the burden is on President Trump to try to reverse that. Right. Of course pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, these used to be what was considered the blue wall until 2016. When you look at how things are shaping up in these key states, what do you assess . How do you think things are going for trump and biden . Well, i think john hit the nail on the head in terms of the importance of these states and how these various campaigns are looking at these states as critical in their paths to try to get to 270. I do think that the race is relatively close, in part, because there are some voters who have not made up their mind while the vast majority of americans have already made up their mind. I think the fight right now is over the 10 to 15 of americans in those key starts who are Still Deciding whether or not they want to go with President Trump because they like some of his policies like what happened with the economy to the extent that polls show that President Trump is more trusted on the economy. Maybe they dont like his personality as much. And about voting for joe biden in part because they think its time to turn the page on a divisive era in which President Trump has really fanned the flames of division in the country. I do think those states would be incredibly important. You see the two campaigns taking completely different arguments to those voters who are yet to make up their minds. President trump focusing on law and order, joe biden focusing on healing the country. All right, toluse, john, great to have you on. Happy labor day. You too. And now i want to bring in my colleague Barbara Starr because we heard the president today at this press conference at the white house, he was insisting that top military brass dont like him because he wants to end u. S. Wars. Whats been the reaction . Well, pamela, he started out as he has for the last several days trying to push back against all of these comments in which he made disparaging remarks about the u. S. Military. Hes trying to say that is not accurate that its essentially not true. But then out of the clear blue sky, he launches this attack on his own military command. And the militarys in love with me, the soldiers are. The top people in the pentagon probably arent because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those Wonderful Companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make Everything Else stay happy. But were getting out of the endless wars. So, he says the troops love him but the commanders dont because they want to fight wars, that thats what they want to do to support defense contractors. Look, to say that is an allegation without proof would be no overstatement. There is no proof of that. As our own analyst john kirby points out. Military commanders fight the wars that president s tell them to fight. Wars are decisions to go to war are made by a president of the United States, not the generals, not the admirals. So hes launching this attack against his own top military commanders. How this will go over with the troops we simply dont know. But it also comes very importantly as theres increasing chatter around washington that mr. Trump could be getting ready to replace his own defense secretary mark esper, another indication that hes just looking for some changes he wants to make, we do not know what will happen next with that. Pamela . And i know you will keep us posted if anything does on that front. Barbara starr, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Why scenes like this from around the country this Labor Day Weekend are especially troubling doctors as we head into the fall. Plus, we talk to one teacher going above and beyond to make sure her students and their families have access to food during this pandemic. Well be back. But come ye back when su mom, dad. Whys jamie here . Its sunday. Sunday sing along. And he helped us get a home and auto bundle. Hes been our insurance guy for five years now. He makes us feel like were worth protecting. [ gasps ] why didnt you tell us about these savings, flo . Ive literally told you a thousand times. Oh, danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling im just gonna. From glen to glen i was drowning in credit card debt. Sofi helped me pay off twentythree thousand dollars of credit card debt. They helped me consolidate all of that into one low monthly payment. They make you feel like its an honor for them to help you out. I went from sleepless nights to getting my money right. So thank you. Im a sustainability science researcher at amazon. Climate change is the fight of our generation. The biggest obstacle right now is that were running out of time. Amazon now has a goal to be net zero carbon by 2040. We dont really know exactly how we are going to get there. Its going to be pretty hard. But one way or another were going to reduce our Carbon Footprint to net zero. I want my son to know that i tried my hardest to make things better for his generation. In the health lead today, we expect to see packed beaches and large parties on a normal Labor Day Weekend. But scenes like this right here in the middle of a Global Pandemic are driving fears of another spike in new cases. We saw it after memorial day and after the fourth of july. And as cnns nick watt reports, top Health Experts say these massive gatherings combined with students returning to school could lead to a disastrous fall and winter. Reporter is this the spark for another surge . Or this or this . Well find out in a few weeks. Things have stabilized, things are much better, but we have seen spikes after long weekends. Reporter in part due to memorial day crowds celebrating the start of summer, new case counts soared from around 20,000 today midmay to over 70,000 a little more than a month later. And labor day, were starting from a much higher base line. I dont think itll take much to really bring us back up to 70,000 new cases a day. Reporter this weekend of course also marks the unofficial start of fall when people will be moving more indoors, when infection risk rises and people are exhausted. Thats another challenge trying to keep up our vigilance at a time when we know this could spread more aggressively. Reporter its also back to school time. Colleges now in every single state dealing with outbreaks. 11 northeastern students just kicked out for the entire semester without refunds after allegedly gathering in a hotel room. Keep them at the university in a place that is sequestered enough from the other students, but dont have them go home because they could be spreading it in their home state. Reporter 29 states right now seeing 5 or more tests coming back positive. A bad sign. Past few days West Virginia and north dakota seeing record infection rates. Missouri and puerto rico seeing record death tolls. Meanwhile as we near election day, the president says weve turned the corner. Were going to have a vaccine very soon, maybe even before a very special date. You know what date im talking about. I think the likelihood that were going to have a vaccine for widespread use in 2020 is extremely low. Reporter at least three potential vaccine producers, rivals, reportedly now preparing a joint statement that they will not seek government approval until they know for sure the vaccine is safe and effective. This according to the wall street journal. The fact that were seeing the pharmaceutical companies sort of protecting the u. S. Population from the government is something ive never seen before. Reporter so, the president wants a vaccine as soon as possible. He wants schools to be open brick and mortar. He wants normality. Now, we are tracking 101 biggest k12 districts in the country. 16 of them are starting their school year tomorrow morning. 14 of the 16 online only including chicago, houston, dallas, and baltimore. Nick watt, thanks so much for that. I want to bring in a former disease detective for the cdc and a cnn medical analyst. Great to see you. Lets start with what were seeing today across the country as we speak were seeing packed beaches, as you see right here, little social distancing. Is it inevitable that we are going to see another spike in coronavirus cases like we did after memorial holiday and fourth of july holiday . Its really worrying from that perspective, pamela, because as you said with memorial day, we saw those spikes happen and we know theres a lag. Its not like you will see the spike in cases a day or two after. It can take about two weeks. The concern is that people are fed up. This country has not had the Pandemic Response that it should have. So were not in a