Fatalities were reported yesterday. And tonight, the cdc is projecting as many as 218,000 american deaths from the virus by october 10th, just a few weeks. Also breaking this hour, a powerful rebuke of the president s handling of the pandemic by a former Top White House official. Shes now saying publicly that mr. Trump could have saved lives but he was too concerned about reelection. Also tonight, the president s opponent joe biden will take part in an unprecedented cnn town hall. It will be our first ever drivein town hall because of the coronavirus pandemic. Well have a preview coming up this hour. Lets begin at the white house. Our chief correspondent is joining us. A former member of the president s Coronavirus Task force going public with a blistering critique of the president s handling of the pandemic. Absolutely. He has a new critic, mike pences former security adviser came out today to slam mr. Trumps response to the coronavirus pandemic. Troy says in the video for an antitrump Republican Group that the president thought covid19 might be a good thing because he wouldnt have to shake hands with people. The white house is denying the claims and pence just described troy as a disgruntled former employee. In the meantime President Trump made it clear today, he is waging a cultural war to win reelection. He toured in Public Schools across the country to teach children about slavery. Shes just the latest to blast the president. Olivia troy, former aide to mike pence, said mr. Trump failed to respond to the pandemic because he only cared about one thing. Troy says the president remarked at one covid19 Task Force Meeting that perhaps the virus was good thing because he doesnt like shaking hands with, quote, disgusting people. The middle of february we knew wasnt a matter of if but it was a matter of when. The president didnt want to hear that. His biggest concern is that it was an Election Year. Earlier in the day, the president was hardly focused on the virus as he blasted efforts to teach the evils of slavery. It turned the National Archives into his latest reelection prop. The left has launched a vicious and violent assault on Law Enforcement. The universal symbol of the rule of law in america. The left wing rioting are the results of left wing indoctrination in our schools. The president s remarks come less than a day after attorney general william barr ignited a fire storm of his own when he compared lockdowns to slavery. Putting a National Lockdown, stay at home orders is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restrain, this is the greatest intrusion on civil history. I think that statement by mr. Barr was the most ridiculous tonedeaf, god awful things ive ever heard. While republicans side stepped the sub. I had not heard of that. I dont know anything about it. The president s race baiting appears to be the latest distraction from the nearly 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus. Mr. Trump has signaled he is planning to divide and conquer blaming blue states for the pandemic. If you take blue states out, were at a level that i dont think anybody in the world would be at. That outraged democrats, too. What a disgrace. Its monstrous. Not a shred of empathy. Not an ounce of sorrow. What kind of president do we have in. Reporter the president is playing politics with the virus as he and his top scientists remain at odds over the importance of masks with the director for the centers of Disease Control urging them to protect themselves until theres a vaccine. I might go to far to say this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against covid than when i take the covid vaccine. The president simply doesnt want to hear it. When i called up robert today, i said to him, what is with the mask . He said i think i answered that question incorrectly. I think maybe he misunderstood it. While other Top Administration scientists want to stay out of the line of fire. One of the reasons i think i have credibility is that i dont say things that i dont know on the basis of scientific data. As for the campaign, the president is once again heading off to a rally this evening, this time in wisconsin where we expect Trump Supporters will not be wearing many masks or bragg much social distancing. We should note, ron johnson will not be making the trip with the president this evening. Johnson found out he was exposed to somebody who tested positive for the virus earlier this week. He has since tested negative. Better to err on the side of caution. Thanks. More on the breaking pandemic news. Lets go to nick joining us from los angeles. The cdc is projecting another 20,000 more americans will die from the coronavirus in about the next three weeks . Is that right . Reporter yeah, thats right. Were going to pass the 200,000 dead any day now. It doesnt have to be this way. The Surgeon General said we already have the tools to stop this. Masks, distancing, therapeutics, if only we would use them. You know, new york city crushed this without the vaccine. So could we all. Reporter teachers on the march in manhattan. The nations largest district was supposed to open in person monday. Not anymore. We made a move here of a few days to get it right. Reporter meanwhile in massachusetts, nearly 30 High Schoolers now forced to quarp after parents sent their covid19 positive kids to class. The parents knew they shouldnt have done it. The student knew he shouldnt have done that. Reporter covid19 cases rising across the country. More than 1,600 confirmed at the university of wisconsin in madison since early august. Obviously i dont want to have covid. But it seemed kind of inevitable. Reporter the hunt for a vaccine rolls on. Moderna hopes to know in november if its vaccine works. Thats our base plan. Our base plan is october. Its possible. Reporter pfizer says theyll probably submit their vaccine for approval by the end of october. The president has a date in mind. He wants it by election day. Many experts say thats dangerous. It makes people who are not by any means, vaccine skeptics normally, it makes them skeptical of the vaccine. If you have a vaccine that is highly effective, but very few people get vaccinated, youre not going to realize the full important effect of having a vaccine. A former cdc director weighing in on the current directors assertion, masks might be more effective protection against coronavirus than a vaccine which sparked the brutal president ial pushback. It is kind of an apple versus a theoretical orange. Masks are really important. A vaccine, we dont know what the effectiveness is. No one knows. Reporter good news, there are now about half the number of people in the hospital with covid19 compared to mid july. But 23 states are now seeing their average daily case counts rise. Perhaps the best indicator of where we are is the number of tests coming back positive. Under 5 is the aim. Two weeks ago we were there. Averaging 4. 7 . Now 5. 79. What science says is that if you give the virus an opportunity to spread, it will. Reporter theres been a lot of talk of this potential double whammy. Flu and covid at the same time. But some optimism from dr. Anthony fauci. Look at australia. They are just coming out of winter, coming out of their flu season which never really happened. Could it be because of all the covid restrictions in place . Could it be because of all the shots . Good news but still, get a in shot. All right. Thank you very much. As you heard, weve just learned that a top aide on the Coronavirus Task force is speaking out. She said it was clear in february that this Coronavirus Crisis would get really, really bad but the president , she said, didnt want to hear it. As the death toll approaches 200,000 in the u. S. , what do we need to do to get out of this truly awful situation . Well, i think what this person is referring to are the same measures that could have been put into place back when she was talking about early on in february, march. That could still have an impact now. Basic Public Health measures. The masking, the physical distancing, the hand hygiene. It sounds so simple as we talk about the race for a vaccine, but these basic Public Health measures do work. We were hearing from the cdc every day about this, at that time, outbreak even before it was a pandemic. And the doctor who is the head of the National Center for respiratory diseases at the cdc, said something very early on that got her essentially muzzled. We didnt hear from her again after that. I want you to listen to what she said in february. Its not so much a question of if this will happen anymore. But rather a question of exactly when it will happen. She was referring to having Significant Community spread of the virus in the United States. That was february 25th. As you know, after that, there was still these comments from the president saying this will go away. This is not inevitable. Were sort of ready for this. The sound bells were being alarmed early on and being ignored. Yeah. What could have been, what could have happened in february, even in march, would have saved so, so many lives in the United States. Those steps sadly were not taken. This comes after the president publicly openly questioned the cdc directors testimony and the effectiveness of masks and on the vaccine time line. How do these kinds of actions impact the Publics Trust . You know, pretty significantly, sadly. And ive been doing this job for nearly 20 years and never seen anything quite like this. This complete division between what im hearing from Public Health officials outside of the government versus this sort of beating up essentially, the cdc director took within government. When it comes to the comments that he made about the vaccine time line, for example, that sort of fits with what everyone else has been saying including the vaccine manufacturers. I spoke to the head of operations of warp speed about this last week. Heres how he framed the time line for vaccines. I dont think we have that clip. Tell us what em. He basically. Even if we get approvals for this vaccine, in november, december, we till might only have 20 million, 30 million doses or so. You can only vaccinate that number of people. We looked at the likely first groups of people who would be vaccinated. As you might guess, he other essential workers, Health Care Work he, about 29 Million People there. Then the higher risk populations. About 75 Million People. They require two doses. Youre talking about 250 million doses that would be necessary just to get to that first group. The point being to get to the general population, it will be a lot longer which is what everyone has been saying all along. The higher risk people, people over 65, or any age with Underlying Health conditions. Thats right. Certain preexisting conditions and over 65 in particular who theyre trying on get into these trials to make sure that they are part of the Clinical Trial for the vaccine. They want to make sure theyre safe and effective. The time line for a vaccine, we may know, what in by the end of october or november if a vaccine candidate, five or six out there now, actually works. That would be the first step. Walk us through the process. Yeah. This is really interesting. It is very much a moving target. On the one hand, you need to marvel at the pace this is happening and i think it is a remarkably good thing. What theyre sort of counting on in these various trials, you have two groups of people. People had have gotten the vaccine, people who have received a placebo. They dont know. It is a blind study. And they want to see that the people are getting more highly infected than the vaccinated group. If you have 10,000 in each group, you would want about 100 people in the Placebo Group to have an infection, whereas it would be much lower, more like 50 in the vaccinated group. Thats what they want to see. The problem is you need to have a significant number of infections in that group of 10,000 people. Right now were hearing from pfizer, look, we may not be getting enough of an infection rate in the Placebo Group. We may need to recruit people from argentina or brazil where they have a higher percentage. Full enrollment isnt completed. They may have to bring them that from other countries. It is hard to believe we would have data, especially if we wait, to make sure theres no adverse side effects. People have to be sure that they wont get sick as a result of taking these. Not just one but two shots. Thank you so much. Our chief medical corn. Just ahead as we count down to the town hall with joe biden, well talk to Bernie Sanders what does he want to hear tonight . Well ask him. Plus, the Justice Department saying it looked at possible charges against local officials in oregon. Copd makes it hard to breathe. So to breathe better, i started oncedaily anoro. Copd tries to say, go this way. I say, ill go my own way, with anoro. Oncedaily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators that Work Together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. Do not use anoro if you have asthma. Anoro wont replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. 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Com and lose the weight for good. So theres breaking news out of the u. S. Justice department. Federal prosecutors actually looked into possibly bringing criminal or civil charges against local officials in portland, oregon, over thehamming of the ongoing protests there. Our Senior Correspondent evan perez is working the story. Charges like this would i suspect be almost unprecedented. Thats right. It is very rare for the Justice Department to bring Something Like this. But in light of what weve heard recently from the attorney general, hes dfld pushing for officials to take a very aggressive stance on some of the disturbances, some of the rioting, the protests that happened in the wake of the george floyd killing. You heard from the attorney general doing a speech, celebrating constitution day. During that speech he made a very strange comparison to the lockdowns that we saw in light of easing the spread of the coronavirus in the nation. Here is the attorney general speaking about this. Putting a National Lockdown stayathome orders is, other than slavery a different kind of restrain, this is the greatest intrusion on Civil Liberties in civil history. And wolf, that is a rather strange comparison to slavery, to when there was no National Lockdown, first of all, in this country, as a result of what the spread of the coronavirus. Evan perez reporting for us. Thank you. Lets get more on these developments. Laura coates is joining us, and martin is with us as well. Lets talk a little about what were hearing. Your father, he devoted his life to this fight for justice in the United States. What goes through your mind hearing the attorney general compare the coronavirus lockdowns to the history of slavery in our country . This is beyond unconscionable. It should be quickly changed. When you look at the fact that yes, its been invent for people to be at home for a few months. But to even compare it to the most cruel institution in history, in modern history, slavery for over 200 years, is unconscionable. It is very sad that thats where we are in this nation. But also, when you think about the fact that this administration basically does not acknowledge systematic racism, that everyone realizes, most people who see visually that it exists, this administrator, the president , has stood up in charlottesville for those who really promote hatred. This administration decided to disable protesters, nonviolent protesters in front of the white house. And so when you think about all these things, most importantly, refuses to acknowledge and hold policemen accountable for behavior that becomes fatal for so many in the africanamerican community, not to mention the virus that seems to affect blacks and browns in a disproportionate level, and a lack of management. This is unconscionable. Thats why people have to get organized, have to mobilize in the next few days, have to register and vote. We need a change of leadership and we need it now. You know, laura, we know the attorney general bill barr wants to come down aggressively on violent protesters. Have you ever heard of local officials potentially being targeted in the way that he suggested . In a word, no. Not since the now very controversial set of laws with the alien sedition act. Were trying to say that because people are petitioning