The coronavirus has now infected over 6. 5 million americans and now over 195,000 of our fellow citizens have died. People along the gulf coast tonight are bracing for Hurricane Sally, a rapidly strengthening category 2 storm. It was a Tropical Storm just last night. And authorities in california, oregon, Washington State fighting to contain mega wildfires. In their size and scope, theyre unlike any other fire season in modern history. Trumps threeday visit to the west included a stop near sacramento today. He met with californias governor and First Responders battling the fires, which most scientists, by the way, are convinced are a result of Climate Change. Here is trumps advice to them. There has to be good, strong Forest Management. When trees fall down after a short period of time, about 18 months, they become very dry. They become really like a matchstick, and they get up you know, theres no more water pouring through, and they become very, very they just explode. They can explode. Also leaves. When you have years of leaves, dried leaves on the ground, it just sets it up. Its really a fuel for a fire. I was talking to a head of a major country, and he said, were a forest nation. We consider our self a forest nation. This was in europe. I said, thats a beautiful term. He said, we have trees that are far more explosive he meant explosive in terms of fire but we have trees that are far more explosive than they have in california. At a roundtable discussion not long after that in a moment instantly reminiscent of when the president predicted covid19 would disappear, trump added this. Okay. It will start getting cooler. You just you just watch. I wish science agreed with you. I dont think science knows actually. The New York Times notes this. Quote, mr. Trump and his senior environmental officials have regularly mocked, denied or minimized humancaused Climate Change and that trump has sought to zealously roll back environmental regulations. This afternoon former Vice President biden blasted trumps attitude toward Climate Change. Donald trumps climate deny l may not have caused these fires and record hurricanes, but if he gets a second term, these hellish events will continue to become more common, more devastating, and more deadly. If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the white house, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of america ablaze . As we mentioned, our nation is inching toward 200,000 souls lost to the coronavirus. Weve been averaging about 5,000 deaths a week of late. On sunday, the w. H. O. Reported the highest oneday increase in infections since the pandemic started. Over 308,000 new confirmed cases. The agency also warned europe will see a surge in coronavirus deaths in the fall. That concern is shared by a lot of American Health experts worried about a surge during flu season here. Yet this president is back to hosting indoor massive gatherings. Trump held a rallylike roundtable with a latino group in phoenix a few hours ago with no masks, no social distancing. In an interview this weekend with the Las Vegas Review journal, reporter, trump defended the events. We have many sites, and as governor outside sites, and this governor, what he did was a disgrace. He made it impossible for these people to give us a site. Arent you concerned about getting covid, though, in an enclosed no, im not concerned. Im more concerned about how close you are. Sorry about that. Because you know why . Im on a stage. Its very far away. Uhhuh. So im not at all concerned. Earlier on this network, the democratic governor of nevada criticized trump for flouting state rules. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind, in our professionals mind, that there are a number of folks that were there at the gathering last night and the one that he had in menden the night before, a number of asymptomatic people. Theyre going to end up in the Emergency Rooms and in the hospitals and on ventilators and in intensive care units, and the president just doesnt care. Its just a total reckless, selfish, irresponsible, arrogant thing to do. Just absolutely disgusting. On this same topic, were also learning more about what donald trump told bob woodward during their 18 conversations over 10 hours in all as woodward was compiling his new book. A clip released last week revealed trump understood how deadly the coronavirus was back in february, that he deliberately and knowingly downplayed the risk to the public. Tonight another excerpt obtained by cnn. Its audio. It underscores in this conversation from april 13th the same thing. This thing is a killer if it gets you. If youre the wrong person, you dont have a chance. Yes, yes, exactly. So this rips you apart. This is a scourge and it is the plague. And heres what trump told woodward exactly one month ago on a day when covid19 took over 1,300 american lives. Nothing more could have been done. I acted early. Well i acted early. So well see. This will be the history that we start the first draft of. And it will continue and so you think the virus totally supersedes the economy . Oh, sure. But theyre related as you know. A little bit, yeah. Oh, little bit . I mean i mean more than a little bit, but the economy is doing look, were close to a new stock market record. There are more revelations tonight about the administrations handling of this Public Health crisis, specifically about michael caputo, the assistant secretary of Public Affairs at the department of health and Human Services. The New York Times says caputo, who is a roger stone acolyte and a former regular on cnn, who was hired to promote the trump agenda at the cabinet level federal health agency, told a facebook audience that the cdc was harboring a Resistance Unit determined to undermine the president. The paper also says caputo accused the Agency Scientists of sedition and, quote, ran through a series of conspiracy theories culminating in a prediction that mr. Trump will win reelection, but his democratic opponent, joe biden, will refuse to concede. Quote, and when donald trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin, he said. The drills that youve seen are nothing. He added, if you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because its going to be hard to get. Politico has reported caputo and other officials pressured cdc scientists to change key covid reporting so they more closely align with trumps rosy portrayal of efforts to contain the virus. Today House Democrats said theyre opening an investigation into that alleged interference. Were also now hearing more from alexander vindman. He was the key witness in the impeachment trial, the one who overhead that socalled perfect phone call between trump and the president of ukraine. The decorated iraq war veteran told tthe atlantic that trump is putins useful idiot in quotes and an unwitting agent of the kremlin. Vindman also spoke with nbc news about trumps relationship with putin. Hes infatuated with putins power. Putin has a unique spell on him. As to whether he has dirt on him, thats unclear. I know that other government senior government officials suspect that putin might have dirt on him. Tonight the white house is calling vindmans allegations, quote, without merit. Its a lot on a monday night, and here with us for our leadoff discussion, peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times. Robert costa, National Political reporter for the washington post, also happens to be mods rater of Washington Week on pbs. And dr. Mercedes carnethon is back with us, vice chair of Preventive Medicine at the Feinberg School of medicine at northwestern university. Good evening and welcome to you all. Robert, id like to begin with you, and i want to begin by playing for you and our audience another snippet of the conversati conversations, ten hours in all, between mr. Woodward and the president. And, bob, its so easily transmissib transmissible. You wouldnt even believe it. I know. Its i mean you can you can be in the room. I was in the white house a couple of days ago, meeting with ten people in the oval office, and a guy sneezed innocently, not a horrible you know, just a sneeze. The. Yeah. The entire room bailed out, including me by the way. Bob, whats notable there is that is the life most of us have been living for six months. That sounds very familiar, and i guess is the surprising thing how normal he sounds when he thinks hes in private on the phone with another person . Is the true surprise what he has tried to do, what he has maintained throughout to the public instead . Brian, the tapes are revealing about who President Trump really is. And as a reporter whos covered him for nearly a decade, ive seen him behind the scenes at different times at his golf clubs, in his office, on his plane. And while it is true that the portrait of him is someone whos constantly watching television is accurate, that is who he is, hes also someone who is always reading newspapers. Ive seen him with piles of newspapers for hours on end, scanning them sometimes with a sharpie, taking notes. This is someone who understands the reality of whats happening in terms of the virus and many other issues. While publicly he likes to have a certain persona, a certain bravado, let me be clear based on my reporting, this is someone as Bob Woodwards tapes reveal, knows whats going on. And woodward sketches out in his book how serious the virus was to President Trump in january, in february, in march, in april, and the book brings to light that private President Trump, and it offers us more evidence that this was someone not just saying certain things at the lectern. This was someone who knew the depth of what this virus meant. Peter baker, the American West is tonight yet again lit up in orange of wildfires, yet it seems the president looks to the west and sees only blue. States from washington to oregon to california under democratic control. So what was todays california visit really about . Well, todays visit was a nod, a perfunctory visit to california, as you say, a blue state hes not going to win, hes not competing in. He had been criticized for not making much attention to these wildfires for weeks on end, so he interrupted briefly his Campaign Swing out west to make a onehour and 50minute stop in sacramento to be briefed on it. And even then, of course, you know, to disagree with the california officials over what was really at stake there. His point about the Forest Management isnt wrong in the sense that Forest Management is an issue. Even Governor Newsom, the democratic governor of california, agreed with him on that. But where they disagree was the role of Climate Change on that. You saw Governor Newsom very politely today, very deferentially but firmly make the point that Climate Change in his view was a substantial factor in what his state and what the other states out west are seeing. His secretary of Natural Resources was even blunter, and then you played the part where the president responded, basically brushing it off, saying, no, Climate Change is you know, it will be cooler soon, and the scientists doesnt know what hes talking about. He couldnt have had a starker contrast of course with former Vice President biden, who used today to give a speech where he called the president a climate arsonist. I think the country is presented with a pretty strong contrast. A challenger in mr. Biden who is saying, no, Climate Change is real and just like the coronavirus, youve got a president who is telling us that doesnt believe the science. Doctor, i think its fair to say as a layperson that reports out of the cdc on topics Like National mortality have, in normal times, during normal administrations, been taken as something approaching gospel. How does it strike you to hear the chief spokesperson at the department of health say that there are doctors and scientists playing politics inside the cdc . Its such disappointing news to come out of the cdc, and disappointing news that we are so suspicious about what were hearing. And i think rightly so. Weve seen so many different turns and twists with the advice that the cdc is giving out, and especially when those recommendations change right after the president makes a recommendation. For example, with the school openings. And then the push for less testing instead of more testing. So it goes without saying that, you know, the suspicions about morn what were hearing about mortality rates, whether what were hearing about cases and even how the disease is transmitted is being questioned by everybody. And i would say this also aligns with the skepticism about Climate Change. There seems to be a very strong distrust of science at a time when what we really need is to listen to the experts and trust in science so that we can protect our health, protect our country. Indeed. Peter, on the doctors last point there, can and im sorry if this calls for a political judgment or something approaching it. Can the president run against science in an election where the math would tell us he has got to pull voters from the other side and from the center . Well, hes not trying to pull voters from the other side and from the center. Hes speaking to his own base. Hes speaking to people who agree with him. Hes speaking to the people that brought him there in 2016, and his goal seems to be to basically maximize the turnout of the people who already like him or are at least inclined to like him, like the thing easy does or says even if they dont like everybody about him, and depress the possible vote for his challenger, joe biden, by making biden seem unacceptable on a number of different issues like law and order and so forth. So ttd not an effort on his part to reach out to a broad majority of americans. Really its a very targeted approach here. So youre right. Hes not you know, hes willing to play to the part of america that doesnt believe in Climate Change, thats skeptical of the doctors and thinks that scientists at the cdc are out to get him rather than trying to convince the people in the middle who might be open to persuasion to take a different point of view. Robert costa, dual question. Number one, are elected republicans just hoping to stay in some sort of hardened bunker for the next 50 days . And secondly, give us a preview of how noting we are recording this conversation a lot like woodward and trump, how you see our country, this political season playing out, the known unknowns for the next 50 days. Ill take the second part first because it plays into the first part of your question. The known unknowns are really out there already, and how they play out with the electorate is the tbd. Number one, john durhams investigation of the russia probe itself. Are there further indictments . Does the attorney general come out just weeks before the election and make some kind of an announcement that potentially could change the way the election is perceived, but a lot of voters are on edge after what happened in 2016, and to have the attorney general do something right before the election will give it a political charge. Two, vaccines. President trump keeps saying he wants to have some kind of announcement before the election. Where is the pharmaceutical industry going to be . Are doctor whos are involved in this process going to come out and compliment the president and offer their own integrity to stand alongside the president should he make a claim . Those are two of the biggest issues. And republicans themselves, brian, we sometimes talk about republicans as somehow on the edge of their seat. Theyre in the seat, on the roller coaster with President Trump 3 1 2 years in, 50 days to go. Theyre all in. Theres no other ride here. This is the ride. Theyre on it. Doctor, how does it strike you to see pictures of an indoor rally for the president of the united states, who vocally complained about the restrictions in the state of nevada against indoor events, that they had to somehow bend or go around . Well, as you recall, i was rather surprised the first time i saw an indoor rally in a city that had surging cases of coronavirus. It still concerns me a great deal that so many individuals are putting their political position ahead of listening to the science, of seeing what we are observing about how this disease is transmitted. You know, i dont begrudge anybody their own politics. However, protect yourselves. We know the one thing that we can do right now to protect ourselves and slow the transmission is to socially distance and to wear masks. And none of those things are happening in the name of politics. And this is where politics has interfered with science and the scientific process. I hear trump really advocating for this vaccine and pushing for it to show up by october. But you know, what we observed this week with the astrazeneca trial in england is part of the scientific process. There is not going to be a quick fix vaccine thats going to save us. There are going to be these fits and starts. Its all part of the process. However, as we await a vaccine and even once we have a vaccine, we have to take the politics out of the behaviors that will prevent the transmission of the coronavirus. And of course who knows what this week itself will hold .