President Trump Holds Press Conference At His Golf Club; White House And Dems No Deal On The Relief Package; President Trump Falsely Claims Virus Is Disappearing; Crowds Gathering for Motorcycle Rally Expected to Draw 250,000 and Without a Mask Rule Amid Pandemic
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: I never imagined I would have, and you have embraced this show in a way that no one thought you would. So, thank you, thank you for giving us the chance. Thank you for giving me a chance. And thank you for watching. CNN Tonight with the upgrade Laura Coates in for D. Lemon, right now.</s>LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: Chris, that was beautiful. Thank you.</s>CUOMO: Thank you.</s>COATES: Thank you for that. That was so touching all week long, you know, I look forward to hearing your life lessons and what's yet to come. I did make you a cake. But unfortunately, I love cake, and so I ate the cake.</s>CUOMO: Good.</s>COATES: But I thought of while I ate the cake.</s>CUOMO: You did me a favor. You did me a favor, because it's the last thing I need right now. I'm shape like the wrong kind of fruit.</s>COATES: It was a great cake.</s>CUOMO: I believe it.</s>COATES: And I really did think of you as the frosting -- you know, every there and all the crumbs, but I want you to know that all the crumbs that you think you're giving people are really so much more and you are so humble. And I appreciate you so much, and I wish you the happiest of birthdays. I'm not Marilyn Monroe despite the dress, so I'm not going to sing to you, but happy birthday.</s>CUOMO: Let me tell you something, when you are as an inspiration, it is a great, great ability as an anchor to have someone they know they can lean on with tough questions in tough situations, and get an analysis that will drive a conversation forward. That's why you are one of our best, thank you for being good to me, I know Don appreciate you being here as well, although, man are you an upgrade.</s>COATES: Well, I appreciate all of you, and thank you and happy birthday. I wish you the best.</s>CUOMO: Thank you very much 50 years. Fair and it still holds, look at that.</s>COATES: 50 years, and not a day over 22. Look at that. It's all you. It's beautiful.</s>CUOMO: I paid a lot of money for that rug. A lot of money.</s>COATES: I really feel like if at 50 all of the sudden you're going to come in with a red tie and then we're going to see something.</s>CUOMO: You have right, it will be extra-long to make me look slim. Have a good night.</s>COATES: Thank you, you too have a great weekend. And this is CNN Tonight. I am Laura Coates in for the great Don Lemon. And with the coronavirus death toll in this country now passing 161,000, as we are on the verge of 5 million cases, the president suddenly throws together a press conference. Not at the White House where you might expect the president of the United States to give the country important news, or even the work in during the crisis, but instead at his (inaudible) New Jersey golf club. Roping in a bunch of members who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to be at that club what was essentially nothing but a campaign appearance. Those members not socially distanced, most not wearing masks until reporters started tweeting pictures. That's when White House staffers suddenly started handing out masks. Putting on a show, while Americans suffer and die. And just listen to the president's excuse for not following New Jersey's guidelines.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just in this room you have dozens of people that are not following the guidelines in New Jersey which say you should not have more than --</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: (Inaudible) you're wrong on that, because it's a political activity. They have exceptions, political activity and it's also a peaceful protest.</s>COATES: Wait a minute, I thought he said it was a press conference? Now he admits it's a political activity. And then goes on to say it's a peaceful protest. A peaceful protest. So now peaceful protests justify breaking the rules? Well he sure didn't feel that way when he had those peaceful protesters gassed in Lafayette Park. So he could have his photo up on the steps of St. Johns Church. Stalling with the bible. The president also claimed and he is going to take executive action, including a payroll tax deferment extending unemployment benefits and extending an eviction moratorium. If that is Congress doesn't make a deal on COVID relief. He made a lot of promises, but he did not actually sign a thing. And it's not at all clear frankly that he has even the authority to do any of this, but he doesn't really seem to care.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you concerned about the reality of (inaudible) --</s>TRUMP: No. Not at all. No. Well, you always get sued, I mean, everything you do you get sued. I was sued on the travel ban, and we won. I was sued on a lot of things and we won. So, we'll see. Yes, probably we get sued, but people feel that we can do it.</s>COATES: It's just another show. His new campaign manager has said their goal is to win every day between now and election day. But when your focus is winning days, instead of saving lives, well this is what happens. The president also bragging about adding jobs.</s>TRUMP: We added 1.8 million new jobs in July, exceeding predictions for the third month in a row. And adding a total of over 9.3 million jobs since May.</s>COATES: Look, adding jobs is a good thing. But those 9.3 million jobs the president is touting, more like 9.1, he's ignoring the fact that the economy shed some 22 million jobs in March and April. So we're actually still down, 12.9 million jobs during the pandemic. A pandemic, that's affected nearly 5 million Americans and killed more than 161,000. And all of those people out of work, they need a deal made. Isn't that supposed to be your specialty? I'm want to talk about the president's news conference tonight with CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, I'm glad that you are here tonight, to give us the story and tell us what happened. I mean, the president did not -- as we know, he didn't actually sign an order. And frankly Jeremy, it's not at all clear that he can do the things that he is saying. So, this must be about the campaign?</s>JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think its twofold Laura, I think that the president here is trying to increase the pressure on Democrats in order to actually get this phase force stimulus deal done. Keep in mind these two sides, despite more than 20 hours of negotiations over the last two weeks, are still more than one trillion dollars apart. So, I do think there is a part of this were the president and his team have repeatedly been waving the executive orders over the negotiators heads, to try and pressure something, but so far it doesn't seem to be working. And that's really were you get to the other side of this, which that it is political. It is the presidents telling his supporters look, the Democrats aren't able to do this. The Democrats won't give us a deal. And so I am going to act unilaterally to take care of you the American people. I do think that's part of the president's political objective here. But that brings us to the next question which is something you raised, which is the notion of does the president actually have the authority to do this. And it is not clear at this point that the president does have that authority specifically when you are talking about taxing power which is typically the power of Congress. And the president here talking about suspending the payroll tax. That seems unclear and the White House so far hasn't provided any details on exactly what mechanisms the president would use to get that done unilaterally.</s>COATES: Well, I mean, the constitutional devil is in those details. Is it not, but before the event tonight, Jeremy the president to the crowd at his golf club and he actually was caught on a hot mic explaining what he was about to do. Listen to this.</s>TRUMP: Hello everybody, hello everybody. Thank you, so, we are going to do a press conference and I thought you were here you might as well come in and see. You will get to meet the fake news tonight.</s>COATES: Enjoy it. Enjoy it. So, this is why the president wanted to do this, Jeremy?</s>DIAMOND: Yes. Look, this is vintage Trump, and if you had any question about the extent to which the president misses his political rallies, you've got a pretty clear indication today because what you saw the president do during his quote unquote news conference was really deliver a campaign rally speech. Except his audience rather than the thousands of people he typically likes to see in a crowd, was about a dozen reporters and a few dozen members of his personal golf club. And frankly, this reminded me of those days back during the 2016 campaign, when the president had these victory nights, where he also did the same thing. They were quote unquote press conferences, but also packed with a couple dozen members of a Pina Gallery, who would be cheering him on during these addresses. And so the president certainly here is reveling in the showmanship, and it is a big part of it, right? Beyond the policy of this, beyond the executive order, beyond what this could do to potentially help Americans and address the situation with this deadlock in Congress, the president is putting on a show here. And I think it was pretty clear.</s>COATES: It is indeed, thank you Jeremy so much. And I can't even believe that he says we have a lot of good news. Enjoy it. Well, now I want to bring in Toluse Olorunnipa who is White House reporter for the Washington Post who was at the president news conference. Toluse, I'm so glad to see you tonight. It's always a pleasure to talk to you. You know, you are the reporter who actually press the president over his club members violating social distancing guidelines. And is see that your screen is a little back to the future (inaudible), you're trying to disappear for us but I know you'll be back. And you said -- he said it was a peaceful protest, and so they can freely violate the state of New Jersey's rules apparently it's considered a peaceful protest all of a sudden? When did that happen?</s>TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALSYT: Yes, I try to ask the president about why he was holding this essentially a small rally of upwards of 100 people in an indoor space at his New Jersey golf course even though the New Jersey guidelines say you really should have more than 25 people in any room even if it's a political event you should have more than 100 people in the room. And in doing so, you should have people social distancing, wearing masks, and that just wasn't happening. So, I try to ask the president about this, he shot back that this was a peaceful protest, and this was allowed, and that essentially people were wearing masks, obviously when people first came in they were not wearing masks. Somebody from his staff saw that, you know, reporters were reporting that they were violating all these New Jersey guidelines, and then all of a sudden, they got some masks and handed them all out. And people started wearing masks, but they were still huddled together. It was still sort of a super spreader kind of events. That type of thing that public health guidelines say you should not be doing. And there was no real purpose for it. Those people did not have to be in the room, the president was not announcing anything major or significant. And he actually put them at risk by having them all gathered in there. And he put himself at risk by being in the same room with people who have not been tested who are gathering together and potentially having the virus spread in his own club. And it was not showing a good example for the rest of the country about what -- how business owners should be operating and how, you know, the public should be operating, holding nonessential meetings and nonessential gatherings of large groups of people who are not wearing masks.</s>COATES: I'm glad you mentioned the point of nonessential meeting. Because I repeat, the president did not issue an executive order, it wasn't as if he was giving some breaking news. He was talking about the issues and he was, well, a little bit skirting the issues as well. But tell me, we could see the reaction of the crowd as much. We heard the soundbite where they reacting to the idea of fake news as he calls it being in the room, what was the reaction of the audience members who were gathered there in a non-socially distance way, what was the reaction during his speech? And as he calls a peaceful protest and gathering?</s>OLORUNNIPA: Well it was nothing like the big rallies that Jeremy talked about, where you have thousands of people who are amped up and energize. People came in early. They had their wine glasses and they seemed to be serve like a Friday evening soiree. Where people were just having a good calm evening. But after the evening kept going for minutes upon minutes, I think he spoke for upwards of 45 minutes, even before he took questions. It started to get a little long, long winded and some of the people seem like they were kind of shifting on their feet. I saw some of the children start to sit on the floor. It was not a lot of call and response, not a lot of clapping or cheering during the president speech. It was only at the end where he started going after the media and attacking that the crowd really got engaged. But it did seem like the president does miss those big rallies were he's able to get that feedback from his supporters. That wasn't this. You had, you know, sort of, wealthy country club goers who spent a lot of time just sort of standing there listening to the president waiting for him to wrap up. And towards the end, it seems like they were kind of lost interest and there wasn't a lot of energy in the room. And you know, all of that for the fact that they were also sort of risking their health by being.</s>COATES: Toluse, thank you so much. All in search of instant gratification, but you know what would be instantly gratifying? If the numbers actually went down. Thank you for joining us. But joining me now, CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner and political commentator Amanda Carpenter. So glad to see both of you here today. Haven't seen you Amanda in a while and good to see you. And I'm happy that you're here. Dr. Reiner, I want to begin with you, because you know, what did you think about the scene there at the presidents club tonight? I mean, it was obviously a peaceful protest, so what were your thoughts about the social distancing and the absence of masks initially?</s>JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, the president has a learning disorder. He just cannot get this right. And when -- he just cannot understand is that we are in a crisis. 1,200 people died today. That's eight 737s packed with our parents, and our brothers and sisters, and our grandparents, and our business partners, and our neighbors. And eight planes crashed today and will crash tomorrow and the day after the day after that, and a lot of the reason for that is lies at his feet. His failure to model leadership, to put the pandemic down. You know, his failure to model safe behavior outside, which is wearing a mask, encouraging your supporters to wear a mask, he brought supporters unmask to Tulsa in the middle of their highest outbreaks. He brought supporters to Phoenix, he brought supporters to Mount Rushmore. And today he brings supporters unmask to his own club. He just cannot get it right. And it would just be frustrating if it wasn't killing so many people. I don't understand it.</s>COATES: Eight planes. Every time I hear that or even think and contemplate that, my stomach sinks. And I think I'm watching a horror movie, but I'm actually watching the news. Amanda, how does it look at the president is giving the speech by the way on employment relief, but he is doing it from a private New Jersey golf club. Are the optics right here?</s>AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Listen, this press conference speech rally show, whatever you want to call it was a disaster before he even started speaking. And that is because there were supporters there, not masked, not socially distanced -- distancing in violation of New Jersey law. Listen, were both moms, we have to mask up us and our children every time we go into the store. And so when you watch this, as a regular person, you just see these are people who played by different rules. They think this is a joke. They are going to go on to this golf club, they're going to have their wind. They're going to have a nice weekend. Meanwhile we are still locked up. And then Donald Trump stands up there, and he says the virus is disappearing, it's disappearing. That is not true. And then when you get to the meat of this press conference where he says he's going to take these unilateral actions to help alleviate people who have been impacted by coronavirus, what are you doing? He is on the golf course. Nobody is in Washington working on this, and he is on the golf course trying to give a speech in front of a bunch of supporters to make himself feel good and try to reset his campaign when he can't get away from this virus.</s>COATES: Every day would be an opportunity to use his golfing as analogy. It would be mulligan opportunity to get it right every day, but as Dr. Reiner's talking about every day he continues not to do it. Another question for you Amanda, you know, President Trump says that he's going to pursue executive action to do, well to do what Obamacare already does. Listen to this.</s>TRUMP: We will be pursuing a major executive order requiring health insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions for all of its customers, this has never been done before.</s>COATES: It's never been -- well, actually it has been done before and it's called Obamacare. And it's the law of the land, right as we speak on this Friday night, it already covers pre-existing conditions. So, can you explain that to me? Especially when you add that the Trump administration is fighting right in the courts to get rid of Obamacare?</s>CARPENTER: I think there must be policy people giving him notes that don't understand what President Obama did or even what President Trump campaigned on in 2016. Republicans campaigned on repealing Obamacare. And now Donald Trump said he's going to write an executive order to reinforce the biggest plank of Obamacare. It makes no sense. What he said about unemployment, how he is going to unilaterally pursue unemployment and enhancements, it didn't make any sense. Because his economic team just this week has been saying, we are not going to give those people an extra $600 a week, because we are paying them to stay home. And now he stands up and cut the legs off from under them. So, this is a mess, if you're wondering why nothing is getting done in Washington, why there's gridlock? Trying to make sense of that press conference. Because I doubt their own communications team can right now.</s>COATES: And Dr. Reiner, of course as you know, I mean the numbers that you gave, we all shutter about tomorrow and the next day and the next day as we know what lies ahead. Unfortunately, what does not have to be, thank you to both of you, Dr. Reiner and Amanda Carpenter. I appreciate it. You know, major concerns over how to reopen schools. This as New York has given me all clear for in person learning. Next a top doctor weighs in on how to keep our kids safe. Plus a huge motorcycle rally kicks off in South Dakota, this is actually a live picture you are seeing. The biggest gathering in the U.S., since the pandemic began. And there is no mask rule.