Pence: U.S. is opening “safely and responsibly” even as cases surge in many states

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

News

3.7 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2020

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

During the first White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing in nearly two months, Vice President Michael Pence claims Americans are seeing “encouraging news” despite 32 states across the country seeing an increase over the past week. Pence also defended the President’s recent rallies in Oklahoma and Arizona, two states seeing a spike in cases, saying Americans have freedoms of speech and assembly. Marc Lotter is the Director of Strategic Communications for Trump 2020. He joins AC360 and says even in the states with a jump in cases, masks shouldn’t be mandatory statewide and it should be up to the governors, mayor and local executives to put those rules in place. Plus, Texas was one of the first states to reopen but because of the volume of new cases, the Governor has “paused” the state’s phased economic reopening. Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor University, tells AC360 Texas is in a better position with more people wearing masks and bars closed but he isn’t sure that will be enough to stop the virus. Airdate: June 26, 2020 To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It is admittedly hard to say good evening at the end of a week that saw the worst day
0:06.7	yet in terms of new coronavirus cases in this country or the worst day ever by far in
0:13.6	the state of Florida with nearly 9,000 new infections there.
0:17.8	It is tough to end the day with 32 states now showing rising case counts and just seven
0:24.3	with declining numbers.
0:25.5	Still, to look at that green line there for new cases in this country and compare it
0:31.5	to the European Union in pink.
0:34.2	Late today EU diplomats told us that American travelers are unlikely to be allowed into member
0:39.6	countries when they begin to open up.
0:42.3	In a larger sense though the gap between the green and the pink lines on that graph there
0:47.0	is what a failed national policy looks like and tens of thousands of preventable deaths.
0:53.8	That's right.
0:54.8	The science shows us were preventable.
0:58.7	Against that backdrop the president's task force briefed today for the first time since
1:02.5	the 27th of April when the president you may remember suggested injecting disinfectant
1:08.3	and shining light inside people's bodies to stop the virus somehow.
1:13.6	He has since taken to flouting his own task forces guidelines at every turn holding mass
1:20.1	indoor rallies in hot zones in the country not wearing a mask a simple step modeling
1:25.6	behavior that gets people killed.
1:28.6	So has the vice president who led that briefing today as well and as he has on similar
1:34.3	occasions he looks straight into the camera and frankly did not tell the truth.
1:39.5	Here is what he said about that rising US case curve which will leave on the screen
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CNN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of CNN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.