Special Edition: Postmaster General suspends changes to Postal Service; U.S. averaging 1,000+ deaths daily from COVID-19; Tonight’s headliners include Jill Biden and former Pres. Bill Clinton; Former Trump official endorses Biden; CNN Poll: 34% of voters want to cast ballots by mail; Michelle Obama slams Trump: He “cannot meet the moment”;
The Lead with Jake Tapper
CNN
3.5 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2020
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
UNC Chapel Hill moves classes online after 130 students test positive for COVID-19; Schools at all levels battling COVID-19; Cases in U.S. declining as average deaths remain at 1,000+ per day; NYT: Researchers say herd immunity threshold could be 50%; Testing Czar: Saliva test used by NBA could be a “game changer”; Researchers struggling to recruit minorities for vaccine clinical trials; Study: Flu & other viruses may spread in dust; 7 sick passengers infect others on flight; CNN Poll: 42% of Americans not confident votes will be cast and counted accurately; Majority of Americans worry voting will be too difficult this fall in new CNN polling; CNN Poll: 53% of Biden supporters want to vote by mail while 66% of Trump supporters want to vote in person; Jill Biden to address convention from school where she taught; Source: Bill Clinton to deliver sharpest rebuke of Trump yet; Trump: Michelle Obama “over her head”, speech was “divisive”; Daughter of Trump supporter: My father died from COVID after trusting the president; Former Trump administration official now backing Biden; Ex-Trump Official: What I witnessed was terrifying; Trump tries to appeal to women with “suburban housewife” trope; Senate Intel Report: Trump Campaign welcomed Russia’s help in 2016; 21 states trending down in weekly COVID cases; New Studies: People may have stronger immune system; Michelle Obama: “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country”; Wuhan hosts massive water park party as coronavirus concerns recede; New Zealand PM fires back at Trump on new cases; Number of COVID-19 cases in Paris jumps six-fold since beginning of month;
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the lead. I'm Jake Tapper and we begin with breaking news in the fight over the November election and mail-in voting this afternoon. The Postmaster General Louis Dejoy has announced that he is suspending planned changes to the |
| 0:16.1 | U.S. Postal Service to quote avoid even the appearance of any impact on election |
| 0:22.0 | mail unquote after accusations that the Trump administration of any impact on election mail." |
| 0:23.1 | After accusations that the Trump administration was purposefully trying to undermine |
| 0:28.6 | mail-in voting ahead of November's election, not only through the president's rhetoric in which he speaks |
| 0:33.7 | repeatedly against vote by mail but through tangible steps that the Postal |
| 0:38.2 | Service had taken that postal carriers said have led to delays throughout the country. |
| 0:43.6 | Desjoy saying this afternoon that mail processing equipment and |
| 0:47.0 | collection boxes will remain in place and no facilities will be closed, |
| 0:52.0 | though it is unclear what this may mean for changes that |
| 0:55.5 | have already been implemented such as sorting equipment that has already |
| 1:00.8 | been removed. The announcement comes as De Joy is scheduled to face |
| 1:04.8 | lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Friday. CNN's Kristen Holmes is joining us now to talk |
| 1:09.7 | about this. Kristen, what sort of pressure was the Postmaster general facing? |
| 1:15.0 | Well, Jake, he was facing that Washington pressure and it was enormous. |
| 1:19.0 | I mean, just to go through what happened that led us to this it was really a snowball effect it |
| 1:23.3 | started as you said with these postal workers sounding alarms over cuts that |
| 1:27.7 | de Joy was making which he said were in desperate need because of the dire |
| 1:31.4 | financial situation at the post office. |
| 1:33.2 | That included overtime hours, meaning that once post workers were done, the mail just |
| 1:38.1 | went back to the post office. This was creating massive delays. Then CNN obtained documents that showed on top of that |
| 1:46.2 | the removal of about 700 high-volume sorters, mail sorters, ahead of November when we are obviously expected to see the |
... |
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