Special Edition: Trump “looking at” unproven treatment pushed by MyPillow CEO; Democratic national convention kicks off tonight across four cities with hundreds of live video feeds; Former Trump official to endorse Joe Biden; Trump rails against universal mail in ballots;
The Lead with Jake Tapper
CNN
3.5 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 August 2020
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
FDA grants emergency authorization for COVID-19 saliva test; CDC says virus rates in children are “steadily increasing”; Researchers struggling to recruit minorities for vaccine clinical trials; Los Angeles schools announce massive testing plan to get kids back in classrooms; COVID-19 deaths in U.S. top 170,000, nearly 5.5 million cases; Georgia college kids throw packed party, spark outbreak concerns; UNC Chapel Hill switches to remote classes after cases rise;
Former Trump official: what I saw was “terrifying”; Michelle Obama, Sen. Sanders to speak at say one of DNC; DNC day one speakers focusing on sending a message of unity; Michelle Obama headlines first night of democratic convention; “I know Joe”: preview of Michelle Obama’s speech tonight;
New CNN poll: race tightens ahead of democratic convention; CNN poll: Biden’s lead over Trump shrinks as enthusiasm grows; New CNN poll shows dead heat in key battleground states; CNN poll: Biden has 4 point lead over President Trump; Atlanta mayor discusses upcoming convention speech;
Pelosi calls for house to return from recess for postal service vote; Postmaster general agrees to testify before congress; Speaker Pelosi to seek $@5 billion for post office USPS funding; WH chief of staff: mail sorting machines won’t be removed; Trump false suggests ballot drop boxes could lead to voter fraud; Post office says it will stop removing collection boxes until after election; Trump asks why post office hearing is during RNC and not DNC
U.S. intelligence indicates Iran paid bounties to Taliban for targeting American troops in Afghanistan; Trump kicks off multi-day campaign trip to counter DNC; WH announces plans to drill in arctic national wildlife refuge; Trump may hold memorial service for his brother at the WH; South Korea orders thousands of church members tested after outbreak; New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern delays election by 4 weeks over COVID-19; Trump approves emergency declaration for Iowa Derecho; California ravaged by wildfires and record heat wave
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the lead I'm Jake Tapper. Today the coronavirus death toll in the United States has |
| 0:05.8 | surpassed 170,000 people though there is some encouraging news in the fight against the virus. |
| 0:13.5 | Health officials are now hopeful that a new saliva test could potentially help speed up results |
| 0:18.5 | and help contain the spread by more rapidly identifying and isolating the virus. |
| 0:23.5 | The news comes as 17 states are actually performing fewer tests this week than they did the week |
| 0:29.0 | before, according to the COVID tracking project. |
| 0:32.2 | Short of a vaccine, experts say that we know how to |
| 0:35.0 | contain this virus from spiraling out of control. It's widespread testing, |
| 0:38.8 | contact tracing, wearing masks and distancing measures. Yet for 21 straight days, an average of 1,000 Americans |
| 0:47.0 | have died from the virus every day. |
| 0:49.4 | And President Trump has still not announced or implemented |
| 0:52.4 | any new national strategy to combat the virus. |
| 0:55.4 | Instead, we are now learning that President Trump has reportedly been exploring a new unproven |
| 1:00.9 | treatment, alleged treatment, a plant extract pushed by a prominent |
| 1:05.2 | supporter of his, the creator of my pillow. |
| 1:08.7 | CNN, White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond joins us now live and Jeremy it's so odd. |
| 1:13.0 | President Trump can be so dismissive of infectious disease experts such as Dr. Fauchy or Dr. Burks. |
| 1:19.0 | And yet he's so keen on listening to people who clearly have no expertise on this. |
| 1:23.6 | What do we know about this dietary supplement and why the president is so interested in it? |
| 1:30.0 | Well, right off the bat Jake, we should say that no studies on Oleandran have and COVID-19 have been published in any peer-reviewed medical journals. |
| 1:40.0 | There's no public information to show that Oleandron has been used in coronavirus patients or that it is effective |
| 1:46.1 | But just like with hydroxychloricine the president seems to want to listen to many non-expert experts on these types of issues. In this case it is Mike Lindel, the |
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