u.s. president donald trump calls it a historic break through. critics say it is a political ploy. the u.s. food & drug administration give the go ahead for a new emergency use of coronavirus treatment. kellyanne conway says she's leaving her white house post just as her boss gears up for the republican national convention. all of this while not just one but two storms barrel through the gulf coast. live from cnn world headquarters, welcome you, our viewers here in new york, i'm

kim brunhuber, this is "cnn newsroom." we are now just hours away from the start of the republican national convention. ahead of that, u.s. president donald trump is touting what he calls a powerful therapy to treat covid-19 patients. he's talking about convalescent plasma. it's been given as an emergency use authorization by the fda though many question whether there's enough data to support its use. >> the fda has issued an emergency use authorization. that's such a powerful term, emergency use authorization for a treatment known as

convalescent plasma. this is a powerful therapy that transfusions very, very strong antibodies from the blood of recovered patients to help treat patients battling a current infection. >> several medical experts believe the fda's decision was made under pressure from the white house. the head of that agency denies it and defends the move saying all decisions are based solely on data. >> we know we're going to continue to collect data. we do that for all of our emergency use authorizations. recommemdesivir was authorized y 1st. it's the nuances of the language around the authorization that we use in the legal aspect. >> it's a promising treatment. you can't say it's very effective yet. >> i would say if you're one of those 35 out of 100 people who these data suggest show survive as a result of it, this is

pretty significant for that person and their family. >> jeremy diamond has more on the announcement from the white house. >> reporter: president donald trump on sunday announcing that the fda has approved an emergency use authorization for potential coronavirus treatment and that is convalescent plasma. now convalescent plasma certainly has been used already in about 70,000 patients in the united states alone and there is some promising data behind it, but certainly randomized controlled clinical trials have not yet reached a conclusion about this convalescent plasma's efficacy. the president is insisting this is an historic break through. this might be an incremental improvement. to call this a break through simply is not the case. the president insisting he was able to overcome what he calls a log jam at the fda. >> well, i think that might have been hauled up but we broke the log jam over the last week to be

honest. there are people in the fda and actually in your logic department that can see things being held up and wouldn't mind so much, that's my opinion, that's for political reasons. this has nothing to do with politics. this is life and death. >> reporter: those comments followed a tweet where he accused people of the quote, unquote, deep state to slovak seens and treatments. there is no evidence to back that up. what is interesting here, of course, the president appears to have put some significant political pressure on the fda to grant this emergency use authorizati authorization. the timing is very notable. the president is set to begin the republican national committee over the coming week. the president certainly looking for a win. this appears to be the one the president was able to find for himself. the way the president described

this as a break through, historic, not the case. jury is still out but there is some promising data behind it. jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. >> let's bring in dr. pete neal joining us from wales. thank you for speaking with us. a lot to unpack. the key question, is there any proof this works? >> i've not seen any. i read 100 papers a week on this sort of subject. i would have expected any successful trials to be in the new england journal of medicine orhlan set very quickly. >> what's behind this? why would they seemingly rush this? >> i really have no idea because i'm not sure how the legislation licensing works in the states. it certainly wouldn't happen in this country although you can have compassionate use. that's mainly used for people

with terminal cancer or new drugs who haven't been close to being tested. what worries me is your' giving the plasma to 70,000 people and you get 70,000 controls. without the answer does it work? i think one of the big questions is that no trials were done properly in the initial stages. we never found out what worked and we had to show how dangerous hydroxychloroquine is. >> the commissioner says the treatment was safe and had the potential to be helpful. with such a deadly disease, even if we don't have solid proof it works, isn't there merit to the argument that if it's not outright dangerous, we should try everything? >> i'm not quite sure we can even say it's not outride dangerous. you think a blood product which

could transmit infections, although this would be screened out in most cases, and not do any good. we also know that some of the problems with covid-19 are due to a cytokine storm which is an over stimulation of the immune system. too many antibodies, it might be deleterious. we just don't know. >> we know that just recently the fda wasn't ready to approve this and president trump tweeted that the fda is slow walking a treatment and then, presto, it was approved. it's hard not to be under the impression that the fda's been pressured here. as a scientist, how do you feel seeing, for instance, the trump -- that president trump is suggesting that it's the deep state rather than the scientific method that's delaying potential treatments? >> i think there's always a caution on behalf of the regulators so they don't

initiate treatments that are unhelpful or dangerous. the best case is for the fda to publish the evidence that they actually use to make the decision and other regulatory bodies around the world can use this decision to make informed n decisions. >> thank you very much. we are hours away from the start of the republican national convention. president trump will make his case to americans for a second term but there won't be a new party platform this year. republican national committee says they won't release one opting instead to support mr. trump's agenda. his family members feature heavily on the list of speakers. he will appear every day. he is going to arrive in charlotte, north carolina, monday morning. >> reporter: the city of charlotte, north carolina, will play a role in the republican

national convention. perhaps not the big role they planned but a lot of the activity taking place here monday will be very important for president trump's campaign. the delegates will come from there and cast their ballots for president trump and mike pence to be there. president trump will be here. he and the vice president will thank the delegates for their participation. he'll deliver belief remarks. this is not his formal acceptance. that's not going to happen until later in the week on thursday when the president officially accepts his nomination. most of the activity will shift from charlotte to washington almost immediately. many of the speeches that will take place that will happen live will originate out of washington. includes speeches from second lady karen pence and melania will deliver his speeches from washington. this is something president trump has a lot riding on.

he's told his team he wants it bigger or better than last week. he's brought in people from the a pren dis. a lot riding on this for president trump. there are two hurricanes that could make their way onto the gulf coast sometime during the week of this convention which could add a further complication to this entire process. ryan nobles, cnn, charlotte, north carolina. >> you'll want to tune in to cnn for coverage of the republican national convention starting monday, here at 7 p.m. for our international viewers, that's 12 a.m. in london and 7 a.m. tuesday in hong kong. you may have noticed white house counselor kellyanne conway on the list of primetime rnc speakers. she's leaving her job at the end

of the month. it's not clear whether she will still speak at the rnc. sunday her husband george conway said he's stepping away from his role at the lincoln project. two powerful storms are barrelling towards the u.s. gulf coast. authorities are telling people to evacuate if they can or take all safety precautions. the first storm could make landfall in just a matter of hours. after the break we'll follow that and the latest on california's wildfires with hundreds burning across the state and no end in sight. do stay with us. we support memorable moments, concentration - in hectic times . and focus to win the day. unlike ordinary memory supplements... neuriva's clinically proven ingredients fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. take the neuriva challenge with our money-back guarantee! it's kind of my quiet, alone time. audible is a routine for me.

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wash your hands often with soap and water and monitor your health. always use the inside of your elbow to cough or sneeze. be sure to cover your mouth and nose with a cloth face cover around others. and keep about 6 ft distance from them. and remember to clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily. the best way forward is together. lysol. what it takes to protect. the u.s. gulf coast is bracing for not one but two powerful storms back to back this week. first up is marco downgraded a short time ago from a hurricane to a tropical storm. following right behind it is tropical storm laura heading towards some of the same areas in marco's path. this video here shows the long line of traffic as people leave the town of grand isle in louisiana. evacuations have been ordered for parts of the state. over the weekend the storm

killed at least nine people in the caribbean. meteorologist pedram javaheri has more. you've been tracking both storms. >> kim, you've got to go back to 19 r59, the last time we had two named storms in the gulf of mexico simultaneously. this has the place to become the next 20 or so hours. marco has weakened in the last several hours. good news that the system is running with wind sheer. it will shift farther towards biloxi. it will go up the coast. could make landfall as a tropical storm or it could parallel the coast line and fade itself out and never make landfall altogether. the big story is the water in

advance of it. six feet or almost two meters high in some of these higher areas, mostly grand isle. we noe vac cue wagss have been in place. this is a storm that we're most concerned about. this is tropical storm laura. it has what it takes to develop rather quickly within the next 24 to 48 hours. we think it will be in the gulf of mexico before that. less wind sheer. slow winds are not going to break it apart. that will allow the storm system to strengthen and they warn by wednesday morning, wednesday afternoon when this system approaches land somewhere around the same spots, western louisiana and/or eastern texas, this will be an area to watch carefully when it comes to potentially category 2 or category 3. kim, we have a significant amount of oil platforms.

this will be a big player for them. 600 platforms, 106 have already seen evacuations there. then give it 48 to 72 hours for laura. two days there will be two storms. >> we'll be tracking both of those all day. thank you very much for that. now california has seen roughly 600 new wildfires pop up in the past week. it's tough, dry weather and 12,000 lightning strikes. fires have scorched more than 1 million acres up and down the state. the governor has declared a statewide emergency and the white house has declared a major disaster. paul bercamen has more.

>> reporter: there's a strong possibility of these lightning strikes, red flag warning all over northern california, central california. here's the command post where they're helping to dispatch the 14,000 firefighters on the lines in california. this gives you what they're up against. this is the lnu complex. the black line means they've gotten containment meaning they've dug it by shovels or bulldozers. the red, there's no containment whatsoever on the monster fires. firefighters pouring in from other states including oregon. we spoke with one of those firefighters who's out on the line. >> this is historic. i mean, something that we've seen in the past but not to this magnitude. our resources are stretched thin and we're worried about the system coming in causing the same havoc throughout the state. and trying to get resources to protect the citizens of california.

>> this is calastoga, california. they've had their share of fire in the past decade. one of the firefighters advising them what's going on. people showing appreciation. a woman drove up and heard firefighters needed pillows, were trying to buy pillows. she handed them 12 to 14 pillows. >> we're nothing without them. thank god they're here. they put out a need for help. the air is horrible. they're out there fighting these things for us. the least we can do is bring some pillows. >> reporter: so back here on the ground this sentiment, what will this weather bring them? will it be more lightning strikes that caused so much trouble before? they're just crossing their

fingers and hoping they get through the next 24 to 48 hours. back to you. >> i like to bring in jerry vacuavano. thank you for joining us. i know how difficult it must be given how much you've lost. for viewers, just take us through what we're seeing behind you. where exactly are you? >> right now i'm in front of what was our winery. we had built this about 15 years ago. my dad and i built the whole thing here moving out to california to follow our dream. you can see the tasting room behind us and some holding tanks and you can see the forklift and

a whole bunch of bottles. it's just -- i had to watch it burn down and we had no warning so it's pretty rough for me and my bhoel family. >> i can imagine how heartbreaking that must be to see that all erupt into flames. i know from covering the fires in paradise and elsewhere in california often you have just moments to decide whether to stay or make a run for it. take us through exactly what happened. >> when i left that day the fire was so far away. it was in napa. it was probably like 20 miles away and so from 5:00 in the evening until like midnight it must have traveled that far and the wind just picked up and it pushed it over the hills and when i came down from the hill

down looking towards our property i could just see like the flames were everywhere. it looked like armageddon from the north to the south, you could see it all over the hills coming in in different veins. it was terrifying. so when i got here we loaded up our cats that we had and we just grabbed what we could out of the house that was important to us, mostly keepsakes and things like that. i hooked up my tool trailer to my pickup truck and everyone had left. i said i had to leave my chickens and my goats behind, which was very trying for me because i raised those goats since they were little. they were here. i had them to keep down the

grass behind and around our property to protect it from fires. and so i had to say good-bye. as i did, one of my cats that took off came running up to me so i grabbed her, put her in my truck and we drove out. the last thing i saw was behind the house, flame coming in. you could hear the trees exploding. it's a very, very terrifying thing. >> we're following a breaking story in wisconsin. protests erupted in the city of kenosha after a police officer shot a black man. wisconsin's governor has identified the man as jake blake.

two officers following blake with guns as he walked from the passenger's side to the driver's side. we're not going to show the video now. you can see an officer pointing a gun as he holds on to blake's show the. seven shots are heard before blake goes limp. it's not yet known what led to the shooting. an attorney says blake's three young sons were in the car when he was shot so we're going to bring you more information on this breaking story when it comes available. as the republican convention is about to begin, some republicans are pleading, don't vote for president trump. more on this coming up next.

welcome back to you our viewers in the united states, canada, and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber and you're watching "cnn newsroom." the u.s. republican national convention gets underway in just a few hours. of course it will look very different from past conventions because of the coronavirus pandemic. some elements are still being worked out but there will be a full slate of gop speakers including several members of mr. trump's family. meanwhile, a new cbs poll shows president trump trailing joe biden by ten points. not all will be following this. ♪ god bless the u.s.a.

♪ >> reporter: as president trump formally accepts the gop nomination this week, some republicans are already speaking out. >> i'm one of many who voted for the current president donald trump. >> voicing their regrets. >> it's been worse than what we ever imagined. we're farmers and, like i said, conservative republicans. >> reporter: and warning fellow conservatives. >> you know deep down in your sunday school hearts what kind of man donald trump is, what kind of christian he is. you know, don't ya? >> these are some of the faces of the never trump movement, a small slice of disaffected republicans, rank and file and former officials swimming upstream in trump's party hoping to make him a one term president. the move is multiplying. with the lincoln project republican voters against trump

and bush alumnae. we worked for w, we support joe. >> i am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers. we dominate the streets. >> reporter: and hoping to get into his head. at least that's the goal of the lincoln project whose videos made by former aides to george w. bush, john mccain and mitt romn romney. >> some of these people don't get it. never trump. never trump is disappearing rapidly. >> reporter: the second act of the movement may be an uphill battle considering 95% of republicans in the latest cnn poll said they would vote for trump again. his re-election campaign has already spent $1 billion while these groups have raised only a tiny fraction of that. two key points are different this time. trump's record and joe biden is

not hillary clinton. >> joe biden just simply isn't as scary to them. i think women are going to lose this election for donald trump. i think that is going to be the decisive and defining group of people. >> reporter: sarah longwell is a lifelong republican and political strategist at republicans against donald trump. she senses a different moment now. amid the coronavirus crisis and deep economic pain. >> but at the same time, so many republicans are still with him. why is that? >> there's always going to be a core support that's never going to walk away from donald trump. you see it all the time. college educated people in the suburbs. women are walking away from him. does he have a base? yes. but you need bigger political coalitions and his political coalition is shrinking by the day. >> reporter: the vast majority do support president trump or

will vote for him, but it is some of these voters could make a difference. a sliver of tight republicans could matter. testimonials coming in who say they voted for him four years ago and will never do it again. they're spending a vast amount of money. the question this week is can president trump change some of those people's minds who were already thinking about voting against him? jeff zeleny, cnn, washington. we're joined by richard johnson, lecturer in politics in england and author of the end of the second reconstruction, obama, trump. thank you very much for joining us. >> good morning. >> as the poll we just mentioned suggests, for trump ground to make up and republicans are

hoping the convention will give them a boost, can we -- you know, we're going to expect lots of trump, trump appearing almost every night or every night. lots of trump speaking. does that suggest it's not about platform or issues, it's about him? what are we expecting to see and hear? >> yeah. i mean, trump is on the wall for the moment. he has to really land it. the election is getting closer and closer. for all of the talk from republicans about polls tightening and so on, they haven't really tightened nearly enough. the first mail-in ballots go out in two-weeks time. the clock is ticking. the republican party is the party of trump. that's not a unique statement.

yeah, the recent announcement that republicans are unlikely to even write a party platform this year with all of the issues shows you how laser focused they are not on any particular given policy agenda as much as it is on the leadership of donald trump. they're staking everything on that. >> among those speaking, the couple who wielded guns at black lives matter protesters. you study race in politics. does it feel to you as though race is driving this election perhaps even more so than in 2008? >> well, i think race always is a significant background factor in american politics. that runs right through american history. i think it's more visible for white voters this time. for president trump, the key

demographic he's suffering with at the moment, he won the white female vote last time in spite of people's expectations white women would vote for hillary clinton. this time it looks like he's in trouble. that suburban couple with the guns, for example, or that couple with the guns, for example, they are i suppose in some ways meant to be emblematic of certain fear among a segment about crime and safety. i think that's the kind of appeal that president trump is going to make to them, vote for me and i will keep you safe from these nefarious forces which has a racial undertone to it. >> certainly does. i appreciate it. of course, the democrats already wrapped up its convention on thursday. now candidates joe biden and kamala harris are making the media rounds and hitting the

campaign trail to get out their message. >> reporter: well, it had been 12 days since joe biden announced his running mate was going to be kamala harris. since then we have seen them appear togd. last week we formally told us. one of the questions joe biden was asked was trump's attack on his mental sharpness. joe biden responded in part this is a fair question to be asked. he is 77 years old but he said his actions would speak for themselves. here's a little bit of that interview. >> i think it's a legitimate question to ask anybody over 70 years old whether they're fit and whether they're ready. the only thing i can say to the american people, it's a legitimate question to ask anybody. >> let's put the attacks aside.

ronald regan was 77 leaving office, 78 entering office. you said you are a transitioning candidate. does that mean a one-term president? what does that mean? >> no, it doesn't. >> you are leaving open the possibility of eight years? >> absolutely. >> reporter: one of the things he was asked about is the selection process of ka plal harris. we have seen this moment of reckoning over race here in the country and he did come across a lot of pressure wlrks it be from activists, they thought it was time to pick a woman of color. he said the decision was his decision because he sees his values being in line with kamala harris's values. >> i didn't feel pressure but what i do think, i've said it before, you've heard me say it, probably said it on your show,

is the government should look like the people. look like the country. 51% of the population are women. women hold the path to sky. no matter what you say, you cannot -- i cannot understand and fully appreciate what it means to walk in her shoes, to be an african-american woman with an indian american background. child of immigrants. she can't exactly assume what it's like to walk in my shoes. we do know we have the same values. it was easy to make. >> all of this comes of course as republicans are getting ready for their own convention to formally nominate president trump. he would like his own convention to look very different from what we saw from the democrats. he is going to be giving his

speech from the white house. >> it's been two weeks since the highly contested presidential election in belarus and the opposition movement. you can see there, it's still going strong. protests saw massive turnout. go live to minsk next after a short break. and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. for 45 days.

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russia's weighing in on the disputed presidential election in belarus. they say it's difficult to prove the election was rigged without independent outside observers. thousands of people protested in belarus on sunday against the country's president and belarus's embattled government has vowed to use military if order and peace are disrupted. cnn's fred pleitgen is in minsk, belarus. despite all the increased presence of security forces, it

seems as though people braved those threats in a real show of political force here. >> reporter: yeah, it certainly was a show of political force. a lot of people came out into the streets. some people were speaking of possibly 100,000 in the crowd right here on the square just yesterday. and, you know, the slogans were some of the slogans we've been hearing before. they're calling on alexander lukashenko to step down. one of the things that doesn't sit well was the force used in the early stages after that embattled election that lukashenko says he got 80% of the vote in. people hearsay that simply is not true. we're obviously speaking to people in the crowd. a lot of them still believe that they need to continue this pressure. they need to come out because they believe if they don't start a force change now in this country, that moment might slip away. they believe it is now that belarus and the belarusian

people have found their voice and are willing to speak out. at the same time, you had alexander lukashenko, very important, in a bizarre set of videos flying over the crowd and flying over the city in a helicopter with an ak-47 at his side. he got out and inspected some of the people doing security at his hotel. he was wearing a bullet proof vest with his son at his side. he continues to try to paint the folks of the opposition here as being militaristic, as being a threat to the country, there is a chance that outside kun trits may invade the place but on the ground you are seeing beam flowers and there was no one talking about using force in any

way, shape or form. he certainly seems to be upping the ante. he says he is going to stop what's going on here very, very soon. it seems he is in no mood to allow new elections or is even thinking about stepping down. kim? >> appreciate your reporting on this, fred. fred pleitgen in minsk, belarus. it's been 48 hours since alexey navalny was flown to germany to receive treatment at a berlin hospital from suspected poisoning. the latest we have so far is doctors have gotten those in. matthew, we're learning more about the election in the weeks upcoming. >> reporter: there's a lot of

speculation in the russian media that the russian authorities have had alexey navalny under surveillance. he was boarding an aircraft in the far eastern side of russia, siberia. he's pictured of having a cup of tea before getting back on the tarmac. he was taken so suddenly stick. there are images of him being taken off the aircraft by medics. doctors say they found no trace of poisoning in the system. that's one of the reasons why the family and supporters of alexey navalny wanted him evacuated. they got permission. saturday morning he was evacuated to germany. he's in a clinic in the german capital of berlin. he's said to be in a stable but

serious condition. he's unconscious and he's still hooked up to a ventilator to have him breathe. there haven't been any updates but his wife and his supporters through which all of the information is flowing at the moment are saying it will be a few days before they're able to give an update on the exact condition of alexey navalny. what they are saying is doctors in berlin are working hard to save his life and secondly to find out why one of the kremlin's most vocal critics fell so sick so quickly. >> thank you so much, thamatthe chance. mike pompeo has arrived in israel. he'll carry out duty in service of president trump. it may not be in his capacity as the u.s. secretary of state. we'll explain coming up next.

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the man responsible for killing 51 muslims in the worst mass shooting will soon learn

his fate. he was in court earlier. he showed no emotion. tarrant has pleaded guilty to the deadly shooting at two mosques at christ's church in march last year. the court will hear from dozens of victims, survivors and family members over the next several days before deciding on his fate. in a break from a long-standing tradition, a source tells cnn the u.s. secretary of state will make a speech to the republican national convention this weekend. mike pompeo will do so in a recorded message from jerusalem. he kicked off a trip in israel a short time ago. he's been meeting with prime minister benjamin netanyahu. democrats say it's breaking with norms. explain the controversy and take us through what the administration is hoping to achieve in the middle east trip.

>> the reason this is such an unprecedented trip for the secretary of state regardless of who it is because the nation's top diplomat is expected not to act for partisan gain, either his own or in this case for president donald trump. when he leaves the country he is to leave domestic politics behind, at least that's what the president has been, that's what the norm has been. once the secretary of state leaves the u.s., he represents the u.s., all-americans. republicans, democrats, others. giving a speech in jerusalem smacks of secretary of state mike pompeo doing his part to boost president trump as the convention kicks off. we asked the office of prime minister benjamin netanyahu would be making a speech.

they declined to answer. pompeo is meeting with prime minister benjamin netanyahu. they are going to give a short statement after the meeting. keep you updated on that statement. what is this trip all about? part of it is here celebrating the normalization agreement and trying to build on that momentum. he's expected to travel to sudan and oman. that would be another feather in the cap, another foreign policy accomplishment for president donald trump just when he is looking for it most. kim? >> and anymore on the sale of the military equipment? i know that's been percolating in the news there. >> reporter: that's been one of the big issues here. was part of this agreement that netanyahu would agree with the

f-35 lightening 2. jared curber head of brokering the agreement. >> we'll stay on top of all of that. oren lieberman in jerusalem. appreciate it. of course, remember cnn has full coverage of the republican national convention. that kicks off later today at 7 p.m. eastern here in the u.s. and with that, that wraps up this hour of cnn "newsroom." i'm kim brunhuber. stay with us for "early start." that's next.

the republican convention is just hours away. the president will be a daily attraction, but in a surprise move, one of his longest and staunchest defenders is stepping away at a critical time. we'll tell you why. and a twin weather threat in the gulf coast. two major storms barrelling towards louisiana. mandatory evacuations overnight. a new update from the national hurricane center. we have reports from charlotte, the white house, cuba, belarus. welcome to our viewers from the united states and around the world. this is