hello, everybody. i'm john king in washington. thank you so much for sharing this day with us, and a very busy news day it is. the president today welcomes israel, bahrain and the united arab emirates to the white house, part of an historic peace deal. it is a marquee administration

achievement. his morning, however, spent on anything but diplomacy. in a 45-minute call in to "fox & friends" the president setting the truth aside to attack the democratic nominee joe biden and the security of your november vote. he also colored way outside the lines of our pandemic reality. all is well, the president says, along with teasing vaccines might arrive before the november election had. the vaccine experts tell us they likely won't be widely available until the spring of 2021, maybe later. the president attacked the new bob woodward book. remember, the president spoke with woodward 19 times with those books and those inteinters show plainly in his own words how the president knew early on about the threat of this virus but chose to tell you there was nothing to worry about. >> i don't want to create panic, you know. people say oh, you should have gone out there and say, you know, jumped up and down and you're going to die. you're going to die. no, i don't want to do that. i don't want to build it up, and i'll say it right now. we're rounding the turn on the pandemic.

>> also today, millions of acres on fire. entire towns reduced to ash and rubble. at least 36 people are dead. nearly two dozen missing. this hour there are 87 blazes across three states. a cloud of smoke smothering california, oregon and washington. more on the fires, the president and the virus ahead in this busy hour, but we begin with hurricane sally and its slow and scary march towards the gulf states. sally now expected to come ashore overnight or early tomorrow, but already there's heavy rain and some flooding, refrigerator-sized storm surge threatens coastal cities and the mississippi governor calls sally the real deal and is ordering evacuations, alabama and louisiana officials also telling residents to leave now before this storm traps you in your home. >> the storm surge is what really kills people. a meandering storm really presents some real issues. you just don't let your guard down. it just takes one or two mistakes it, and you lose lives, and we don't want to lose any

life and so we'll hopefully in a couple of days return to normal, as normal as 2020 can be. >> let's get straight to chad myers, cnn's weather center. chad, help us understand why slow is bad. >> slow is bad because the rainfall that comes down is going to be raining in the same places for hours hand hours and hours. it's also bad, john, when this thing actually gets an eye wall onshore and if it's on top of you, your 85 miles per hour wind will be for hours and hours because it's only moving two miles per hour. you can walk faster than that. can you walk three, even on the treadmill. the storm isn't getting any stronger. the hurricane center says that this storm has used up a lot of the warm water in the northern gulf of mexico. storms-hour capes, tropical storms use the warm water to get stronger. if you used it had all up, you've run out of energy. you're not running on premium gas anymore, and the eye tried to form a couple of times overnight and this morning, and it just really couldn't make it which means it's probably not going to get any stronger than

85 miles per hour. the threat still is surge. there will be three to six feet of surge, but there will be also be significant freshwater flooding. this is a rain-maker: not a lot like harvey because harvey put down around 60 inches of rain in houston but this will put 20 or 30. this is still a significant flood-maker no matter what town you're in whether mobile or fair hope all the way up into parts of mississippi, alabama and even georgia. there will be enough rain to make flooding and then on the other side it will push salt water up your river and rain trying to come down and salt going up and you're going to get the flash flooding quik quickly. winds between 74 are and 115, especially gusts in the red zone, slightly less as you get farther to the north. all the way from pensacola back into louisiana and under a hurricane warning because you'll see hurricane conditions within the next 24 hours. i know we're saying, john, that this is going to make landfall

to tomorrow between like 7:00 a.m. and maybe into, but landfall isn't that important. that's the center of the eye. you will begin to see the denigration of your weather by midnight tonight if you're anywhere near the eye wall here from biloxi to gulfport to dauphin island all the way over to gulf shores and even farther to the east. if this turns slightly further to the east than what this little mark says. >> chad myers, greatly appreciate it. we will stay in touch obviously through the next 24, 48 hours as this storm makes its way towards land. appreciate it very much. hurricane preparations, that's part of the job if you're a governor along the gulf coast. that job complicated this year because the hurricane season overlaps with the coronavirus pandemic. the mississippi governor tate reeves is with us now live from jackson. governor, i'm grateful for your time today. i know you're very busy. you just heard chad lay out the being if. what is your emergency management team telling you, where in your state do you think is most vulnerable, and what are they telling you to expect? >> well, thank you for having me

on, jop. you're exactly right dealing with hurricanes is part of the job as a southeastern governor, but we are certainly seeing complications in terms of sheltering and other things because of the coronavirus, but really i think what was just said is exactly what we're hearing. this storm has been very difficult to predict. it's been very difficult to predict for a lot of reasons. one of the things that we're seeing is typically when storms slow down like this one has, you know, 36 hours ago it was moving at 12 miles per hour and now it's down as was said to two to three miles per hour. typically those storms that do that then gain significant amounts of strength whereas with this particular storm it's still saying in that cat 1 hurricane level. in the 80 to 9 a 0-mile-an-hour wind, but there's also a lot of difficulty in predicting exactly where it's going to hit landfall. 36 hours ago we were projecting south louisiana. that's been tipping to the east every three hours hand now it's projected to hit landfall

somewhere around the mississippi-alabama line and that's depending on a pretty hard right turn right before it hits landfall, so i really think that the entire mississippi gulf coast and the entire alabama gulf coast has to be on alert because of the lack of predictability of hurricane sally. >> you mentioned that on aearth will. i'm just going to hold on to many so of the headlines in your state. here's one here, "sun herald" and the day before you see a fisherman out there. people go out there to see the waves and the like. "the clarion ledger" noting first laura and now sally and you've been through this. your people have experience and you quickly get experience if you're new governor. there's a difference between resilient and stubborn. in terms when poem are watching this, what are you telling them about people about when to make the call to get out? >> well, if you live in a low-lying area and you're exactly right, and mississippi, our people know what their elevation, is and they know if they live in low-lying area. quite frankly we're already

seeing flooding. we're already seeing water in those backwater areas, and so if you're in a low-lying area in mississippi whether hancock county or harrison county or jackson county, the time to get out is now. this thing has slowed down. we were afraid it was going to hit landfall sometime right after nightfall. later today. it now appears it could -- the eye of the storm could actually hit landfall early tomorrow morning, but as was mentioned earlier, and it's exactly right, we're going to start seeing hurricane level winds and rising water as early as middle of this afternoon so if you live in a low-lying area the time to get out is now. >> walk me through the covid complications, this is from the department of melt, the mississippi medical shelter is a last resort. because of covid-19 the shelter will only operate at half capacity with socially distanced medical grade cots. that's grade one, your backup

shelter. right now you have a 10% positivity rate, as least seven-day moving average in the state of mississippi. how much does it complicate your job, if you need, let's hope you don't, but if you need multiple shelters, do you have to find more locations so you can keep people spread out, or do you just have to tough it out? >> well, first of all, our number one priority is protecting life, and so we will have shelters open, but, yes, we're going to have the ability to ensure that everyone that is in a shelter actually has ppe available to them. we're going to make that available so we will ensure that they are wearing masks. we're also going to open more shelters if that becomes necessary, but what we've tried to reiterate over and over to the people of our state and the people of the other state, by the way, we have people who crossed state lines looking for sheltering. the thing that we have said is if you can go and stay with a neighbor or if you can go and stay with a friend or if you can go and stay with family, please do so. that is the safest way in which to deal with sheltering in this. we're also working with our federal partners of the i've

spoken with administrator gaynor and others and we're looking at non-congregate sheltering, hotels, for example. that's something that was certainly used during hurricane laura. we've talked to governor edwards in louisiana and the experience that they have had over the last several weeks with respect to that. planning for the worst and praying for the best and expecting somewhere in between. we'll have shelters open. we've got the medical needs shelter opened midday yesterday. my emergency management people were there. our state health officer was there for that grand opening, and so we will make sure that sheltering is available for our people should it become necessary. >> tate reeves, the governor of mississippi. governor, i wish you the best in the days ahead. i hope this storm turns away from you, but we wish you certainly the best in the days ahead. we'll keep in touch. >> thanks, john. i appreciate it. >> thank you, governor. appreciate it very much. up next, the president defying his medical experts saying this pandemic is, quote, rounding a turn and says a vaccine is coming in weeks. hey there people eligible for medicare.

gimme two minutes. and i'll tell you some important things to know about medicare. first, it doesn't pay for everything. say this pizza... [mmm pizza...] is your part b medical expenses. this much - about 80 percent... medicare will pay for. what's left... this slice here... well... that's on you. and that's where an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company comes in. this type of plan helps pay some of what medicare doesn't. and these are the only plans to carry the aarp endorsement. that's because they meet their high standards of quality and service. wanna learn more? it's easy. call unitedhealthcare insurance company now and ask...

for this free decision guide. inside you'll find the range of aarp medicare supplement plans and their rates. apply any time, too. oh. speaking of time... about a little over half way and there's more to tell. like, how... with this type of plan, you'll have the freedom to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. great for staying with the one you know... or finding... somebody new, like a specialist. there are no networks and no referrals needed. none. and when you travel, your plan will go with you anywhere in the country. so, if you're in another state visiting the grandkids, stay awhile... enjoy... and know that you'll still be able to see any doctor who accepts medicare patients. so call unitedhealthcare today. they are committed to being there for you. tick, tick, tick, time for a wrap up. a medicare supplement plan helps pay some of what medicare doesn't. you know, the pizza slice. it allows you to choose any doctor,

who accepts medicare patients... and these are the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. whew! call unitedhealthcare today and ask for this free decision guide. proof i can fight moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. proof i can fight psoriatic arthritis... ...with humira. proof of less joint pain... ...and clearer skin in psa. humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver,

and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. humira is proven to help stop further joint damage. want more proof? ask your rheumatologist about humira citrate-free. if you can't afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help.

is it wishful thinking or more deception and defile? president trump insisting several times in an interview this morning that the united states is, quote, rounding the turn. he also says that the coronavirus vaccine is, quote, weeks away, and he's holding indoor rallies, celebrating on twitter a ruling that some pennsylvania covid-19 restrictions are unconstitutional. one thing he cannot influence with his tweet and his words are the numbers that tell us the facts, the truth about this stubborn pandemic. let's look at the latest. if you look at the 50-state trend map, somewhat encouraging. nine states trending up. you see out here in the west trending up badly. the darker red means 50% more cases this week than last woke

and much of the country 20 states holding steady, beige including texas and 21 states trending down, fewer cases compared to a week ago including california, arizona and florida, the three states that drove us up in the summer surge of july and early august so the map looks reason police good today, this is the map of the death and trend and, again, it's lagging to the case trends. 16 states and see across the north here, again, the same area of the west. the plains out that way. 16 states reporting more deaths now than a week ago. these three plus michigan, tennessee. you can see some up in new england, 50% more deaths this week. some start with a low baseline, but that's still not good. 50% more deaths this woke than last week. 16 states holding steady in terms of the death count and 18 states in green trending down. the case trend, this is the big question. where are we? are we pushing the baseline down, or are we in the stubborn plateau? stubborn plateau around 35,000 cases? that's where we were monday and where we've been to start the

week. here's the peak of the summer surge, high 60s, new infections fda, 80,000 plus every day and down below 40,000 and see a tweak up at the end and the question is will we plateau, and can we keep coming down? you look at the positivity rate nationally. this is an encouraging number, an encouraging number. you want the coronavirus positivity, people take tests, what's the positivity rate. you want it below 5%. on monday it was 4%. it's been at a mateo right along 5% for quite some time now. the question is can you get it down even more? that's the trend line you want. you get that down, then the cases will come down as well. if you look at it the from a state perspective, you want to be light blue. light blue new mexico, 2%, light blue california 3% and start to shade the blues, arizona, 7%, the darker the blue you're in the trouble zone. 14% iowa and 11% missouri and 17% kansas and south dakota. wisconsin is there as well and we just spoke to the governor of mississippi, across this part of the southeast where hurricane sally is coming in, significant positivity rate which makes

sheltering more complicated. if you look out here, nevada and arizona, what do they have in common? big giant indoor rallies in both of those states. positivity rate 8% and 7%. you want it below 5%. experts say it's simply reckless for the president to put so many people packed into a tight space at a time the pandemic is still very much a threat. >> if you have a person get infected there because of the exponential growth and the way that this is transmitted, that one person at the end of the month has infected 400 people, and that's why this event, if very few people get infected, lead to hundreds if not thousands of cases afterwards. >> cnn's senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joins me now. you hear dr. del rio and all the public health experts and you go through the data and look at all the studies every day. it's simply not smart, i'm being gentle, not smart to put that many people packed in a tight

space for a long period of time and yet the president says whatever. >> right. why in the world would you want to do that? that's my question. why would you take steps and want to do that? you know, one of the -- the only thing i can think of is you're trying to make a point. you're trying to say or the president is trying to say, look, nothing to see here. no big deal. life is normal. we're going to pack people into spaces normally just like we usually do. that is not the right thing to be doing right now. john? >> so let's listen to the president. he's been saying for quite some time. this is not new per se but the reason i ask this question again is listen to him on "fox & friends" this morning talking about a vaccine timetable. people are starting to involvement the president keeps saying this is going to happen soon. people won't know whether he's right or wrong until we get to november 3or. do we know if we have a vaccine by then but a lot of people will have voted by then, listen. >> we're going to have a vaccine in a matter -- a matter of

weeks. it could be four weeks. it could be eight weeks, but we're going to have it. it's going to be soon. now will it be before the election? it could be in terms of we have something and we'll start delivering it immediately upon getting it, but we're very close to getting the vaccine, and that's something i look forward to. >> i get the political aspiration here, but people are nervous and worried about back to school and back to campus and poem are worried about back to work. we need specifics from our leaders, could be four weeks or eight weeks or 16 or 32, right? >> you know, i think that the most honest thing that we can say here is we don't know when we're going to get a vaccine. dr. fauci has said from the beginning the end of this year, the beginning of next year. back in january he said 12 to 18 months which puts you at the very end of december or the first half of next year. the answer is we just don't know. who would have expected that the

aft scene can a trials, one of the most promising vaccines has now been on hold, on pause for about a week because a participant developed an unexplained illness. you just can't predict these things and you just don't know. john, i have yet to speak with any scientist who thinks that it is realistic to think that we are going to have an authorized vaccine on the market being shot into people's arms by election day. a federal official, someone who works in donald trump's government told me i've never heard a scientist say we're going to get shots into harms by election day. >> well, we will continue to watch that, but as i said specificity, yes, yes, trusting the science and not your wishes would be helpful. grateful as always for the reporting. come up, president trump's refusal to accept climate change draws harsh words from his rival, joe biden. (gong rings) - this is joe.

(combative yelling) he used to have bad breath. now, he uses a capful of therabreath fresh breath oral rinse to keep his breath smelling great, all day long. (combative yelling) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores.

e to the west now where devastating wildfires are taking lives, destroying property and stirring new frustrations with those, including the president of the united states who somehow deny climate change. 36 people have died in

california, oregon and washington. more than 80 active large wildfires, more than 80 burning. more than 4.5 million acres across ten states. in california thousands of firefighters continue to battle at least two dozen large fires. cnn's stephanie elam joins us now from monrovia, california. stephanie, what's the latest there? >> reporter: well, here, i can tell you that this fire has been one that they have really been bat lipping, and what makes this very different, john, this bobcat fire here which is in the suburb burning up in the foothill. believe it or not there's a mountain there but you can't tell because of all of the smoke. we've been watching it flare up in that issue and the issue is it's such rugged terrain that the fire fighters are fighting in. they go in in the morning for 24 hours, all night long, all day long they are working. here come some hot shots heading in their way now. working on the fire line trying to stop the fire from getting further because they don't want the fire to crest over that ridge and come into this

neighborhood where i'm standing now. talking to fire officials, it's clear that all of these fires that we're seeing here is a picture that is not like anything that they have seen before. also clear talking to some fire officials, that this is definitely because of climate change. the fire season, as we used to call it is starting earlier and it's going longer and the fires are bigger, and that is obviously a concern here. also worth noting, as we've heard the president speak about the immediate to clean out the forests. as governor gavin newsom from california pointed out yesterday, 57% of the forests, the forested lands in california are actually federal and they are under their jurisdictions while only 3% are under california's jurisdictions. the others falling to private property so if you look at that, if you're saying this is something you really want to do, president, this would be under your jurisdiction to fix it. however, it's also worth noting, especially with the angeles national forest behind me, it's not the big trees that you think of when you think of a forest. a lot of small bush and growth

like that, so it's not the same sort of idea of cleaning out your forests in the same way, but that is something that people are very concerned about because if that comes over here into this neighborhood you could have more devastation like we've seen in other parts of the west which has just been a broughtal fire season and we haven't even really gotten into the thick of it yes. that's the scary part, john. >> that is the scary part, a nervous time in a neighborhood like that, many others around the state. stephanie elam, grateful for the live reporting on the scene there. we'll stay in touch. the experts say there is no doubt that climate change makes the wildfire threat more dangerous, but president trump just as he does with the coronavirus insists scientists are to be ignored. >> it will start getting cooler. you just watch. >> i wish science agreed with you. >> well, i don't think science knows actually. >> joining us now the white house reporter with "the washington post." it is just remarkable because we do see this in the coronavirus

as well, people who spend years and years and years studying their craft, studying their science, make a point, and the president just shakes his head and cocks his head and rolls his eyes and says go away essentially. every expert you talk to about this issue in california says, yes, we have a wildfire problem always, but it is exacerbated by climate change. the scientists have no doubt and the president says it will get cooler. >> right, and this is a pattern that we've seen from the president, even before his presidency and his rise in public office, denying the science behind climate change. he have's called it a hoax. his -- his administration has clearly taken several steps that -- that environmentalists have decried as being damaging to the climate, and you saw that again yesterday. he was really challenged by a couple of state officials in california that climate change is, yes, an aggravating factors in these wildfires out yet and he said i don't think science

knows. we've seen that where we's -- where he's denied the science and research on public and climate issues to sort of further his open political vows and his open political agenda, and right now what he has consistently done in wildfires, not just right now but from, you know, from a couple of years ago, is that he had blamed the forest management issue saying the leaves aren't being rocked and there are trees exploding and that's true to a certain extent. governor newsom acknowledged that yesterday saying we've not done justice to forest management, but as the correspondent pointed out earlier, it is -- it is, first of all, by far not the only factor, and the president and the federal government itself has a role here in doing that. >> right, and so i want you to listen to the president this morning on "fox & friends." this is a pattern, too. the president thinks if he keeps saying it it turns out to be true. listen. >> you have forests all over the world. you don't have fires like you do

in california, you know. in europe, they have forest cities. you look at countries, austria. you look at so many countries. they live in the forest. they are considered forest cities, so many of them, and they don't have fires like this, and they have more explosive trees. they have trees that will catch easier, but they maintain their fire. they have an expression, they thin the fuel. the. >> there are a couple of parts to that. again, he can say that and the parts of it might well be correct, but those country, number up, the european countries are much more aggressive in signing on, agreeing that climate change is a problem an doing things about it. number two, if they, quote, unquote, thin the fuel which, yes, you're right, governor newsiam says it's an issue but back to that point, the president says it's your problem, california, and more than half of the lands out there are federal lands. he thinks he can just talk about it and not have any responsibility for it. >> right. after staying pretty quiet on the wildfire issue for several weeks, when he first really

spoke out about it in the open at a rally in nevada over the weekend, he did mention the forest clearing issue. he said it again yesterday and he said it again this morning and this is also a pattern from the president that he kind of repeats his own kind of separate reality to wish it to be true and kind of impress that upon the supporters who really follow, you know, whatever he says, but, again, science and at facts point out that manmade climate change is undeniably make mc the conditions out west worse for the wildfires, that it's something that the president has not admitted to, did not acknowledge that when he was pressed upon by the -- by the state officials yesterday, and something that is obviously looking at his past rhetoric on this issue is most likely something that is not -- something that he's not going to acknowledge in the future. >> climate arsonist is the term used by the democratic nominee

vice president joe biden. certainly debating points. appreciate the reporting and the insights there. up next for us, another trouble spot. hurricane sally bearing down in the gulf coast. we'll speak with a man who lost his house to katrina as he prepares for sally 15 years later. when i was in high school, this was the theater i came to quite often. the support we've had over the last few months has been amazing. it's not just a work environment. everyone here is family. if you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. we thought for sure that we were done. and this town said: not today. ♪

to stir that fire, university of phoenix is awarding up to one million dollars in scholarships through this month. see what scholarship you qualify for at phoenix.edu.

hurricane sally is a category 1 storm this hour projected to create a significant rainfall event at a minimum when it makes landfall along the gulf coast late to the or early tomorrow. south mississippi is one of the areas under a hurricane warping, and the storm surge could be up to nine feet according to hurricane forecasters, so stay or if is a pressing question, again, for gulf coast resident. mike taylor is in long beach, mississippi and plans to stand there despite losing his home to hurricane katrina 15 years okay and his 8-year-old nephew matthew is here with us as well. good to see you both as well. mike, you lost a house 15 years ago. some would think okay, i'm not going to go through that again, i'm out of here. you've decided to stay from sally and you're getting help from your nephew to put sandbags around your house. how could you make your calculation? >> well, you've just got to be prepared and the house that i

lost was south of the tracks and now i'm north of of the tracks, so i feel pretty safe. >> you say you feel pretty safe. the resilience, i've been in your community. it was many years ago. resilience of folks along the coast is remarkable, but you've also got to make a line there. i saw in some of the note how you think technology is so much different now than back in the katrina days that it helps had you make a smarter decision, is that right? >> oh, by facts and circumstances yes. now we're tracking storms as soon as they come off the coast of africa, so, you know, it gives us a great feeling to know, you know, what it's going to be and how strong and where i live we have a great first responder core and the emergency management team down here is just exceptional, so i feel like we're prepared. >> so you've been helping the next generation there get ready for this. i understand matthew has given you help with some sandbags

throughout the house. if you can hear me here. do you agree with uncle mike's plan, or is he taking a risk here? what does he tell you about hurricanes? >> i agree with uncle mike's plan and i do not agree that this is a like safe storm to stay. i follow like it's going to be like dangerous because it's going to strike at night more common probable instead of striking during the day when you can see it. it's going to strike during the night when you can't see it. >> and so, mike, just walk me through, you know. obviously you live there, and so this is your nephew, a young man being raised in this area of the country. he's got some concerns there. how do you deal with that while keeping your house safe? >> well, you just got to keep them close to you and just tell them that you'll take care of them. >> amen to them.

mike taylor, young matthew, we wish you the best. we hope this storm takes a turn and certainly glad the family is together as you go through this. we'll keep in touch and see how this plays out in the days ahead. grateful for your time today. thank you so much. >> thanks so much for having us on, and god bless the gulf coast. >> amen. the best to you both and your family and community as well. up next for us, we shift back to policy here. trump loyalist involved in coronavirus policy paid with your tax dollars accuses of cdc scientists of sedition and warns of left wing hit squads. look, this isn't my first rodeo

and let me tell you something, i wouldn't be here if i thought reverse mortgages took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. it's just a loan designed for older homeowners, and, it's helped over a million americans. a reverse mortgage loan isn't some kind of trick to take your home.

it's a loan, like any other. big difference is how you pay it back. find out how reverse mortgages really work with aag's free, no-obligation reverse mortgage guide. eliminate monthly mortgage payments, pay bills, medical costs, and more. call now and get your free info kit. other mortgages are paid each month, but with a reverse mortgage, you can pay whatever you can, when it works for you, or, you can wait, and pay it off in one lump sum when you leave your home. discover the option that's best for you. call today and find out more in aag's free, no-obligation reverse mortgage loan guide. access tax-free cash and stay in the home you love. you've probably been investing in your home for years... making monthly mortgage payments... doing the right thing... and it's become your family's heart and soul... well, that investment can give you tax-free cash

just when you need it. learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse mortgage loan to cover expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve your portfolio, and so much more. look, reverse mortgages aren't for everyone but i think i've been 'round long enough to know what's what. i'm proud to be part of aag, i trust 'em, i think you can too. trust aag for the best reverse mortgage solutions. call now so you can... retire better

fact-free conspiracies, they are a daily feature of the president. now a top government official mirroring the boss. michael caputo is the top spokesman for the department of health and human services. the agency tasked with leading the government's coronavirus response. he says career government scientists are guilty of what he calls sedition. these remarks coming in a live video event caputo hosted on his personal facebook page and twitter account. cnn's sara murray joins us now with more detail. sara, michael has been controversial at times throughout his career, but this even goes outside of those lines suggesting that scientists at the cdc because they take the coronavirus seriously are somehow treasoness, committing sedition. >> yeah. these were pretty reextreme comments that he made in this facebook live. i think he is reflecting what is a suspicion among some, some with political histories in the trump administration, that there are people working in these health care agencies and the cdc who are out to get the president, but it's obviously

very extreme language and frankly, you know, it's not something that we're not used to seeing from michael caputo. this is the guy with a political history, who has now been installed at hhs and has a very long history of speaking his mind. you know, he wrote a book which includes a number of conspiracies about the biden family, one of the people who is pointed to in the mueller report as a witness that potentially lied to investigators, and he was insistent throughout the mueller investigation that the trump campaign did nothing wrong, that there was no collusion. that certainly endeared him even more to president trump. you know, he got in hot water during the last campaign when corey lewandowski, the then campaign manager, got fired. michael caputo was kind of publicly celebrating this. he ended up then resigning from the campaign, and he's also a longtime friend of roger stone, you know, another obviously very outspoken person. he certainly falls in the category of people within the trump administration who believe that there are people who are always out to get the president and always out to get the president's allies. now, i was chatting with michael

caputo earlier. he did note that there are some other things going on and his family has been getting threats and part of that is what was coming across in this facebook live video and caused him to be a little angrier than he would be otherwise, but i do think, john, there is a really deep suspicion within many in the trump administration that somehow some of these scientists are out to get the president. >> okay. well, they should call them in and have meetings maybe as opposed to accusing them of things like sedition but we'll watch again as always. appreciate the reporting and the context there on michael. very important there for us. just ahead, a federal judge has ruled pennsylvania's coronavirus restrictions are unconstitutional. the state's lieutenant governor live with us next. i like liberty mutual.

they get that no two people are alike and customize your car

insurance so you only pay for what you need. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. that's the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management.

the president is celebrating a federal court ruling to put some pennsylvania coronavirus rulings in jeopardy. the governor overstepped the authority and some state restrictions on large gatherings and businesses are unconstitutional. the president praising that decision on twitter with a slew of retweets and voiced hope it would be extended to other states with strict shutdowns like michigan and north carolina but the pennsylvania governor plans to appeal. the lieutenant governor is with us now live. good to see you, sir. the state will appeal and the

commonwealth will appeal. do the restrictions stay in place until then or have you not heard from the courts yet? >> the overwhelming of the restrictions in place will simply because a lot of the actions that were taken were taken backali at the height of pandemic and were successful and dr. birx, of course, the white house coordinator said that we did a quote remarkable job so the president's own point person on the pandemic was in our state less than two weeks ago saying we did a remarkable job so what the governor did during that period worked ien workeden -- i well. >> that's a place where your world and my world overlap. the president says one thing and the top scientists say something very different. >> clearly. >> the president also says just about every stop, again

yesterday, that all these democratic governors are doing this on purpose, doing it to hurt him politically, they have the restrictions in place and lo and behold november 4th they will lift them. what's the standard in pennsylvania, election day or science and data? >> of course it is not the election but you know who is driven by the election? the president. the president retweeted about my state 19 times yesterday and i think that shows two things. one, just how important pennsylvania is in picking the president. and two, just how concerned his standing is within our state so if you talk about the politics of this virus, the governor's played it straight down the middle and science and data driving the decisions whereas politics and the other considerations that are clouding other judgments. i think the tragedy when we look back on this is that all these people didn't have to die and it happened because we made each other the enemy, not this virus,

and that's the one thing that the governor's never forgotten in pennsylvania is the common enemy in the state is this virus and took appropriate steps to make sure that pennsylvania came out as a remarkable job. >> you mentioned, well, let's just show that, actually. show right now your positivity rate down to 6.4%. that's higher than the national average. when you look at the covid as is, if you look at your part of the country going through this early on, is in much better shape now as you look at it. a question about moving forward from that, into the election, because pennsylvania like many states has this plan for much more aggressive use of mail-in voting but you have this issue of the ballot delays now being held up. this is a burks county director of elections saying end of september, beginning of october for when the ballots will be ready to send to voters.

we are just estimating. what is the status here? are you worried that the delays now getting ballots approved throw kinks in the system here while everybody's watching? >> i'm not worried. my understanding is that it's come down to a challenge with respect to whether the green party appears on our ballot or not an enthat's before the pennsylvania supreme court and they understand how that ruling needs to be expedited. i'm concerned about attempts made to discredit mail-in voting. it is 100% bipartisan. the president's campaign promotes. the republicans in pennsylvania promote it. one side and then claim it's subject to fraud on the other. when the truth of the matter is more monerepublicans voted by m than democrats did. there's simple fixes to guarantee a timely, safe and

completely accurate count of the votes. >> if you have a state like yours tending to be close on presidential politics, what is your best guess if you have a record number of mail-in ballots, wednesday, thursday, maybe friday before we know the winner of the commonwealth of pennsylvania, not tuesday night? >> a lot depends on what the republicans in our state legislature are willing to do. the governor today released common sense, not trocontrovers fixes. they're common sense. if they adopt most of those i suspect we would be able to deliver our results rather rapidly. if we are mired in this law that will hamstring some results it may take longer and most important thing is accuracy of the vote and the fact that the other side will try to create doubt or cast this idea that

there's fraud and not the case. vote by mail in pennsylvania is secure, bipartisan and we need to make it about the virus and the choice that we all are going to have in november and pennsylvania's role in picking the president and that's going to be critical that we not politicize a vote by mail deadline that was established by a bipartisan committee when this law was drafted. >> lieutenant governor fett fetterman, grateful for your time. >> thank you. hello to the viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm john king in washington. it is a historic hour at the trump white house. israel, bahrain and the united arab emirates ready to normalize relations. the president said it's the first domino in the view on the road to a much broader arab israeli peace. >> the palestinians will ultimately come in,