it is the top of the hour. i'm brianna keilar. the number of coronavirus cases is on the rise, and only expected to get worse, from dr. scott gottlieb, who warns the countries is about a week away from a rapid increase in cases. more than 60,000 new cases on tuesday alone. the seven-dade average send much better, a level that's not been seen since early august. 14 states have test positivity rates above 10%. ten states just set hospitalization records. nationwide no states have declining case numbers. if you look at this map, there

is no green, and that's a very bad sign. three states -- washington, new mexico and illinois are putting restrictions into place. here is a stark assessment. >> as of two days ago, the numbers throughout the globe have been stunning, making this already the most catastrophic virus we have experienced in more than 100 years. we have hit harder than virtually any other country in the plan the. now unfortunately we have plateaued again to about 40,000 to 50,000 cases a day. as we're getting into the cooler weather we're getting more and more cases, so this looks like we'll have a very different fall

and winter. >> dr. peter hotez is with us, from the baylor college of medici medicine. doctor, you look at this forecast, it's bad. put this into the context of americans who have been through months of this -- >> i know, brianna, everyone is exhausted, but it's pretty clear this fall/winter surge is now finally arriving. before i go into dreary details, let me previous this by one thing -- this will not go on forever. by next year this time, and probably by next summer, we'll be in a much better position. vaccines will become available. that's looking promising. this is not in perpetuity. it's a matter of getting through the next few months. we'll start hitting 70,000 new cases a day on a regular basis.

i think the northern part of the country has clearly already getting hit. that will continue. it will move into the northeast, and so it's a matter of identifies now your social distancing unit, the people you need and want to be with now for the next few months to limit contact. try not to be alone if you don't have to be, and look at your mental health. this is going to be a scary time again. i don't know that it will be as bad as what we saw in march and april as in new york. i hope it won't be that bad. there is a possibility. good news is this will not go on for perpetuity. this will be a horrible winter, unfortunately. >> yeah. all right. so back to basics. social distancing, you're talking about restricting the amount of people you allow in your circle, masks, hand

washing, these are all things people need to keep in mind jerome adams today dismissed herd immunity as a public health strategy. he said in a tweet, quote, this could overwhelm health care systems and lead to many complications and deaths. he clearly felt it was necessary to say this. do you understand why that might be? >> yeah. i'm glad he said it. he said it because he nose what we know, that there's an anti-science disinformation campaign coming out of the white house. among the central tenet is this concept of herd immunity, once the percentage of american people -- say in a city in new york, goes over 20%, don't worry about it, transmission stops itself. there's no basis for it and clearly incorrect. we have also seen brazil go over

that. so forget about herd immunity. the other thing the white house is doing with the disinformation is trying to discredit masks. twitter made scott atlas take down that terrible tweet. this is doing a lot of damage to the american people. that disinformation, that anti-science disinformation campaign is responsible for a significant percentage of the 220,000 americans who perished from this epidemic. we're not out of it. those numbers are projected to double by the time the inauguration comes around. assuming that the election goes against the president and we're in a lame duck session, wield this information the presumably they may be checked out. so we're not going to have very

efficient or well-functioning executive break. so i think people will feel abandoned. hopefully the governors are ready for it. it would be a tough time for the american people. >> i'm going to have you stand by, dr. peter hotez. we're following more news. the election is quickly approaches. instead of the president selling people on what he wants to do in the next term. he appears to be celebrating festivus. he abruptly ended an bur view session yesterday with leslie stahl, and did not return. he's also slamming dr. fauci, the nation's trusted top expert. fauci, to be clear, is not registered with the political

party. he hayes served under democratic and republican presidents going back to ronald reagan. fauci dismissed this as a distraction. he said he just wants to keep doing his job. the president is targeting cnn as well. he says we focus too much coverage on the coronavirus. he's hitting the bipartisan presidential debate commission, criticizing the moderator before the debate even happens. kristin welker, a respected journalist, and taking aim at hillary clinton, joe biden, and his son hunter. and the president registering his frustration with water pressure that does not meet his personal standards and apparently how it makes his hair look. governor gretchen whitmer, and andrew quoto of new york, who the president called a lowlife.

last but not least, is republican senator ben sasse, who despite voting with the president 86% of the time and voting against his impeachment, is criticizing the head of his party in calls. now he's earned the nickname also ben sasse. joining me now is chief political correspondent dana bash. mark meadows says there's a high probability that president trump will release the interview with "60 minutes" before it airs on sunday. they recorded this, right? tell me what you make of that, but also what threatened to release it for so many hours now and not release it? >> because they're trying to keep the distraction going. i'm guessing that mark meadows is hearing from his boss, you know, that he wants to keep the pressure on, this distraction out there. i mean, you and i have done interviews before, where the interview subject our their

staff almost always records, either on their phone or with an old-fashioned tape recorder, the interview. i don't know what he means he watched it, if they video taped it, because it could be unusual, but i use the word "distraction" for a reasons. i talked to a rep who ublican, s for their political life, says that everyone else is trying to win in congress, and they are going bat blank crazy, because the president keeps talking about kristin welker, a straightout outstanding reporter and dr. fauci, instead of

focusing on the things they did actually accomplish. focus on the economy, which is the one issue, i know you see this in polls, too, where he's at least competitive with joe biden. they can't independenunderstand president doesn't get out of his own way, and frankly out of the way of his colleagues who are getting hurt by the guy at the top of the ticket. >> it's very clear that hi impulse control problem is on full display right now. >> yeah. >> it may be no surprise, i want to ask you what we've learned from senator romney, he just told reporters he did not vote for president trump. >> i think the professional word for that is duh. you remember, bri, what mitt

romney did during the election in 2016. he did something very unusual. he was a private citizen, he held an event, and he talked in very stark, very vivid terms about how horrible a candidate and frankly a person and potential president donald trump would be. so by saying it very carefully, i did not vote for donald trump in 2016, there is no other way to take that other than he's not going to and will not or did not, given the fact utah has mail-in voting. he doesn't want to explicitly say it. i think that was in response to a question from our colleague manu raju. >> we'll have to see what other republicans do, or if they are as vocal, even in this sort of side way he did it. dana, great to see you. >> you too. thanks. cnn has just confirmed a volunteer in one of the covid-19 vaccine trials has died.

this was in the astrazeneca trial, in its third phase, but recently paused because some participants became ill. with me now is dr. sanjay gupta. >> yeah, i mean, this is some sad news, obviously. we've been following these trials for some time. this is one of the volunteers in the experimental coronavirus trial, astrazeneca in brazil. we hear this death occurred on monday that the public health agency now just alerting other people to this death, but also saying at the same time, brianna, that the trial will continue. it's not clear, at least initially when you hear these reports of deaths exactly what happened, other even if the person received a vaccine or received a placebo. when you're dealing with tens of thousands of people in these trials, the point they're making is sometimes the deaths can

occurred even for reasons unrelated. the fact they're continuing the trial may be a bit of a clue, but still we're getting more details. you may remember, this is now the third time we've had some sort of adverse effect, reported, not clear if it was due to the vaccine, but back in july, the astrazeneca trial was paused briefly, and about six weeks ago, you may remember it was a person who developed these neurological symptoms at that point, difficulty with walking, these sort of symptoms that were suggested that maybe there had been some impact of the medicine on the spinal cord. that personal subsequently recovered, but this is the sort of thing that these investigators are looking out for. are there adverse side effects? are they related to the vaccine specifically? or unrelate synod thod?

>> certainly i think if it was somebody who was taking a placebo, it might be less concerning, or if something they can say about the kinds of symptoms or the cause of death? >> no doubt. sometimes it's a source of frustration. you'll remember even going back to september again, it was some time before we started to get the details specifically about what happened to that patient. my college elizabeth cohen was getting some of those details. the trial was halted in the united states, but then resumed in the uk, so it does seem like a mishmash. but i do think there's an independent monitoring board and they're really the only ones who are supposed to un-blind data. the researchers don't know, 9 v the volunteers, they don't know, so you're supposed to have an

independent entity that can un-blind the data. we're hoping they release the data, but as of right now, all we know is there was a volunteer in the trial who has died. we don't know much more in specifics in terms of anything about the person, age, preexisting conditions, most importantly we don't know if they received the vaccine or not. as we get the details, which i think we will, we'll certainly have a bit clearer line on exactly what happened here. >> dr. gupta, thank you so much. record-shattering voter turnout as both campaigns are pitching close messages to voters and president obama hits the campaign trail. coronavirus cases surge in boston, forcing the city to suspend in-person school. you want immune support you can trust. at nature's way, that starts with quality ingredients.

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voting lines in parts of wisconsin are getting longer on day two of early voting. more that 2 million votes have already been cashed. we begin with omar jimenez who are watching the lines in milwaukee. >> reporter: day two here in wisconsin, trying to process their voters, of course, but also covid 18, as the stay is

seeing a positivity rate they hope by increasing barrier, protective equipment, that all of those practices will combine. >> i'm dianne gallagher, more than 2.1 million people have lusk cast their ballots. look, most of them did what people are doing here, they voted early in person. that's only been going on in six days. the rest of them mailed their ballots in. they're looking at at least -- in north carolina that have all right voted. an election official says they think between 60% and 70% of

ballots may already be cast before election day. former president barack obama is stumps for his former vice president joe biden. last night he had a video urging young voters to create a new normal. jeff zeleny has more on what kind of impact he could have. >> brianna, there's a reason barack obama is making his first campaign stop here in philadelphia, trying to re-create some of the news yaism he experienced in the 2008 campaign and 2012 campaign. hillary clinton lost narrowly fouriers because some voters didn't turn out.

again particularly among unioner voters. and african-american voters. the deeply personal, no question about that, but barack obama coming back to the campaign trail is trying to, a, salvage his legacy, but b, trying to offer a new direction for the company. he's trying to get behind of biden campaign. so barack obama is all in. there are questions of his appeal so this is the first of several stops we will see of the obama campaign, but here in -- that's a big rode block for president trump. brianna? >> jeff zeleny, new financial show that they have a substantial cash advantage.

cnn's senior political reporter nia-malika henderson joins me now. tell us what we know. listen, biden is in a good position down the stretch, more than $100 million, more at this point. this is a reversal of fortune. and trump started on you, trump started out with a much bigger lead. both of these campaigns will spends a lot of this money on ads in the battleground states. what we also know of that money is that it can't buy the presidency. if you remember back to 2016 but

listen you would rather have more money than less at this point. >> the report-breaking amount that sticks out. 57. million, bronc with the report that beto o'rourke had, but also, you look at sarah gideon, in maine in this tight race against susan collins, dwarfing what susan collins has been able to race. but again, you would rather have 57.9 million in your war chest

to spend so democrats feel pretty good, but also cautious down the stretch, and in key races, and then in select cows trying to reach voters with their messaging, but this is a sign of the kind of enthusiasm that the democrats have all across the ken, and at least in the money race republicans are lacking behind in the key races. >> nia, thanks so much. as coronavirus cases surge, and as states head in the wrong direction, there are cracks beginning to emerge in the white house coronavirus task force.

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scott wiener immediately went to work, making sure families could put food on their tables,

defending renters facing eviction, securing unemployment benefits, helping neighborhood businesses survive. scott wiener will never stop working until california emerges from this crisis. the bay area needs scott's continued leadership in sacramento. because we know scott is fighting for all of us. re-elect scott wiener for state senate. just in, the city of boston has suspended all in-person learning. cnn's bianna golodryga has the latest. >> due to rising covid-19 cases in the city and in support of efforts to contain the spread, all students will shift to

remote learning effective tomorrow. the positivity test rate was reported at 5.7%. that's an increase from 4.5 last week. the bad news is students will remain in remote learning until at least two full weeks of falling infection rates. the city's mayor have said all along we will only provide in-person learning if the guidance supports it. new data shows we are trending in the wrong direction. this decision we should say was also made in consultation with public health officials. i'm disheartened having to close schools to our highs-need students. i often say it's the adults that create for environments where children success. stay home and wear masks, so we can bring our children back to school.

so clearly a case of two cities, one doing relatively well thus noor, the other says the rates are going up too quickly to reopen schools. bianna golodryga, thanks so much. as an ensemble, the white house coronavirus task force has all by disappeared. individually it's not that often we heard from individuals, but there have been some notable appearances lately. first the surgeon general. he tweeted on the a warning that herd immunity isn't an option, that large number of people will die, overwhelmed hospitals and lead to countless complications. that goes against the dangerous theories pushed by dr. scott atlas, a theory that the

president appears to be embracing. the surgeon general isn't the only task member pushing back. >> no, that's not our policy. it's a desire through vaccination to get to herd immunity, but it may be an outcome of all those steps. the desire is reduced cases, reduced hospitalizations, reduced fatalities. >> that's secretary alex azar. as the president blames testing for the rapid rise -- >> cases are increasing. we're seeing this happening because we're getting colder weather, losing the natural social distancing that happens from being out of doors. >> azar also responded to the indoor event in ft. myers, florida, where he spoke to seniors who are, of course, the most vulnerable in this pandemic. >> i wish everybody would have worn face coverings and

maintained social distance. >> we mentioned atlas who completely dismissed masks and their effectiveness, cnn reports that dr. deborah birx was relieved twitter removed the dangerous post. "the washington post" is reporting that she wants atless off the task force, a request she took to vice president pence, who has declined to interview, at least in one disagreement. another task force member, dr. steven hahn has recently been establishing guidelines to ensure its safety. and of course there's dr. fauci, the most vocal and blunt member of the task force, not coincidentally the one in the president's crosshairs. >> there would be so many people in the community that you can't

shelter, that you can't protect, who will get sick and have serious consequences. this idea we have the power to protect the vulnerable is total nonsense. you'll wind up with president more infections that lead to hospitalizations and death. >> here's what fauci said about the trump campaign to -- >> i do not and nor will i ever publicly endorse any political candidate. here i am, sticking me right in the middle of a campaign ad, which i thought was outrageous. i was referring to something entirely different. i was referring to the grueling work of the task force that, god, we were knocking ourselves out seven days a week. >> did the steam come out of your ears? >> it did. quite frankly i goat really

ticked off. >> also speaking out on the super-spreader events. >> when i saw that on tv, i said, oh, my goodness, nothing can come out of that. that's got to be a problem. sure enough, it turned out to be a super-spreader event. >> and here is dr. fauci quoting "the godfather." >> it's like in "the godfather" nothing personal, strictly business. i just want to do my job, take care of the people in this country and do my job. that's all. >> dr. fauci has highlighted early testing failures. cdc director dr. redfield admitted that they missed the threat that europe posed, allowing the virus to travel

from europe. dr. birx said it was underestimated how much young people could spread the virus. but this week this is what was said. >> is there anything you think you could have done. if you had a mulligan or a do-over, what would it be? >> not much. >> even a friendly host was compelled to ask trump what he would do differently. this weekend on "meet the press" dr. michaels s oosterholm said next 6 to 12 weeks will be the darkest. this has been a failure, one the president appears just fine with repeating. with just 13 days to go, there's new cnn reporting what the trump administration is focusing on. plus a ---ing claim that parents separated from 545 children at the border are still

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with just 13 days to go, president trump is running out of time to shore up support and boost his chances of a second term. with that in mind, his administration is going all in on foreign policy. cnn's national security correspondent vivian salama is joining me right now. what are the key foreign policy initiatives? >> hey, brianna, that's right. essential they're going out there, putting on an optimistic face, but privately, they acknowledge that it's anyone as rea. one of the strategies moving forward has been to really push a few foreign policy initiatives in the hopes of maybe grabbing thor few undecided voters. republicans still traditionally do care about foreign policy

issues. it's always been an issue where some of the things that president trump was really pushing towards the end. this time around a couple last-minute initiatives, and we have a full screen to show you. in the weeks to come even though originally he had wanted china to come away with it, they have done away with that. they have made a lot of concessions, trying to get that last-minute deal. you have a lot of crackdowns on china and other efforts, trying to push through arms deal with taiwan finally he announce the j.c. this week he was looking to take sudan off the state-sponsored terrorist list. that's significant, because we

know we've been trying to normalize some relationships in the last six to ten weeks, and now he's trying to get sudan in there, too. so he's granted them some concessions as well. a lot of viewers are saying, will this even matter? but something like normalizing relations with israel, that resonates with some, and a lot of that stuff resonates, to sort of scale back. they're hoping the few extra voters might come toward trump in the weeks to come. >> he's an incumbent, so he has these levers when it comes to foreign policy. just in, there was new

reporting on first lady melania trump's unprecedented absence from the campaign trail as she's recovering from the coronavirus. more than 500 children have still not been reunited with their parents. the justice department saying in a court filing they simply cannot find them. i need a smaller house that's close to my son,

but that's tough to do on a fixed income. i'd be hit with a tax penalty for moving to another county, so i'm voting 'yes' on prop 19. it limits property taxes and lets seniors transfer their home's current tax base to another home that's closer to family or medical care. being closer to family is important to me. how about you?

voting 'yes' on prop 19. traffic and air pollution will be even worse after the pandemic. that's why we support measure rr to keep caltrain running. which is at risk of shutdown because of the crisis. to keep millions of cars off our roads, to reduce air pollution and fight climate change. and measure rr helps essential workers like me get to work and keep our communities healthy. relieve traffic. reduce pollution. rescue caltrain. [all] yes on measure rr. the parents of 545 children separated at the u.s.-mexico border in 2017 are still missing, according to a court filing from the justice department and the american civil liberties union.

these separations happened under a pilot program, so they were excluded from a federal ruling that ordered the families torn apart by the trump administration's zero tolerance policy be reunited. deputy director of the aclu immigrants rights project who lee erndt, who has been leading the project, is here. what has been the outcome for these kids? have they been deported? do you even know? >> yes, the parents have largely been deported without their children. there are a couple reasons why we haven't found these families. the first is the government hid this collection of families from us. when he with firwe first got an in 2018, we were told there were hundreds of families that had been separated. we contacted all those families, but we found out not through the

government what hid the additional kids from us through the court with a watchdog report that there may have been 700 children separated right before the court hearing. the court was astounded that the government had not come forward with these additional separations. the government was ordered to give us the names of the families. they were given two years to give us the names of the families, because they candidly admitted they didn't keep track of the families. the court said you give them on a rolling basis within six months. by the time we got these families, it was very, very late in the day. that's the first problem. the second problem is that the information the government gave us, the contact information, was largely stale at that point, so while we found some families through phone calls, we've had to go around and around with our partners looking for these

families town to town. that's the second problem. the third problem is we were ma making some progress with the search and then covid hit. we are slowly picking up that search, but the main problem is the government didn't come forward with all these names, and the court said, of course these are part of the case. just because it was a pilot program doesn't mean -- >> these are kids not reunited with their parents, and some of them at the time they were separated were babies. so what kind of difficulty does that create in all of this? >> yes, you're absolutely right to point that out. many of these children, many were babies under five years old, many were under ten. so what the medical community has told us and what i've seen through the litigation is even once they are reunited, they will continue to suffer trauma

and that trauma may be irreparabi irreparable. these children are so scared. when i talked to the mother of a four-year-old, one of the first families we got united, the mother of the four-year-old keeps asking, are they going to come and take me away again in the middle of the night? the other problem is even though we find them and reunite them in the u.s., the trump administration is still trying to deport the families. we would hope that if there is a biden administration, the biden administration would say, these families have been through horrific, horrific ordeals and we're going to allow them to stay in the country. we should not compound the horror by deporting them. >> lee gelernt, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. we have more breaking news. the astrazeneca vaccine trial has died. but we're told there are no plans to stop the trial. we'll have details ahead. apps are used everywhere...

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scott wiener immediately went to work, making sure families could put food on their tables, defending renters facing eviction, securing unemployment benefits, helping neighborhood businesses survive. scott wiener will never stop working until california emerges from this crisis. the bay area needs scott's continued leadership in sacramento. because we know scott is fighting for all of us. re-elect scott wiener for state senate.

it is a big night on cnn tomorrow. after a chaotic first debate, a health crisis, cancelling town halls, president trump and joe biden face off one last time. they will be given one to two minutes to respond by muting their microphones. the president not happy about that, but he vows to show up.

special live coverage starts tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. eastern. our special live coverage continues now with jake tapper. welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper and we begin with the 2020 lead today. quote, not much. that's what president trump said today when asked if there is anything he would do differently to combat the covid pandemic. not much. the president and democratic nominee joe biden are in the final sprint of this historical election, and now with more than 220,000 americans dead from coronavirus, more than 8 million americans infected, tens of millions facing economic hardship, kids not able to learn in classrooms, president trump is saying that if given the opportunity to do it all over again, he would not change much about his handling of the pandemic. talking to sinclair setelevisio america this week. >> reporter: is there anything you would do differently, if you had a mulligan to do differently