>> announcer: building a better bay area for a safe and secure future, this is abc7 news. hi there. i'm kristen sze. welcome to our daily program called "getting answers." we're asking experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get answers for you in realtime. today, we're going to dissect the latest news on covid-19 from a mutated strain of coronavirus out of malaysia to president trump talking about botanical extract as therapeutic. a lot to talk about with dr. george rutherford, chief of infectious diseases. but two weeks of political theatre. this week doctic national convention, next week, the republican national convention. for both parties, a chance to define what they stand for and what their ticket, why they think their ticket deserves to

be in the white house. so joining us today to kick off the democrats week and talk about what's making headlines is democratic congressman ted lu. good to have you here. >> thank you, kristen. >> you're a second term congressman representing part of l.a. county. lately, you've gotten a lot of national attention though due to your tweets calling out haters, internet trolls and even president trump. when president trump said in an interview, if i pluz the election, you'll have to learn to speak chinese and you, representative lu, tweeted, dear real donald trump, i speak chinese and serve on active duty military, something you were too afraid to do, to defend your right to say stupid stuff.

that stuff, we blocked out. fair to say there's quite a bit of edge there? >> trying to tell the truth i want people to pay attention. this is not only not normal but what he's doing is destroying our republic. >> also, in that tweet, i sense there's some personal experience that was driving the anger there. is that right? >> we know that asian americans have experienced an unprecedented level of hate crimes. since this pandemic started over hate crimes have occurred to asian americans that's been tracking this. when the president of united states engages in racist statements, that just adds fuel to the fire

>> we talk about end of 2016, we had a peaceful transfer of power and owe it to the president, so that on being a chief twitter antagonist. >> never set out to resist this president. one of the things that makes america great is the peaceful transfer of power, donald trump won the electoral college, give him a chance to govern. a few months later, i concluded i was wrong. the judiciary and then lying at a rate i've never seen a human being by and then that's a

danger to the republican. then decided if he's going to say or do crazy things in a mon month. >> now you feel as though he's attacking the united states postal service. you sent a letter to the fbi. do you believe crimes have been committed? >> federal law is clear. it's a crime to willfully slow or obstruct the passage of mail but also with the elections. we also know that the post office has been sabotaged by postmaster general. they remove mailboxes in various places, slow mail delivery and have veterans and senior

centers. asking the fbi to investigate. >> nancy pelosi calling you back from your recess to vote on the $25 billion aid in postal service so that it could be, so it can't handle the additional mail from the mail-in ballots come election time. white house indicated it would only support if tied to pandemic unemployment checks. of course, people need the money. would you support that? >> i would support anything to get the post office funded and we pass house of representatives heroes act on may 15th. that was in may and a full funding not only for the post office but the various stimulus checks that the white house wants for cities, states and local governments with the brunt of this pandemic.

>> all right. i got to ask you also. you're asking for another investigation as well. miles taylor, a former republican homeland security official accused the president of asking fema to actually withhold money from california wildfire victims, what exactly did he say? >> it's hard to be shocked by what donald trump does. i'm shocked by what donald trump does, and i learned this former vhs chief of staff stated that donald trump told fema to cut off funding to wildfire because we were not part of the base. that is outrageous. the president of the united states is the president for all americans, and for him to tell fema to cut off funding is

utterly disgraceful, wildfires went through a portion of my district. quite devastating, and that's why i'm writing a letter to inspector general asking the inspector general to investigate. >> that certainly is an issue that's very relevant to those of us in the bay area. a lot of californians are, of course, angry. they've been inconvenienced or even in danger by the latest rolling blackouts, tied to the suppressed wildfires but governor newsom expressed frustration to say he wants an investigation but where do you think the responsibility lies, and i get it you're a congressman and watch it closely, but why is it that the state that would be the world's fifth largest economy, can't have a stable power system? >> i agree with california governor governor newsom this should be an independent

investigation. we do nope california independent system operator didn't give anybody a heads up that this was about to happen. they have to understand, we have to work together to have carbon and methane out of the air. we do need an investigation. >> i want to switch to talking about the democratic national convention which starts today. do you think the party unity is there this time from the progressive wing to the more moderate ring. is there a coming together because obviously in 2016, we saw a lot of in-fighting. what we see is an incredible unity across dmtz with bernie sanders giving a full throated

endorsement to joe biden, kamala harris with a number of progressives speaking at the dnc, and at the same time, former republicans speaking, current republicans speaking as well and shows the amazing broad coalition that joe biden and kamala harris had brought together. >> they just added more republicans to the list of speakers. christine todd whitman, former new jersey governor and also meg whittman. am i getting that right? i'm getting a lot of names in there, but also of course, john kasi kasich. i'm pulling it from my memory bank out there. also, you were very adamant earlier when andrew yang was not initial list of speakers. not only did he get added, but the prime spot right before joe biden on thursday night. why do you think that's

important? >> asian americans are the fastest increasing group in america according to u.s. census last decade. and by the way, everyone needs to fill out the census and get family members and friends to do so and from pew research report, immigrants outpace any others in the united states and asian american population continuing to grow rapidly, nevada, apa voters 5.5% and georgia, 4.4%. asian americans went from being margin liez marginaliz marginalized, and include asian americans in the dnc convention and pleased if there's one of the future speakers. >> of course, senator kamala harris the first half black, half asian presidential candidate. her being from india or her mom,

immigrants, you're right. that seems to be generating a lot of excitement in california and that is showing up in the fundraising, isn't it? >> we have spectacular support in terms of not just grassroots and people giving their money to kamala harris and joe biden because they know what's at stake this past november and the dnc raised unprecedented amounts of money after kamala harris was picked and shows huge enthusiasm for the biden harris ticket. >> what note do you expect vice president biden to strike on thursday and what do you hope they'll come away with, that they'll leave with the voters.

>> i know that kamala harris as attorney general at the time did amazing work standing up to wall street banks and she helped extract a settlement that was far better for consumers than if she had not been ag. i hope she tells that story because it shows courage and her tenacity. her story san american story being both first african-american and first asian american female to be on the vice president ticket and not only his huge ability to get people together. if you like the direction of the country was going, go ahead and vote for donald trump but if you're the overwhelming majority of americans who don't like the direction of the country, then you'll hear joe biden explain why to vote for him. >> even as you press on for

investigation into the u.s. postal service, what final advice do you have for california voters in regard to the ballots when we get them. i think first week of october was the second week. >> if you vote by mail, do it early and then in person, have a plan and expect possibly there might be delays and so if you have a plan that's going to make sure to get the vote counted together, going to make sure that we have a very happy. >> hope you'll be a frequent guest on abc7 news. thank you, appreciate the time and insight. >> thank you so much, kristen. >> take care. we'll take a short break

and we are back. governor newsom held a briefing back earlier today on the coronavirus and also our blackouts. here is what he had to say. >> what we're experiencing here as a state as it relates to this oppressive heat wave and these extraordinary, rather extraordinary weather conditions that all of us are struggling through, many of us, suffering through, impact not just here, in the state of california, but the impact being felt the west coast of the united states. the record temperatures we've experienced not just in the state of california but argue

garnered with the own death valley, that may have recorded the hottest temperature in modern recording period. historically. some have argued at least in the last 90 years, but you get the point. 130 degree heat in death valley california yesterday. all experiencing rather extraordinary conditions. the conditions precipitated in a number of new fires in the state of california. many of those fires under a thousand acres. we're confident we'll be able to tackle, we'll be able to block, we'll ultimately be able to,

relatively short order. four large active fires in the state of california, the river fire, which is generated headlines near monterey county, ranch fire, lake fire and l.a. county. the apple fire, substantially contained down in riverside. see the containment in each and every one of those fires containment of the apple fire again, substantially obtained. those are active fires under extraordinary conditions. it's a way of this heat dome dom put enormous amount of pressure, not just on all of you individually but also our firefighte firefighters. >> that fast governor gavin newsom earlier today talking about california from the standpoint of california and our

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all right, we are back with ucsf epidemiologist dr. george rutherford. a lot of interesting headlines today in regard to covid. one i heard about the new saliva test at yale and said to be a possible game changer. talk to us about that? >> yes. some of the professional sports leagues, basically, there's no swabbing. there's no, the sample collection is spitting into a cup easy straightforward, can be selected remotely as long as you trust the person that you had the right saliva for the right person. seems to work pretty well.

the pinpoint accuracy, not important if you test people over and over again. it's important for diagnostic testing or screening. sacrifice some degree of accuracy if you're doing it frequently enough. >> is this something to get out to schools in the next few mont months? >> i think that's one of the things that los angeles city schools are banking on. be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat with some breakthrough testing like that. >> we shouldn't expect in the next few months. i also want to talk about a new

stra strain, we know viruses mutate all the time but what does it mean for a vaccine? >> sure, it's part of the small mutation in the protein and become sort of displace may make it slightly less infectious, slightly more infectious, but remains to be seen what the significance is. viruses mutate all the time. it's not surprising. >> can i ask you, if we already have different strains, what does that mean for the scientists developing the vaccine? it was shown effective against this strain.

>> the piece of the virus that's consistent between different strands. that's what we're trying to find. >> the botanical extract, what he's referring to and anything efficacy that's been shown?

>> it has a chemical in it like dejoxin that's a cart medicine and it can be fatal, if a child eats it, it can be fatal. having said all that, however, it's been promoted as a cure for hiv, a cure for cancer and now a cure for covid. it has some activity and test tubes against these covid, against the covid-19 virus. but don't take it to the bank. it's been heavily promoted by the guy who makes his own pillows. >> the my pillow guy. >> that's the one. and now a drug expert. so it's -- >> the fda is not moving in a direction with regard to that, okay. >> can't do anything unless

people ask it to be improved. >> given the power situation, we've had some rolling blackouts. are you concerned about any aspect of this? >> good news and bad news. you could see it either way. one, so hot people stay home and don't go out in the heat, which is good. they go out to try to cooling stations that have been set up by some of the public health departments. those have been set up in a way to promote social distancing. use the right kind of air-conditioning. and heat emergencies in and of themselves are public health emergencies so they have to be responded to but the health department set up in a way it's not going to promote transmission. the other thing, the big outbreak in israel that in the middle school that followed right after school started was

probably at its root caused by the massive outbreak. >> dr. rutherford, the mask? >> just don't take your mask off because it's hot. >> got it. i think that's the final word on

all right. thank you so much for joining u "getting answers." we'll be here every weekday at 3:00 right here on and on live stream for your questions. "world news tonight" is up next.

thank you for joining us. i'll see you next time. tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the democratic national convention set to begin moments from now amid this pandemic. the coronavirus now topping more than 170,000 deaths here in the u.s. and what we're now seeing in schools. tonight, the major university suddenly reversing course. all of this as the dnc is set to kick off in their effort to make the case for joe biden and kamala harris. the major changes because of the pandemic. and tonight, just in, the first look at michelle obama's message. what she'll say about joe biden. bernie sanders on deck tonight. and the republicans who will also take part. and the president tonight and what he's doing as this convention begins. also tonight, all of this with mounting concerns over the u.s. postal service. president trump now denying he's

trying to slow down