Summary
President Donald Trump holds packed Pennsylvania rally as COVID-19 spikes. Trump returns to law and order rhetoric to attack Biden. Trump called on Attorney General William Barr to immediately launch an investigation of Democrat Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, effectively demanding that the Justice Department muddy his political opponent and abandon its historic resistance to getting involved in elections. Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are gearing up for their final debate before the November 3. Melania Trump skips rally over lingering cough.
Transcript
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: Alice Roberts gets tonight's LAST WORD. "THE 11TH HOUR" with Brian Williams starts now.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC HOST: And good evening once again, day 1,370 of the Trump administration, 14 days to go now until the presidential election. In other words, two weeks from tonight we'll be on the air covering election returns. And of course two days remain until the final scheduled presidential debate.
The President tonight appeared before his 12th rally and seven days. Tonight as you'll hear in a moment, he told the audience with a straight face and to applause that the pandemic is ending and we're crushing the virus. Of course neither is true as the virus continues to crush large portions of our country.
Tonight's rally was in Erie PA. The First Lady was supposed to be on the trip but cancelled because she is suffering from lingering symptoms from the coronavirus. From the start of tonight's event in the cold and on an airport tarmac, the president sounded like he really didn't want to be there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: Don't forget, they've been here for eight years before me. If they did a good job, I would have never run. I didn't need this. I didn't need this. Although we're having a good time and we're doing a good job. No, but it's so, if they did a good job I wouldn't have run.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Once again the mostly unmasked crowd was tightly packed as the pandemic continues its accelerated and uncontrolled churn across our country. Just yesterday, our country saw nearly 65,000 more positive cases. That's now fueling a spike in hospitalizations. Numerous reports out tonight say the rise in cases could soon push some hospital systems to the breaking point. Tonight the President described his version of this crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're rounding the turn of the pandemic 56% and it's a record epic job growth, safe vaccines that quickly end the pandemic. It's normal life. That's all we want. You know we want normal life. Normal life will finally resume.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Washington Post reports the CDC says the pandemic is blamed for nearly 300,000 more deaths than would take place in the typical year. The virus has left our economy in tatters, of course, crater the job market and nearly every state millions are hoping for assistance from Washington in the form of another relief bill. Tonight Trump offered no specifics for those who are struggling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We will deliver record prosperity, epic growth. Next year will be the greatest economic year in the history of our country. This is an election between the Trump super recovery which is happening right now and a Biden depression.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Trump has been blaming House Speaker Pelosi for the lack of new legislation. Today, he said he wants an even bigger bill than the $2.2 trillion version. The speaker is pushing for Washington Post and other outlets reporting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been warning the White House against striking a pre-election stimulus deal with Pelosi.
Tonight's rally included many of the messages we've heard before including one of the President's signature themes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The Biden-Harris war on police would be a catastrophe for public safety. We will hire more police, increased penalties for assaults for law enforcement and we will ban deadly sanctuary cities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: That's pretty much in line with what we've been hearing from him in the past about law and order.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This election is about law and order. I think we have a very strong, very powerful law and order campaign. I'm about law and order. I'm about having you saved. You got law and order on one side. You have chaos on the other. And you know who likes Trump because of law and order, these suburban women. I think we're going to get a lot of Democrats voting for us because of law and order. We're heading what people want, a law and order which, Biden wasn't able even talk about. He's not strong following order and everybody knows that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Yet the tough thing for this White House is this, the latest New York Times/Siena poll finding a majority of voters say they think Joe Biden would indeed be a better choice on law and order. During a phone interview this morning on Fox News, Trump continued to accuse his opponent of being a criminal. And he publicly called on our Attorney General to step in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 11th House Republicans have sent a letter, they said the following request the Department of Justice immediately appoint an independent, unbiased special counsel to investigate these issues that have been raised, as well as any corresponding legal or ethical issues that might be uncovered from the former vice president's 47 years in public office, will you be doing that? Will you be appointing a special prosecutor?
TRUMP: We're got to get the Attorney General to act. He's got to act. And he's got to act fast. He's got to appoint somebody. This is major corruption. And this has to be known about before the election. And by the way, we're doing very well. We're going to win the election. We're doing very well. This has to be done early. So the attorney general has to act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Remember, last time, Trump asked someone for assistance and investigating Joe Biden it was the Government of Ukraine. Tonight Trump continued to make allegations about Joe Biden's dealings with China.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: His family raked in millions of dollars from China and foreign nations. If Biden wins China wins. If Biden wins China will own the USA.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: But a breaking story tonight from the New York Times is raising new questions about Mr. Trump's dealings with China. The paper says tax documents revealed Trump spent a decade unsuccessfully pursuing work projects in China that he even had a previously unknown bank account in China.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden is about to get a big assist from his former boss Barack Obama hits the trail tomorrow in Philadelphia, for the Biden-Harris ticket.
And there's one other headline that caught our attention tonight, NBC News The first to report the lawyers who have been appointed to help 545 migrant children who were separated from their families by the Trump administration. Those lawyers have been unable to locate 545 sets of parents belonging to those children.
That's a glimpse of our world tonight as we welcome three of our returning veterans to start us off, Kimberly Atkins, previously of both WBUR and the Boston Herald, these days a member of the Boston Globe Editorial Board, Philip Rucker, Pulitzer Prize-winning White House Bureau Chief for The Washington Post, co-author along with his colleague Carol Leonnig, of the longtime bestseller, A Very Stable Genius, and Robert Costa, national political reporter also with the Post. He is also moderator of Washington Week on PBS.
Phil Rucker to begin with your beat over at the White House, we have a short list of the people and institutions the President has attacked. I was going to say in the past couple of days, most of these are just in the past couple of hours. They run the gamut from Fauci to the Supreme Court, to obviously, Joe and Hunter Biden, Lesley Stahl, our own colleague and friend, Kristen Welker, Hillary Clinton, who was mentioned at tonight's rally. Phil, is this a strategy in 2016, this President got elected, in part, listing the grievances of the people as he put it, the forgotten men and women. This time around, it seems like Donald Trump's grievances like he is painting himself as the forgotten man?
PHILIP RUCKER, THE WASHINGTON POST WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF: Brian, that's such an excellent point. And, you know, we should keep in mind that one of the keys to Trump's victory in 2016, was that in the final weeks of that campaign, he had a disciplined, methodical message. Sure, there weren't a lot of drama. Sure, there were a lot of distractions and tweets and whatnot. But at each rally, he came out with a very clear message about the forgotten men and women about making America great again, about his America first foreign policy. And it was very clear what he was selling to the voters.
Fast forward four years to this point right now, when you would expect the incoming president to be on the campaign trail making that coherent, cohesive closing argument to voters, and he's literally all over the map with his grievances with venom, you know, threatening now to release some sort of videotape of the Lesley Stahl interview with 60 minutes, which clearly went very poorly for the President. Hence his reaction, he seems to just be reacting to what's happening minute by minute in the new cycle without a strategy, without a coherent vision or message for the voters. And it's incumbent upon him because all the polls show him trailing Joe Biden to put something together here to turn this race around and to try to regain some momentum in this contest with Biden. There are only 14 days left and he seems to be sabotaging each day with his own on disciplined message.
WILLIAMS: Kim, indeed in this frog boiling experiment of American life in the year 2020, I'd love to see polling to see what percentage of the public realizes it's wrong for a sitting president to ask his sitting Attorney General to investigate his opponent, though, as I mentioned, last time, at least, he asked Ukraine to help so perhaps he's trading up.
KIMBERLY ATKINS, THE BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER: Yes, he's asked Ukraine, he asked China and Russia during the 2016 election. This is clearly Donald Trump trying to rerun the same 2016 playbook that he thinks led to his victory. And if you recall, in addition to calling for these foreign countries to seek Hillary Clinton's emails, there was also the assist with the announcement of then FBI Director James Comey hinting at some sort of reopening of an investigation that turned out to be nothing. But it was enough perhaps in Donald Trump's mind that he's trying to conjure up the same sort of thing by pressuring Attorney General Barr to open some sort of investigation into Joe Biden, for something that we have seen that there's really no there, there.
But the difference is 2020 is very different than 2016. There may still be grievance among those who support Donald Trump. But nothing that Donald Trump does or says can take away from the pandemic, which in the United States, unlike many other countries, is seeing a severe resurgence. The numbers are going up. People are preparing to not be able to spend the holidays with their extended family. They're preparing for their businesses to be hit. More people are being sick and hospitalized. That's the number one thing on the minds of people and as much as Donald Trump says that it's disappearing. The more he talks about a vaccine that does not yet exist, voters see in their own lives, how it is impacting them. So as much as he would like to recreate 2016 he simply can't.
WILLIAMS: Indeed, Robert Costa, times our difference and I'd like to conjure up this image. You live in Erie PA, you're a Trump supporter, you put on your MAGA hat, go over to the airport, it's a cold night. You wait in a long security line. You wait for the rally to begin as Air Force One taxis into a halt. The President emerges and you hear him say this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We went in Pennsylvania. We went the whole thing. Before the plague came in, I had it made. I wasn't coming to Erie. I mean, I have to be honest. There's no way I was coming. I didn't have to. I would have called you and said, hey Erie, you know, if you have a chance get out and vote. We had this thing won.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: So Robert, I guess that's his way of saying he needs Pennsylvania Joe Biden is a native son polling puts Biden almost within the margin of error. But let's call it a slim lead. Talk about the stakes here.
ROBERT COSTA, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: The comment by the president, Brian, is actually quite revealing. In 2016, I took a 350 mile road trip across Pennsylvania in the final week of the campaign. And what I noticed in western Pennsylvania, in northwestern Pennsylvania in Central Pennsylvania, was an outpouring of enthusiasm among low propensity Republican voters to come out for then candidate Trump. And because of the turnout he had in central and western Pennsylvania, he was able to beat Secretary Clinton in Pennsylvania by a very narrow margin because she underperformed compared to the Obama coalition in the city of Philadelphia and President Trump did better than expected in some of those suburban enclaves around Philadelphia.
Four years later, he needs to come to Erie because he needs their turn out to be just as strong, if not stronger, because his entire campaign knows, the President knows that Vice President Biden is doing better with suburban voters and Secretary Clinton was four years ago or around the same range. But -- and Vice President Biden is paying more attention to cities like Philadelphia, like Milwaukee and Wisconsin, in the industrial Midwest, making sure that his numbers are going to be better than Clintons in Pennsylvania. And that's why you see the president tonight in Erie. That's the kind of place he needs this extraordinary turnout if he wants to be competitive and win the White House again.
WILLIAMS: Phil Rucker, I saw you flagged the NBC News reporting on the separated children and all these hundreds of sets of parents that have not been able to be contacted by their lawyers strikes me that in normal times if we ever see them again, this would be lead story on broadcasts like this one. But again, the frog boiling experiment of what our lives have become in 2020, do you think regardless of the outcome of this election, that policy, the children's separation, things like the Muslim ban will go down as so called Original Sins of this Presidency.
RUCKER: They very well may, Brian. These are some of the real human tragedies of these four years in America. Those are 545 children, who, because they migrated to the United States, with their parents or with other family members, seeking a better life and a hope in a new country, were separated from their families at the border and effectively taken from their parents, stolen from their parents. They've not been able to be reunited. They are now orphans. The government was not able to keep track of who their parents were or where their parents went.
You know, it's a catastrophe what happened there. And it's unfortunate that there's so much chaos and drama right now in the news that we don't pay a whole lot of attention to this story. But I don't think it's going to go away.
And I think regardless of the outcome of the election, there's probably going to be an effort, at least in some quarters of this country, to investigate this further and, and to, you know, try to figure out what went wrong here and who should be held accountable for these lives that have been destroyed.
WILLIAMS: So Kim, a largely successful to term democratic president that according to public polling over the past decade or so is often called the most popular man in the world. Barack Obama goes on the trail tomorrow for the Biden-Harris ticket. While I guess we don't give former presidents assignments, for lack of a better word, what do you think his assignment will be?
ATKINS: It will be turnout. I mean, Joe Biden and the Democrats down ballot from him need a big turnout in order to win at this point. It's not a matter of convincing voters that are sitting on their on the sidelines, mostly making up their minds pulling a show that the vast majority of voters have made up their mind.
And in fact, it is those who are more likely to vote for Biden, who are more solid and less soft in their support than those who are supporting President Trump. So this is a get out the vote effort and Democrats are pulling out their top guns, their most popular folks to get out there. I think the only Democrat probably that's more popular than Barack Obama is Michelle Obama. And we are seeing that in the lead up to ensure that even though we have seen lots of people early voting, there's two -- there are two weeks left for votes to be cast. And they want to ensure that despite the pandemic, despite the dispersions cast on mail and voting and early voting that folks get out and vote.
WILLIAMS: And Robert Costa, last word goes to you please explain to the lay people in our audience, myself included who don't speak Washington. Why it is, Mitch McConnell doesn't want to deal with a stimulus bill when people are hurting, because it may interfere with the passage of Judge Barrett to the Supreme Court?
COSTA: In brief, Brian, based on my reporting today, Secretary Mnuchin and Speaker Pelosi, they got the HEROES Act back earlier in the year in March as the pandemic unfolded. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was largely left on the sidelines. It's always been the White House and the speaker cutting these deals. Two weeks before this presidential election, two weeks before many of his senators put his majority on the line. I'm told that Leader McConnell doesn't want to be pulled into another deal that's not cut by him. He wants to set the terms. He sees the number inching toward $2 trillion. And he's ready to draw the line on that even though many Republicans who are vulnerable in the house and in the Senate are saying to him privately, I'm told they need that jolt, they need that stimulus to show something to their voters if they're in a tight race. But at this point, the majority leader feels like the speaker could be out playing the White House, and he's not going to put his thumbprint on it and his thumb on the scale and say I'm going to endorse that deal.
WILLIAMS: With that our thanks to Kimberly Atkins, to Phil Rucker, to Robert Costa, greatly appreciate the three of you starting us off tonight.
Coming up for us, the calls are coming from inside the party now more prominent Republicans distance themselves from the President.
And later, in some cases, COVID is the disease that moves in to stay the survivor stories we should all here months in the making. The illness they thought they'd shaken off is now the illness that won't go away. All of it as THE 11TH HOUR is just getting underway on this Tuesday night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL STEELE, FORMER GOP CHAIR: Many have said there will come a moment. Well, this is the moment because this ballot is like none ever cast. Now I'm a lifelong Republican and I'm still a Republican. But this ballot is how we restore the soul of our nation electing a good man Joe Biden and a trailblazer Kamala Harris and ensure an orderly transfer of power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Don't kid yourself folks that takes guts Former RNC Chairman friend of this broadcast, Michael Steele formally endorsed Joe Biden, in that new ad for the Lincoln Project. And in a piece he wrote for our network. He's one of a growing number of prominent Republicans taking this opportunity to stand up to the President. And he's in good company. We quickly add also joining those ranks, Retired Admiral William McRaven, who led the SEAL Team Six operation that killed Osama bin Laden. He doesn't scare easily either. McRaven offered this rare and remarkable rebuke of the President.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADMIRAL WILLIAM MCRAVEN, FORMER SPECIAL OPS COMMANDER: This is about the future. It is the challenges that we are going to face in the future. Do we have a leader who knows how to build alliances, who knows how to build coalitions, who can bring the country together to tackle these tough challenges? President Trump has shown that he cannot do that. You can't do it domestically. He hasn't worked with the governor's on everything from COVID to the wildfires, and he can't do it internationally. We've seen that both on COVID and on most of the major national security issues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: With us tonight, Steve Schmidt, Longtime Political Strategist who led the McCain '08 campaign has since left the Republican Party and the aforementioned Michael Steele, former Chairman of the Republican National Committee, former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, now the host of the Michael Steele Podcast. These two gentlemen have worked together during this campaign against the president, against Trump and Trump ism through their joint work with the Lincoln Project. Good evening and welcome to both of you.
Michael, I've put together a graphic here of some prominent Republicans, who are also voting for Biden, Colin Powell, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, Flake, Ridge and Cindy McCain. Do you wish there were more?
MICHAEL STEELE, FORMER RNC CHAIRMAN: I do. I do. I know that there's still those who, you know, are quietly and secretly keeping their support for Joe Biden, you know, undercover. But this is a moment that we all as Republicans who believe in the foundational Lincolness, you know, ideas and values, we have to step into this moment.
And it's hard. You know, I'm not going to play this off as Steve can tell you I had, you know, heart to heart with my friend about this, and what it meant. And but, you know, you realize when you're called to the moment and I hope over the next tonight, two weeks, that more Republicans who believe in those principles from Reagan, Eisenhower, the Bushs and everyday Republicans out there, that you stand with us and with them, in this moment.
WILLIAMS: Steve Schmidt, here something you and your colleagues wrote. History chooses us, if you ever wondered what side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge you would have stood on, this is your chance to choose. Those who went before face dogs and fire hoses, and yet they did not flinch.
Steve, here's the question underway currently is what I like to call the great migration, look at Ben Sasse, look at John Cornyn, it's conceivable six months from now Lindsey Graham will say he never met Donald Trump. This is the great walk back. The question to you is, what does the Republican Party your lifelong party look like after this election?
STEVE SCHMIDT, FORMER REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: What I believe will happen, Brian, is that Donald Trump will be repudiated and humiliated in the election on November the third, that many of the senators will be defeated. I'm certainly hopeful that Jaime Harrison will defeat Lindsey Graham in the South Carolina race that Joni Ernst will be defeated.
And all of the senators who stood idly by in this era, who gave Trump their silent complicit acquiescence as he damaged this country in incalculable ways. They should, none of them, serve a national leadership. It should be a disqualification for future presidential races. And over time, you hope that the party will rebuild with a more decent bunch of characters than we then we have now.
But the bottom line is all the senators have lashed themselves to Trump is going down. And the reality is, is that in defeat, the Republican Party is likely to become crazier. Well, I've 30% of the country that never accepts the legitimacy of the election, the stab in the back, the betrayal, the conspiracy theory about how the election was stolen, will become an article of faith for a majority of the Republican Party. You know, that also believes for instance, that President Obama was a Muslim who was born in Kenya, despite all the contrary evidence that in fact, he was not. He was a native born American citizen.
So the insanity is loose. You'll have more QAnon candidates, more conspiracy theorists candidates. And when Republicans go out of power, the part of the party that will seize power, it sees total control as the entertainment wing of the GOP, the Fox News wing. And so the extremism is going to increase, not decrease and defeat.
WILLIAMS: It's a lot to think about. We will do so both of these gentlemen have agreed to stay with us as we just fit in a quick break here.
Coming up, we'll preview the debate two nights from now at least as scheduled with both of these gentlemen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, slicer (ph), last night on him. He said the president should interrupt less, will you change your strategy in this last debate from your first debate?
TRUMP: Well, I may do that. Actually, the interesting thing that they said if you let him talk, he loses a chain of thought because he's gotten so. There is a chain of thought that, you know, there are a lot of people that say let him talk because he loses his train. He loses his train. He loses his mind, frankly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: President calling into what Steve Schmidt tells us we should refer to as the entertainment wing of the GOP. A little glimpse of the President's strategy going into the second debate after the dumpster fire of a first debate still with us are Steve Schmidt and Michael Steele.
Hey, Steve, we had some actual journalists writing with a straight face as recently as last night that the President will unveil a new tone, make more jokes in this debate Thursday night. So well, let's wait and see on that.
What about Biden? What should his strategy be? Hunter Biden's going to come up? As sure as you and I are sitting here? And as sure as you and I are sitting here the President's going to say we've done more in 47 months than he did in 47 years in Washington. Last time Biden let that line sit there sit out there. He didn't answer it. How aggressive should he be? What material should he have pre loaded in his weapon?
SCHMIDT: I think the vice president needs to look in the camera speak directly to the American people and say you know me and I know you. And I think he should say to the American people, don't be afraid that this is almost over now, that Donald Trump is on the edge of being repudiated and humiliated.
That he could look at Donald Trump and say to him that he's the worst president in the history of the country. And that the lie he told the country is responsible if you were to measure against the mortality rates in Germany, for instance, responsible for at least 150,000 dead Americans, and he'll be responsible for hundreds of thousands of more because of the idiocy and the insanity and the lethality of his COVID lying.
He should look at him and say, you wrecked the economy, that you're standing up here talking about the best economy and forever is nonsense. You destroy the economy with the competency of your response to COVID. You've wrecked the American way of life, you've shattered families, you've assaulted our institutions, you have provided us.
I think he should stay calm when he attacks Hunter Biden, look President Trump in the eye and say, why did you pay more taxes in China than you paid in the United States? Why do you have a Chinese bank account? And who do you owe half a billion dollars to?
Any idea or notion that Joe Biden has conducted himself and any other but in any other way, but the most honorable way during that 47 years is complete and total nonsense. We know what Joe Biden's public record is. This is the most corrupt and indecent person ever hold high office in this country is assaulting Joe Biden's integrity. It's a joke.
So I think that Joe Biden has to stay there be calm, be steady. Don't get provoked by Trump. Trump's going to be Trump, but the country's made up its mind about him. This is collapsing. It's all going down to campaign and chaos. And you saw Donald Trump today walking out of the 60 Minutes interview. It's cracking under the pressure.
WILLIAMS: Michael Steele because indeed, when you gentlemen talk I listen, I remember the night you came on this broadcast and said, it is time for Biden to get out. He needs to get out there and see the people and they need to see him.
I'm asking you about that comment because he's been down no public events lately doing debate prep. Do you think there's a danger to that or because this is such a unicorn of a race in a unicorn of a political season, he can get away with it because his opponent is doing his own damage every day.
STEELE: I think that's the critical part right there. The Biden campaign has had, unlike campaigns in the past to do far less in terms of framing the narrative around his opponent, because his opponent frames the narrative for him.
I mean, that the 60 Minute thing is just the ice tip of the iceberg of stuff that's out there that Donald Trump does every day with every tweet, to frame the narrative about himself and his presidency in the selection.
So Biden is going to take, you know, has taken that the last few days to get himself ready for what will be another you know what show on Thursday. I'd love the president here on Fox, you know, talking about, you know, Biden forgetting his train of thought if you just let him talk, he's projecting again. That's him. You heard it in the interview, he lost his lost his train of thought in giving the answer about Biden's train of thought.
So Biden is going to be sitting there, just listen to him. OK, whatever. And continue to Steve's point to talk to the American people. Biden will close the deal on Thursday, Donald Trump will not. And the reason he won't, is because he can't, because in order to do that, he has to account for 200,000 dead Americans, he has to account for 8 million Americans infected with COVID-19. He has to account for the civil unrest in this country. He has to account for the flatlining economy, and why 14 million Americans still don't have their jobs back.
And you just can't blame it on the governors. And you have to account for your overall handling of this virus. And at the moment he does, again, he's just created another narrative about himself.
WILLIAMS: I know a closing note when I hear one and that was one if I've ever heard at Steve Schmidt, Michael Steele. Gentlemen, it's always a pleasure. Thank you both for coming on with us tonight.
And coming up for us after this next break. Millions of Americans as Michael was just saying can now identify as COVID survivors, including our next guest, who is here tonight to share her experience and talk about how it's become a movement among others.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Our next guest here tonight was probably not surprised to hear that the First Lady canceled her trip to Pennsylvania this evening because she is still dealing with lingering symptoms from the coronavirus. Her husband the President spent tonight at a pack campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania. Of course, no two cases are alike. And that's the point we want to make here.
Some never developed symptoms but are carriers. Some recover seemingly quickly and perhaps after just a mild illness. Then there are the so called long haulers, those who make no mistake, feel fortunate every day to have survived it. Though they are dealing with long-term lingering and morphing symptoms that aren't yet fully understood. There's a lot of them and there's strength in numbers. And now there is a movement with their interests in mind.
To that end, we are so pleased to welcome to our broadcast Diana Berrent, She got sick in March and thought perhaps she had recovered but her experience since then has turned her into an advocate for her fellow patients.
While still in isolation, she founded the group called Survivor Corps. And Diane, I've got to say I was so moved by your spirit and knowledge and your alarm in some of the previous interviews I've seen you do. Take us back second week of March as I understand it. You're a young mom early 40s, good physical shape, a photographer, you're living your life, you get sick and as you put it, it's a Tylenol and Gatorade type sick. Take us through what happened after that.
DIANA BERRENT, SURVIVOR CORPS FOUNDER: So back in early March, Brian, we thought that this was something that you could, you know, you had to wash your hands and not touch your face and you'd be safe.
I was actually extremely careful. I had been watching the news. I'm not a germaphobe. But I am a news junkie and I have been watching it coming. I got exposed on a meeting on March 9, it was not a social meeting. A couple of the people at the meeting had been at a conference in New York. In the previous few days, that turned out to be a super spreader event. Everybody in the group was infected and one person died three weeks later.
I had a like you said a Tylenol and Gatorade variety of COVID. I isolated at home, under no medical supervision, just like 99 percent of people with COVID. And after three weeks, I felt that I was better. I ran out and immediately donated my plasma. I started participating in every trial that I could, knowing that so many of the mysteries about this virus, the answers lie in the bodies of survivors like me.
And what happened after I started Survivor Corps was that people started sharing their stories. And we became sort of the canary in the COVID coal mine, so to speak. And so we started seeing things, you know, long before it hit the media.
We saw COVID toes months earlier, we saw all of these things. And what we started to see in April, at the end of April, were members of our group who were not recovering, and that started to raise some alarms, you know, you see one, you see five, you see 10, when you see 20, it starts to become a trend.
And now the CDC is saying that one out of three people infected with COVID are not recovering in the time expected. And of those one in five are young, healthy people with no preexisting conditions. And my dyad that when they say young, that means 18 to 34. I'm 46. I don't count in that category.
And one of the other things that we've learned since early March, Brian, is that this is not a respiratory disease, it is a vascular disease. And that explains why it is ravaging every single organ system in the body. And so we have members in their 20s, in their 30s who are suffering heart attacks, months after mild cases of COVID. They're having strokes, COVID onset diabetes, COVID onset lupus really, really tremendous damage.
I was actually recently diagnosed with COVID onset blood coma, because any organ that has a that, you know, has blood supply can be -- there can be clots. And we are seeing, you know, it is almost like these people have aged decades in a matter of months. Their youth has been torn away from them. They are not being believed by their doctors. And the numbers are growing in such frightening, you know, it's just skyrocketing. We're looking at another huge public health disaster on our hands.
WILLIAMS: The notion of you having vision problems, especially given your occupation is haunting and frightening. How else is it with you just today? How else did you feel differently today because of what happened to you on March night?
BERRENT: I have to say I spent most of today in bed. I was having a lot of GI issues and headaches and inner ear pain. I will say that it comes and goes for me. And I will also tell you, Brian, I am extremely lucky.
What you're looking at here is not a typical long holler. The people who are suffering from long-term COVID would not be able to do this interview right now because they would be in bed. They would be -- they're incapacitated. Don't look at me as an example. I am a good spokesperson, but I'm not a good example. I am extremely lucky and that's with glaucoma and with lingering symptoms seven and a half months into it.
WILLIAMS: No question. That's why it was important to me to point that out about all of you. Thank you for coming on. We were really happy to be able to have you come on the broadcast, especially given your day and the fact that you're not feeling great all the time.
Diana Berrent, I hope your words has reached all the intended people tonight the group again for our viewers is called the Survivor Corps. You can look them up online. Coming up, a report from London tonight on those who have now volunteered to get the coronavirus as part of the research toward a vaccine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: We mentioned this before the break researchers in the UK are working on a controversial to be sure new vaccine trial that will deliberately infect people with the coronavirus. Some volunteers are already lining up to be part of this study. Others however call it unethical.
We get our report on that tonight from our chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel in London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ENGEL, NBC CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Scientists at this London hospital are preparing to deliberately infect volunteers with the coronavirus to test the effectiveness of vaccines and treatments.
The so called challenge trial is much faster than what's happening now with volunteers around the world who live normally at home and may or may not ever become infected. In a challenge trial, infection is guaranteed. Sophie Rose, a student at Johns Hopkins University studying in the UK wants to take part.
SOPHIE ROSE, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDENT: And best way to tackle this problem is to start with these trials in a young healthy population where the risk is lower.
ENGEL (on camera): What happens if one of these volunteers dies?
ROSE: There when these sorts of trials are designed, they are definitely informed and it is acknowledged that there is a risk of death.
ENGEL (voice-over): The first step in fact 90 volunteers 18 to 30 years old, with the minimum required to get them sick enough to then test vaccines or treatments, but not enough to make them seriously ill.
Some researchers object unethical grounds.
PROFESSOR PETER PIOT, LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE: They inject healthy volunteers with the virus for which we have no cure at the moment. If we were to have a cure and effective treatment, I would be all for it.
ENGEL (on camera): The challenge trials still need approval here in the UK but that is expected to be granted. They could start as early as January.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAMS: Our thanks to our chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel for that report from London tonight. And coming up for us, two men running for governor have done something very different. It's so remarkable. It has us thinking of a simpler time. We'll show it to you when we come back from the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Last thing before we go tonight, we try to do this. This is a rare chance to end on an up note, especially if you live in a battleground state you can't avoid the campaign ads on TV these days. They're ubiquitous and mostly they're mean in keeping with our thoroughly broken and toxic politics.
So when we saw the following today, we knew we had to share it with you. Here now a campaign ad from the Utah governor's race, you'll immediately see what's different about this one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS PETERSON, LAW PROFESSOR: I'm Chris Peterson.
SPENCER COX, REPUBLICAN LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: And I'm Spencer Cox.
PETERSON: We are currently in the final days of campaigning against each other to be your next governor.
COX: And while I think you should vote for me.
PETERSON: Yes, but really you should vote for me.
COX: There are some things we both agree on.
PETERSON: We can debate issues without degrading each other's character.
COX: We can disagree without hating each other.
PETERSON: And win or lose and Utah we work together.
COX: So let's show the country that there's a better way.
PETERSON: My name is Chris Peterson.
COX: And I'm Spencer Cox and we approve this message.
PETERSON: And we approve this message.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: How about that? Let's just savor that for a moment. Two men running against each other for Utah governor appearing in a public service announcement that one journalist today called the most Utah thing ever, and isn't it possible to paraphrase the classic Yuletide song that we need a little Utah right this very minute.
That is our broadcast for this Tuesday Thanks for being here with us. On behalf of all my colleagues at the networks of NBC News, good night.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END
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