CNN’s Jim Sciutto grilled Trump campaign official Marc Lotter about the nation’s record-high Covid-19 cases as well as the lack of mask wearing and social distancing at Trump rallies in a long, fiery segment.

Filling in as guest host on Anderson Cooper 360, Sciutto zeroed in on the administration’s public touting of “encouraging news” about the pandemic on Friday, which generated notable pushback since the country hit a new, daily record high of more than 40,000 cases.

“How can the vice president and president claim that the U.S. Is beating this virus?” Sciutto pressed.

“Well, as you heard from Dr. [Anthony] Fauci and the vice president and Dr. [Deborah] Birx today in 34 states, we are seeing a decrease with the positivity rate and we have a problem in 16 states…” Lotter began.

“It’s not going down,” Sciutto broke in, as a show put up a graph of the country’s Covid rate skyrocketing in the past week. “We have the graphic. Let’s show the positivity rate nationally in this country. That belies that claim right there.”

“You can try to average this out nationally to try to shift the numbers, as you wish,” Lotter replied. “But what he was saying is 34 states, those numbers are going down. In 16 states, we have the problem of…”

“What’s wrong with averaging out nationally?” Scuitto said, pushing back. “If you’re talking about a response to a pandemic nationally and the federal government’s national response, nationally the positivity rate is going up. So how can you claim and, as you know, the death toll is going up every day. How can you claim to folks listening tonight that that’s a win?”

“Very easily, Jim,” Lotter said, before returning to a state-by-state view of the outbreak. “What is going on in Miami is not the same as Montana and we need to be honest with the American people. This is a virus that’s different in different parts of our country and the response by this administration and this president is reflective of that.”

After Sciutto pointed out that three of the most populous states in the country — Florida, Texas, and California — are where the coronavirus spikes are rising the fastest, he pushed Lotter on the reluctance by the administration to mandate mask wearing.

“Should there be statewide measures, simple ones like wear a mask?” Sciutto asked.

“Not necessarily. Within those states and you saw in the maps being shown today by Dr. Fauci, by Dr. Birx, even the response rate, the positivity rates are differing in various parts of each state. Southern Florida is different than the panhandle or rural parts of Texas are much different than what’s going on in Houston.”

“It’s about lives. Marc. It’s about lives,” a clearly frustrated Sciutto said, interrupting again. “The latest model from the University of Washington says that 33,000 lives in this country, 33,000 Americans, their lives could be saved by October if 95% of people in America wore masks, if that was a national habit. What do you say to that data? Is it not worth, is that simple step of wearing a mask not worth saving those lives?”

Lotter demurred, citing an early model — which assumed zero public health response measures — that projected 1.5 – 2.2 million potential deaths from the virus. This prompted Sciutto to bring up Trump’s infamous prediction in February that the virus cases will soon “go down to zero.”

“The president says two months ago: ‘The deaths were going to disappear.’ Since then 125,000 people died. Who got the model wrong?” Sciutto fired back.

“We have slowed the spread,” Lotter said. “We have cut that rate down from 2.5 million down to…”

“You haven’t slowed the spread,” Sciutto insisted. “You can say it as often as you want, the numbers don’t back you up. The graphics behind their heads as they were speaking today contradicted what the vice president was saying.”

Moments later, Sciutto turned to Pence’s argument that the lack of public health safety measures at Trump campaign rallies was somehow about protecting rallygoers’ constitutional rights.

“Why does that stand in the way of people’s ability to practice their constitutional rights? It’s a mask,” Sciutto pressed. “They are not being barred from going to the event or shouting President Trump’s name. They are just asked to wear a mask. How does that violate their constitutional rights?”

“What we’re saying is that we’re having people saying that we shouldn’t even be holding rallies,” Lotter claimed. “And that the the point that the president and vice president and you and I were discussing earlier this week about whether it’s appropriate to hold rallies or whether people should be able to get together and gather to celebrate the First Amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. I would say we don’t require people to take flu vaccines. It’s something people make. They have to judge…”

“We do ask them to take their shoes off before they get on airplanes and they have a free right to travel,” Sciutto pointed out, concluding the lengthy clash.

Watch the video above, via CNN.

 

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