Fallout from new surge in coronavirus cases in US

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Fallout from new surge in coronavirus cases in US

The White House Coronavirus Task Force gave their first briefing in more than a month; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Star panel.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," June 26, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Our focus today is very much on the advent of a rising series of new cases across the American south. Nevertheless, there are 16 states with rising cases and rising percentages.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: As you can say, we are facing a serious problem in certain areas. What we're dealing with right now is community spread in the context of a substantial proportion of the people who are getting infected do not know they're infected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: Coronavirus cases across the country, across the world, have spiked. There you see the U.S. cases at to 2.5 million, U.S. deaths at 124,000. 
There are different parts of the country that are seeing this increase, particularly in the south, and hospitalizations are going up, which is a stat people are looking at closely.

Let's bring in our panel: Matthew Continetti, founding editor of the Washington Free Beacon; Leslie Marshall, Democrat strategist, and Bill McGurn, main street columnist for The Wall Street Journal. Matthew, I just know so many people that are so tired and wondering what, when the end is. We're still in what is called the first wave. And they looked towards the fall. We are not even through the summer here. It's really something to watch.

MATTHEW CONTINETTI, WASHINGTON FREE BEACON: No, Bret, and coronavirus has become the backdrop for our national nervous breakdown that seems to be happening across the country. And I think it has to do with the failure to suppress the virus when we initiated these lockdowns back in the spring. And that is really a failure at all levels of government.

So I think it's good that the Coronavirus Task Force was back out there today. And I think the White House needs to continue to demonstrate leadership. Even though each area is different and it comes down to individual behavior, these are messages that need to be broadcast every day.

BAIER: Texas and Florida seeing an increase. Leaders there, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXAS LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR DAN PATRICK: What the governor did today was to take the right pause on certain areas that we think are creating this spike. We're seeing an increase in hospitalizations as a response to those out there who have tested positive.

FLORIDA GOV. RON DESANTIS: We are where we are. I'm not taking -- I didn't say we're going on to the next phase. We have done a step-by-step approach. You are seeing infection, the positivity rate grow, which obviously we want to turn that in the other direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: So Leslie, it's becoming an issue that a lot of these pieces just can't get their heads around based on what they started with.

LESLIE MARSHALL, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: The problem here, Bret, is it's kind of simple what we need to do when we look at other countries. New Zealand had zero cases until two Americans went there and brought, sadly, COVID with them. And the E.U., we were on par with the E.U. and parts of the E.U., but they are ahead of us now and we're going backwards. And one of the reasons for that is, honestly, a lack of personal responsibility as the medical professionals I'm talking to. I talked to today infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University on my radio show, and they said it's simple -- social distance, wear the masks, we are the problem. 
And that is the problem. States opening too early and people not taking it seriously, congregating in groups, not wearing masks.

We have a huge control over this, and we have a responsibility societally to do that because we're really putting a burden as we see in these states, the ICU, on the healthcare system and the healthcare workers, and we don't want that going forward. Like you said, rightly so, Bret, we can't even talk about coronavirus coming back. we haven't gotten through this coronavirus, and we're already headed into July.

BAIER: Right. Bill?

BILL MCGURN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, look, the numbers are troubling coming up. But one of the things that comes out is the disconnect between the deaths and the hospitalizations and the new infections. And that's good news. It suggests it's lesser lethality than we thought before.

What I think is that there is a lot of people that don't want states to open up. I don't think the American people are interested in who is to blame, who did this, who did that. There was a lot we didn't know at the beginning. But it's really kind of rich for, say, Governor Cuomo to point of finger at Governor DeSantis. Look at the death rate, the comparison, the total deaths in New York and Florida. And Florida has a much older and more vulnerable population. So I'm not sure the American people like that sort of blame game. And the implicit, there is implicit message out there, people rooting for some the states to fail.

BAIER: And that, obviously, in this environment, we're also in an election, Matthew, and that came up today at the Coronavirus Task Force briefing, the CBS reporter Paula Reid asking the vice president about campaigning. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA REID, CBS NEWS: You're saying do as we saw, not as we do. You're telling people to listen to local officials, but in Tulsa you defied local health officials. To have an event that, even though you say it didn't result in a spike, dozens of Secret Service agents, dozens of campaign staffers are now quarantined after positive tests. So how can you say that the campaign is not part of the problem that Dr. Fauci laid out?

PENCE: I want to the remind you, again, that freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble is enshrined in the Constitution of the United States. And even in a health crisis, the American people don't forfeit our constitutional rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: So Matthew, we're getting ready to head into convention season, and it really is the tale of two conventions, much different looks.

CONTINETTI: It is. But, Bret, I think a lot of the critics of Trump style campaigning and holding a convention lost credibility when they didn't raise the same questions that Paula Reid asked during the Black Lives Matter protests and during the huge gatherings in public spaces that we've experienced over the civil unrest in the past few weeks. So it's, unfortunately now we've become such a fractured nation that we have these two narratives going, no one really trusts anyone, and public health is in danger.

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