CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript Interview with Jared Polis

Interview

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Joining us now is the governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, who for weeks has implored citizens to wear a mask.

But, Governor, you resisted a mandate until now because he had doubts that it could be easily enforced.

I want to be clear to your viewers, you've talked about selfish bastards who won't wear a mask. You've told people they should wear a mask.

But why did you decide, after being reticent, I'm going to go for a mandate?

GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): We had had about 60 percent of our state, including Denver, Boulder County, Larimer County, some of our biggest countries, that had municipal or mandatory mask mandates for several weeks and some for several months now.

What we found and what really changed my opinion, very clear, the areas that had mask requirements had 15 percent to 20 percent more people that wore masks. And even more importantly, they had substantially reduced spread of the virus in the areas where the mask requirements were.

So I decided, it's pretty obvious, you know, what the other 40 percent of our state needs that level of protection, too. We care about our economy. We care about savings lives. We need to learn from our cities and counties that led the way and mask-wearing requirements.

KING: So you saw data and you changed your mind. Shocking.

(LAUGHTER)

POLIS: It's all too rare these days but I try to be data driven.

KING: It is -- well, it's rare in some places. I shouldn't say it's rare everywhere, but it's rare in some places.

I just want to put the case count up in Colorado because we're watching this. This is 38 states now with more cases this week than last week. It's not just cases. We shouldn't obsess about cases.

The question is: How much is the growth and can your hospitals handle it and the like? But you see the Colorado case count, the seven-day moving average starting to go up there.

What's happening? If you look at the middle of June, a month ago, you were down into a better place, and now you're heading back up. What do you see is at main causes here?

POLIS: So the modeling, which is certainly getting better by the week -- there's better modeling of this disease now than there were several months ago -- show that if Coloradoans didn't change their behavior, we would risk overwhelming our hospitals in early September.

So we have this brief moment of opportunity. We need to not just wear masks, by the way. Wearing masks isn't enough. That's part of it. Also reinforce the need for social distancing.

Coloradoans and Americans, we need -- Colorado is on a better trajectory. We need to like we were living in May. Everything was open. The people were more careful about social distancing and avoiding large groups.

We need to go back to that way of living if we care about keeping our businesses open and savings living.

KING: And we're watching this 50-state experiment playing out. I'm talking to you after we had the conversation about what's happening in Georgia, where the governor, to his credit, wears a mask and tells people to wear masks. But he says -- he's a conservative Republican -- says, I'm not going to mandate it. I don't think it's enforceable or necessary.

He's in a court fight with the mayor there. So you have -- you're listening to mayors following what's happening in your city. We learned today, because of this reporting from the Center of Public

Integrity, there's a White House Coronavirus Task Force that lists 18 states in a red zone and says they need to roll back their reopenings because of the rising case count. That document has not been made public.

The president of the United States has not had an official coronavirus event in 10 days. What does that tell you?

POLIS: Well, it -- what I know, as governor, is that we have not been able to rely on the federal government to rise to the occasion battling this pandemic.

Every country that's battled this successfully -- and I do say successfully -- European nations have been successful. Other nations have been successful.

America has the highest case count and highest per capita death count of all. And this is pathetic because we're a wealthy industrialized nation.

The reason for that is clear. We've lacked a coordinated national response. National testing is still in disarray. And I understand -- it was in disarray in May and maybe took us unaware. They should have fixed it by now.

We're doing everything we can at the state level, Republican and Democratic governors. But at the end of the day, we're a nation and we need to work better together so that our country can get through this quickly.

KING: And you -- you were reticent about the mask mandate because you thought it would be difficult to enforce. And, you know, you've got a lot to do right now. Professional health officials are busy. Law enforcement professionals are business.

But you say you watched these other cities and you see that it's working and you've decided to mandate it.

Talk through the enforcement part.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Does the business have to call for help, does a citizen have to call for help if someone is wandering around without a mask?

POLIS: Yes. The enforcement is not a big factor in the increased mask- wearing. Cities have had this for a couple of months. And a couple of counties have had this for a couple of months. They have had negligible enforcement. Maybe a couple of tickets here or there.

KING: Right.

General mask orders lead to more mask wearing. It's moral clarity, it's messaging clarity rather than bickering over the legal words of what's mandatory where. You just say wear a mask. It's a much clearer message.

When the articles are about, why isn't mandatory here or there, I think people get a mixed message. We're seeing it's the opinion of public officials.

In our state, I was joined by the Republican mayor, Democratic mayor, saying this is for this mandate. It's broad bipartisan support. Some of the counties that have it have Republican majorities on the county commissions. Others are Democratic.

[11:25:12]

It's not a partisan thing. It's a science thing. This virus doesn't care about ideology. This virus doesn't care about party. Masks absolutely help stop the spread of the virus. And this is a simple thing we can do to increase people wearing masks in public.

KING: It is just a fact. Masks do help stop the spread.

Governor Jared Polis, appreciate your time and your candor today. Best of luck, sir, in the days ahead.

POLIS: Thank you.

KING: Thank you.

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