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Joe Biden Lays Out His COVID-19 Plan After Announcing His Advisory Board; Pfizer: Early Analysis Shows COVID-19 Vaccine Is 90 Percent Effective; Pfizer CEO: We Announced The Results At The Moment We Learned It; Trump Campaign Staff Face Uncertain Future Despite Push To Fight On. Aired 12-12:30p ET
Aired November 09, 2020 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00]
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: CDC warned this for -- and for the foreseeable future, a mask remains the most important weapon against the virus. Today's news does not change that urgent reality. I won't be president until January 20th.
My message today is to everyone, is this. It doesn't matter who you voted for, whether you stood, where you stood before Election Day, it doesn't matter your party, your point of view. We can save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months. Not Democrat or Republican lives, American lives.
You know, maybe we saved the life of a person who stocks the shelf at the local grocery store. Maybe saves the life of a member of your place of worship. Maybe it saves the lives of one of your children's teachers. Maybe it saves your life. So please, I implore you, wear a mask. Do it for yourself. Do it for your neighbor.
A mask is not a political statement, but it is a good way to start pulling the country together. I want to be very clear, the goal of mask wearing is not to make your life less comfortable, is to take something away from you. It is to give something back to all of us, a normal life. The goal is to get back to normal as fast as possible. And masks are critical doing that. It won't be forever.
But that's how we get our nation back up to speed economically. So we can go back to celebrating birthdays and holidays together, so we can attend sporting events together, we can get back to the lives and connections we shared before the pandemic. It doesn't matter whether or not we always agree with one another. It doesn't matter who you voted for.
We are Americans and our country is under threat. And now we're called to do the same thing that generations of proud Americans have done in the face of a crisis throughout our history, rise above our differences to defend the strength and the vitality of our nation. You know, that's the character of patriots. That's the character of Americans. We have to do this together.
Wearing a mask may seem like a small act. Maybe you think your individual choice won't make any difference. But throughout our history, the history of our nation, we have seen over and over how small acts add up to enormous achievements. It is the weight of many small acts together that bend the arc of history. I know there's nothing the American people can't accomplish when we're together as one people with one mission.
We can get this virus under control, I promise you. We can rebuild our economy back better than it was before. We can address race-based disparities that damage our country. It is in our power. So let's wear a mask. Let's get to work. Thank you.
May God bless you, and for all those who've lost somebody, our heart goes out to you. We know what it's like. Our heart goes out to you. May God protect our health workers, health care workers, and all Americans? Thank you.
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Listening to the President-Elect of the United States, Joe Biden. You see Senator Harris there, the Vice President- Elect ahead of him walking off stage in Wilmington, Delaware, that after receiving a briefing from the President-Elect's new Coronavirus Advisory Board, that board to help him with transition planning. That board meeting on a very important day.
Number one, this is the first work week since Joe Biden clinched the election. But number two, very early this morning, the drug maker Pfizer announcing that its vaccine candidate in Phase III trials has proved 90 percent effective. Let's discuss what we just heard and its meaning with our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's Jeff Zeleny with us as well.
Dr. Gupta, I want to start with you. The timing here is fascinating and also challenging in the sense that this could be an enormous gift for the country and the world and for a new president to have a vaccine that at least appears to be coming out of trials with wind at its back, with proven efficacy.
However, the president-elect also making clear production so first, a few last testing hurdles, and then production and distribution will take months for wide scale availability. And with the case count going up so quickly, he doesn't want people to say, a vaccine is coming, I'm good. He needs people, and he made a bipartisan appeal there, please, put on a mask.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, I thought that was extraordinary, John. I mean, it is the first big speech from the president-elect and he spent so much time talking about masks. It is sort of a historic thing. You look back, and you read about the history of pandemics, I mean, these are important things obviously as most public health officials have been saying for a long time.
But it was a little surreal for me for the last year, it's been every time the president speaks, we're in fact checking mode. And here it was what he was saying was following the science, wear a mask, the importance of testing, and setting expectations as you point out about this vaccine.
[12:05:00]
DR. GUPTA: We're still going into a crisis mode. The very promising results today, it is not all sorted yet, but that will take time. And that doesn't mean we can sort of get lax on any of the basic public health measures he is talking about.
KING: And so Jeff, to that point, I mean look, this is a fascinating political challenge anyway. A president-elect, even in good times, even without a pandemic and the economic domino effect of it is trying to convince the 70 million people in this case, a record number of people who did not vote for him to listen to him.
And you had Joe Biden there talking about maybe you'll save your son's teacher, your daughter's teacher, maybe you'll save somebody you go to church with, maybe you save yourself. It was just a long riff on please, yes, maybe there's a vaccine coming, but until then, we have to do this together. The question is can he sell that message at a time the current President of the United States refuses to recognize the results.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, increasingly the president-elect is going to get the microphone of the president. John, we can feel this happening in real time here, the extraordinary megaphone that is really only afforded to the President of the United States is slowly shifting to a President-Elect Joe Biden.
So by making this statement about masks, it is words we've heard him say before, but never with the weight that he has said them in this moment. And look what he was doing right before this. He was setting up an advisory board, a task force focusing the urgent work, the priority of his new administration on this issue.
So this is certainly messaging without question. But I, too, was struck by he says set partisan politics aside, it doesn't matter if you voted for me or not, let's wear a mask. That will be a challenge of course in some of these red states with Republican Governors.
So it will be on them to decide if they're going to follow suit and do some type of mask mandates. But one thing the Biden Organization is heartened by it was the result of an exit poll that we took last week of all the millions and millions of voters.
About two-thirds said they believe wearing a mask is a responsibility, a public health responsibility, not a political statement. So they're hoping that there are some Trump voters out there who will agree with this point.
But I think in message and substance, this makes clear this is the laser focus of this president-elect and his transition team and of course it's not going to reduce the challenge. And he is going to be coming into office just as he said, it's a dark winter ahead. So he didn't sugar coat this either, John.
KING: He doesn't sugar coat. The question is, will there be, could there be and maybe it will take a day or three. But I hope there will be communication, conversations and cooperation between team Biden and team Trump, at least the scientists as we go through this next ten weeks of transition. Jeff Zeleny, thank you.
Sanjay is going to stay with us for a minute. Because Sanjay, I want to put this more into context, not just what we heard from the president-elect, but the collision of events if you will, and hopefully a positive collision of events for a change with this Pfizer announcement this morning.
The President's son, Donald Trump Jr. already tweeting this morning questioning the timing of this announcement, suggesting that Pfizer held this until after the election on purpose that's what Donald Trump Jr. says.
But you did speak to the Pfizer CEO, and again Pfizer's announcement this morning that its vaccine candidate in phase three trials has proven 90 percent efficacy, which would be a big deal. You put that timing question to the CEO. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. GUPTA: Should we read anything into the fact that this got announced right after the election?
ALBERT BOURLA, CEO, PFIZER: Yes, the science brought it exactly this time. We announced it the moment we learn about it. And I said multiple times that the election for us is an artificial time line. I was predicting that this will happen before the end of October. Eventually it happened a week later. Because this is when science brought it to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: So essentially, he is saying look, as soon as they came to us and explain to our viewers, there's an outside advisory board, this is not Pfizer with its own data holding this data, and I'd say OK, we're going to release it today.
Walk through that process, because as you can see both the president's son and the president has pretty large Twitter following, and they're going to gin this up that Pfizer cooked the books, Pfizer to help Joe Biden.
DR. GUPTA: Well, I think the point that you raise that there's an outside independent committee I think is probably the most salient here, John. Really it was not Pfizer's decision. You have this data. No one sees the data except for this independent committee. Even Mr. Bourla hadn't seen the data, he was just told about it yesterday from this committee saying it's 90 percent effective.
So this committee is the only one who sees the data. They have these basically interim analysis points when they check in on data, make sure they got enough people, enough of a statistical data set here. And this is the point where they had that. So that's why they shared the information with the CEO yesterday and obviously it was announced late last night, this morning. So it wasn't Pfizer's decision, John.
[12:10:00] KING: And so, let's go deeper into this. This is not Pfizer's decision, which is an important distinction to make. So here we are at this moment, where look, 75 million Americans voted for Joe Biden, 70 million Americans voted for Donald Trump.
Millions, millions and millions more around the world watched this play out. And guess what they all share in common, they want a Coronavirus vaccine, most of them anyway, there are skeptics out there, but this is a global pandemic.
And so, what I saw this morning, and please help me and I'll play the conversation. You hear 90 percent efficacy. To a layman like me, I say wow, thank you. You raise that question to explain just what this means. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURLA: Ninety percent is a game changer. 90 percent, now you're hoping to have a tool in your war against this pandemic that could be significantly effective. How long this protection will last is something that we don't know right now, but it's part of the objective of the study. We will follow-up the 44,000 people that they received, they are part of this study for two years. And during this follow-up obviously we will be looking also the durability of the immune responses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: So walk us through that, Dr. Gupta, in the sense that if I get that, the follow-up study, we won't know for a while how long this vaccine lasts, but this vaccine should be available sooner, correct?
DR. GUPTA: Yes. I mean, so John, I would say first of all in whole, this is good news. This is a good news story today, what is happened. But these are important questions, 90 percent effective, 90 percent preventing people from getting infected. That's how they basically, they give people placebo, they give people vaccine, and see how well it works.
But if the question is how well will it work actually preventing people from getting sick who do get infected. It's a really important question right, John? 80 percent of people recover from this, no problem anyway, right, with no symptoms or minimal symptoms. So it's really this vulnerable population, how well that it work for them, how likely it was to prevent them getting sick?
How long does it last? Because we know people who get naturally infected, maybe their immunity lasts for a few months, it's still an unanswered question. What about with the vaccine, is this going to be a yearly thing? It's two shots. How long after you get the second shot do you develop immunity? Typically seven days they're saying.
But then how long does it last, an entire season? So these are questions that need to be answered. Also the safety data which won't come out until the end of this month, John. KING: Progress comes with questions. But I hope you're correct. Let's
frame it as a good news day. And we will go from there, we could use one of those. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, grateful for your - help us understand all this and grateful for your - to get the Pfizer CEO on camera for us. As always Dr. Gupta thank you.
When we come back, the president-elect speaking today saying, he wants all Americans to come together, help him fight COVID. The President of the United States, the current president though, refusing still to acknowledge the election results.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:15:00]
KING: President Trump's political choices this week will set the tenor of his final ten weeks in office. He still does not accept the election results, but he also has yet produced zero evidence to support claims of massive fraud. Some advisers say, this math is real and it is overwhelming. But others are cheering the president to fight on. And there's talk now of campaign style rallies so the president can air his grievances.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: I think it was so important early on to say to the president if your basis for not conceding is that there was voter fraud, and then show us. Show us. Friendship means that you will listen to somebody, give them their opportunity. And if they don't come forward with the proof, then it's time to move on.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Trump has not lost. Do not concede, Mr. President, fight hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Joining me now, our CNN White House Correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, and Jonathan Martin, National Political Correspondent for "The New York Times". Kaitlan, there was some talk over the weekend that some people are telling the president, sir, we don't have a fight here, we don't have the evidence, we don't have the proof. Any evidence at all the president is going to decide never mind, I lost, or are we still in fight mode?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're trying to handle this delicately, because of course; the president has been incredibly frustrated and angry over the weekend.
So they're kind of walking on eggshells with how they want to approach this. But it is true that Jared Kushner has approached the president or conceding the election, and then my colleague reported that the First Lady has also talked to the president about accepting the fact that he lost this election to Joe Biden.
But publicly, we are seeing a much different response from the people around the president, including his own Campaign Manager, Bill Stepien, who held an all staff meeting at their headquarters outside Washington this morning, I'm told where he told staff we're still in this fight, don't mistake the fact that there's not been progress for this idea that we are giving up this fight.
We're going to move forward with this. And so, it raises questions of how long can they walk this balance beam of privately people believe that it is time for the president to concede the election. But publicly his aides are still encouraging him and his baseless claims about voter fraud, and pushing that, and continuing to say that they're going to file lawsuits and dispute this outcome.
And that comes as Joe Biden is moving ahead with planning his transition as we can just tell from that COVID task force meeting that he held and briefed us on. So it is a mixture, and a division inside the White House and the president's inner circle of what they're going to do next. But really basically they're all just waiting on the president to come to terms with what's happening.
KING: And Jonathan, you know this well, and I've covered a lot of elections, too, the key to proving anything wrong happened is to catch it in real time. The election was six days ago. If there was evidence of people doing wrong things, stuffing ballot boxes, dead people voting, whatever it is, they're trying to get us to believe this time, we should be able to see the evidence by now, because it happened six days ago.
So what I watch in situations like this is ambitious conservatives around the country like Jeff Duncan, he is Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, a state the president is losing right now, a state the president needed to win. Listen to him. He says Mr. President, you have time to make your case, but I don't see it.
[12:20:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GOV. GEOFF DUNCAN (R-GA): We've not had any sort of credible incidents raised to our level yet, and so we'll continue to make sure that the opportunity to make sure every legal ballot is counted is there. But at this point we've not seen any sort of credible examples.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That's a Trump ally, Jonathan, essentially saying sir, prove it or move on.
JONATHAN MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. The president has put his party in a tough spot here, because they obviously don't want to contradict him. And more importantly, they shared core of supporters that have become convinced that there was something nefarious going on. But at the same time, they know that there are no credible reports of any kind of widespread misbehavior let alone, voter fraud, and so they're in a tough spot.
But it's sort of an allegory for their larger challenge, John. And for the last four years, they have been on his side and for better and for worse. And obviously they've taken some serious losses in 2018 because of him. And now they have to stick by and even as much of the country moves on, as it's clear that Joe Biden has become the president-elect.
The bigger question I have John is, how much more rope they give him, how much more slack he have in a line before someone say, look, you got to accept the results. I think just talking privately to a few members of congress, John, over the weekend, they would like some kind of a cue, some kind of a wink at least from the president or his people so that they can start moving on.
But that clearly as of midday Monday is not coming anytime soon, so this week is going to be tough for members of congress because they're going to want to start moving on and he won't let them.
KING: Right and we would wish that our principle in country would come ahead of politics in this case. But the president got 70 million votes. He is not to leave the White House in ten weeks. But that doesn't mean he disappears from the political scene. It doesn't mean that he doesn't--
MARTIN: Exactly, that's right.
KING: Doesn't mean dangle the prospect of running for re-election or getting involved in the 2022 midterms, endorsing candidates, which is why Kaitlan others have tried to nudge it a little bit. But this is a president as you all know who doesn't listen to the Bush family but the Former President, George W. Bush over the weekend putting out a statement.
"I want to congratulate President Trump and his supporters on a hard- fought campaign. He earned the votes of 70 million Americans, an extraordinary political achievement. They have spoken and their voice will continue to be herds through elected Republicans at every level of government. We must come together for the sake of our families and neighbors and for our nation and for its future."
That was President Bush we know is no fan of President Trump. This is a mutual feeling here, trying to say you accomplished something really big, sir, now leave. But is my question, but.
COLLINS: Yes, those are two ways actually that people have tried to appeal to the president about accepting this and moving on, because they don't want him to be questioning Joe Biden being a legitimate president after they defended the president against the same accusations that came from people who did not like the fact that Donald Trump won the election in 2016.
So we have had aides privately tell the president look how many people voted for you, look how strong your support was, it wasn't this worst case scenario where you were shown out the door by the voters. There were a lot of voters who still stood by the president despite what he said about the pandemic.
So they're appealing to him in that way. The other what's interesting John is, they're talking about the president running in 2024. And we saw Lindsey Graham doing that today, and we've heard other officials have also brought that up with the president, saying that, that is a real option he can consider.
But the people who will not be happy to hear that are these 2024 GOP hopefuls, including the Vice President, Ron DeSantis of Florida, Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, all of these people who have talked about are going to be basically living on the edge, waiting to see what it is the president does.
Because a lot of people have said, they don't think even the president, if he doesn't actually run in 2024, he will likely float it for a few years as he's done with other things. So that's something that is giving some pause to those people who would like to be looking at their own presidential runs starting soon.
MARTIN: And John, real fast if I could? This is about trying to incentivize good behavior by some of the president's friends and advisers. If you take this now and handle it with some modicum of dignity and grace, you will have a chance down the line to - political watch. But delayed gratitude has never been a very compelling self of this president, John.
KING: Delayed gratitude, I like that. We are learning new terms, new calculations in terms all the time as we go through this. Jonathan Martin, Kaitlan Collins, grateful, I know both of you've been very busy for the reporting and the insights, and we will keep our eyes on that. And coming up about six days after the election, guess what? We're still counting votes, including from key battleground states. The latest in just a minute.
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[12:25:00]
KING: Because of this unprecedented pandemic election, we are still counting votes, even though Election Day was six days ago. Top of the hour, we showed you some new votes from the state of Georgia. Joe Biden building his lead there. Some new votes now from the State of Nevada, where you see Joe Biden, the President-Elect, has a 36,186- vote lead. Let me just show you a little bit about these votes as they come in here.
We enjoy doing it, this is a new thing we had built for the magic wall, these are from Clark County. 6,095 for Biden. Just in. For the president, 4,215. So Joe Biden gets 56 percent plus of this. I want round up. The point being, we are still counting votes. Even though we've called the election, Trump Campaign says we shouldn't have called it that was pre-mature.
