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New Day

Biden Choses Coronavirus Board; Biden Transition Refused Resources; Stocks Rally on Biden Win; Tropical Storm Drenching South Florida. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired November 09, 2020 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[06:30:30]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news.

Moments ago, President-elect Joe Biden released the names of the doctors and scientists on his coronavirus advisory board. A lot of names that are very familiar to people who watch CNN. Dr. Vivek Murthy, Rick Bright, who was the whistleblower during the Trump administration, Dr. Celine Gounder, Michael Osterholm.

Nearly 106,000 new coronavirus cases were reported overnight. That's the fourth highest day since the pandemic began. Forty-three states are seeing increases in new case. No states in green there headed in the right direction. Fifty-seven thousand Americans are now hospitalized with coronavirus, 19 states seeing records.

Joining us now is CNN medical analyst Dr. Rochelle Walensky. She is the chief of the division of infectious diseases at Mass General Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Walensky, thanks so much for being with us.

First, your reaction to this list of doctors that we're seeing from the Biden transition team. The president-elect appointed Dr. Vivek Murthy, you can see there, David Kessler, former FDA chair, Yale associate dean, also a number of doctors we see regularly.

What do you think?

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CHIEF, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL: Good morning, John.

I'm -- I'm really enthusiastic. You know, the -- the Biden -- President-elect Biden has -- has stated in his plan that this is going to be a plan based on science, it's going to be a plan that utilizes the consummate public health professionals, which I think we see in that list. It's going to be founded on trust, transparency, and accountability. And I think that list just demonstrated that he's going to stick to that plan.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So in addition to those experts that he'll be relying on, he's also released his plan or outline for his plan. Here's what we know. The Biden plan to fight COVID would be free testing on a massive scale, to use the Defense Production Act to increase PPE -- I'm curious to hear if you think that we're still running woefully short -- nationwide mask mandate, evidence-based guidelines for communities, plan for effective and equal distribution of treatments and vaccines, and protect high-risk Americans.

What jumps out at you from that plan?

WALENSKY: I -- well, there's so much that does. First of all, the core of it is in so many of those things that we've been lacking, the testing and the PPE. And, yes, I still think we need more work in the PPE, especially as -- as the cases have been so widely distributed across the country. So, yes, I do believe we still need more PPE. We absolutely need more testing. Cases are rising faster than testing rates are rising.

But I -- I'm so encouraged by the commitment to equity of access, of access to testing, of access to treatments, of access to vaccines. And really a core foundation of this being related to vulnerable populations, whether they be vulnerable because of their comorbidities or because of -- they live in communities that -- that are just more vulnerable.

BERMAN: I want to ask you about where we are with the pandemic this morning because the numbers have been alarming and a lot of people were focused on vote counts and not case counts over the last week, and that's understandable. But we had day after day of more than 100,000 new cases, including Sunday, where the cases normally go down. We have more than 100,000 new cases yesterday and the hospitalization rate is just terrifying right now.

I don't see what turns this around in the short-term, Dr. Walensky. Want about you?

WALENSKY: Yes, you know, you look at the shape of that soaring curve. I mean six, seven months ago we were talking about flattening the curve. There's nothing about that shape of that soaring curve that looks flat.

You know, the other thing that concerns me is we're no longer regionalized. You know, it used to be that it was in the -- focused in the northeast and we had to dampen it down in the northeast or it was focused in Arizona. But over the last week, about 23 states in all region of the country recorded record cases.

Then we get to the challenges of deaths, right? I mean we -- you noted that, you know, the death rates are high. And, in fact, they represent case counts from two or three weeks ago. So that's when we had case counts of the 60,000 to 70,000 range. So you can imagine what's going to happen in the weeks ahead.

And then, finally, the hospitalizations. And I want to, you know, reiterate how it's -- how important this is. We've had at least 19 states that have more than 1,000 people hospitalized with COVID today. So what does that mean? That means that incident command centers are focused on how we're going to get care to those patients, care to patients who don't have COVID, how we're going to find ventilators and dialysis machines and sedation meds and staffing and supplies.

[06:35:00]

But one of the things that those hospitals also need to be focused on is how we're going to distribute vaccines when it comes. And that's a massive effort. And it's very hard to focus on the patient care and -- on the vaccine distribution when you have to be so focused on the patient care.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Rochelle Walensky, thank you very much. Great to talk to you this morning.

WALENSKY: Thanks so much.

BERMAN: All right, we have new reporting about the transition. The Biden team is at work. But a key member of the Trump administration, a politically appointee, is refusing, at least so far, to sign a paper that will release millions of dollars so that the transition team could get even further along in its process. That's next.

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CAMEROTA: Seventy-two days until Inauguration Day. Yes, we have another day count. President-elect Joe Biden's transition to the White House is underway behind the scenes, even though President Trump is putting up obstacles. "The Washington Post" reports this morning that the official transition is being held up by a Trump appointee in the General Services Administration who refuses to acknowledge Biden's victory.

[06:40:01]

Joining us now is James Steinberg, he served on the Obama transition team. He's a professor of international affairs and law at Syracuse University and the author of "Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of Presidential Power."

Professor, great to have you here.

Can we just start right -- let's just start right there. So there's this GSA administrator who needs to sign some documentation for officially the gates to open and funding and equipment to be provided to the Biden/Harris future administration and she's not signed that.

How big of a problem?

JAMES STEINBERG, FORMER OBAMA TRANSITION TEAM OFFICIAL AND PROFESSOR, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: Well, I think it's an issue. It's an awkward process because normally the transition take place as soon as it becomes clear who's won the election, even before the Electoral College meets in December. And that allows the incoming administration the time it needs to get up to speed on the issues, to begin to talk to people in the government, to prepare themselves, because they need to be ready on day one. And so the longer this process takes, the greater barriers there are.

Now, having said that, one advantage that Vice President Biden and his team have is the vice president served at the White House as vice president, most of his advisers have a lot of experience, so they have a strong background. But there's still a cost that's paid by delaying this process.

BERMAN: And I think that cost grows as the days turn into weeks and months. Maybe it doesn't matter as much today, tomorrow, this week, but as it continues to draw out it could be a problem. That's the administrative delay, the administrative issue.

What about the moral one? And perhaps the emotional one for the nation? What impact do you think it has when you have a president, you know, he can call for recounts. That's his legal right. He can follow law -- he can file lawsuits in some places. But when he out and out says that he doesn't trust the results of an election against the evidence, what impact do you think that will have on the emotional transition for the country?

STEINBERG: You know, I -- I hear what the president has to say, but I think that there's a strong sense abroad that -- that this is a transition that needs to happen and -- and the election has been resolved.

We've dealt with uncertainty before, as we saw in the 2000 election, but in that case I think there was a lot of good faith on both sides, that both respected the fact that the outcome genuinely was uncertain and they worked together very effectively. And as someone who served in the Clinton White House in those years, there was a real commitment by President Clinton and -- and his team to make sure that both sides could be ready to take office once the election was resolved.

And so I think even if President Trump disputes the election, what's important now is for the administration to demonstrate that it's prepared to cooperate with the Biden team because one way or the other, this election's going to be resolved, almost certainly in favor of Vice President Biden, and it's part of our responsibility as leaders of the country to make sure the country isn't left shortchanged on day one, once Vice President -- President-elect Biden takes office.

CAMEROTA: Your book is about the foreign policy issues during the transition and it's called "Difficult Transitions" and the trouble at the outset. And so what are the warning signs, if any, that you're seeing right now?

STEINBERG: You know, again, I think the key is to make sure that once the president is inaugurated and his new team is put in place, that they're fully up to speed on day one, that they've had a chance to work closely with the outgoing administration, to understand what the world situation is, to be aware of all the facts, to have the opportunity to see what's in the files, to be, you know, informed by the intelligence community about what they know about what's going on so there isn't a period of uncertainty once the transition take place. And we've seen in the past that sometimes that can be a serious

problem. The most notable one, of course, going back to when President Kennedy was inaugurated and -- and the problems and the transition that led to the Bay of Pigs disaster in Cuba. But many times we've seen a situation where absent a good transition, the team doesn't really have all the facts, isn't in a position to make good judgements on day one.

BERMAN: The 9/11 Commission looked at the transition and said, potentially some of the delays and the -- and the slow process of coming into power for the Bush administration might have had an impact in some of their decision-making process.

Look, it can have an effect. I don't think there's any question about that.

But when you look at the people on the Biden transition, that the president-elect has working for him, Ted Kaufman, who's running the transition, literally wrote the law, the latest law on transitions from one administration to the next when he was an acting senator or the interim senator from the state of Delaware, who actually replaced Joe Biden. You have Ron Klain, who was the chief of staff in the vice president's office. You have a lot of people with a very serious, intricate knowledge of how the government works.

[06:45:00]

What impact will that have?

STEINBERG: It's clearly an advantage. I mean I do think that you have the combination of a very skilled and seasoned group of people who are ready to take key positions in the Biden administration. And the fact they've only been out of office for four years. Often, even these transitions take place after a longer period of being out of office.

So, for example, in the case of when President Bush came in, in 2000, his team had been out, even though very experienced, had been out of office for eight years. Similarly when President Obama took office in 2008, the Democrats had been out of office. So this combination, I think, will help mitigate some of the cost associated with the delays and lack of cooperation that we're seeing thus far from the Trump administration.

CAMEROTA: Professor James Steinberg, thank you very much. Great to talk to you.

STEINBERG: Thank you for having me.

CAMEROTA: Wall Street likes the idea of a Biden presidency. We'll tell you how the markets are looking this morning.

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BERMAN: U.S. stock futures rallying this morning ahead of the open as the United States prepares for a Joe Biden presidency. But the unemployment crisis far from over. [06:50:01]

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now with the very latest.

Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

You know, investors are OK with a Joe Biden presidential victory. Futures moving higher after a drawn-out election week. There was no blue wave by Democrats, so corporate tax increases are less likely. But CEOs are expecting a more stable relationship with the White House from a Biden presidency.

Still, it's important to remember, Wall Street, John, is not main street, and America still has a jobs crisis here. On Friday we learned 638,000 jobs were added back in October, but the economy is still down about 10 million jobs since the pandemic started. The unemployment rate ticked down to 6.9 percent, but the unemployment rate for black Americans is still in the double digits at 10.8 percent.

You know, it's why there are these renewed calls for more help from Washington. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said a stimulus package could happen in the lame duck session. After Friday's jobs report, he applauded the unemployment rate falling below 7 percent and suggested a smaller package may be enough. That sets up another fight with Democrats on how much to spend to help millions of Americans still struggling right now during this pandemic.

And, John, just breaking this morning, Pfizer says early analysis shows its COVID-19 vaccine is 90 percent effective. You can expect that to add to the sense of optimism this morning. In fact, futures hitting highs on that reporting.

BERMAN: Yes. Romans, you just broke what I think is a giant story.

ROMANS: Yes.

BERMAN: And one we're going to be talking a lot about over the next several minutes and hours. Pfizer is reporting -- now it's self- reporting from Pfizer, so, obviously, you need some independent analysis that their vaccine is 90 percent effective in the second and third stage of trials. That's a huge deal and the market's bonkers.

ROMANS: This is critical for getting an economy back to normal. Vaccine, testing, tracing, and social distancing and finally getting a vaccine that is effective rolled out next year. All of that is really critical for this new administration and obviously for millions of Americans.

BERMAN: Again, Romans, thank you very much. Again, the breaking news, Pfizer reporting moments ago, self-reporting, that its vaccine in the stage two and stage three trials, they say, is 90 percent effective. We're getting much more information now. We will update you in just a moment.

In the meantime, south Florida dealing with a tropical storm, drenching rain, and it could make landfall again. We'll get the forecast, coming up.

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[06:56:32]

CAMEROTA: Breaking overnight, a powerful tropical storm soaking south Florida this morning. You can see on your screen the situation live. Torrential rain and strong winds forcing schools to close in some of the biggest counties there.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is tracking it all for us.

Where is it now, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Alisyn, it's in Florida Bay, moving into the Gulf of Mexico, but moving west now. Again, west, after it moved east all weekend. Sixty-five miles per hour, making very heavy rainfall in Miami, all the way down into the upper keys. There is some very significant rainfall coming down here with winds still gusting to around 50 to 60 in some spots. Miami-Dade, parts of Broward, already between 9 and 10 inches of rainfall and flash flood warnings in effect right now.

Flooding is happening right now in some of those areas. So it's just to the north and to the west of Key West, but it's going to move into and move to the southwest for a while. Gain some strength in very warm water. But there's so much dry air up here in the northern Gulf of Mexico that it likely doesn't get better than that. A lot of heavy rainfall across parts of the southeast as well.

Here is Eta, coming across into Nicaragua as a major hurricane, across into Honduras, back across Cuba yesterday and then into the Florida Straits and then across The Keys today and then it will end up down here and then turn to the right and eventually up toward the Gulf Coast. We just hope it doesn't continue to be a hurricane. With that dry air and the sheer, we're likely going to see this storm decrease in intensity as it tries to make landfall in the northern gulf.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Well, let's hope so.

Chad, thank you very much for that update.

MYERS: You got it.

CAMEROTA: And NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I will name a group of leading scientists and experts as transition advisers to help take the Biden/Harris COVID plan and convert it into an action blueprint.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is going to be an advisory group of about a dozen scientists and experts to guide their response to the coronavirus pandemic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president wants to take this show on the road. The president has continued to push these baseless accusations that this election is fraudulent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Trump has not lost. Do not concede, Mr. President. Fight hard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think we're going to see anything that's going to overturn this election. It's time to get behind the winner of the race.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

CAMEROTA: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

And President-elect, Joe Biden's transition team begins in earnest today. And the coronavirus pandemic is his top priority.

New this morning, we now know who will be on his coronavirus advisory board. We also have breaking news from the presidential transition. Here are the chairs of the advisory board for Joe Biden. We have the surgeon -- former surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler and Yale doctor Marcella Nunez-Smith.

Also on the list, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, Dr. Celine Gounder and Michael Osterholm. Those are many faces that you have seen on CNN throughout this pandemic.

Also, Dr. Rick Bright. That's the whistleblower who sounded the alarm about the Trump administration's pandemic response.

Cases this morning are spiraling out of control. The U.S. is averaging more than 100,000 cases per day. Nineteen states reporting record hospitalizations.

[07:00:00]

There's also breaking news on a potential vaccine. Drug maker Pfizer reporting that early data from its own trial has shown it to.