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Trump Refuses to Concede, Peddles False Election Claims; Balance of Power in Senate Hinges Two Likely Runoffs in Georgia; Pfizer Says, Early Analysis Shows Its Coronavirus Vaccine is 90 Percent Effective. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 09, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: There's also breaking news on a potential vaccine. Drug maker Pfizer reporting that early data from its own trial has shown it to be 90 percent effective. Dr. Sanjay Gupta Will be here to tell us how to interpret that self-reported news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Yes. Dow Futures are up nearly 1,400 points. And this is obviously a giant story. Pfizer, again, is still waiting for more data to come back in, but self-reporting that its vaccine is 90 percent effective.

You can see the market now up 1,300 points in early trading. This is the kind of sign that investors have been waiting for. This is the kind of sign that Americans have been waiting for, that somehow that a way to turn the corner in this pandemic is truly on the horizon.

We're getting Sanjay up. We're going to talk to Sanjay very shortly to give us the facts of what Pfizer is saying now, the implications for what it all means.

In the meantime, this morning, the outgoing president refuses to concede. Sources tell CNN that top aides are suggesting that the defeated president, President Trump, hold rallies to drum up bogus conspiracies about election fraud. We have new information this morning that political appointees within the Trump administration are so far refusing to sign off on provisions that would help the Biden transition.

Let's start in Wilmington, Delaware. CNN's Jessica Dean covering President-elect Joseph Biden. What's going on this morning. They have this morning is an advance of the vaccine news, which is really giant, releasing the names of their coronavirus advisory panel. This is where they want to focus on in this transition.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That is exactly right, John. With this announcement, they're really telegraphing how seriously they're going to be taking this pandemic planning for when President-elect Biden takes office in January. It had been the cornerstone to their campaign message and now they're really taking action. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: After winning the election, President-elect Joe Biden now faces the challenge of tackling the coronavirus pandemic as new confirmed cases reached record levels across the United States.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: Our work begins with getting COVID under control.

DEAN: And he plans to start that work right away, promising to take the crisis more seriously than President Trump.

The Biden/Harris transition website already laying out a seven-point plan, responding to the virus, including free and reliable testing for all Americans and working with mayors and governors to implement mask mandates.

The president-elect announcing a new coronavirus task force this morning, leading the effort, three co-chairs, former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler, and Yale University's Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith.

BIDEN: That plan will be built on bedrock science. It will be constructed out of compassion, empathy, and concern.

DEAN: Health experts say the Biden administration will enter the white house at an extremely difficult point in the crisis.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: By the time that the Biden/Harris administration takes over, this virus is going to have already run rampant through communities across the United States.

DEAN: As Biden aims to fight the coronavirus, President Trump is focusing on fighting the election results, still insisting without evidence there is widespread voter fraud working against him.

Despite no proof to support allegations of widespread fraud or illegal voting in the United States, some of his top Republican allies backing the president's refusal to concede.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): At this point, we do not know who has prevailed in the election. The media is desperately trying to get everyone to coronate Joe Biden as the next president, but that's not how it works.

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

DEAN: Biden's team says it's avoiding the distractions and will continue moving forward. And the president-elect is looking to use executive action to reverse some of the Trump administration's policies on his first day in office.

SYMONE SANDERS, BIDEN CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: I think the White House has made clear what their strategy is here and that they are going to continue to participate and push forward these flailing and, in many respects, baseless legal strategies. But the people are the folks that decide elections in this country, and the people have spoken.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: And back to the coronavirus advisory board. You mentioned that Rick Bright is a member of that advisory board. Of course, he's the whistleblower from the Trump administration who said that his early warnings about the coronavirus and the pandemic were not heeded by the Trump administration and ultimately led to his ouster.

So, quite the contrast there between how the Trump administration handled this pandemic and how the Biden/Harris administration is looking to handle it, by putting Rick Bright in that spot. Alisyn, Joe Biden has always said that he wanted to let science and experts lead the way on this.

[07:05:01]

CAMEROTA: And we see based on his advisory council, that looks like what he is doing. Jessica, thank you very much.

Joining us now, we have CNN Political Analyst Maggie Haberman, she is a National Politics Reporter for The New York Times.

Maggie, I know you're just hearing the news out of Pfizer, as we are. They believe -- this is self-reported, but they believe that their early vaccine data shows that it's 90 percent effective, I imagine that President Trump will seize on this today. What might that look like?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Actually not positive that he will, Alisyn. I think it depend on where he is in his feelings about the election and as we know that he has continued to say that he believes that he won and it was taken from him. And so I think that's where his focus is. I think that prior to the election, his focus was very much on a vaccine and his hopes that it would come before the election.

Look, I certainly think that it's a promising development. And in that vein, the sitting president as president, who has talked a lot about with anger that he believes that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were diminishing people's faith in the vaccine. One would hope that he would come out and talk about this development, and he might.

But at the moment, Alisyn, he has no events on his schedule and the vaccine and the virus have just not been top of mind for him. But it is top of mind for a lot of people in this country and it is what the new president is going to be inheriting. So we'll see how that plays out.

BERMAN: I would say it's a fascinating development in this year of so many developments that a week after the election, Pfizer says their vaccine is 90 percent effective, we need to find out more information. This is day where the Biden transition, the president-elect has come out with his, you know, coronavirus advisory panel, includes in recognizable names, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Michael Osterhome, Celine Gounder, a lot of people we know, Zeke Emanuel.

The Biden team clearly wanting to say, we are going to take this seriously, even if the president doesn't. We'll start showing our seriousness now, talking about it now. It will be interesting to see how they relate to this new information and process this new vaccine information today.

HABERMAN: I think that's right. And, look, there's a lot still to play out, as you say. It's going to have to be reviewed, this vaccine. The Biden team, I imagine, is actually going to be pretty encouraging about it. As we know, Biden has had this rollout today of what his coronavirus task force would look like, among the people that he has named, Dr. Rick Bright, who was dismissed by the Trump administration.

And so I think it's hard to untangle any of these things from each other, John. But, again, this is a promising development.

CAMEROTA: Maggie, let's talk about what's happening inside the White House in terms of the transition. Over the weekend, we saw the Trump team launch a slew of lawsuits, I mean, I should say, since Election Day. And he and his biggest supporters and surrogates are out there saying, this is not over, the president will fight on. And so, what's going to happen here?

HABERMAN: I think exactly that, Alisyn. I think they're going to keep fighting on until it is clear that there is no more road to fight. I mean, the big question here is, they have claimed, and it's a specific subset of they, because this is not everyone around the president, it is Rudy Giuliani and a handful of people who are encouraging this.

But what they have said is, there's widespread evidence of fraud and they have yet to offer up the evidence. They claim that they will do that today, but it has raised serious questions and skepticism, candidly, that there is such evidence. You know, it would be a massive amount of fraud that they're alleging, to even overcome the president's deficit in some of these states.

So I expect that this is going to keep going, but judges have been very, very skeptical about these lawsuits that have been filed so far and have said that there is not a basis for the claims that are being made. But a lot of this seems to be, Alisyn, about conflating a public relations issue with a legal issue, which the president does a lot. And we've seen him do that over the years repeatedly, that he doesn't like the idea of losing a race.

I'm not to be sure, and I've talked about this with you before, it's not entirely clear he actually wanted a second term, but he doesn't want to be seen as a loser. And this may kick up enough dust where he can convince his supporters not to believe the result, which has dangerous implications for the country and the next president. For him, it allows him to sort of depart.

BERMAN: If you can talk about that more, Maggie, because I think we know how much the president thinks and how much the president cares or doesn't care about providing a smooth transition and what that means for the success of the country. But is there anyone? I mean, is there anyone inside the White House who is raising these concerns, who cares about the message this sends to the world, the message it sends within the country about the feelings, the passions, the emotions?

HABERMAN: If not immediately inside the White House, John, there are people on the periphery of the White House and people who are close to the president who are concerned. Within the White House, there is sort of a feeling of being at a standstill. This is what the president wants to do.

I know there has been some reporting that Jared Kushner, his son-in- law, was telling him to concede. That's candidly not my reporting. I think that Jared Kushner has been a bit all over the map on what he thinks is the right course of action.

[07:10:04]

But he is very much committed right now to following this path that his father-in-law wants.

On Saturday, instead of going with a bunch of the campaign aides to go brief his father-in-law on how narrow the path was, he sent them without joining them and told them he would be part of a leader conversation if the president moved to that point.

And as you say, there's not a ton of concern about what this looks like to the world or what message this sends to the president's supporters about supporting the incoming president. We've had bitterly fought contests before, we have certainly have had supporters of one president, including the current one -- excuse me, detractors of the current one who didn't think he was a legitimate president. This would not be the first time. But the country is undergoing enormous challenges right now. And that is part of why it's a different moment.

CAMEROTA: Maggie, you've reported on Donald Trump so long, you know the players as well as anybody in and around the White House. How does this end?

HABERMAN: I think it ends with him continuing, Alisyn, to say it was stolen from him and then him walking out the door. And I think that, apparently, this idea that he was going to barricade himself into the White House has never been real, based on my reporting.

But what I do think he's going to do is, you know, there's serious questions, will he ever invite Joe Biden to the White House for this standard meeting after the election. And Joe Biden is a former vice president, doesn't quite need it the same way other people might, but it does send a signal. I'm also not sure Joe Biden would want to go to the White House, given how many coronavirus outbreaks there have been.

Is there even going to be a normal kind of an inauguration, given the coronavirus? There's a lot of questions about this moment, but I think that that will give the president an opportunity to basically continue making what has been, so far, baseless claims about fraud, and saying it was taken from him, but then leave.

And I think you will see, Alisyn, depending on how this goes, you could see him reengage and start holding rallies or some people are telling him he should do, or you could see him taking a very long trip to Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

BERMAN: I know that the inauguration might not be a traditional one, Maggie, but any reporting on whether or not he will show up?

HABERMAN: Nobody expects him to show up. Now, that could change.

BERMAN: At the inauguration?

HABERMAN: Yes, at the inauguration right now, nobody around him expects him to show up. And part of that is because they're not thinking that far out right now. These are traditions about an incoming president that they don't want to consider, but nobody I've spoken to thinks it's top of mind or a realistic look at the moment.

BERMAN: Wow.

CAMEROTA: I like that you can still be shocked.

BERMAN: I mean, look, I guess I'm not surprised, but it would be historic. I mean, John Adams didn't stick around for Thomas Jefferson's inauguration and it's been talked about for 210 years. I mean, these things actually tend to have an impact when you make a decision like that.

Maggie, and you're going to hate me for this, everyone should go check out The New York Times and check out Ben Smith's article about you today, because it's wonderful and well deserved and I hope --

HABERMAN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: -- people get a chance to read it.

CAMEROTA: She's mad. She's very mad.

BERMAN: I can tell she's mad. Ben, I know, is a friend of yours. It's always nice to have a friend of yours write an article about you, but it's terrific.

HABERMAN: My unbiased friend, which he acknowledged in the story.

BERMAN: Yes, that's great and well deserved. So thanks for being with us this morning.

HABERMAN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: It's almost a week after Election Day, and control of the Senate is still undecided. It all comes down to a pair of crucial races in Georgia. So how is the Democratic candidate, one of them, Jon Ossoff, feeling about his chance this morning? We're going to ask him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00] BERMAN: So, this morning, the eyes of the political world turning to Georgia, which will likely hold two runoffs in January that will determine the control of the Senate. One of those races remains too close to call. Incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue has fallen below the 50 percent threshold that he would need to win outright against the Democratic challenger.

Joining me now is Democratic Senate Candidate Jon Ossoff. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. Just what does this feel like? Is this like running a marathon, crossing the finish line and someone telling you, okay, go five miles more now?

JON OSSOFF (D), GEORGIA U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: There's a huge sense of enthusiasm and momentum here in Georgia right now. And, by the way, thank you for having me. For Vice President Biden to prevail here after what's been a decade of organizing and voter registration, a lot of this work led by Stacey Abrams, these huge battles, some won, some lost, we've had in Georgia over the last ten years. And now to have two Senate runoffs for Senate control with so much at stake with this virus still raging out of control, with an urgent need to get economic and financial relief to families in my state and across the country, we have the wind at our backs and a great sense of promise and opportunity here.

BERMAN: How will it impact the race for the next two months, that the control of the Senate hangs in the balance? Is this more about national implications or implications in Georgia?

OSSOFF: Well, of course, it's about both and they're inextricably linked. There are hundreds of thousands of American lives that depend upon a strong, coherent response to this pandemic informed by medical expertise, precisely what we've been lacking for the last eight months with catastrophic consequences. And there are millions of American families and businesses and families and businesses here in Georgia whose livelihoods and prosperity depend upon a strong and coherent economic policy, which has also been lacking for the last eight months.

So this is about whether we are going to meet this moment with the strength and discipline and focus required to unite the country and rise to a challenge such as an unprecedented public health crisis and an ongoing economic crisis.

BERMAN: You brought up Joe Biden, who right now is leading in the state of Georgia, by about 10,000 votes. This will likely be a runoff, because the Trump campaign will request it. But it is likely or at least highly likely, highly possible that he will win that state. He received about 100,000 more votes than you did. Why do you think that is?

OSSOFF: Well, we saw some drop-off from the top of the ballot. We saw some votes go to a libertarian candidate. But the bottom line is that this is the strongest Democratic turnout ever in the history of this state.

[07:20:03] My opponent, Senator David Perdue, who enters this runoff badly damaged by his own misconduct, by his failed response to the COVID-19 pandemic, failed to secure the support of a majority of Georgia voters.

BERMAN: So did you --

OSSOFF: And now we have two Senate runoffs in a single state, this is a moment to demonstrate that the people of this state and this country want a government that will respond properly in a focused and coherent way to this pandemic.

BERMAN: Even if everything you said is true, and I'll leave it up to the Georgia voters to decide about David Perdue, he still received 90,000 more votes than you did the first time around. So what will be different in January than today?

OSSOFF: Well, we're talking about very fine margins here. This was the most competitive Senate race in the country. And now it's all about getting people out to the polls for this January 5th runoff. Again, the stakes are high. This isn't about partisan politics. This is about human lives and human livelihoods which we are in the balance. If we cannot mount an effective response to this pandemic, more people will needlessly die, more people will needlessly lose their homes, their jobs and their businesses.

So, if folks across the country want to do this work in Georgia, win these elections so that our government can meet this moment, we need to help getting out the vote and they can go to electjon.com to help us power this effort.

BERMAN: What conversations have you had with the Biden transition team about how much they will be involved in this runoff?

OSSOFF: I haven't had any specific conversations yet. I know that they are likely rapidly gearing up to begin the transition work necessary to take power in early January and, again, respond to this pandemic. I mean, we can't lose sight, as the dust settles on this presidential race, of the fact that we are living at a moment of crisis, that so many are hurting, that so many lives remain at risk. And the country is rapidly moving on from the daily drama and outrage of Donald Trump needs to be united and focused squarely on the task of meeting this moment, getting this pandemic under control and jumpstarting our economy.

BERMAN: What are your hopes in terms of having the president-elect come campaign for you?

OSSOFF: I haven't gotten that far yet, but Vice President Biden is welcome if Georgia anytime and I wish him and his team all the best as they prepare for this transition.

BERMAN: What happened in Georgia? How would you ascribe -- now, I know your race is going to a runoff, but a Democrat hasn't won a presidential race there since 1922. And that was Bill Clinton and there was the Ross Perot factor. It's been a long time is the bottom line. So why now?

OSSOFF: Well, as I said, it's a decade of work, organizing, registering voters. It's a state that's becoming younger and more diverse, literally by the day. My team, Reverend Warnock's team, Stacey Abram's team, have run over the last eight months to a year the most robust turnout and get out the vote program in our state's history. There's been a lot of work over many years to get us to this point.

And I think that Georgia Democrats' relentless focus on delivering the basics for people, affordable health care and housing, education without debt, dignified work that pays a living wage, equal justice regardless of race and regardless of class. That's what we're talking about down here. And that's mobilizing and inspiring people to get out and vote to make history and demand change.

BERMAN: I want to get your reaction to some of the breaking news this morning on a possible coronavirus vaccine. Pfizer reported moments ago, self-reported, that, so far, in its stage two and stage three trials, this vaccine is 90 percent effective, they say. Your reaction to that.

OSSOFF: Well, any vaccine will need to go through the full clinical process to demonstrate its safety and efficacy. And we need to continue to increase investment, not just in the development of therapeutics and vaccines, but also in, for example, our hospital capacity, in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based here in Georgia, in the NIH, in the U.S. public health service.

This is what I'm talking about. We've got to move on swiftly from political drama and get down to the nuts and bolts of governance in a crisis, so that we can emerge from this pandemic stronger than before, so that we can return to normalcy as a people, so that we can build a stronger and more just and more prosperous country, having gotten through this crisis, by ejecting leader who is tore us apart and failed to respond to it, and instead, coming together to meet this moment and overcome this challenge.

BERMAN: Jon Ossoff, thank you very much for being with us. I'm sure we'll have a chance to speak to you over the next two months. I hope you have a good energy drink and a power bar. You're going to need it.

OSSOFF: Looking forward to it.

BERMAN: I appreciate it. All right, just so you all know, we did invite Senator David Perdue to come on and talk to us as well. He did not.

The breaking news, this news in the race for a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine, Pfizer says results showing 90 percent effective rate for the vaccine that they're trying right now. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00] CAMEROTA: We do have breaking news right now, because American drug maker Pfizer is reporting high success with its coronavirus vaccine trial. They say that the data shows it's as high as 90 percent effective.

The news just this morning is sending U.S. markets soaring. Dow Futures are up nearly 1,400 points right now.

Joining us now is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, I know you're going through this news, just as we are. So what are we to make of this big announcement?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I think no matter how you look at it, and we're still getting a sense of this data, no matter how you look at it, it's very positive news. I mean, no one really knew how effective this vaccine was going to be. And what we had heard is that the FDA would accept a vaccine that was 50 percent effective.

So what has happened here is that there's been this trial that's been ongoing, Pfizer enrolled some 43,000 patients, roughly, into this trial. And, essentially, the data has been blinded. Pfizer didn't know what the data was really showing, the investigators and researchers didn't really know, the patients didn't even know. Did I get the shot of the vaccine or a placebo?

[07:30:02]

What happens is, there's this independent committee, data monitoring committee, which then unblinded some of the data.