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U.S. Seeing Record Number of COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations; Growing Alarm as Trump Denies Election Defeat; Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 11, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:10]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: You're watching CNN on this Wednesday afternoon. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

Growing alarm this afternoon, as President Trump continues his campaign of sowing distrust in America's electoral system, while at the very same time throwing the transition into chaos.

The president is still lashing out on Twitter, making all these baseless claims about voter fraud. And on top of that, you have these top Republicans on Capitol Hill continuing to indulge the president and his lies.

For example, Missouri Senator Roy Blunt now is saying that President Trump may not have been defeated at all by president-elect Joe Biden, who is trying to project a sense of calm. And the president's defiance also is leading to growing national security concerns.

Since Monday -- look at this -- four top leaders inside the Pentagon are now out. They have been replaced by Trump loyalists, including a retired general who once referred to former President Obama as a terrorist.

All of this is happening as the nation is continuing to be ravaged, ravaged by the coronavirus. The country is breaking yet another record for daily cases, with more than 136,000 reported just yesterday.

Hospitalizations are also at a record high, yet we are seeing no leadership from this current administration.

Let's go straight to the White House to our correspondent there, Kaitlan Collins.

And so, Kaitlan, what are you hearing about what's going on from the administration?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well publicly, Brooke, they are still pushing forward with this move to contest the outcome of the election.

The president is meeting with his political advisers again today after meeting with them yesterday to discuss what's going forward. And you have seen how the president is responding on Twitter.

But, publicly, we have only heard from the president since last Thursday, when he came to the Briefing Room, tried to discredit the outcome of the election. And that was the last time he spoke publicly. And then, of course, he went to Arlington National Cemetery earlier today for Veterans Day. But that was the only time we have seen the president.

And he didn't make any remarks to reporters. He just -- he was silent there, of course, during this traditional celebration and commemoration while we were there of the service, but, other than that, Brooke, nothing from the president.

And so what we have seen from him on Twitter is, he's attacking GOP officials who are disputing his claims about widespread fraud, saying that they have not seen any, including the Philadelphia city commissioner, who I should note is a Republican, today who said he just is not seeing this evidence.

So they're moving forward to these claims. But they are getting increasingly pessimistic in the president's inner circle this is actually going to mount anything. So it's really kind of more, Brooke, running out the clock until the president himself comes to terms with reality, not just behind the scenes, as we have reported he's done, but also publicly for his supporters and for these Republican lawmakers as well.

BALDWIN: As all of this is happening, the pandemic continues to rage. Someone else at the White House has tested positive for COVID. Tell us who.

COLLINS: Yes, this is our third outbreak that we have seen at the White House. And now we have learned another person who attended that indoor election party last week has now tested positive.

It's the political affairs director here at the White House, Brian Jack. the White House has not commented on him specifically testing positive, but said they do, do contact tracing when someone does. But often, Brooke, we see that contact tracing is being done in the media.

And you're seeing just the repercussions of the protocols here at the White House, where you don't see a lot of people wearing a mask. And, of course, they held an indoor event where nobody was social distancing last week.

BALDWIN: Kaitlan, thank you so much at the White House from the president.

Let's get the latest now from the president-elect Joe Biden and his team.

Jeff Zeleny is covering that for us today. He is live in Wilmington, Delaware.

And so, Jeff, the president-elect, who, as we have been discussing, trying to lower the temperature, he's meeting with his transition team today. Tell us more about that.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, we saw the president-elect yesterday really not engage with any of these questions about the recounts or fraud.

He is moving forward. And I'm told by talking to a variety of people around him that is actually how he feels. He believes that this is not a time for him to be fighting with anyone, the GSA administrator or anyone from the Trump administration.

So they are taking the wait-and-see approach as they're moving forward. He is meeting with his advisers this afternoon. And, Brooke, he is going to start setting up his government. Now, do not expect the secretary of state or secretary of defense or any of the big Cabinet announcements to come soon.

You will think, 12 years ago, during the Obama administration, he did not name anyone until December. So, do not expect a Joe Biden to do anything anytime soon in that respect. But what we are expecting are West Wing advisers, including the White House chief of staff. That could come as early as tomorrow or Friday.

Ron Klain is the leading person for that position, of course, a longtime adviser to Joe Biden. He's been integral in all the debate planning, as well as the campaign.

But, also, in terms of these Cabinet positions, look first for the health Cabinet members and the economic members to start being named first. This is something that is at the forefront of Joe Biden's consideration here, as he's trying to tackle coronavirus.

[15:05:05]

They are alarmed by these rising numbers as well. So that is going to be their focus here. And, Brooke, all of this may be contingent on Georgia and those Senate run-offs. He's not likely to announce all of his Cabinet until that is known.

So, a slow-rolling transition, but everything here is calm from his point of view, because he knows he won. His lawyers are looking at all these races, but he is not engaged, I'm told, in this back-and-forth over the legitimacy of the election -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: And those special election run-offs in Georgia not until the 1st of January.

Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much.

ZELENY: Right.

BALDWIN: And I want to get everyone back to this growing sense of alarm within the Pentagon today, because of all the changes there over the past couple of days.

Barbara Starr is our correspondent there. She's covering this for us. And so, Barbara, you just learned that a retired military officer with

a history of making xenophobic and racist comments has been made a senior adviser at the Pentagon. Who is this?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor. He's well-known in certain national -- certain national security circles here in Washington.

Doug Macgregor does have a history of racist, xenophobic comments. But what may be equally concerning to Pentagon officials is, he's advocated for a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. We know that that is something the president wants to do. It may well be something that the president wants to do before he leaves office.

And his military advisers so far have been telling him it's not a good idea, it's too soon, the Taliban are so engaging in a significant level of violence. The government there needs help. Doug Macgregor may be just the voice that the president is looking for to get U.S. troops out, against military advice.

Macgregor now a senior adviser to the person who was just named acting secretary, a man named Christopher Miller, whose expertise is in counterterrorism. So, where are we at the Pentagon right now? Well, this is only part of the shift in personnel. The new policy chief, for example, is retired Brigadier General Anthony Tata, key position at the Pentagon, policy chief.

Tata also could not get confirmed for a job by the Senate because of his Twitter remarks, calling President Obama a Muslim and a terrorist. Tata was really pushed aside by the Senate for any kind of confirmation vote. But he is now in place as essentially acting, temporarily filling the job of policy chief, and other people now, a new chief of staff, a new intelligence chief at the Pentagon.

The president moving all of these people in, people who are loyalists to him, causing concern here because there's a lot of questions about, what exactly is the president trying to accomplish with the U.S. military in the days before he leaves office?

That clock is ticking pretty fast here at the Pentagon. Top commanders really want to know what's going on.

BALDWIN: Of course they do. Barbara, thank you very much.

Want to talk about all of this. With me now, CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip and CNN legal analyst Carrie Cordero. She is also a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and former counsel to the U.S. assistant attorney general for national security.

So, ladies, awesome to have both of you on.

And, Carrie, beginning with you and this president, he is still lying about voter fraud. There was this piece in "The New York Times" today which essentially dismantled each of those claims, like one by one by one. The paper reached out to top election officials at each state and they could find not a shred of evidence of voter fraud.

In fact, officials even told them that the process had been a remarkable success. How can any of the president's legal challenges succeed when there is no evidence anywhere to support his claims?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, that's right, Brooke. There simply are not credible allegations of fraud in this election.

And although the president's legal team can come up with arguments, and they can file frivolous cases, what they can't do is, they can't make up facts and they can't come up with facts that don't exist. But what's clear is that what the president's trying to do is to cast doubt on the integrity of the election system anyway.

And I want to point out one particular thing that he tweeted yesterday. He said -- he tweeted out something that said that computer voting systems were -- quote -- "wide open to fraud and intervention."

That is just not true. There has been so much work that has been done since 2016 at the state level, at the local level, working with the federal government even, working with his own Department of Homeland Security, to bring more strength, more technical capabilities, more security to voting systems.

And so, if there is any part of their legal argument, the Trump team's legal argument, that is going to try to use false allegations of inadequate computer systems, those are going to fall absolutely flat.

[15:10:03]

BALDWIN: He is yet still trying to erode our entire electoral system.

And that is yet to be debated, what kind of damage could be done long term. The other piece of this -- Abby, this is for you. We just listened to Barbara talk about what's going on at DOD, and the fact that Trump is really -- what he's been doing is more akin to a dictatorship. That's from William Cohen, former secretary of defense, former Republican senator, when he was on with Don last night on our air, and that the president is weaponizing the government in a way no sitting president has ever done in history.

What do you think are the repercussions of Trump trying to do all of this?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, I have been very concerned about, I think, the long-term impact of this kind of rhetoric on the country and on Americans' confidence in its electoral system--

BALDWIN: Yes.

PHILLIP: -- which I think despite everything that's gone on -- we have talked a lot about the 2000 election, how close that was, and how much people were invested in the outcome on both sides.

And yet I think the American public still had a lot of confidence in the system. But what the president is trying to do is, he's trying to invent allegations out of whole cloth in an effort to dispute the election because he lost.

And that's totally different from anything that I think we have ever seen before in the country. But the good news, Brooke, is that I think there's been some recent polling, a Reuters/Ipsos poll, just in the last day or so, that seemed to find that about 80 percent of Americans believe that Joe Biden is, in fact, the president-elect, including many of the president's own supporters.

So, maybe the good news out of all of this is that, while the president has a lot of sway with his die-hard supporters, a lot of people who voted for him do not believe the rhetoric that's coming out of the White House right now.

BALDWIN: Yes. That is incredibly noteworthy, because we think of all the millions, the 70 million Americans voted for him, but that number is certainly hopeful as we push forward.

Carrie, the president-elect, Joe Biden, he is trying to project this sense of calm, trying to lower the temperature, says he doesn't see any need for any legal challenges.

But the White House is reportedly ordering federal agencies to resist helping team Biden in the transition. And with every day, as this thing keeps dragging on, at what point might the president-elect need to take more aggressive action?

CORDERO: Well, what really needs to happen, it shouldn't be incumbent on the president-elect to have to go to court in some way or try to challenge the process of the transition.

The transition should be a nonpartisan issue. The head of the GSA needs to allow that transition process to go forward. The president- elect, Joe Biden, has a team in place, including several of my colleagues at CNAS, who are on the transition team and are ready to move forward, so that they can make the government work effectively when we finally do get to January 20.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: But, Carrie, Carrie, shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Let's say they don't. What does Biden do?

CORDERO: Well, I don't think we're going to get to that point.

The -- because I don't want to create an environment where we're placing the responsibility on the president-elect to try to get the president to go along with the transition. This is the president's responsibility. This is the GSA's responsibility.

One of the findings after the 9/11 attacks -- and, remember, I'm a post-9/11 former terrorism lawyer at heart.

BALDWIN: Yes. CORDERO: One of the findings after that was that the government was

possibly not as prepared, the beginning of the Bush administration was potentially not as well-prepared because there was a slight delay in the transition because of that election delay, the results, the decision being made.

And so it is a national security imperative that the president and the head of the GSA, who can trigger this process -- she can take this on. She can make that certification and let the transition move forward. It is imperative that the executive branch fulfill their responsibilities.

This is not the president-elect's responsibility. This is the current executive branch's responsibility.

BALDWIN: National security imperative, underline, bold that.

Carrie Cordero, I appreciate you going to that length and saying that. I hope that the White House and Emily Murphy is listening.

Carrie Cordero, Abby Phillip, thank you both so much.

CORDERO: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Coming up next here on CNN: The CDC is now warning Americans to rethink their Thanksgiving plans because of this pandemic and how it's hit a terrible new milestone.

Plus: More foreign leaders than Republican senators have congratulated the president-elect on his win. So let's talk about that.

And the drama intensifies in Georgia, where the secretary of state has just ordered a full hand recount of all presidential ballots there statewide.

You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

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We will be right back.

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BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

The coronavirus pandemic is growing more devastating every single day. Right now, more Americans than ever are hospitalized, and state leaders are urging people to stay home, as cases continue to climb.

Texas alone now has more than one million infections. In Massachusetts, cases are up 300 percent since Labor Day. Oklahoma's governor says hospitals need additional help, as their ICU beds are over 90 percent full.

In Maryland, the governor there is warning the state is now in a -- quote -- "danger zone," as cases rise.

Let's go to CNN's Nick Watt, who reports, nationwide, we are still setting staggering new records.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He went to work. That was the last time we saw him. That's the last time his children saw him.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Daniel Morales, a 39-year- old nurse, among El Paso's COVID dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He never recovered.

WATT: This city is in trouble.

Another local nurse who helped out in New York in the spring says this:

NICK ROSE, REGISTERED NURSE: It's been a little bit more rough for me here than it's been for me in New York. I have done compressions on more people in the last three weeks than I had in a year.

WATT: Nationwide, we're now in all-time record territory, more than 136,000 new COVID-19 cases confirmed yesterday, nearly 62,000 patients in the hospital infected with this virus.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL HEALTH, EMORY UNIVERSITY: I'm just terrified. We are entering a very dark phase in this pandemic. The numbers are going up.

WATT: Four hundred and fifteen people confirmed killed by COVID yesterday, the highest daily toll since mid-August.

Meanwhile, the president appears to have lost whatever interest he had in the pandemic, and the president-elect doesn't take power for another couple of months.

DEL RIO: We have a vacuum of leadership. And I think the vacuum of leadership is the biggest problem we have right now in our country in confronting this pandemic.

WATT: That promising vaccine, its impact also still months away, and the holidays are on the horizon.

GOV. STEVE SISOLAK (D-NV): Do not have people outside of your household over for dinners, parties, or other gatherings.

GOV. TONY EVERS (D-WI): It's not safe to go out. It's not safe to have others over. It's just not safe. Our economy cannot bounce back until we contain this virus.

WATT: The CDC now stressing that a mask protects you, the wearer, as well as those around you, and that just a 15 percent increase in mask wearing could prevent up to $1 trillion of economic losses.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: And here in California, we're going backwards. Most businesses that are indoor and nonessential now have to close down again in San Diego and 10 other counties there, joining Los Angeles in the most restrictive tier of the reopening plan.

Brooke, cases right now are rising here, there, pretty much everywhere.

BALDWIN: It's the last thing anyone wants to hear. And you just so feel for these businesses. It's awful.

Nick, thank you so much for all of that.

I want to go straight to Dr. Leana Wen. She's a CNN medical analyst, former Baltimore health commissioner, and an emergency room physician.

And, Dr. Wen, we will get to the all-important Thanksgiving here in just a second, but just big picture, we're going into this pandemic winter. You see all these numbers continuing to climb.

What can we do as individuals to mitigate the spread in our own households?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I think this is exactly the right question to be asking, because we are seeing this firestorm of COVID- 19 that's accelerating around the country.

And there are steps that policy-makers can and should be taking. But there are steps that each of us can be taking as well. And the single most important thing is do not gather indoors with people who are not your immediate household.

Studies are showing that, all around the country, what's driving this latest surge are these informal gatherings of extended family and friends. And we have this magical thinking that people that we love can't possibly carry the virus.

But if we're not going to have strangers come together indoors in poorly ventilated areas, we also should not have family members and friends gather either. So, socialize outdoors only during the surge.

BALDWIN: Which brings me to Thanksgiving.

Can I just be honest? I'm a total softy for turkey and tradition and family and extended family around the table. But I read your "Washington Post" piece. I'm being educated. Let's educate everyone else.

How does this Thanksgiving need to look different for all of us?

WEN: Yes, so if we want to get together with people indoors over Thanksgiving the way that we normally do, the safest thing to do is, everybody needs to quarantine for 14 days and then get tested, and then they can get together indoors.

But that's not going to be practical for most people. And so that's why my recommendation is to host outdoors only, with household separated at least six feet apart. Bundle up in places that are cold.

If it rains or snows, then set the expectation then you're probably going to have to reschedule for another day. And I know a lot of people are planning travel. And I would highly encourage to limit nonessential travel right now, especially because, all across the country, there is rampant community spread.

And it's very difficult to be traveling from one hot spot to another and potentially bring the virus with you.

BALDWIN: What do you do if you have kids who are coming home from college? They want to sit around the table. But they have been hanging out with who knows, their friends in the college dorm.

WEN: Yes, they are lots of have outbreaks across college campuses.

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And we also know that young people tend to be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and so are at really high risk for spreading the illness to others.

And so, if it's only going to be a short trip, like three or four days, I would not recommend travel at this point. If it's going to be longer, for example, if the term is out, and students have to come home, they can ideally quarantine before they come home, and then get tested.

But, if they cannot do that, then, once they come home, they should stay in a separate room, wear masks anytime they are indoors, be outside only to see their families, quarantine for 14 days, and then get tested.

I know it's a lot. But I think this is the time for us to really hunker down. And the best way we can show the people that we care about the most that we love them is perhaps to stay away, not in person, for now.

BALDWIN: So hard, but it's so important for all of us just to get through this whole thing.

Last question for you. I know that there was a new CDC study that found that masks don't just protect those around you, but also keep the person wearing the mask safe. Do you think that might actually get more people to wear one?

WEN: I do.

So, this is what we have come to know already, given existing studies. So, I'm glad that the CDC guidance also reflects this. It's not just protecting other people from you, if you happen to be asymptomatic and just don't know it. It's also protecting you if you're wearing the mask as well.

And so we should keep in mind that masks are not something that's punitive. It's not a bad thing. Actually, it's what allows us to resume economic activity, to go back to school. And it protects everyone. It actually reduces the rate of transmission by more than 70 percent.

BALDWIN: Dr. Leana Wen, full of knowledge and information for us today. It's so greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Coming up next, I will talk to a former Republican lawmaker who says President Trump's refusal to concede the presidency is -- quote -- "a futile effort to deny reality."

We will be right back.

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