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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Biden Projects Calm And Confidence Despite Trump Obstructionism; U.S. Allies Call To Congratulate President-Elect Biden; Military Spouses Falsely Identified As Fraudulent Voters In Nevada. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired November 11, 2020 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:34:04]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, this is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett, about 33 minutes past the hour here in New York.
And this morning, a calm and confident President-elect Joe Biden is moving forward with his transition to the White House. He's forging ahead even as President Trump and top Republicans withhold cooperation or even basic acknowledgment that Biden won.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: How do you expect to work with Republicans if they won't even acknowledge you as president-elect?
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT: They will, they will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Meantime, Biden has been taking calls from leaders of U.S. allies, meeting with transition advisers, and preparing for his new job.
Let's start this half-hour with the latest from the Biden headquarters and bring in CNN's NJ Lee who is -- MJ Lee, I should say -- who is live for us in Wilmington. MJ, nice to see you this morning.
It's interesting. I felt like Biden was trying to downplay some of what's going on here, seeming confident and cool and collected about all of this. But obviously, behind the scenes, his transition is not getting any help.
[05:35:10]
MJ LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right. I mean, he has been in Wilmington, Delaware here all week and we have seen him move publicly forward with the transition process. Just this week he announced his COVID advisory board, yesterday he held a press conference, and today, those meetings with transition officials will continue.
But you're absolutely right, Laura, that he's not getting much help from the Trump administration. And yesterday when he was pressed on this he did try to project a sense of calm, though he did have these pointed words when asked about the president's refusal to accept the results of the election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Well, I just think it's an embarrassment, quite frankly. The only thing that -- how can I say this tactfully? I think it will not help the president's legacy. I think that -- I know from my discussions with foreign leaders, thus far, that they are hopeful that the United States' democratic institutions are viewed, once again, as being strong and enduring.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: He was also asked about some of the Republicans around President Trump who also are not accepting the results of the election. He ventured to guess that some of them are probably a little bit intimated by the sitting president.
I should also note that there are some real ramifications to all of this going on even as Biden is trying to project a sense of calm. He doesn't have access to transition funding. He can't access the presidential daily briefings. All are sort of norms in past administrations in transitions.
When Biden was asked about both of these things yesterday, he said look, both of those things would be great. I would like to have them but they are not necessary because I'm not president yet.
He did also note that for the time being, he doesn't think that legal action is necessary. We'll see how long that lasts, Laura.
JARRETT: Yes, that was noteworthy. I saw that.
All right, MJ, thanks so much.
ROMANS: America's closest allies are calling to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden. On Tuesday, Biden spoke with President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, all while President Trump and his supporters peddle conspiracy theories about election fraud.
Nic Robertson live from London with the latest developments.
And, you know, I listened to those comments from Angela Merkel, in particular, because she had kind of this beautiful segment going back to 1938 and the horrors then, to 1989 and the American support of the wall coming down, and then to today and how she's looking forward to meeting Kamala Harris.
She really was able to weave this historical picture of the importance of the American -- European and the American-German relationship, in particular, and was pretty effusive I think about this president- elect.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Absolutely.
And I think Angela Merkel, because she has sort of been in office so many years longer than so many other leaders in Europe at the moment and has been such a sort of a moral compass for European leaders over so many issues over the past decade or so, she really carries a lot of weight and it's really interesting listening to her.
She's talking about building this relationship again back on trust and cooperation. But there's a very sort of clear subtext to that message coming from the Germans -- not just from her, from the foreign minister, too.
They recognize that Donald Trump got 70 million voters to support him. They recognize that so many Republicans are still standing behind him. They essentially recognize that the United States is changing. That you may have Biden now and that you may have something different in the future.
And they kind of want to rebuild that relationship with the United States on lines where Europe is more engaged and more in a leadership role and has sort of a stronger voice in that relationship. So that's very clear thinking from there.
On the other leaders, obviously, Boris Johnson was very close to Donald Trump and his office was very happy that he got a phone call ahead of Macron and ahead of Merkel because they've got -- they're going to have a tough relationship over the sort of future U.S. trade deal.
But there does seem to be an indication that President-elect Biden actually called the Irish prime minister first. He's got those strong Irish roots, of course.
The Irish had tweeted about half an hour before Johnson got his call that they got a call. They later deleted that tweet and said that wasn't correct. We asked the Biden campaign to clear up the confusion over timings on who the president-elect called first and they didn't answer that question.
The reality is Johnson is not well-position to have a strong and good relationship with Biden. The Irish are and the question of peace, stability, and the Good Friday Peace Agreement in Northern Ireland --
ROMANS: Yes.
ROBERTSON: -- is hanging over this relationship.
ROMANS: You know, Nic, in normal transitions it's the State Department switchboard that's patching through all of these calls from foreign leaders to the president-elect, right? That's different this time around, so an interesting --
[05:40:04]
ROBERTSON: No, not so much -- not so much.
ROMANS: -- side note there.
Nic, nice to see you. Thank you so much.
So, 10 weeks to Joe Biden's inauguration as president. Time for three questions in three minutes. That's when we bring in senior political analyst, John Avlon.
And, John -- you know, look, Republicans in the House and the Senate did better than expected in this election, so it doesn't make any sense that they would claim election fraud. I mean --
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: We know.
ROMANS: -- because down-ballot, you -- why would rank-and-file Republicans continue to go along with the president on this?
AVLON: Fear -- fear and greed. Donald Trump is still enormously powerful and popular within the primary base and that's who they're scared of. They're afraid that Donald Trump will attack them in a tweet, that he'll go after them in a primary. And it's not much more complicated than that in calls I've made to people on Capitol Hill.
It's shameful. It's a dereliction of duty and an abandonment of principle because they're ignoring democratic norms in the process. But the reality is even a wounded lame duck Donald Trump -- some people in his party -- some senators seem to be afraid of him.
JARRETT: John, yesterday, Sec. Pompeo was asked if the State Department was planning to engage with the Biden transition team. I'm sure you heard it but let's listen again to how he responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Is that not the most chilling thing we have heard to date? I mean, a lot of Republicans have said well, he's got to let the legal challenges play out. Pompeo is supposed to be standing up for democracy and he's saying the loser's not going to leave.
AVLON: Well, let's do two things here. One, to hear a Secretary of State say that makes a mockery of America's commitment to democracy in transitions around the world. You know, it's been said if we saw what's going on here in any other country we'd know exactly what to call it.
Mike Pompeo's --
ROMANS: Yes. AVLON: -- joking about it. But let's put an emphasis on that because to some extent, this is a trollish administration. That that sense of humor is designed to mock and provoke and also get positive attention from the President of the United States.
And that's what I think it intended to do and that's what it did with Donald Trump tweeting approvingly that that's why Mike Pompeo was first in his class at West Point, which we could also say is simply telling the teacher what he wants to hear.
ROMANS: Yes.
JARRETT: Yes, but you know who's not in on the joke? The Trump supporters --
AVLON: The American people.
JARRETT: -- who actually believe that --
ROMANS: Right.
JARRETT: -- Trump is somehow the rightful winner and is somehow --
AVLON: No.
JARRETT: -- going to have a comeback in this.
AVLON: One hundred percent.
ROMANS: You know, the reporters had good reason --
AVLON: But it's not a joke that's funny, by the way.
ROMANS: Right. No, it's not funny at all.
And the reporters who had asked that question have a good reason to ask.
I mean, this is from the Bush chief of staff, Andy Card, and the Clinton chief of staff, John Podesta. They write this in the op-ed section of "The Washington Post" today.
"While the process is political it does have a serious. Specifically, a delayed transition and the absence of cooperation between the outgoing and incoming administrations could hinder economic recovery, slow the distribution of a vaccine and, God forbid, put American lives at risk."
And they talk about how there was an attempted terrorist attack on Barack Obama's inauguration and how the 9/11 commission found --
AVLON: Yes.
ROMANS: -- that a slow transition was not in the best cases for national security. I mean, there are examples in the past. AVLON: One hundred percent and this is why the sort of infantilization of an autocratic personality is such a terrible idea. You know, Republicans sort of treating the acknowledgment of defeat and the peaceful transfer of power as something that needs to be done in time so the president isn't terribly upset.
But there's a real cost to locking the Biden campaign out of the GSA. There's a real cost to not giving him security briefings simply to coddle the president's fragile ego, and it could be a cost to American lives.
Everyone's got to grow up and Republicans need to get the spine to insist on putting the -- protecting the American people over this president's fragile ego.
JARRETT: All right, not mincing words --
AVLON: No.
JARRETT: -- this Wednesday morning.
AVLON: We don't do that.
ROMANS: Infantilization -- that's my new word of the day.
AVLON: You're welcome.
ROMANS: John Avlon gives me a good -- quilt of crazy was yesterday's that I wrote down because it was so good.
JARRETT: A quilt of crazy always works.
All right, John Avlon --
AVLON: Take care now.
JARRETT: -- senior political analyst, thank you so much. See you.
All right.
Two people accused by the Trump team of being illegal voters have a message for Republicans who back the president's false claims. You're going to hear from them, next.
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[05:48:26]
JARRETT: The Trump campaign and many Republicans are continuing to push this false narrative of a stolen election that we've heard. But, "The New York Times" says it called election officials in every state and they reported no evidence of voter fraud across the board.
And then, CNN tracked down two people that the Trump team identified as illegal voters in Nevada. It turns out they're anything but.
CNN's Dan Simon has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: In Nevada, right now --
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the election results first came in and the race grew tight in Nevada, Trump officials made wild accusations that thousands of people who had moved out of the state had fraudulently cast their votes, potentially swinging the race to Biden.
ADAM LAXALT, CO-CHAIR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: We are also confident that there are thousands of people whose votes have been counted that have moved out of Clark County in the -- during the pandemic.
SIMON (voice-over): The alleged proof from Nevada Republicans, a change of address database that publicly lists zip codes of where 3,000 or so voters currently and previously lived.
For instance, vote cast record 337 shows a voter who previously lived in Henderson, Nevada but is now in Davis, California. By the GOP's logic, that person would be ineligible to vote. The problem is, this woman says she's that voter, 337 --
AMY ROSE, NEVADA VOTER: When I first saw that we were on the list, frankly, I was just very shocked.
SIMON: -- and she's far from a fraudulent voter.
If the Trump campaign officials are listening, anything you want to say to them?
ROSE: I think that they should understand that the actions that they are taking are harmful to America. This is harmful to our democratic process. I think that these types of accusations made without any basis in fact are really just shocking and appalling.
[05:50:07]
SIMON: Amy Rose is a military spouse. Her husband is active duty in the Air Force stationed at Travis Air Force Base in California. But under federal and state laws they're still permanent Nevada residents, making them eligible to vote there in the 2020 election.
She says she easily found herself on the list.
ROSE: I just searched for where we live now and I found our city and it matched our zip code. It matched our four code, which is the four code indicates a very small, like one block or so radius, and that matched up with where we moved from in Nevada. So I put two and two together and realized it was myself and my husband.
SIMON: Even a cursory glance at the list, you can see hundreds of other entries using APO, meaning Army Post Office, AFB for Air Force Base, or JB for Joint Base.
STEPHANIE, NEVADA VOTER: My home of record is in Nevada. I still own a house in Nevada, my license plates are Nevada. I pay property tax --
SIMON: Stephanie, who does not want her last name used, says she's also on the list, number 464. She and her husband, who has spent 12 years in the military, live in the Washington, D.C. area -- he's a major and pilot in the Air Force -- although Las Vegas is their permanent home.
STEPHANIE: My husband fights for his country. He has offered to pay the ultimate sacrifice and I stand alongside him. And now, my own vote is called into question without any sort of legitimacy.
SIMON: Anything you want to say to these Nevada GOP officials who put this list together?
STEPHANIE: You guys have got to do better. You've got to do better.
SIMON: Now again, there appear to be hundreds of zip codes on that list that correlate to military bases. Other people could be students away at college but still eligible to vote in Nevada.
We did get a statement from the Trump campaign. It reads, in part, "We have referred a list of people who voted in Nevada's election, yet have moved out of the state, to the Department of Justice and the local election authorities. We have no way to confirm whether a small number of these voters fall under an exemption, which is why we referred it to the authorities for further investigation."
We should also point out that right now, Joe Biden's lead in Nevada stands at approximately 37,000 votes, so this list of 3,000 or so people is a moot point anyway. But the fact that there are so many military families on that list just highlights the utter recklessness of those allegations.
Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JARRETT: Dan, thank you so much. That's great reporting.
So, as the Biden transition moves full steam ahead, CNN has learned that Bernie Sanders has his eye on the job of Labor Secretary in the Biden administration. One senior labor leader tells CNN the Vermont senator has personally called union chiefs asking for their backing, but he's been receiving mixed reactions.
Sanders' spokesman did not respond to our request for comment and the Biden transition team was not immediately available to weigh in on this.
ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on CNN Business this morning.
Taking a look at markets around the world, you can see Asian shares closed mixed and Europe has opened higher here this morning. On Wall Street, futures -- Dow futures are up. You can see gains for Nasdaq, too -- one percent there.
The vaccine rally cooled off Tuesday. The Dow closed up 263 points. It's now about 130 points below its February record high.
The S&P 500 fell a little bit. The tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.4 percent as investors worry the end of the stay-at-home economy could be in sight here. There'll be some shifts in how -- the composition of the market winners and losers.
Good news for Boeing. Its 737 MAX jet is close to FAA approval to fly again. The bad news, its financial troubles are now worse than when the plane was grounded. Nearly 1,200 Boeing orders, almost all of them for the MAX, have been canceled or are in doubt as air travel plummeted during the pandemic. That, in turn, will have a ripple effect on its suppliers.
Boeing's CFO told investors an undisclosed number of MAX jets will have to be remarketed to other carriers, adding that finding new customers will delay some deliveries into 2023.
What a saga that has been for Boeing.
JARRETT: It's such a saga.
Well, before we let you go, we wanted to say happy Veterans Day. Obviously, Veterans Day during a pandemic is not the same with so many parades and other celebrations now canceled, but we still need to honor our veterans. And so, we ask you to reach out to those in your family --
ROMANS: Yes.
JARRETT: -- reach out to those in your community and make sure to honor them today.
ROMANS: That's absolutely right. Reach out to those veterans you know and their spouses, frankly, for the service --
JARRETT: Yes.
ROMANS: -- they have done for this country.
JARRETT: And the sacrifice.
ROMANS: Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.
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[05:59:11]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump blocking key plans for the transition of power after losing the election.
BIDEN: I just think it's an embarrassment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Biden continuing with the transition.
REPORTER: How do you expect to work with Republicans if they won't even acknowledge you as president-elect?
BIDEN: They will.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: While the virus runs rampant across the country, some very promising news out of the lab.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: Help is coming and it's coming soon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just because a vaccine is on the way that doesn't mean Americans can relax when it comes to masks and social distancing. Coronavirus infections rising in 44 states.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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