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U.S. Smashes Record For New Cases And Hospitalizations; Military Spouses Falsely Identified As Fraudulent Voters In Nevada; Human Toll Of Pandemic Grips Families In El Paso. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired November 11, 2020 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Used a different chilling analogy or metaphor than the boat. He was saying that to him, it's an out-of- control airliner with no pilot. And that the numbers are -- imagine, you know, four jets falling from the sky every day and how shocked we would all be at that level of death.

And that's what happening, but because we've become inured to this we don't register it as the shock that we did back in March. But that's where we are.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think -- you know, I've always sort of wondered what metaphor to use here with regard to trying to describe this -- whether to inspire people through fear because it is really frightening or through what is possible.

And, you know, the reality is everyone's talking about the vaccine and it's really valuable and important and I think a good conversation to have in terms of what is possible next -- you know, next year, next summer.

But unfortunately, I think there's two groups of people. Some people who will say shew -- finally, there is an end maybe in sight. Let us redouble our efforts right now to make this as good as possible.

And there are others who say look, I'll just wait for the vaccine. We're not going to -- you know, that's coming. We don't need to do anything. Do not be in that second group.

Let me show this infection rate graphic -- we've shown this before -- basically showing the impact of what any individual can do. But right now, for somebody who is not really masking and doing things -- not abiding by public health behaviors -- one person, 60 days from now, could be responsible for the infections of 406 people, OK?

On the right -- we've shown this before -- basic public health precautions -- not shutting down, wearing a mask, physically distancing -- those things -- that same person would be responsible for 2 1/2. That is the prescription for how to stop the pandemic.

The vaccine will help. That'll be next year. This is like a vaccine -- the one I'm showing you there. That could do the same thing if we act -- if we just started implementing it.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: One bit of breaking news, Sanjay.

We've been noting that Mike Pence is the head of the Coronavirus Task Force and in the midst of these record-breaking numbers, what was he going to do about it? He had planned to go on vacation.

We just learned he has canceled his vacation to Sanibel Island --

GUPTA: Yes.

BERMAN: -- not to deal with the pandemic, we're told. Nothing indicates that he is going to hold extra meetings with the Coronavirus Task Force.

He's canceling the vacation to help President Trump dispute the election. And also, it is notable that the weather in Florida was scheduled to be poor, so maybe that factored into it as well.

We'll see if the vice president decides to take up coronavirus and take it seriously over the next few days with these staggering numbers.

One bit of information from the CDC I'm very interested in Sanjay is the new guidance on masks. For months, we were told to wear masks to protect others -- because it would protect others if we were walking around asymptomatic or spreading the virus. Now the CDC is saying there is evidence that it can protect you.

So what does this mean?

GUPTA: Well, this is interesting. We've been following along these studies for some time and I think for a few months there's been emerging evidence that the mask would not only act as what they call source control -- basically, the person whose wearing it at the source would prevent the virus from going out to people around that person -- but also provide some filtration for the person that was wearing it. And there were different types of masks -- a three-ply mask versus a two-ply mask, a surgical mask.

But when they put it all together in observational studies they found that there was significant benefit to the wearer as well.

So I'll give you an example. One of the observational studies out of Thailand -- I think we summarized this.

But basically, they followed 1,000 people who were -- who were in high-risk environments who always wore their masks and compared them to people who were in those same sorts of environments who did not wear their masks. And what they found was a 70 percent reduced risk of infection for the wearer -- for the wearer of the mask.

Again, a lot of people are going to hear that and say well, yes, that makes obvious sense. You wear a mask, it's going to keep viral particles from getting into your system. But the question has been these basic masks, are they going to do enough for the wearer? And now, the evidence seems to be emerging, both experimentally but also looking at large populations of people that that is the case.

So another reason -- as we've been saying, it doesn't change the guidance. You should wear a mask no matter what.

I thought what was interesting in that -- in that CDC guidance, they did something that I hadn't seen before from the CDC. They also put an economic argument on this.

And they said that if 15 percent of people -- we increase the amount of mask-wearing by 15 percent, it would -- it would also save $1 trillion for the economy. When they actually went and looked at the impact on businesses overall -- keeping the economy open -- wearing masks helps prevent things from shutting down.

That's the thing. People don't want things shut down but then they don't necessarily want to do the things to prevent that from happening. I think there's more evidence than ever about masks now.

[07:35:05]

BERMAN: All right, Sanjay, important information. Thank you very much.

GUPTA: Yes, thank you.

BERMAN: We want to remember some of the nearly 240,000 Americans lost to coronavirus.

Educators across Pennsylvania wore red this week in memory of a beloved guidance counselor at a middle school in Lancaster County. Forty-seven-year-old Alexandra Chitwood worked at the Manheim Township Middle School for nearly 20 years. Red was chosen because it was Chitwood's favorite color.

Danielle Kater was 30 years old, the youngest victim of coronavirus from McLean County, Illinois. Her husband says they met in their early teens. They fell in love -- he says he fell in love with her caring and genuine personality.

They dated long-distance through college, then married. He called it your classic high school sweetheart love story. Look at that picture.

Mickey Lewis was a reserve sergeant with the police department in Carrollton, Texas for 10 years, where he was adored by other officers and staff. The department called him a salt of the earth, give you the shirt off his back with a smile kind of guy.

May their memories be a blessing.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:40:30]

CAMEROTA: The votes are still being counted in Nevada. President- elect Joe Biden is still way ahead by more than 35,000 votes. And the Trump campaign is still lodging baseless claims of fraud.

CNN tracked down two people identified as fraudulent voters in Nevada and it turns out they are anything but.

CNN's Dan Simon has the story.

(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 (voice-over): -- and she's far from a fraudulent voter.

SIMON (on camera): 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.

SIMON (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): 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 (on camera): 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 (on camera): 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)

CAMEROTA: Our thanks to Dan. And the idea that with just the most minimal amount of checking and investigation you can quickly find these folks, that tells you that there's no checking or investigation going on.

BERMAN: Well, I think to that point, I think it's great that Dan did this. And I think to do it once is probably a fruitful thing. But, Jessica Huseman, who is our terrific CNN analyst who follows

election security around the country, notes that "The New York Times" called every state and got a response that there's no fraud here -- from every state they called. But what Jessica points out is what, should we call every parks and rec department in the country and have them verifying there haven't been Big Foot sightings?

[07:45:07]

I mean, I think the answer is no. I think that we don't have to take the bait of this B.S. These claims are baseless.

We talked to the lieutenant governor of Georgia. No evidence of election fraud.

So taking more energy than this to disprove every case is playing into their hands.

CAMEROTA: Is the Trump campaign saying that Big Foot voted?

BERMAN: Yes, absolutely. They filed like six lawsuits that were thrown out.

CAMEROTA: OK. Well, once again, we -- I think we've just debunked that.

BERMAN: All right.

So speaking about things that go nowhere, remember all the claims that have been made from this White House, all the investigations they've launched? Where do they stand this morning?

John Avlon here with a reality check.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: When it comes to claims about mass voter fraud let's be clear. Trump supporters, you're being lied to.

Donald Trump has a history of lying loudly, turning baseless accusations into play-to-the-base articles of faith. Now, the goal is often to create a fake scandal to distract from a real one. But when the accusation is actually investigated by Republicans in Congress or the Trump Justice Department, it comes up empty because there was never anything there.

Just yesterday, Senate Republicans too afraid to admit in public that Joe Biden won the election, were busy relitigating 2016 by putting Andrew McCabe under oath.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): We're going to find somebody accountable for something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Now, if Lindsey Graham sounds a bit frustrated that's because investigations haven't gone Republicans' way.

So let's look at eight big Trump lies that have proven to be bogus.

Let's start with the five-volume bipartisan Senate Intel report that found Russian interference in 2016 was not a hoax as Trump still constantly claims, but very real. Likewise, the I.G. report found that the FBI probe into the Trump campaign's Russia ties was justified and not politically biased. Even the much-hyped Durham report that Trump insisted would lead to the prosecution of his political opponents never materialized.

The same is true of Trump's claims to have caught Obama spying on his campaign while engaging in unmasking, hyped as one of the biggest scandals in American history. Well, it fell apart after investigators quietly concluded that no crime had been committed.

In 2018, Trump's own initial Voter Fraud Commission was disbanded without offering a shred of evidence of widespread voter fraud.

And after Trump's impeachment over trying to strong-arm Ukraine into announcing a bogus investigation into the Bidens, Senate Republicans ran a counter-investigation, relying on Russian disinformation, and still concluded that there was no wrongdoing by the former vice president.

You might ask what about Hillary Clinton's e-mails? Well, after countless "lock her up" chants, a Trump State Department inquiry found no deliberate mishandling of classified information.

And don't forget Trump pumping up the baseless and racist birther conspiracy theory. He claimed he paid for investigators to go look for Obama's birth certificate in Hawaii. But according to his aide, Michael Cohen, that was a lie as well.

"Who f-ing cares," Trump allegedly said. "Wait until the headlines come out. This story is going to be huge!"

And that's the point. These lies are about playing to conservative crowds, demonizing Democrats, and dominating the partisan news cycle. They flood the zone so some accusations stick. But repeating lies doesn't change reality.

And the real scandal is staring us in the face. For the first time in our history, the President of the United States is trying to resist the results in an election he lost. Some of Trump's own lawyers have admitted in court that they have no evidence of voter fraud.

But negative partisanship's a powerful narcotic and Trump supporters will give him money and chant slogans in the streets. They don't know they're being played for fools by the president they love while our democracy pays the price.

And that's your reality check.

CAMEROTA: I can't wait to send that link out to some people I know that have fallen hook, line, and sinker -- BERMAN: Do they have -- do they have Internet access in the White House? Does the White House, wherever he's hiding -- the president, does he have access to the Internet? He has his phone.

CAMEROTA: I will be sending a link to some folks.

BERMAN: He'd like to see it.

All right. One of the largest cities in Texas is on the brink of disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCISCO MORALES, DANIEL MORALES' FATHER: He's going to be fine. He's going to make it. He's just fighting this thing off. He's fighting it and he'll be fine. Yes, he never recovered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: How awful. One family's heartbreaking story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:53:47]

BERMAN: As of this morning, Texas is now the first state in the United States to surpass one million coronavirus cases.

El Paso -- the city of El Paso, alone, has more people hospitalized than most states. And we learned this morning the city is bringing in new mobile morgues. They're doubling the number of these mobile morgues to handle the spike in deaths.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is live in El Paso. And, Omar, you have seen firsthand the human toll this has taken.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. It's every awful aspect of this pandemic converging on this city. Out of the entire hospital capacity we have here for anything, around 50 percent of the patients that are in the hospital are for COVID-19.

Members of the U.S. Army and Air Force are here assisting. That's along with the nearly 1,400 personnel the state has sent in as well just to try and slow down, in any way, what has been an explosion of coronavirus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Churches are empty, businesses no different in the new reality for El Paso, Texas where coronavirus has taken hold unlike any other place in the country.

[07:55:06]

Based on the number of active cases and the population, one in every 30 people in the county actively has COVID-19. The test positivity rate has been at 20 percent or higher since before Halloween. Nearly 1,100 people are in the hospital with coronavirus -- record levels -- and the virus continues to claim lives.

MINERVA MORALES, DANIEL MORALES' MOTHER: He went to work. It was the last time we saw him. It's the last time his children saw him.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Daniel Morales, a nurse, fought for weeks.

M. MORALES: We'd gather in front of the hospital in the parking lot every evening at 9:00 p.m. and we'd pray because -- so he (ph) could come home.

F. MORALES: I always have a positive nature where he's going to fine. He's going to make it. He's fighting this thing off. He's fighting it and he'll be fine. Yes, he never recovered.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Daniel Morales was 39 years old, leaving a wife and four kids behind. It's a pain that's become all too familiar.

JIMENEZ (on camera): This is one of six mobile morgues currently in operation here in El Paso, and they say there are more on the way just trying to keep up with the number of deaths that we have seen here. All in all, officials here say they can hold up to 176 bodies if necessary. You couple that possibility with what's been a record level of hospitalizations here and officials say they are on the brink of disaster.

DAVID STOUT, COUNTY COMMISSIONER, EL PASO: We're in a dire situation.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): David Stout is a county commissioner in El Paso and knows the medical examiner may need even more resources.

STOUT: He's also asked that we start looking for an actual brick and mortar situation that has refrigeration.

JIMENEZ (on camera): And that's purely because you have so many bodies backing up.

STOUT: Exactly.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): In recent weeks, the county judge instituted a shutdown of non-essential businesses. Some are pushing back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our team members don't have paychecks. If we don't have hours to given them because we can't serve customers, they don't get paid.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The state supports the businesses, calling the judge's move illegal, pushing for other mitigation strategies.

Stout supports the county judge's order and an extension of the shutdown, especially as numbers across Texas continue to rise.

STOUT: When things start getting worse everywhere else -- I mean people are going to have to go back to those other places, right, and then what's going to happen in El Paso? JIMENEZ (voice-over): But the debate over how to proceed, shut down or not --

M. MORALES: These are concessions.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): -- is a back-and-forth Morales no longer has patience for.

M. MORALES: We have an empty chair now. We have a void that will never be filled.

And you know what, if I lose my house, if I lose my car, I'll replace it, I'll rebuild. But you cannot bring my son back -- you can't. And they're arguing over this and it makes me angry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: And we're still waiting to see whether a county judge's shutdown of non-essential businesses will be extended or if the state's appeal will win out.

And as for Daniel's mother, she went on to say that if you ask his kids what their biggest fear is, it's their mother, who is also a nurse, going to work because they lost their father when he went to work. That was the last time they ever saw him -- John.

BERMAN: That's terrible. I mean, I can't imagine what that family is going through. The fear that they must have now and the intolerance for the fighting going on among city and state officials. There are people dying. The numbers right now in El Paso are really scary, Omar.

I mean, talking to me about the feel in that city right now.

JIMENEZ: Well, the feel is fear. I think when you look throughout this city, obviously, businesses, in many cases are shut down trying to figure out how they're going to move forward.

We showed you church services, which are a huge staple in the Hispanic community -- it is very prevalent here -- are empty. The way of life here has been disrupted.

And then when you look at the hospital situation itself, that 50 percent of total hospital capacity with COVID-19 is one thing, but more than 300 people are in the ICU. And then when you see these mobile morgues being stacked up -- these images circulated throughout this city here -- the seriousness of this is setting in in a way that I don't think we saw here, at least three to four weeks ago when we started seeing this explosion.

And when you ask people here why are we seeing this, a main portion of it is COVID fatigue. People not wearing masks, still getting together in big gatherings, and the proclivity here for people to live in large family homes -- or in homes with large families, I should say as well, John.

CAMEROTA: Omar, I think that it is -- your piece there I think really illustrated the economic toll versus the human toll. And we've all been led to believe by the White House that we have to make a choice.