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Vote Counting Nearing An End In Close Battleground States; Andy Card: Time For Biden To Get Equal Treatment In Transition; At Least Three GOP Senators Say Biden Should Get Intelligence Briefings; U.S. Reports Most Single-Day COVID-19 Deaths Since May; Trump Campaign Files Lawsuits In Battleground States. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired November 12, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I am John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your day with us. President-Elect Joe Biden beginning to fill his White House team top Democrats and congress say it is past time for President Trump and his Republican enablers to accept the election's overwhelming math.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): He knows the territory, so he's going to be just fine in the transition. He's going to be just fine in the transition. It's most unfortunate that the Republicans have decided that they will not respect the will of the people. And let me just say, it is like the house is burning down and they just refuse to throw water on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now so far there's zero indication the president is listening. He is again this morning tweeting and re-tweeting fantasies about overturning the election results. And a source familiar with the president's thinking tells CNN don't expect the president to publicly acknowledge that he lost, at least until Georgia finishes its newly ordered recount.

At the moment, the president is losing Georgia by more than 14,000 votes. Math and context should matter, right? Even if the president did somehow come back to win Arizona and Georgia, where he is now in the gap that wouldn't be enough Biden would still be the President- Elect, period. Now there are a few more Republicans today saying the president should green light transition cooperation, even if he wants to keep challenging the results.

The Veteran Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa now saying President-Elect Biden should be getting security briefings, including detailed intelligence briefings, something that is being denied by President Trump. But most GOP leaders will not stand up to the president because they fear him. Team Biden says it will keep its focus on the work ahead, not on the incumbent's denial.

The president-elect tapping Ron Klain, a longtime aide with deep West Wing experience to be his White House Chief of Staff. We are accustomed to the president's tantrums and petty recriminations. But in this case with holding basic transition cooperation could well be a matter of life and death. Look, more than 144,000 new Coronavirus cases yesterday.

That breaks the record for the most cases in one day. That record set on Tuesday. Also, another record high number of hospitalizations and the highest daily death count since May. We'll look more deeply and discuss the Coronavirus numbers in a moment. But these are the numbers right now the president simply refuses to acknowledge.

Look across the country, Joe Biden is winning in 25 states. Even if Arizona will it go the other way, most think that's unlikely, president has narrowed the gap. Joe Biden would still have enough Electoral College votes to be president-elect. The president complains about massive fraud in Pennsylvania, Joe Biden's lead has grown since we called the race on Friday, 53,898 votes.

Overturning that most unlikely to happen, even Republicans say so the president for some reason keeps saying there was massive fraud in Michigan. He is losing there by nearly 150,000 votes. Yes, he is suing. Find any lawyer with election law experience who thinks you're going to overturn a lead of nearly 150,000 votes.

In fact we can just look at them here and bring up the leads here. These are Joe Biden's margins in the key states right now. We are more than a week after the election. Yes, some votes are still being counted. 14,000 plus in Georgia, 11,000 plus in Arizona, 36,000 plus in Nevada, 53,000 plus in Pennsylvania the math is simply overwhelming, overwhelming.

Former White House Chief of Staff, the Chief of Staff who took over in the White House after the 2000 contested election, remember, the Supreme Court made George W. Bush President of the United States, his Chief of Staff back in those days says President Trump, just deal with the math.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY CARD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF FOR GEORGE W. BUSH: The administration should move forward with the transition, even if the results of the election aren't really well known or well respected, move forward. We want a President Biden to be just as prepared as a President Trump to be in office on January 20th at noon time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's bring in Seung Min Kim; she is the White House Reporter for the Washington Post and our CNN's Senior Political Reporter, Nia- Malika Henderson.

Nia-Malika to you first, as Chuck Grassley earlier today, now John Thune, another key deputy of Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republican leadership, just saying he believes telling CNN Joe Biden should have access to the classified briefings. Should be getting the preparation, assuming he becomes president on January 20th. Are we starting to see enough cracks to get the president's attention?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: It's only appears that way. I mean, it is a shame that this is sort of headline news that Republicans are saying that the president-elect should actually get security briefings. It is a matter of national security and the safety of average Americans, whether or not President-Elect Biden is read in on what is going on and the threats that this country possibly face. But you do see some movement.

[12:05:00]

HENDERSON: Those two Senators, you have Lankford also kind of step forward and say, this isn't happening by Friday, he would try to step in. So, we'll see if this gets through to the president, he clearly is on his own timetable, he has his own goals in terms of maintaining a hold on his base who obviously believe that he was cheated out of this election.

There's obviously no proof of that. And I think Joe Biden's calmness in approaching this and kind of moving along and naming people to his transition team and also saying listen, this is not a matter of lawsuits. He I think turned down the heat and that kind of gave I think Republicans room to kind of move forward.

KING: Seung Min this is the administration that brought us the term alternative facts. So I guess we should not be surprised by their effort to impose alterative reality and deny math. In your piece today in the post, you write this about the Vice President, Mike Pence went up to Capitol Hill to join the Senate Republican luncheon.

"Pence told Senate Republicans at lunch Tuesday, he found it odd that a pro-GOP electoral trend from state legislatures to congressional races would stop at the top of the ticket according to two people familiar with his remarks. Republicans came away with the impression that Pence was making the case for why the campaign was continuing to legally dispute the results, although the vice president did not explicitly make that link when speaking with Senators.

He found it odd it would stop at the top of the ticket. Has he not paid any attention to the president's approval rating and poll numbers the last four years?

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And that was kind of the oddity of what my sources were telling me about that lunch. Huh, maybe there is something particular about that top of the ticket that maybe wasn't as appealing to a majority of the voters.

But yes, the president is continuing to conduct these results. And I think the hand recount that we're seeing in Georgia, that we will see commence over the next several days, is not good news for the people obviously all Democrats on Capitol Hill.

And frankly many Republicans as well who do want to move on with the business of governing and with the business of transition because that recount that's going on in Georgia obviously appears very difficult for the president to be able to overcome that 14,000 vote deficit.

Nevertheless, gives the president something to hang on. And as long as President Trump is hanging on publicly to his unproven claims that there was voter fraud in these key states, most of the Republican Party is going to go along with him, even if some do say look, Biden should get some classified briefings for national security purposes.

They need to keep that base excited, tapped in, energized, particularly as the Republican Senate Majority hinges on the January 5th runoffs. And so, as long as that's going on, they're going to stand by the president.

KING: Right. And to that point, Nia-Malika Henderson, Republicans, including those Senators, the incumbent Republican in Georgia have called for the firing of the resignation of the Secretary of State in Georgia because he is counting votes. He is a Republican and he is counting votes. And low and behold, Joe Biden is ahead, and they don't think it is possible. How can possibly a Democrat be winning. That can't be right.

And this is what Brad Raffensperger says in response. Well, in Georgia you have to win over 50 percent and then you are not in a runoff. And if you win big, this wouldn't be an issue. Essentially telling Senator Perdue and Senator Loeffler this is your fault, don't blame me.

HENDERSON: That's right, maybe they should have been more competitive, ran better races in those states. They obviously didn't, so they will face a runoff. It will be very competitive down there in terms of money pouring in and attention pouring in as well to that state whether or not the Democrat can pull it out, that state demographically I think still favors a Republican, even though Joe Biden was obviously able to win.

It's on sort of an off year, election calendar here, January 5th. So, whether or not Democrats can really rally the right demographics and rally quite frankly white people to vote for a Democratic candidate, because we haven't really seen that in the statewide races.

I think Stacey Abrams got something like 25 percent of the white vote, even though the electorate when she ran was 30 percent black. It's just difficult to put together a winning combination.

Listen, Joe Biden has had something of a play book that won for the Democrat, at least we'll see in terms of the recount, but this is going to be one to watch because all of the marbles are on the table at this point for Senate control with this race.

KING: All the marbles, that's an understatement, too. And so, Seung Min this is another example of the upside down world we have lived in pretty much since the beginning of the Trump age, and that was spending still time talking a lot of time about the incumbent president at a time we would be and should be focusing a lot of our time on the new president. The president-elect, he named as new Chief of Staff Ron Klain Former Senate Aid, Former Clinton/Gore White House Aid, Former Obama Biden White House Aid of Veteran, and they're putting together their team.

Among the team that they have is this new Coronavirus Task Force, they call it an Advisory Board, Dr. Michael Osterholm who's been on television a lot over the last eight months. Listen to what he says here, because what he says here goes well beyond anything. Joe Biden said during the campaign.

[12:10:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: We can pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers, for losses to small companies to medium size companies, for cities, states, county governments, we can do all of that. If we did that, then we could lockdown for four to six weeks. And if we did that, we could drive the numbers down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: We could lockdown for four to six weeks. Joe Biden repeatedly, explicitly said during the campaign he was not for a national lockdown, he did not think one was necessary. Is Dr. Osterholm out over his skis or is this something that's on the table as the transition tries to put together a plan?

MIN KIM: We're waiting to hear from the Biden camp what they thought of the doctor's responses, and whether that was in line with what the task force is advising President-Elect Biden here. But you're right. Joe Biden during the campaign even actually in his last debate with President Trump said I am going to shut down the virus. I am not going to shut down the country.

Obviously Joe Biden said he will listen to scientists and the experts on handling the Coronavirus, but this became an attack line on the part of President Trump against Biden during the campaign that he would just lockdown the country again, that the economy would go back into a tail spin.

And Joe Biden made it clear that obviously he would focus on very limited temporary targeted restrictions, if any sort of closures were necessary. So, it would be interesting to see what the Biden camp's response to those comments are later today, if that is indeed the path that they're pursuing, because it is different from what Joe Biden said during the campaign.

KING: Right, and transitions get interesting, because members of task forces and transitions do speak out, and then comes the wait, whoa, wait a minute. I will say, look, it's incredibly important if you look at the numbers right now, the country is facing a crisis, and the question is what the plan is. And I guess you want all options on the table. The important thing is what the president-elect thinks. And to that

point, Nia-Malika Henderson is new Chief of Staff will have a big part in that, Ron Klain is a trusted advisor to this president-elect. He has known him for decades. He has very deep West Wing experience in the Clinton-Gore Administration, in the Obama-Biden Administration.

But progressives are watching everything closely here, and I thought it was interesting, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez both praising Ron Klain. We understand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez herself is called that a ruckus, there is a ruckus coming, their progressives are going to fight this administration over policy and personnel. But the Biden team clearly did a good job, getting this one out there, so that there wasn't a backlash.

HENDERSON: Yes, I think that's right. I mean, we've seen signs of the ruckus already breaking out on Twitter, breaking out in the pages of "The New York Times." A lot of back and forth between some of these moderate house members and in the AOC wing of the party as well.

Nancy Pelosi speaking to it, saying listen, there are bigger fish to fry, meaning what the Republicans are doing or aren't doing in terms of COVID and any number of issues. But yes, I think Biden so far has played it smart. This was a good choice according to those progressives. And AOC are very strategic herself on coming out and saying this was a good choice, Elizabeth Warren as well.

And some of those people, I mean, particularly Elizabeth Warren, she might want a role in the administration at some point. That's unclear. There's a Republican Governor in Massachusetts, so you would have to see about that.

But so far folks are playing nice with this incoming administration, the progressives with this incoming administration that is likely to be more moderate, and forced to be more moderate because of the Senate, whether or not the Republicans control it or not, it is certainly going to be at least 50/50, even if the Democrats win those two Senate seats in Georgia.

KING: Right. The first of the many important pieces the president- elect needs to put on the board. It's the first we shall watch as it plays out, Nia-Malika Henderson and Seung Min Kim grateful for the reporting and insights on this important day. Up next for us, Coronavirus cases are surging and guess what, two weeks from today is Thanksgiving.

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[12:15:00]

KING: Thanksgiving is two weeks from today. And the Coronavirus once again reminding us there's no such thing as normal gathering with friends and family, most likely not a good idea. Let's look at these numbers. And they're horrible, they are horrible.

44 states right now, 44 states reporting more new COVID infections right now than a week ago and you see 18 of those 44 have at least 50 percent more new infections right now compared to a week ago 50 percent or more that's the deep red. Orange means some more in the ballpark of 10 percent to 50 percent more new infections this week than last week.

Five states are holding steady. Only one state trending down right now and that data from Georgia is coming in sort of - so I ensure that number is correct. The state death trend as well, look at this, this is more deaths. 30 of the 50 states reporting more COVID related deaths this week compared to last week. 30. And you see the deep red. It's not a surprise, it's across the northern part of the country where it is colder, and the cases are up.

More than 50 percent, more deaths in 12 states this week compared to last week. The case trend line is just terrific, straight up, heading straight up, a record yesterday 143,231. The previous record was 24 hours before that on Tuesday. That is the world we live in now, where almost every day we set a new record as the new infections trend line is pointing straight to the sky.

And with that comes hospitalizations, not straight up but heading towards straight up there. A record number 65,368 Americans hospitalized yesterday from Coronavirus. Remember back in the spring, it was novel. Hospitals were overwhelmed, this was new, and they didn't know how to deal with it.

Better job by the summer surge, right. More cases hit the same level of hospitalizations, now we have way more cases, hospitalizations starting to go up. We will watch the trajectory. And this is why. This is why deep darkness on this map is not good. And there's more and more of it just about every day. This is the positivity rate. 27 percent of the people in Missouri who get a COVID test are coming back positive. It's 55 percent in South Dakota.

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KING: 55 percent, more than half of the people who get tested come back positive. Guess what, then you infect other people and it gets worse. 40 percent in Wyoming, 40 percent in Idaho it is 10 percent in Ohio right now, double digits, better than a lot of other states.

But the Governor there, the Republican Governor there who has tried to stay on top of this from the beginning says, we have a mask mandate, but as our positivity rate goes up and as cases go up in our state and all around us, we need to do more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): We've got a statewide mask order since July, but we're going to send agents out now to start enforcing that in our retail establishments. But where we're seeing a huge spread is just people in their own personal lives. We're seeing huge spreads from funerals, weddings, just people getting together to watch football.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's discuss this with Keri Althoff. She is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at John Hopkins School of Public Health. Keri, it's good to see you, except the times are terrible. And you hear Governor DeWine there, its gatherings, its weddings, its football games. Thanksgiving is two weeks from now. What message do the American people sadly need to hear about Thanksgiving?

KERI ALTHOFF, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, JOHNS HOPKINS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: I think families need to be ready to celebrate Thanksgiving in their households. And if you plan to celebrate in a different way, perhaps inviting another household in, there are lots of different plans you should be thinking through right now. Plan a, b, and c. Because as you noted, things are changing rapidly. And we need to be able to respond.

KING: And so, help me. My wheelhouse is politics. So, I see a lot of public opinion polling when it comes to the political races. I want to put these numbers up. As from a public health perspective, how do you get people to think again if you will when they have Coronavirus fatigue without a doubt?

This is from Gallup. Are you likely, very likely, somewhat likely, or not so likely to shelter in place if the government says you should shelter in place? And you see in the March, late March, early April period when we were going through the initial surge, people were listening, people were listening, right? But now you see as we get closer into the October, November timeframe, fewer people are listening.

I assume just because they're exhausted, because they're tired of all these restrictions, because they want normalcy. How do you change minds, how do you get people to say you got to do this yourself, for us you're going to be told to do it?

ALTHOFF: Well, I mean, I think that's the key. I believe in that poll Americans also felt more confident that they do know how to protect themselves and their families, that they are thinking about mask mandates, social distancing. They are thinking about being sure to wash their hands and avoid crowds.

And I think the thing we have to remember when it comes to the holidays, this is a time where we recharge, we reconnect, we enjoy each other. But when we have this virus that we know is spreading and it's spreading in small gatherings, we need to get a little creative about how we're going to pull off this Thanksgiving, and the power to choose is with the American people.

What is everybody going to do to layer their approach to their Thanksgiving so that we continue to minimize that risk, that we give that virus a less chance of transmission to our friends and family?

KING: Keri Althoff grateful for your insights. I hope people listen to the seasoned health professionals like you. It's terrible at this holiday season, but it's necessary. Thank you so much. Coming up for us, the president keeps alleging massive voter fraud. But even his own lawsuits challenge the election results, show no such thing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:25:00]

KING: Trump Campaign moving forward with lawsuits claiming President- Elect Joe Biden and Democrats cheated to win. Important to note, there's been absolutely no credible evidence of massive election fraud anywhere. But the president focusing these legal fights on key battleground states and the timeline coming ahead is important.

The states will be certifying their vote counts in the coming weeks. You see some of the important dates there. Electoral College formally meets on December 14th to select the president. Joining us now, our CNN's Kara Scannell, Kara, you look at the calendar, some people look at the lawsuits, and they say, I can't find any evidence. And one of the theories is the president is just trying to stir up chaos until you get to the Electoral College date.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Yes, John, that's right. The Trump Campaign has filed a number of lawsuits in multiple states over the past few days; none of them include allegations of widespread or systemic voter fraud. But they do have one common goal and that is to try to block the certification of ballots couple of lawsuits in the past few days were filed in Pennsylvania, there they're trying to block the certification.

And that has to do; the allegations there have to do with poll watchers, and whether they had the ability to observe. They're also looking there at the handling of absentee ballots. In Michigan, the same thing, trying to block the certification, issue there, the Trump Campaign wanting a do over of absentee ballot counting.

And in Arizona, again the Trump Campaign asking a judge to block the certification of ballots, so they can review all the ballots cast on Election Day in Maricopa County. There's a hearing under way right now in that case. John, the goal here is that, they're hoping that a judge will block certification.

And if that happened under one scenario, that would allow Republican legislators to put forward their own slate of electors that could vote for the President Trump against the will of the people who have voted in each of those states predominantly for Joe Biden. That is the goal here. And one Republican lawyer described to me this scenario.