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Trump Blocks Biden Transition; Georgia to Recount Votes by Hand; Texas Reports 10,000-Plus New Cases for Second Straight Day; Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Lawmakers Resign in Protest; Tropical Storm Eta Nears Florida; Trump's Move to Replace Defense Officials Alarms Pentagon; YouTube Emerging as Source of Election Misinformation; How North Korea Views U.S. President-elect Joe Biden; Golfers Prepare for Augusta in the Age of COVID-19. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired November 12, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, as more votes are counted, Joe Biden extends his winning lead both nationally and in key. States those close to Donald Trump say it's unlikely he will ever concede.
As U.S. Heads into COVID, hell a coronavirus adviser to President- Elect Biden pulls up a 6 week long nationwide lockdown.
And "One Country, Two Systems" no more, Beijing moves to exert more control over Hong Kong and the freedoms and autonomy China agreed to as part of the handover deal with Britain.
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VAUSE: Despite what the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue may tweet, regardless of the actions and misleading statements of his enablers, one fact: on January 20 next year, Joe Biden will be sworn as the 46th President of the United States. The only real unanswered question between now and then is just how decisive his victory over Donald Trump will be.
On Wednesday Arizona's Republican attorney general said that Biden will win the once ruby red state and dismissed claims of voter fraud.
And as counting continues, the president-elect his extended his lead in the popular vote. While Donald Trump clings to a fantasy of overturning these results, Biden is moving forward with a one-sided transition, announcing Ronald Klain as his chief of staff, a crucial role in every White House.
Klain is a political veteran who lead the Obama administration's response to Ebola pandemic in 2014. On Wednesday, attending a Veterans Day ceremony Trump was soon back to
the White House, rage tweeting about the election, falsely claiming he won Pennsylvania and Michigan.
He did not.
But the current president, apparently crippled by his inability to concede defeat and mostly absent from his daily job, President-Elect Joe Biden seems to be filling the role, at least in public. And behind the scenes sources tell CNN, within weeks, Biden could announce who will fill his cabinet. We have more details now from CNN's Arlette Saenz.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Philadelphia, President-Elect Joe Biden and the future first lady laid a wreath, paying respects to the nation's veterans, as President Trump refuses to respect the results of the election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To our President-Elect and first lady, Dr. Jill Biden, if there's anybody that understands what veterans go through, it's this family.
SAENZ: The President-Elect says his commitment to veterans his personal, pointing to his late son Beau's service in Iraq. Biden is promising to "be a commander in chief who respects your sacrifice, understands your service and who will never betray the values you fought so bravely to defend."
While President Trump remains defiant about his loss, Biden is defending his position as President-Elect, even without a concession.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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.
SAENZ: Biden has turned to tones of calm and patience, while Trump tries to create turmoil by blocking access to key transition resources and mounting legal challenges.
Biden's top attorneys are dismissing those lawsuits and accusations of fraud as political theater.
With 70 days until his inauguration, Biden is pressing ahead, with top staffing announcements for his West Wing likely coming later this week.
Cabinet picks aren't expected until later in the month, aides tells CNN, but the lobbying for positions has already started, including from Bernie Sanders, who is reaching out to union leaders as he's eying the job of labor secretary.
On the world stage, leaders already are eager to work with the President-Elect, including on climate change.
BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: I had and have a good relationship with the previous president. But I'm delighted to find the many areas in which the Biden, incoming Biden-Harris administration is able to make common cause with us.
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SAENZ: Even though more foreign leaders have congratulated Biden than Senate Republicans, some Republicans are starting to acknowledge the transition should get under way.
SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R-PA): We're on a path it looks likely that Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States. It's not 100 percent certain, but it is quite likely. And so I think a transition process ought to begin.
SAENZ: And Biden is moving forward with his transition planning, naming his incoming chief of staff. Biden has tapped Ron Klain, a longtime adviser, to lead his West Wing operation -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
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VAUSE: Mike Madrid is the cofounder of The Lincoln Project, a group of former Republicans, who've been working to defeat Donald. Trump, a goal which it looks like you've done. Congratulations.
MIKE MADRID, THE LINCOLN PROJECT: Thank you so much.
VAUSE: What seems really hard to understand right now, though, is that given that Trump has lost and lost bigly, Biden is more than 5 million votes ahead in the popular vote at this point and the number is increasing.
Why are congressional Republicans so willing to humor him that he actually is the winner and that if it wasn't for widespread voter fraud which doesn't actually exist, he would still be president?
MADRID: What we're watching is actually the demolition of a cult of personality here. For so, long and for so many for so, long and for so many years, we've wondered why people stuck with him despite all of these improprieties, declare -- pursuit of encouragement of the influence of foreign governments into our own democracy here in the United States.
And make no mistake, the circle is shrinking of supporters. It becomes a little bit more intense and I think we are going to have to see this at least for a month or 1.5 months. We're also seeing at the same time, though, peeling off, brick-by-brick, person-by-person, elector by elector, moving away from Donald Trump.
And I think we're going to continue to see that as public opinion continues to move away from this entire refusal to concede an election, which he clearly. Lost
VAUSE: Trump did notably get more than 70 million votes, which is the second highest turnout, ever in a presidential election.
Does that give him a certain amount of power within the party?
MADRID: It can give him a strong amount of leverage in the Republican Party but I think it's to his own detriment. Again, the Republican Party had a pretty good night on Election Night. But wasn't able to secure the presidency. So long for national force, despite the high turnout numbers.
Many voters turned out just for Donald Trump. So the party is going to have to come to some kind of a reckoning about what it wants to be, recognizing that it's not going to be able to win a national election again with Donald Trump or perhaps any Trump at the top of the ticket.
It's got to be a little more introspective. And I think that part of that introspection is going to create divisions, which have clearly been not too far beneath the surface. I think Trump's bullying was able to cobble and keep together a very tenuous coalition. Once that is gone, I think it will be a free-for-all.
VAUSE: The most immediate motivation for Republicans is the Georgia runoff for the two Senate seats. The secretary of state has ordered a recount of the 5 million ballots and they will be done by hand, even though he made this admission to CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Here it is.
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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Have you seen any evidence of the widespread fraud or anything else along those lines?
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: We have ongoing investigations. We are not seeing something widespread of a large nature, nothing over 10,000.
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VAUSE: So a recount vote by hand, which, will have no impact on the outcome, what is the point, apart from Trump losing the state twice?
MADRID: That's exactly the right way to put it. It's very unlikely that any of these recounts or challenges, the challenges themselves are meritless, as was stated by the gentleman of Georgia.
Recounts themselves usually have no wide variation, other than maybe 100 or 200 votes at the most statewide, even when millions of votes are cast.
The truth of the matter is this election wasn't that close. But again, what you are seeing is politicians and elected officials too afraid to move out of the shadow of Donald Trump, knowing that he's going to attack, you know he's going to berate, you knowing he's going to make you the focus of national attention.
The other part that gives us a little bit of pause in The Lincoln Project is the potentiality of delaying this out towards where we're outside of what's called the safe harbor period outlined in the Constitution, which might allow for more legislative influence in the seating of electors.
The truth of the matter is that all of this is really more a sign of desperation than it is a sign of strength. There's a lot of anxiety in the country right now, it's the first time in our history a present has refused to concede and obviously lost. Election
But as every day goes by, the president is losing more and more public opinion and support amongst the public, more and more support amongst rank and file Republicans and he is ultimately going back to recognize he's lost on the grandest stage in the world.
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MADRID: And that is not something that Donald Trump is very comfortable with. The inevitability of it is days away. It's coming.
VAUSE: The latest polling by Reuters shows about 3 percent of the voters that were polled believe that Donald Trump actually won this election. Given, that it seems that maybe from 4 years ago, there is some pretty good advice for Republicans right now which they gave to Democrats back. Then listen to this.
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KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: You have people out there calling for recounts that are unsubstantiated, based on no evidence. This was a legitimate election and no one should question the fact that Donald Trump is the President-Elect.
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KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP SENIOR ADVISER: (INAUDIBLE) --
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: They are going nuts now.
CONWAY: -- can accept the election, let alone the fact that he's actually going to solve problems.
They have to decide whether they're going to interfere with him finishing his business, interfere with the peaceful transition, transfer of power to the president-elect or if they're going to be a bunch of crybabies and sore losers about an election that they can't turn around.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, FOX NEWS HOST: This is America. We live in a democracy. Everybody when they woke up in the morning, registered to vote, could go choose.
So how about respecting the majority that also live here?
And their votes should count.
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VAUSE: So how about respecting that majority, huh? MADRID: Yes, but this is humiliating, not just for these people whose names we should remember in history, it's humiliating for the country to admit to the fact that these people were actually running and in charge of the country for the past four. Years
Look, it's time for them to go. It's time to class up and pack, up and leave the White House and to turn the reins of power over to more a adult leadership and get this country back on track.
VAUSE: Mike, that's a good point to finish, on Mike Madrid, cofounder of The Lincoln Project.
MADRID: Thanks for having me.
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VAUSE: While President Trump is holed up in the White House, tweeting nonsense about nonexistent voter fraud. The U.S. has set another record for daily infections of coronavirus. Just on Wednesday more than 140,000 new cases were recorded nationwide. For 9 days, now new cases have exceeded 100,000.
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DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EMORY UNIVERSITY: I am just terrified. We are entering a very dark phase in this pandemic. The numbers are going up.
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VAUSE: The White House Coronavirus Task Force has community spread says accelerated because people are spending more time indoors because of the cold weather. Hospitalizations also hitting record highs. More than 65,000 COVID-19 patients nationwide.
Medical tents are being set up outside hospitals in Lubbock, Texas, to help deal with the influx of patients there. In El Paso County, there's demand for mobile. Morgues Texas is now the first state in the U.S. to surpass 1 million COVID infections. Omar Jimenez has the details.
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OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Churches are empty. Businesses no different. And the new reality for El Paso, Texas, where coronavirus has taken hold unlike any other place in the country.
Based on the number of active cases in 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, MOTHER OF DANIEL MORALES: He went to work, that was the last time we saw him. That'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 we believed he'd come home.
FRANCISCO MORALES, FATHER OF DANIEL MORALES: I'd always have a positive nature where he's going to be fine, he's going to -- he's fighting this thing off, he's fighting it, he'll be fine. And 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: This is one of six mobile morgues currently in operation here in El Paso and they say there are more on the way, just to try and 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 IN EL PASO, TEXAS: 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.
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JIMENEZ: 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 nonessential businesses. Some are pushing back.
JOHN HALMQUIST, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, PIZZA PROPERTIES, INC: Our team members don't have paychecks. If we don't have hours to give 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 his ashes.
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.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Omar Jimenez, CNN, El Paso, Texas.
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VAUSE: Meantime, a member of President-Elect Biden's new coronavirus advisory board is talking about a 4- to 6-week lockdown to slow the spread of the pandemic.
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MIKE OSTERHOLM, CENTER FOR DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY INSTITUTE: For a package, right now, to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers, for our losses to small to medium-sized companies, city, states, county governments, we could do all that.
If we did that, then we could lock down for 4 to 6 weeks. And if we did that, we could drive the numbers down, like they've done in Asia, like they did in New Zealand and Australia.
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VAUSE: Italy, the hardest hit country in Europe when the coronavirus started to spread, has now reached 1 million confirmed cases. That's after it reported almost 33,000 new cases on Wednesday.
The second wave of COVID-19 is so bad in Europe right now, that Johns Hopkins University has 4 E.U. countries in its global top 10 of cases. Italy also reporting its highest number of deaths in one day. Intensive care units are at their highest capacities there since mid April.
So long, one country, 2 systems, as Beijing looks to stop all political opposition from Hong Kong's legislative body.
Plus, Eta heading towards U.S. Gulf Coast. More on that, when we return.
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VAUSE: Beijing's latest move to wind back Hong Kong's democratic freedoms has been denounced by both the U.S. and the U.K., on Wednesday the Communist government passed a resolution which will allow Hong Kong's legislature to expel officials who promote independence.
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VAUSE: Already, four lawmakers have been sacked; 15 others say they will quit in solidarity. Beijing says the move will protect national security. Critics see it as an effort to crack down on dissent.
The White House national security adviser says the Chinese Communist Party has flagrantly violated its international commitments under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and it promises the people of Hong Kong, including those under the basic law. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout live in Hong Kong.
That's basically a fancy way of saying it broke the 1994 deal with Britain.
This is Beijing's hand one step removed, right?
By empowering its handpicked government in Hong Kong, to remove lawmakers who are deemed to be disloyal.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: And that's why we are seeing this international uproar. Just one day after these 4 opposition lawmakers were immediately disqualified because of this resolution passed by Beijing, we've heard criticism from the West as well from pro democracy leaders as expected here in Hong Kong as they try to make sense of the magnitude of this moment.
You know, last night we witnessed the 15 remaining opposition lawmakers gather in the legislative council building. This is the parliament here in Hong Kong. They chanted together "We stand." They held hands. And they announced their resignation en masse in protest. Among them, Claudia Mo, she had this to say.
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CLAUDIA MO, HONG KONG LEGISLATOR: This act of resignation is not just in protest. Against Beijing's rule by decree. It's no longer rule of law. It's not even rule by law. It's rule by decree. And of course, we are also doing this in support of our -- four ousted colleagues.
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STOUT: Claudia Mo and the rest of the opposition are submitting their resignation letters here in Hong Kong one by one. And once those letters are submitted and accepted, that effectively brings about the end of dissent in the legislative council.
Again, the parliament in Hong Kong. And it brings about the end of one in the last remaining forums For opposition here in the territory. International condemnation to Beijing's move has been swift. We heard from the U.K. foreign secretary. He said these dismissals undermine Hong Kong's stability and tarnish China's international standing.
We also heard from the national security advisor Robert O'Brien in the United States, who said it was a gross violation of international commitments. And also said there will be further sanctions in the remaining weeks of the Trump presidency.
He said, quote, "The United States will continue to utilize all the powers granted in the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, the Hong Kong Economy Act and the executive order on Hong Kong normalization to identify and sanction those responsible for extinguishing Hong Kong's freedom."
Now China is fully aware of this condemnation and is not having any of it. In fact, we've heard from the commissioner of the ministry of foreign affairs office here in Hong Kong. who addressed the criticism from these Western leaders head on.
In a statement, we will bring it up for you, wrote, "Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs. Any interference in Hong Kong affairs will be firmly hit back by all Chinese people, including our Hong Kong compatriots. Any attempt to play Hong Kong as a card against China will reach a dead end," unquote.
John, this is the new political reality in Hong Kong. And China is unwavering. Back to you.
VAUSE: What is interesting though is that locally the reaction seems to be not so much outcry but ridicule of some of these lawmakers.
STOUT: There has been ridicule of these lawmakers, posters and banners hanging up. Directing that ridiculous directly at Carrie Lam, the chief executive. Look, it is a very changed political environment here in Hong Kong. The protests of 2019 are over. A chilling effect has been in place.
We have seen the arrest of dozens of people, including a 19-year old charged with secession. He could potentially face life in prison. A police hotline, John, was set up last week, allowing members of the public to call in and report any violations of the national security law.
Within hours of that opening, it received thousands of calls. There is still an undercurrent of opposition. But the spirit of opposition, the open spirit of opposition in Hong Kong, that you really cannot see that often here.
VAUSE: Yes, Kristie, thank you. Kristie Lu Stout there in Hong Kong. We appreciate that. Thank you.
A powerful typhoon making its way across the Philippines north of Manila. Vamco is battering the region with heavy rain, powerful winds and 2 to 3 meters of storm surge. It's the fifth storm to lash the Philippines in the last few weeks.
And in the U.S., Florida bracing for tropical storm Eta. Heavy rain, strong winds already being felt as the storm moves closer to landfall. We've said it again, this is the busiest hurricane season ever in the Atlantic.
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VAUSE: Well, Eta has already made landfall three times. Florida will be number. Four the first landfall was last week when it hit Central America as a category 4 hurricane. CNN's Matt Rivers has more now on the devastation left behind.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In San Cristobal, Guatemala, the mud is 50 feet deep in some places. A landslide buried the village and within dozens of people are still missing. Relatives say they already know what happened.
"There was a great tragedy here," this man says. "I lost 23 members of my family, my father, my mother, my wife my, 3 children, grandchildren, sisters, sisters in law..."
And in Honduras for every child airlifted to safety, so many other people remain trapped. Hemmed in by floodwaters that seemingly do not want to leave.
This is just some of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Eta, the worst hurricane to hit this part of Central America in 22 years. Millions are affected in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras, where dozens are dead and the death toll is rising.
Tens of thousands have now also been forced into shelters which presents what might be the biggest challenge of them all:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To keep safe distance, to keep proper hygiene --
RIVERS (voice-over): Because hurricane or not, the pandemic rages on. In places like this, social distancing is all but impossible. Health experts tell CNN, a spike in COVID cases in the next few days will not be a surprise. And floodwaters that won't recede also means a certainly high risk of waterborne and other illnesses, everything from cholera, to yellow fever.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we are going to get a perfect storm or a Pandora's box of infectious diseases.
RIVERS (voice-over): All 3 countries are poorly equipped to deal with natural disasters. With the collapse of water and sanitation systems, COVID prompted school closures like the extended and jobs hard to come by. For many, there are limited options left.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lots of families lost everything. And now their only hope is to get a loan for a few thousand dollars and migrate north to Mexico and the United States.
RIVERS (voice-over): This one natural disaster, coupled with the worst pandemic in 100 years might scar Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala for a generation. But that is talk for later about the future. For now, there is little anyone here can do but wait for the floodwaters to recede, start to clean up and, in some places, dig and hope -- Matt Rivers, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, when we come back, for North Korea's Kim Jong-un the stark choice now between presidents. The one who said they had a love affair is out; the one who called him a thug is in. What Pyongyang may have in store for a Biden administration.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: More on our top story this hour. Joe Biden is hitting the ground running as president-elect. It's a one-sided transition, because President Trump is still crying foul on Twitter. The election was stolen from him. But what is even more alarming, officials say, are the ways Trump is trying to prevent what is a peaceful transfer of power.
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Sources tell CNN the Trump administration is preventing Biden's team from accessing messages from foreign leaders at the State Department. They're also replacing several senior officials at the Defense Department all the way up to the secretary of defense. They're being replaced with Trump loyalists.
We have details now from CNN's Barbara Starr.
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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump paying a visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to mark Veterans Day as questions swirl about how his relationship with the Pentagon could change over the next 70 days.
Since Joe Biden was projected to win the presidency on Saturday, President Trump has installed his own loyalists at the top levels of the Defense Department, the move leading to rising anxiety at the Pentagon about what's still may come next after years of the military trying to stay out of Trump world.
ERIC EDELMAN, FORMER U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY AIDE: The president, you know, has consistently referred to "my generals" and treated the military as if it was an institution that was personally loyal to him and his political needs, as opposed to loyal to the Constitution.
STARR: The former director of national intelligence says it's all a security risk.
JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: When you have the turnover and the purging, and then the installation of a network of -- of essentially political commissars, this is a real distraction from the nerve center of our national offense.
STARR: Some Pentagon officials privately worry Trump could even be thinking about replacing top military officers. General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs, is confirmed by the Senate to a term that ends in 2023, which keeps him in office as President-elect Biden's military advisor.
Even before the election, Milley was adamant that the military would continue to stay out of politics.
GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS: Thank you, Mr. President.
STARR: As chairman, Milley serves at the pleasure of the president. But the two men have clashed.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not saying the military is in love with me. The soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren't, because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.
STARR: Milley was furious even at the suggestion of warmongering and called chief of staff Mark meadows.
[00:35:04]
And when Trump had Milley join the political theater of the June walk outside the White House during protests, the chairman publicly apologized.
MILLEY: I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved a domestic politics.
STARR: Clashes between the president and the Pentagon include: opposing Trump's threat to put active-duty forces on the streets against protesters last June; Trump forcing the retirement of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman after he testified before Congress in Trump's impeachment inquiry; multiple sources telling "The Atlantic" magazine President Trump called Americans who lost their lives in battle, quote, "losers and suckers"; and still unresolved, the Pentagon's determination to rename military bases now named after Confederate commanders.
(on camera): And another Trump loyalist has been installed at the Pentagon, retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor. He will work here as a senior advisor. He advocates rapidly pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, something the president wants to do. Something the president's military advisers say is a bad idea.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
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VAUSE: With us now is Juliette Kayyem, CNN security analyst and former assistant secretary for homeland security during the Obama administration.
And Juliette, thanks for being with us.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Of course. Thanks -- thank you for having me.
VAUSE: Yes. It's been a long time, so it's good to see you.
Former CIA director John Brennan, he's had many sleepless nights over the past few years fearing what President Trump might do. Here he is on what he is worried about or feeling over the next 70 days. Listen to this.
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JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I'm more worried now than I have been during the course of his administration, because he is prone to these types of actions.
And putting these people in at the senior ranks of the Department of Defense, people who are experienced, unqualified, and some of them are just partisan hacks, really sends a very disturbing signal to our troops, to the military, as well as to nations around the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So beyond the replacement of the four senior officials at the Pentagon, do you have similar concerns here? And in particular, what is your worst-case scenario over the next transition period of 70 days?
KAYYEM: It's definitely a heightened alert period. It's definitely disconcerting. But also, it's oddly predictable after four years of living with Donald Trump, trying to figure him out, living with the sort of increased threats under his administration. Did we actually think he would leave quietly?
And so in some ways, the predictability is actually something that can be managed. The concerns that I have about someone making a mistake or the president sort of, you know, saying something that gets another country angry, those will exist for the next 80 or 90 days during transition.
But our allies are not stupid. They see what's going on. And they're looking forward. Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, and other nations have -- have moved on. And that gives me a lot of reassurance that they know it's going to be madness for the next 70 or 80 days. These random sycophants are being put into these high-level positions. And I think they are going to ignore us, hopefully, until we -- until President -- until President-elect Biden is president.
VAUSE: Arizona's attorney general made it clear on Wednesday that Joe Biden had won that state. Listen to this.
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MARK BRNOVICH (R), ATTORNEY GENERAL OF ARIZONA: It does appear that Joe Biden will win Arizona. There are no facts that would lead anybody to believe that the election results will change.
What really happened, it came down to people split their ticket. People voted for Republicans down ballot, but they didn't vote for President Trump and Martha McSally. And so that -- that's the reality. Just because that happened, it doesn't mean it's fraud.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And he said that on FOX, and that's the good news. But fresh off Pompeo's remarks about preparing for a second Trump term, the secretary of state continued to play up Trump's bogus claims of an election in doubt. Again, here's Pompeo. Listen to this.
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MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We'll have a smooth transition. And we'll see what the people ultimately decide when all the votes have been cast. We have a process. The Constitution lays out how electors vote. It's a very detailed process laid out. We need to comply with all of that. And that I am very confident that we will have a good transition, that we will make sure that whoever is in office on noon on January 20 has all the tools readily available so that we don't skip a beat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: "Whoever is in office?" I mean, seriously? I mean, what's to be gained here by Pompeo knowingly lying about this election result and trying to mislead the audience?
KAYYEM: So, I mean, this, I think, is the long-term damage. That while I may be a little bit calm, short term, I do think that -- that the Republican Party is essentially anti-democratic. We do not talk about it enough, but they are talking about minority and military votes at this stage.
[00:40:03]
They are talking about the people that either fight for the nation, whose votes they don't want counted, or people of color and communities of color whose votes they do not want counted.
So we just should say that clearly. Pompeo hides behind saying detailed plan. The detailed plan is disenfranchise those communities. Pompeo is in a corner, as well. He looks at a future of which he has so, essentially, sucked up to the president, there is no future for him without the president.
VAUSE: Keeping in mind that this country already has a problem with right-wing militia --
KAYYEM: Yes.
VAUSE: -- looking to start some kind of civil war. Price Wallace, a Republican state lawmaker from Mississippi tweeted this: "We need to succeed [SIC] from the union and form our own country." And while he did not succeed in spelling "secede" correctly, he later apologized for what he said was an inappropriate remark.
But, you know, there is one person who could lower the temperature of all of this with just a few words, and that's Donald Trump.
KAYYEM: He won't, and I think, you know, in a weird way, it's so -- it's really calming. I don't know how -- how to describe it in the sense that this is over. And so you are just seeing the last desperate attempts of someone who never really managed this country very well, never really lived up to his rule, or his responsibilities as president. So I'm not expecting a change.
I do worry, as you know. Over the weekend I was, you know, on-air about on the domestic side, about concerns about right-wing militia. I think a lot of oxygen falls out of their support and capability to organize. Because they don't have someone in the White House, there will be random violence.
But I do think -- I think that, with the president out of the White House, animating these lies or amplifying these lies, and -- and the potential for violence, we -- that the temperature in this country will lower. Most Americans welcome it, and most of the world welcomes it. And -- and so we'll just hold on until January 20.
VAUSE: Yes. We wait for Joe Biden to -- I guess his success --
KAYYEM: Yes.
VAUSE: -- as president.
KAYYEM: Let it be calm. Let it be calm and boring. Right? That is --
VAUSE: That would be nice. We look forward to that. Juliette, thank you.
KAYYEM: Thank you.
VAUSE: Misleading and false information on social media was widely expected during the U.S. election. But what has turned out to be surprising is where most of it appeared.
CNN's Brian Fung has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN FUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're facing a wave of misinformation on social media, much of it circulating on Facebook and Twitter. In recent days, for example, Facebook has shut down a number of pages and groups that have promoted violence or peddled false claims, including a so-called "Stop the Steal" Facebook group, and several pages linked to former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon.
But it's YouTube that is emerging as a more troubling source of misinformation. Videos on the platform are going viral and spreading baseless claims such as that media outlets have reversed their calls for certain states, handing the election to Donald Trump.
Once such video posted this week has attracted more than 1.7 million views and suggests that the website RealClearPolitics altered its projection for Pennsylvania. But RealClearPolitics says that's not true and that it never declared a winner in Pennsylvania in the first place.
Even though that video contains false claims, YouTube has declined to take it down. YouTube told CNN its policies ban misinformation about how to vote but not about election results or about ballot counting. That's a huge loophole that's allowed unfounded claims of voter fraud to spread widely.
And because video is more complicated to analyze than text or images, the claims are harder to find. YouTube has said it tries to evaluate and elevate reliable information in search results and applies labels to misleading content. But the labels are small and show only as text, making it hard for them to compete with large, highly-engaging videos.
All of that has turned YouTube into a hotbed of misinformation since the election. Experts now worry the damage its doing to democracy could last for years and perhaps decades to come right.
Brian Fung, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: With that, we'll take a short break. You're watching CNN. We'll be back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:46:33]
VAUSE: Kim Jong-un once called him a fool with a low I.Q. That would be the now U.S. president-elect, Joe Biden. During the election campaign, Biden called the North Korean leader a thug. Oh, how different it was for the past 4 years. Donald Trump had only praise for the young dictator. They often wrote to one another. Trump called them "love letters."
Well, CNN's Paula Hancocks joins me now, live from Seoul, on how this relationship will actually change in what we can expect in the coming years.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we haven't actually had any reaction at this point from North Korea to the U.S. election. And to the fact that there is a President-elect Biden. And that really speaks volumes.
I don't think anybody would doubt that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, would have preferred a president term -- President Trump's second term than a President Biden first term.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS (voice-over): This is the legacy of President Trump's North Korean policy. Historic meetings with leader Kim Jong-un. Endless (ph) letters described by the U.S. president as love letters. A statement signed in Singapore. But little tangible progress on denuclearization.
CHRISTOPHER HILL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SOUTH KOREA: It's not really in a better place. It's not at all in a better place as a result of the sort of reality TV diplomacy we saw from President Trump.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: The thugs like in North Korea --
HANCOCKS: President-elect Biden is very unlikely to have been North Korea's preference. Until today, there's been little reaction from Pyongyang even after Biden called Kim Jong-un a thug in the last presidential debate.
North Korea has often welcomed a new U.S. administration with a provocation. Pyongyang launched a missile just three weeks after President Trump's inauguration in 2017.
But opinion is split on whether a test is planned for the early days of Biden's presidency.
JOHN DELURY, PROFESSOR, YONSEI UNIVERSITY: The premise of a test is, Kim Jong-un is desperate, you know, for attention, and -- and he needs it. And that's not what I'm seeing. You know, Kim Jong-un looks very focused on just getting through COVID. North Korea has had a really bad year economically.
BIDEN: I know from my discussions with --
HANCOCKS: President-elect Biden has not mentioned North Korea as a pressing national security priority as outgoing President Obama considered it four years ago.
Coronavirus, climate change, racial inequality dominating his attention.
He's also not necessarily expected to return to the policy of strategic patience: waiting for Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table, a feature of Obama's time in office.
JOSEPH YUN, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR NORTH KOREA POLICY: He has emphasized denuclearization, but at the same time he has emphasized what he called "principled diplomacy." So I would hope that the engagement door would be more open now.
HANCOCKS: Ambassador Yun also cautions against ignoring what Trump did achieve by talking to Kim Jong-un.
YUN: We need to say what we can, preserve what we can, and build from there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS: So some experts John, are disagreeing as to whether or not North Korea is going to launch a missile or something to welcome Biden.
There is one thing that they do agree on, the fact that President- elect Biden will have a far more conventional working-level diplomacy. That is the approachable go for. Whereas the days of these -- the top- down diplomacy, the personality-led theater does appear to be coming to an end, John.
VAUSE: Just very quickly while we have you. You know, that last point about making the most of Trump's diplomatic outreach, what did that actually achieve, though, apart from weakening the global sanctions regime, which allowed Pyongyang to accelerate its nuclear missile programs.
[00:50:06]
HANCOCKS: Well, even those experts I've spoken to who say that it achieved little, and there's really nothing tangible to show when it comes to denuclearization, point out that it was pretty much the only thing that the United States have not tried with North Korea.
It was the one strategy that was yet to see whether or not it could work. And certainly, when it came to Singapore, the first meeting between these two leaders, there was some hope that something could come of it. And certainly, when it came to Hanoi just a year later. Those hopes were dashed, and then the talks had stalled.
But there is a sense that this is simply the last thing that any administration had tried. And quite frankly, over at the previous decades, everything that U.S. administrations have tried with North Korea have ultimately failed, John.
VAUSE: Yes, I guess I'd be curious if another administration had tried, how it may have worked out, but we'll never know. Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks there in Seoul.
Well, a tradition like no other during a crisis like no other. How COVID-19 will impact the Masters tournament of golf this week. How one player is preparing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: The Masters tournament tees off in just a few hours with a much different look. Because of the pandemic, there will be no fans on the course. Players will face different conditions than they used to, seeing in April when the tournament is usually held.
CNN's Patrick Tom -- Patrick Snell spoke with Justin Thomas, one of the top-ranked players in the world, who's preparing for this Masters like no other.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JUSTIN THOMAS, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: I think different is an understatement. Not having fans in Augusta is going to be -- I can't put it into words how weird it's going to be not having those roars, not having that buzz in the air. You know, when you kind of cross over from the practice tee, over to the first tee, you're into the entire golf course and you can just kind of feel all the people there.
Not having that is going to be unfortunate. But there's only going to be one winner at the end of the week. Still have to play better than everybody else. And that's what I'm going to try to do, is prepare the best I can so I can be that one person.
But I know that there will be a lot of people watching from home. And hopefully, I'll be able to produce some more fireworks like that time we can do.
PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yes, how will the course, do you feel, specifically the conditions there at Augusta National, how will they be different? What are you expecting? And how might it favor you, your approach and your stance to it all?
THOMAS: I think it will play longer. I mean, being that time of year, it has a chance to be pretty chilly, be a little cold. So not hitting our tee shots quite as far as the past. Also, if we get weather- dependent, you know, we could get another, you know, firm, fast Augusta kind of like we saw when Zach Johnson won. This course can get pretty hot.
In terms of the conditions of the golf course, if Augusta gets the weather that they'd like, they're going to have the course as firm and fast or as soft and slow as they want. They might do a better job than anybody in the world, in terms of flipping a golf course overnight or getting the course exactly where they want. That's their baby. These are the Masters. And I think they kind of do with Augusta National what they want. And that's what's fun about that tournament.
SNELL: I do want to talk the big picture about the game itself. Bryson DeChambeau is really a much talked about golfer right now. What's your take on what he's been doing this year? He won the U.S. Open recently, of course.
THOMAS: Yes, it's unbelievable. I mean, I'm the first to admit that I didn't think it was going to work that well, and I didn't necessarily agree with what he was doing. But he's proving it. He just won a major at one of the hardest golf courses in the world.
[00:55:04]
And at the end of the day, as far as he gets, as strong as he's gotten, as much weight as he's put on, I mean, he putts the crap out of it, to be perfectly honest. I mean, he putts it really well, and that's why he won the U.S. Open. It's not because he could hit it 360 yards. He's a complete golfer. And I think that's starting to show, but it's definitely an advantage, how far he hits it.
And it's pretty cool. You know, he's getting some of us out here to try to find that extra gear. You know, at the end of the day, he's going to continue to work hard and try to get stronger. I know that's what I'm doing. I'm trying to get stronger. But most importantly, I'm trying to play injury-free.
SNELL: Brooks Koepka is a player, as well as a person. He's overcome many injuries this year, a challenging year for him. How resilient is he? I mean, we see him, he's never short of confidence. But how resilient is he, do you think? KOEPKA: Brooks is -- he's always been, you know, very independent.
He's kind of always been his own person. He's a very, very small, tight-knit group and crew. He's just -- he' strictly business when it comes down to it.
You know, when he's away from the game he's away. But when it comes down to getting ready for a tournament, he takes it very seriously. And -- and he might not show that he cares. Or that it matters to him. By I know deep down it does. I mean, he's one of my closest friends in college golf and in amateur golf. And, you know, he's a fighter, he's a competitor.
SNELL: You've already got a major title to your name. What's it going to take to win that coveted green jacket?
THOMAS: I need to beat everybody else. I know that, for sure.
But I really, really like the golf course. I -- I get so excited every time I play it. It's just such a fun place to play. And I -- I really feel confident that I know how to play it. It's just about execution. Get my mind, my golf game, my body, everything in shape and ready for that tournament, once we're teed up on Thursday. And you know, it's going to be here before I know it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: I'm John Vause. Stay with us. I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM after a short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Hello. Welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm John Vause.
And coming up, you know, on CNN NEWSROOM. As more votes are counted, Joe Biden extends his winning lead, both nationally and in key states, although those close to Donald Trump say it's unlikely he'll ever concede.
As U.S. heads towards COVID hell, a coronavirus advisor to President- elect Biden.
