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Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) is Interviewed about the Election; Georgia Heads to Recount; Masks that Keep you Safe; Jobless Benefits for Last Week; Helicopter Crash in Egypt; Emmanuel Acho is Interviewed about Race in America. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 12, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): And make a case. And they have every right to do that. And that looks like what they're trying to do.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: As far as you can see, how would you access the merits of their case?

DEWINE: I don't know. Look, I'm worried about this virus. I'm not -- I'm not looking at what the merits of the case are. It would appear that Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States.

But, look, we just all need to take a deep breath. There's a process for all of this. You need to follow the process. And we need to move this country forward. I think the most important thing is that we come together as a country.

You know, we have a common enemy and it's not Republicans and it's not Democrats. Our common enemy is this virus. This is a once in 100 year tragedy. And, you know, we've got to pull all of us together. And that's what I'm trying to do in Ohio is pull Democrats, Republicans, independents, everybody together. Let's go fight this virus. Let's don't fight each other.

BERMAN: And you've done that from the beginning, Governor Mike DeWine, and I think people on both sides of the aisle acknowledge that this battle you're fighting in Ohio publicly going out there and leveling with the people in your state. So we respect and honor the work that you've done.

Thanks for being with us this morning.

DEWINE: Good to be with you. Thank you very much.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, John, in Georgia, millions of ballots in the presidential race are going to be counted, recounted, by hand. President-elect Joe Biden is leading President Trump in that state by 14,000 votes.

Now, of course, focus shifts to the Senate races, which are headed for runoffs with the balance of power in the Senate on the line.

CNN's Kyung Lah is live in Atlanta with more. What's happening there this morning?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Alisyn.

That hand count that you're talking about could begin here in the state of Georgia as soon as today. And this is happening against this backdrop as the focus of the political world now shifts to the Georgia Senate runoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): It's all on the line. All eyes in this country are on Georgia. We are going to save the country.

LAH (voice over): Control of the U.S. Senate comes down to two Senate runoffs in Georgia, two incumbent Republican senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, are rallying their base, in part by attacking a member of their own party, the Republican secretary of state, in charge of the election. The senators are calling on Brad Raffensperger to resign, questioning the legitimacy of the results, without offering any specific evidence to support their claims.

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: I have my job to do and I'll follow it faithfully. I think that integrity still matters.

LAH: Raffensperger fired back, saying he will not resign, but today announced a hand recount of the nearly 5 million ballots in the presidential race in the state, where Joe Biden currently leads by more than 14,000 votes.

RAFFENSPERGER: Obviously this is a very close race and people that were on one side of the aisle are -- don't like the results. And I get that. I'm a Republican. A conservative Republican. But the results will be the results.

LAH: Georgia's leading paper condemned the senators' efforts to muddy the state's election results, slamming them as baseless accusations, reckless and a risky sideshow.

RAFAEL WARNOCK (D), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: Are you ready to flip red to blue.

LAH: Senator Loeffler's Democratic challenger, Reverend Rafael Warnock, jumped on the editorial saying Loeffler intentionally seeks to erode trust in our democracy for her own political benefit.

JON OSSOFF (D), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: Thank you all.

LAH: And Senator Perdue's opponent, Democrat Jon Ossoff, also seized on the Republican infighting, calling it a distraction.

OSSOFF: They're fighting amongst themselves over the election results, but the people have spoken.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): This is literally, you know, the showdown of all showdowns in terms of politics.

LAH: Back at the crowded indoor Republican rally, Florida Senator Marco Rubio traveled in to stump for his Georgia colleagues, bolstering their message of distrust.

RUBIO: I don't think politicians, I don't think the media enjoy the credibility any longer to tell people what to believe about these things.

LAH: Turned to the crowd, many not wearing masks. And despite no evidence of widespread voting fraud, supporters say they don't trust the system worked.

KEVIN MULDOWNEY, GEORGIA REPUBLICAN VOTER: I think there's something to it. They've got a -- this is the tip of the iceberg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: Now, shortly after we did the interview with that gentleman you just saw, the room became very full. People were standing shoulder to shoulder. This is indoors, no ventilation that we could feel, no windows and a very crowded place with a lot of people who were not wearing masks. So, for the safety of our crew, we put the live camera up, rolling in the back, so we could watch what was happening, and we left.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Good thinking, Kyung. Good thinking. Stay safe. And we will check back in with you.

Wall Street likes Joe Biden's victory, but the unemployment crisis shows no sign of letting up. A new snapshot of the economy, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:39:16]

CAMEROTA: I know that every single day it seems we reach a new and previously unthinkable level in the coronavirus crisis. And we are all searching for ways to stay safe.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is back now with some tips in "Here's to Your Health."

Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, we can't talk about masks enough, Alisyn, because it is still one of our best tools to help fight this pandemic. I just quickly want to show you the types of masks that we're talking about. You want to think about the number of layers, the fabric and think about the fit when you think about masks.

So this is a -- like my daughter's gator, a single layer like this may not actually be enough. It's kind of not think enough and it's just a single layer.

[08:40:00]

A daughter -- another daughter made this mask for me, three layers, and a pretty good fit. So these types of masks actually do quite a bit to protect people around you. And as we've learned from the CDC recently, to help protect you as well.

Surgical masks are going to be better. This type of material. This is the kind with the ear loops. This does a really good job. If you can get your hands on surgical masks, they're much more widely available now. This is probably going to be one of your best bets going into the next couple of months.

In the hospital we actually wear it with ties so we can tie it more snugly and get that fit around your nose and around our mouth. And make sure -- I see too many people wearing their masks like this. You really have to get it over your nose. Make sure it stays over your nose. We're talking about virus from the nose and the mouth.

Now, a type of mask that we wear in the hospital in high-risk environments if we think we're going to be taking care of COVID patients, N-95 mask. This is the gold standard. This has great fit. It's a great material. But it also is electrostatically charged. So it actually can help capture the virus. Think about like a blanket in the dryer capturing all the socks. That's kind of what this N-95 mask does as well. Again, we wear it in high-risk situations. One could argue that many places in the country, just going out in public now could be considered a high-risk situation. So these N-95 masks may be something that may become more widely recommended depending on what's happening.

I'll just point out, John, this is one that my wife got me. I'm not sure what to make of it. She tells me I should wear this quite a bit. Maybe I talk too much, I don't know.

BERMAN: I -- you know, 18 jokes just went through my head and none of them will let me keep my job.

So, Sanjay, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

GUPTA: You got it.

BERMAN: Breaking moments ago, first time unemployment claims are still stubbornly high as the jobs crisis drags on.

CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now with those numbers.

Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It means zip it, John Berman, just zip it. Right now. Don't let anything bad happen to you.

Look, 709,000 net new job losses in the most recent week. This is the lowest number since the crisis began. But this is still bigger than anything we have ever seen pre-pandemic. So these are 709,000 people, families, who lost a job. When you add in the pandemic unemployment insurance, it's almost a million people in the most recent week.

This has been the drum beat, 34 weeks of this. I'm glad that line is kind of leveling off there, but you really want to see these numbers coming down.

When you look at continuing claims, people who have been on jobless benefits for a couple of weeks, that fell, but it might have fallen for the wrong reason. Most states only give 26 weeks of state benefits. That kicks people off on to the federal programs that will also be winding up here very soon.

All together you have 21.1 million people getting some sort of jobless benefit in this country. John, this is still a jobs crisis when you have 21 million people on jobless benefits. We know that we lost more than 22 million jobs when the crash happened in the economy, the big shut downs. We know about 12 million have come back. And now is really a critical time to get assistance to people so they can weather this COVID storm into next year when we hope a vaccine will be able to help people.

BERMAN: Yes, this thing is not over.

ROMANS: It's not over.

BERMAN: All right, Christine Romans, thanks so much.

We do have breaking news.

A helicopter with Americans on board has crashed in Egypt. We have the breaking details from the Pentagon, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:47:32]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: All right, this is the breaking news.

A helicopter on a peacekeeping mission has crashed in the desert of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. CNN is told U.S. personnel are involved.

So let's get right to CNN's Barbara Starr, live at the Pentagon.

Barbara, what have you learned?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, John.

At this hour, the Pentagon trying to determine exactly what has occurred here. And that's why they're being very specific with this language of these very first reports, U.S. personnel involved. They are trying to get a firm understanding of what exactly may have occurred, whether any U.S. personnel have indeed been injured or killed. They are not able to confirm that to the news media at the moment.

U.S. -- what are U.S. personnel doing in Sinai? Well, this dates back to the 1979 peace accord between Egypt and Israel, a multi-national observer force was established and the U.S. has been part of that force in Sinai ever since then.

Now, back in 2016, U.S. military personnel moved deeper into southern Sinai because of militant activity that they had been on the receiving end, rocket attacks, that kind of thing, from their original positions near the Egyptian/Israeli border. So they moved south back in 2016 and they started using remote technology, cameras, that sort of thing so they didn't have to be out on the road so much when militant activity was at its peak.

Now, this morning, we do not know how this helicopter went down, of course. We are not being told that just yet. So we don't know, I want to emphasize, whether it was an accident or some kind of deliberate act by some adversary in Sinai. Militants have been active there over the years, but we just don't know very much yet about what has happened.

We are expecting a statement, we're told, shortly from the multi- national observer force, from the commanders, the head of the force, and we expect that in the coming minutes and hours we will get more information about what's exactly transpired.

John, if this is a mass casualty incident, if you will, if multiple U.S. personnel, civilian or military, have been killed or injured, this will be something that should and would be brought immediately to President Trump's attention.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, and a tragedy.

Listen, we'll let you get back to reporting. Barbara Starr, please keep us posted as to what you learned.

STARR: Will do.

[08:50:00]

CAMEROTA: OK, John, after George Floyd was killed in May, NFL star Emmanuel Acho created a web series to start a dialogue about racism for white and black Americans. Now he has written a new book based on that series called "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man." In it he tackles the tough issues of voter suppression, white privilege and systemic racism.

And Emmanuel Acho joins me now.

Great to see you again.

EMMANUEL ACHO, FORMER NFL LINEBACKER AND AUTHOR, "UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS WITH A BLACK MAN": Alisyn, so good to be with you. CAMEROTA: When you and I last spoke it was June and you had just

started your series and it was getting all sorts of buzz and going viral. And so why -- why a book? I mean what do you -- what different impact do you think a book has than a series like that?

ACHO: Yes, Alisyn, when I started this it was to change hearts, to bridge reconciliation in our world which so desperately needs it. But I realized that the spoken word has sizzle. It will get clicks, Alisyn, it will get shares but the written word, it has substance. And I wanted to hand people a figurative baton to run a relay race towards reconciliation.

It's not just about us. If we truly want to cure racism in our head, if we truly want to cure racism in our hearts, it's also about the next generation. And so I wanted to give people a book, something that they could touch, that they could grab, so I could elaborate on these concepts. So many of my white brothers and sisters (INAUDIBLE) about race. They have questions about black culture that they don't understand because they've never been immersed in it. So I said consider me a friend to help educate and grow empathy.

CAMEROTA: I totally understand that, the power of the written word and the power of books. I want to read a little portion of it. And this one, I think, is so important. I mean this is happening in my house, but I don't know if it's -- I don't know if it's manifesting out in the real world. And so here's what you say. The first way to end racism is for my white counterparts to get out of denial, to understand that, wait a second, maybe you've been lying to yourself about the existence of racism this whole time. You need a counter voice in your head when you notice your internal monologue ushering you towards making a biased decision or judgment against black people. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has biases. It's the job of empathetic and considerate people not to let them dictate actions that harm others.

You know, I mean, my kids and I are having these conversations at our dinner table, but I don't know if you're seeing that in the real world.

Are you seeing some sort of transition of white people think out there?

ACHO: I absolutely am. See, Alisyn, at first there were a lot of great intentions. So many white people who were saying, OK, Emmanuel, I get it now, I want to be a part of the solution not the problem. But, Alisyn, intention without direction is meaningless. And so I wrote the book to give some people more direction. It's not just that you want to help, you have to know how to help. You also need to know what it is that you're helping. I get that people now want to get into the game, but you have to understand the rules of engagement and you have to understand the game in which you are playing.

When I talked about denial, I say denial, spelled d-e-n-i-a-l, don't even know I am lying. You see you can't fix a problem that you do not know exists. Now that people know the problem exists, I'm trying to give people a tool to help them fix the longest lasting plague of a mental virus in America.

CAMEROTA: I want to play for you something that also got a lot of attention, and that's our own Van Jones, you know, the day that it was declared that Joe Biden would be the president-elect and his immediate response.

Let's play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN JONES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: If you're Muslim in this country, you don't have to worry if the president doesn't want you here. If you're an immigrant, you don't have to worry if the president's going to be happy to have baby's snatched away or send dreamers back for no reason. This is vindication for a lot of people who have really suffered, you know, the -- I can't breathe, you know, that wasn't just George Floyd, that was a lot of people that felt they couldn't breathe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Could you relate to that moment, Emmanuel?

ACHO: Yes, I could. You know, even hearing Van there, it kind of makes my heart break because I just want people to know that so many of these emotions are real. So many of these emotions felt by black and brown men and women and others, they're real. As a TV person myself, I understand, if I am on camera that emotional, there is an overflow of my heart that is now causing my mouth to speak.

And so I understand where Van is coming from, where Van Jones is coming from in regards to, I think we all just want peace, we all just want unity, we all just want love and we want to go back to being the United States of America and the operative word there is "united."

[08:55:07]

CAMEROTA: I know that, you know, part of the point of your series and the book and everything is that no topic is taboo, or you're trying to shine sunlight, you know, on all of these taboo topics.

And so has there been a question that has been posed to you or that has come up on -- during the series that has shocked you or surprised you?

ACHO: The most shocking question I got, it was a -- it was a question that said, Emmanuel, slavery was longer ago and less lethal than the Holocaust, but black people haven't been able to recover where Jewish people have been able to recover. How is that?

And I had to pause for a second because that question was incredibly hurtful, incredibly ignorant and also incredibly rude. But I say that, Alisyn, nothing great can come until we get uncomfortable. And so I paused and I delivered my answer. I think that we have to remember, in our world, in our society, until we get uncomfortable, we can't grow. When you think about a woman delivering a beautiful child into this

world, she gets uncomfortable for a long period of time. Alisyn, I played in the National Football League. If you ever want to get to a Super Bowl, you must first go through the discomfort of a training camp. If we want to grow towards reconciliation, we've got to get uncomfortable and having some uncomfortable conversations.

CAMEROTA: I will trade you your training camp for delivery, for child delivery and we'll -- and then we'll really understand each other.

ACHO: No thank you.

CAMEROTA: The book again is "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man."

Emmanuel Acho, always great to talk to you. Thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.

ACHO: The pleasure's mine.

CAMEROTA: CNN's coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:00]