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New Day

CNN Projects Biden Wins Arizona, Flipping GOP Stronghold; U.S. Sets New Records for New Cases and Hospitalizations. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 13, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is New Day.

And breaking overnight, CNN projects that Joe Biden will win the state of Arizona, flipping a longtime Republican stronghold. So, in Arizona, Biden leads by 11,000 votes. This is outside the margin for a recount in that state. So this is it, which is significant. President-elect Joe Biden now leads by 5.3 million in the popular vote.

One note that is notable, Trump administration officials now say that this election was notable for how smooth it was and how little went wrong, a remarkable statement overnight from an office inside the Department of Homeland Security. Quote, the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised. That's amazing.

The head of that federal office that put out that finding is reportedly now telling people he expects to be fired.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: Meanwhile, this morning, President Trump is MIA. We assume he's in there, hunkered down, inside the White House, figuring out how to accept that he's lost. It's been more than a week since we have heard from him publicly.

If you read his Twitter feed, you will see that he's more focused on his own fate than the families being destroyed by the coronavirus pandemic. More than 150,000 new cases reported overnight. That shatters previous records.

The number of people waking up in the hospital this morning also breaks records. In Utah, there is not one available ICU bed in the entire state. A key model, the one that is used by the White House, projects 2,200 deaths a day by mid-January. That's just a number that is easy to turn away from and impossible to actually imagine. But this morning, that means that more than 440,000 Americans would be killed by March.

And the White House is blocking the Biden transition and, including refusing to coordinate on the pandemic. In other words, they won't even help the Biden administration save lives.

Let's begin with CNN's Kristen Holmes. She's live for us in Washington.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Well, that's right. So, until the Trump administration actually signs off on this election, which is that ascertainment we've been talking about, the Biden team can't have any interaction with agencies across the government. Meaning, when we're talking about the coronavirus pandemic, they cannot talk to HHS or the CDC, or the FDA. And by not having those conversations, it means they're not getting access to critical data that would help them be prepared on day one.

And I spoke to several medical experts who say it's not just about being prepared. A big concern that they have is about this vaccine distribution plan. We know that the Biden administration will take over the vaccine distribution from the Trump administration. Experts in this field say they need to be working in tandem, constantly, in order to make sure this doesn't affect millions or hundreds of millions of people's lives. And right now, the Biden team has no access to any of that.

Now, it is important to note that they are working around these road blocks put in place by the Trump administration. We know that Biden has named a coronavirus task force, they're backchanneling with governors, they're talking to the medical community. They are sitting down with everyone they can. But, again, still, no access to that critical data.

Now, I want you to take a listen to Ron Klain, the chief of staff to Joe Biden, on what he said about the outreach that the transition team is doing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON KLAIN, CHIEF OF STAFF TO PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN: Joe Biden has spoken to Republicans, he's spoken to some Republican senators, some Republican governors. I'm not going to go into the names. He has not spoken though to Senator McConnell.

Look, I think Senator McConnell still seems to be insisting somehow that President Trump won the election. He didn't. There will be a time and a place for Joe Biden and Senator McConnell to talk. They obviously need no introduction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, do we think that this is working with this reach out to Republican senators? Obviously, we cannot say right now because none of those Republican senators are coming forward.

But we will note that we have started to see some of these high- profile Republicans pushing, at least for Biden to get that presidential daily briefing. So, interesting to see if any of that is related.

BERMAN: Yes. It does seem like some Republicans are losing steam on sticking up for the president quite as much as they have been. Kristen Holmes in Washington, thanks very much. Joining us now is CNN's Senior Political Reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson and CNN White House Correspondent, Kaitlan Collins.

Kaitlan, we did get the news overnight that Joe Biden has won the state of Arizona with its 11 electoral votes.

[07:05:00]

This is significant. It adds to Joe Biden's total. He's at 290. That's without Georgia, which he's leading in by 14,000. Arizona is outside the realm for a recount, so this is it. The secretary of state will certify this election, Joe Biden will get those electoral votes.

And it's an election notably now, Kaitlan, that an office within the Department of Homeland Security, the Trump administration, is now saying this was one of the smoothest elections in history, this coming from the cyber security and infrastructure security agency, saying that the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history, no evidence of any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised. That is a heck of a statement to come from the Trump administration, given what's being said by the people holed up in that building behind you.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it certainly is. And the thing about that statement is it should only be remarkable in a way that it is a good thing, that there was -- this was the safest election in American history, that they do not believed that votes were changed or manipulated or anything of that manipulator. And, of course, that should be a good thing given all the concerns about the voting this year, given the pandemic and how differently people were voting.

But instead, John, the people I've spoken with inside the White House. The sense is kind of what is the president's response to this going to be, given that these are the officials who work in his administration, whose job it is to literally look into this kind of stuff, and now they have and this, of course, comes on the day, yesterday, where the president was alleging that voting systems were used in certain states that changed people's votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.

And they are flatly saying, no votes were changed. There is no evidence of widespread fraud. And, basically, those words aren't in there, but they're saying that President Trump is wrong. And this is a rebuke of what the president has been alleging for the last several days. So, of course, we've known there's no evidence of fraud. We've been saying that time and time again. And the Trump team has had a hard time backing up their claims.

But with this overnight and Joe Biden winning Arizona, it really just seals the presidency for him, even though we already knew it. But the question is, does this change the president's calculus? And what I've been told by sources is no, that the president is not going to come out today, acknowledge that he lost this election and start to move on with a typical transition, as Kristen was just talking about there. Instead, I am told, we can see the president drag this out for potentially another month. Now, of course, it's Donald Trump, he changes his mind on a whim at times. But right now, the current thinking is that the president is not going to change his tactics, basically denying reality and what happened here in the outcome of this election.

CAMEROTA: And, Kaitlan, I'm just curious, what's the endgame? What is President Trump waiting for?

COLLINS: So, you hear people say that it's Republicans humoring the president, letting him, you know, come to terms with reality here, but I also think there are other reasons behind it, including fundraising, because the Trump campaign and the president now has this new PAC where he's going to be raising money. They know that they can get a lot of money out of that.

But, of course, the danger in this is that it's not just humoring the president. He's actually misleading millions of people, his own supporters who believe what the president says. And when he alleges that there's fraud, they believe that. So it's not this sense of just letting the president come to terms with it on his own. He's actually misleading people but he's also fundraising while he's doing it.

BERMAN: Well, the danger in it also is people are dying. I mean, it's been eight days since we've heard the president say anything out loud, not a single word out loud for eight days. And in the time since we last heard the president's voice, 7,000 Americans have died from coronavirus. There's been nearly 920,000 new cases reported, Nia.

And as Alisyn said, I think, rather eloquently, if you're not going to do anything about it, at least help the incoming Biden administration. At least help the president-elect, and there's no coordination.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: You know, this is a president who claims that the election was stolen, who suggests that he actually wants to be president again for another four years. But while he is president, he is ignoring the day-to-day duties of being president, and, primarily, what to do about this pandemic that, again, he has ignored by and large over the last many months.

So it's not surprising in many ways, that over these last --these next 70 days that he has, he is stewing, he is thinking about himself, he isn't thinking about the day-to-day problems that Americans are facing from this horrible, horrible health pandemic and economic pandemic.

And the thing is, the experts have been predicting all of this for months and months and months, that this would be a horrible, horrible period for Americans. The fall and the winter, people have to go indoors, there's also flu season. And all of this is bearing out and all the president can do is sit around, watch T.V., invent conspiracy theories, and tweet about those conspiracy theories.

He's exhibiting the behavior that made 77 million Americans think that he wasn't up to this job, that they chose somebody else in Vice President Biden.

[07:10:01] And, thankfully, you have in Vice President Biden, somebody who is paying attention to this. I think that's what a lot of Americans chose him to do.

CAMEROTA: Yes, except he can't do anything. He's hands are tied. He's not yet president. And as John and I have been talking about, he's not even getting the information and the coordination and the equipment and everything that he needs to try to do something.

And, Kaitlan, it's just -- it's a tragedy. I mean, it's such a crime that we're in this death grip. We're in the death grip of coronavirus and President Trump -- I mean, if you look at his Twitter feed, this is not what he -- he has tweeted so much more in the past week about Fox T.V. and his own future than about coronavirus.

Kaitlan, I know that you have reporting on this. The president relies on his children --

BERMAN: The royal family.

CAMEROTA: -- for advice, as much as he listens to anyone. What is that brain trust telling him to do?

COLLINS: It's been pretty split on really how the president should approach this. But to be clear, we should make clear to viewers, no one is going to the president and bluntly saying, you have to concede, it's time to do this gracefully. Instead, it's a very delicate way that they approach the president.

And so you've got the Jared Kushner and the Ivanka Trump types who, of course, are considering their own reputations and what they're going to do going forward. And they seem to be appealing to the president in a way that's more calculated and a calibrated response of how they should respond to this.

But then you've got other people like the Donald Trump Juniors and the Eric Trumps who are feeding the president's sense that this was an election that was stolen from him, that he should hold rallies and go out there and continue to amplify this message, even though we're seeing his own officials rebuke him.

So we do know it's a split. We know that Melania Trump has also approached the president about accepting this loss, which we have reporting, he has done that privately. He's just not saying so publicly. And I think that's incredibly notable.

And as far as the pandemic and how the president is handling that throughout this transition, if you do look at his Twitter feed and if you do talk to people who are talking to the president, that's not something that he's bringing up. And if he does bring it up, it's in the sense that he's angry with the FDA commissioner, Steven Hahn, he's angry with Pfizer for releasing that preliminary vaccine data the week after the election, implying that there is some conspiracy here to thwart him, saying that the vaccine has now been unveiled, even though, of course, it was just data, there's no vaccine yet still. And this is exactly what medical experts predicted with this timeline. But also I think it says a lot that we have not heard from the president in over a week. I've been covering Donald Trump since he was inaugurated. I cannot remember a stretch of time where he went this long without speaking to us. Even when he had coronavirus, he was taping videos and posting them to his Twitter. And we have seen the president only twice on his golf course over the weekend, and then on Veterans Day, I went with him to Arlington National Cemetery. Other than that, we have not heard from the president directly. And that's incredibly striking, because he's been staying in the Oval Office until later in the evening, much later than he normally does.

And so it's interesting to see how his habits are changing as he is processing this loss and deciding how he's going to respond to it.

BERMAN: Why is he afraid to speak in public over the last eight days? It's been eight days since we've heard his voice. This is, I think, unprecedented.

Kaitlan, Nia, thank you very much.

Obviously, the president, as Kaitlan was saying, doesn't want to talk about the pandemic, the 920,000 people who have been affected since he's been silent, the 7,000 people who have died. The Republican governor of Ohio says the country is on fire, it's like nothing we've ever seen.

We're going to talk to a member of the president-elect's advisory board, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

CAMEROTA: You already know that the coronavirus pandemic is ravaging America, but this morning, it's just getting worse. There's another record that's been broken for new cases. It's surpassing 150,000 for the first time, and this morning, a record 67,000 people are hospitalized with coronavirus.

Joining us now, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, also with us, Dr. Celine Gounder, she's an infectious disease specialist and a member of President-elect Biden's coronavirus advisory board, and that's why, Dr. Gounder, I want to start with you.

I mean, we just keep hearing that the Trump administration has gone silent on this. I mean, they weren't that helpful when they were talking, let's be honest, but they're not dealing with it now, and that they are impeding President-elect Biden's efforts to move forward. What can you do in the next 68 days.

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, I think in the interim, every single American citizen needs to step up and take personal responsibility, do their part in fighting this pandemic. And that includes wearing a mask, social distancing, trying to stay outdoors more than indoors when you're around other people, staying away from crowds, get tested frequently and, finally, if a contact tracer calls you up, please cooperate with them. Because what they're trying to do is actually protect you, your family, and your community and they really need that information to understand where the virus is spreading and where it's heading next.

BERMAN: Sanjay, this new IHME model, which predicts that by mid- January, we could have 2,200 deaths a day. And if by March 1st, basically, 440,000 total deaths. That's a shocking number. But what do we need to know about this number, Sanjay?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's very interesting. I talked to Chris Murray last night about this. And when you look at this model specifically and a little bit more closely, it does rely on the idea that about two-thirds of the states will also impose some sort of mandate again with regard to stay-at-home orders and things like that.

So, you know, I mean, we've talked about this a lot, and, obviously, there's a lot of resistance to that. But what Chris Murray and these modelers, they sort of make the point now, historically now, and when I say, historically, I mean, historically throughout this year, we don't have any history throughout 2020. With this particular pandemic, they say when death rates get to about 8 per million per day, 8 per million per day, that's typically when you start to see mandates go back in.

[07:20:07]

Now, that's nationally, if you do the math on that, that's 2,800 people dying per day. He says, at that point, that's typically when mandates start to go back in. So who knows if that will happen or not, but that's sort of the point that he was making. We're starting to find the red lines for various states. And that wasn't just the United States, that was Europe, as well.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Gounder, what I hear you saying is we're on our own. We're on our own for the next 68 days, as this tragedy grips -- we're in the death grip of a pandemic. And, look, I'm all for personal responsibility as well. I hear you. That's what it's going to take. But we do rely on leaders for a reason. We do elect leaders for a reason. It turns out, what they say does actually have an effect on us. And it would help if we had some sort of guidance right now.

I mean, I see people trying to do the right thing, but at the moment, you know, there's so many geographical differences, there's so many different positivity rates in different states. Is there any sort of -- it would be great with there was one rule or guiding principle that everybody could use, because everybody is reluctant to just go in their houses and stay there for the next three months.

GOUNDER: Well, I do think we need to tailor our response to the local geography. In New York City, for example, over the last couple of months, it's been a very zip code-targeted approach, where we've seen surges in cases. We have beefed up testing, we've beefed up contact tracing. And during that couple-month period where we saw that surge, we were able to control it with those targeted approaches. It really depends on, do you have a localized increase in cases or is it a widespread increase. Unfortunately, right now, we're starting to enter this period where it is truly widespread throughout the country. And so you're going to have more generalized recommendations.

But as to going it alone, you know, yes, the CDC has unfortunately been sidelined during this administration. There have been issues in terms of the transition and lack of cooperation. However, we are, the Biden/Harris team has very seasoned people, people who have been in federal government in the case of President-elect Biden over 40 years. His chief of staff, Ron Klain, has served under two vice presidents, was the White House Ebola czar. So we have very seasoned, experienced people who are at the helm of this.

And we will be working with state leaders, government officials, public health leaders throughout the country and communicating with them what we're thinking, what we're planning, so that they can sort of get a head start on what they're going to do in the coming months.

BERMAN: And I don't think it's very confusing where we are in different parts of the country right now. It's getting worse everywhere, I think, is the clear message that we need to be sending people and just the data bears out. So it's not as if there's some island of, oh, there's no coronavirus here anymore. The trend in this wave is it's getting worse everywhere, and that's what makes it distinct.

And, Dr. Gounder, you were involved in a discussion inside the advisory panel with different people having different opinions or at least throwing out different ideas. And I know Michael Osterholm, who we had on yesterday, has been suggesting that at least we should consider a four to six-week stay-at-home order of some kind. And you have said, I don't know that that's a great idea.

Dr. Vivek Murthy just moments ago, and, Sanjay, I want you to weigh in here, says, quote -- and he is one of the leaders of this advisory panel, former surgeon general, we know him well. He says, we should think of this as a series of restrictions that we dial up or down, we're not in a place that we're saying, shut the whole country down.

Dr. Gounder is nodding in approval. Dr. Gupta, your reaction.

GUPTA: Well, this is what I would say, is that these circuit breaker sort of shutdowns, we know, would work. But the question I think you're asking is, are they necessary? It's a risk/reward sort of proposition. And I think the idea that Dr. Osterholm was sort of floating was these shutdowns with financial remuneration to make sure that you can help take care of these businesses and things like that. It's very, very aggressive.

I think when I was talking to Chris Murray last night, I think the thing that really struck me was this idea that it's totally our decision, right? We have the decision. We'll just decide to do it or not do it. The virus is really ultimately going to decide. And I think as Celine has said, and, by the way, I'm delighted Celine is on the task force, I feel better just sort of listening to her, because it's been dark, Celine, I'll tell you. But the idea that, ultimately, the virus will force the decision in some of these places, I think, is true. I mean, I don't like to be the one to say that either. Nobody likes to be the one to give bad news, but it may have to happen in certain places.

[07:25:03]

If I can, though, when they talk about the middle ground, it's not just closed or open. There is middle ground. There was this great paper that came out in Nature last week, I just want to show this really quickly, that basically said that if you look at a few different institutions within cities, restaurants, gyms, cafes, hotels, what they're finding when they look at the viral dynamics that if you just cap maximum occupancy at 20 percent in these places, you could bring viral trajectory down by 80 percent.

So it's not a shutdown, it's more that we've learned. These are the places that are the highest risk places. We're not even saying, shut those down. We're saying when they get to maximum occupancy, that's a problem. So, just prevent that maximum occupancy and you can start to make a big difference.

I bring it up, because there's solutions beyond the draconian one way or the do nothing the other way.

CAMEROTA: That is really interesting to hear. And isn't it interesting also, John, that Dr. Celine Gounder is Dr. Sanjay Gupta's Sanjay Gupta. She makes him feel better.

BERMAN: We all need a Sanjay.

CAMEROTA: I know. He has one now. It's so great. Doctors, thank you very much.

Okay, so there are these two Senate runoffs in Georgia and, of course, they could tip the balance of Washington. The races are getting ugly. We will speak with the Democratic challenger, Raphael Warnock, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]