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New Day Saturday

U.S. Shatters Daily Record With Over 184,000 New Cases Reported Friday; Trump In Denial Over Election Defeat While Former Chief Of Staff John Kelly Warns That Delaying The Transition Could Be Catastrophic; Biden Wins 305 Electoral Votes; Stocks Soar As Millions Of Americans Struggle; Pfizer And Moderna Set To Seek Emergency Use Authorization For COVID Vaccine Within Weeks. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired November 14, 2020 - 06:00   ET

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


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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The country reported more new coronavirus infections than any other day ever.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be. I guess time will tell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only things that time will tell is how long it takes us to turn around the misanthropic mismanagement of this pandemic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The current administration has not been cooperating with the transition team by sharing information, sharing plans and this is essentially a national security threat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not just stupid and petty. It is dangerous internally and externally for the United States. That is not America first.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. Kamala Harris will be the next vice president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When will you accept you lost the election, sir?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. We're looking across the city of New York. Beautiful at the start of the 6 o'clock hour here on the East Coast and we begin this morning with the horrible news about the coronavirus pandemic. Yesterday, there were more than 184,000 new cases of coronavirus in the U.S.. That's the most recorded in a single day here ever. CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And on top of that hospitalizations are spiking. Yesterday, more than 68,000 people were treated for the virus and President Trump says his administration will not enforce a lockdown to slow the spread.

BLACKWELL: And we're fewer than 10 weeks out from Inauguration Day, but the formal transition to a Biden administration has not started and the President still has not admitted that he lost the election.

PAUL: The former white house chief of staff, John Kelly, meanwhile is slamming the Trump administration, calling the delay, quote, "A national security and health crisis." Jason Carroll is following the Biden transition in Delaware this morning. Sarah Westwood is at the White House for us.

BLACKWELL: Let's start there. Sarah, good morning to you. President Trump addressed the pandemic yesterday, but he still has not acknowledged that he lost.

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Good morning, Victor and Christi. And yes, there's still no concession in sight for President Trump who has now more a week out from when the networks projected that Biden had secured enough electoral votes to become the president.

Trump still has not acknowledged his loss in this race and he's been on Twitter continuing to peddle these baseless claims that the election was somehow stolen from him and we know his campaign is still pursuing legal challenges in states that are virtually certain to fail in overturning the outcome of this election.

Now, Trump has spent this past week since the race was called for Biden largely behind closed doors here at the White House, but he emerged for a rare public appearance yesterday in the Rose Garden to tout progress made in the development of a COVID vaccine and from the President there in the Rose Garden yesterday we did hear a brief shift in tone, what seemed like an acknowledgment that perhaps he has been denied a second term. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This administration will not be going to a lockdown. Hopefully whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration IT will be. I guess time will tell, but I can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: Now, CNN has reported that this week, President Trump has, at times, sounded dejected about the prospect of him losing and that he's waffled between a desire to keep fighting and a recognition that he has lost the election and is going to have to publicly acknowledge that at some time. As I mentioned, Victor and Christi, he is still pursuing litigation in key states ahead of certification of the results there.

PAUL: Yes. Sarah, I want to ask you about the former white house chief of staff, John Kelly. We know he criticized his former boss yesterday. Talk us through what he said and has there been any response from the White House?

WESTWOOD: Yes, Christi. This was a really pointed warning from the president's former Chief of Staff. John Kelly has not necessarily shied away from criticizing the president in the past, but he's one of few Republicans now speaking up about the fact that the president has not allowed a transition to move forward with the Biden team now that we're less than 70 days out from the inauguration and that's a process that, under normal circumstances, would be well underway by now.

But I want to read you Kelly's statement here. It was a very pointed warning. "The delay in transitioning is an increasing national security and health crisis. It costs the current administration nothing to start to brief Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris, the new chief of staff and all identified cabinet members and senior staff as they are identified over the days and weeks ahead."

And then he goes on to say, "That said, the downside to not doing so could be catastrophic to our people regardless of who they voted for." Now, there have been some Republicans who have also come out and suggested that the Trump White House needs to do more to begin the transition with the Biden team.

[06:05:05]

For example, Senator James Lankford, who is a Republican, said that he would take steps to potentially intervene to ensure that Biden is receiving and has access to presidential daily briefing, the intelligence briefing, that Trump is supposed to get every day by the end of this week. So we may see Republicans start to break, but largely they have remained silent as Trump is sort of treading water and refusing to concede at this moment, Victor and Christi.

PAUL: All right. Sarah Westwood, we appreciate the update so much. Thank you. CNN's Jason Carroll right now is with us. We know President-elect Biden, Jason, is meeting with his transition team, that they are working despite this lack of cooperation from the Trump administration. What are they talking about being their biggest hurdles right now?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. They really have no choice, right? I mean, they are continuing to move ahead with their transition efforts. President-elect Biden is going to be meeting with his transition team over the weekend. Part of the discussions are going to be about his cabinet picks.

We already know that they basically have people in mind for all of the cabinet positions, including key positions like health and treasury and defense, and we're told the president-elect is taking a very deliberate approach to whoever he is naming here because whoever he ends up naming is going to come under intense scrutiny, as you can imagine, from Republican senators.

On a press call just on Friday, though, team Biden was basically asked about how things are going with the transition efforts given that the Trump administration is throwing up so many roadblocks at this point. I mean, as you've heard, the president-elect not receiving intelligence briefings, the general services administration still has not signed off on that paperwork to give them access to -- access to funds and resources.

And so they were asked about this basic standoff that they're having right now between themselves and the GSA.

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JEN PSAKI, BIDEN SENIOR TRANSITION ADVISER: We're not interested in having a food fight with the GSA administrator or anyone really. We just want to get access to intelligence information, to threat assessments, to the ongoing work on COVID so that we can prepare to govern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: And so basically the transition team and the president-elect, basically what they're doing is getting creative in terms of how they're moving forward with their efforts. For an example, the COVID response, basically what the transition team has been doing is working directly with state governors and local officials in terms of how they're putting together their transition efforts.

So this is president-elect and his team, that is despite everything that's happening, they're just moving forward, guys.

BLACKWELL: Jason Carroll for us there in Delaware. Jason, thanks so much.

PAUL: So president-elect Biden's path to victory, as you know, went through Arizona and Georgia, two states Democrats hadn't won since then '90s. Here's CNN's Harry Enten who walks us through the numbers.

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HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR PRESIDENTIAL WRITER AND ANALYST: The 2020 presidential election is in the books when CNN projected North Carolina for Donald Trump and the state of Georgia for Joe Biden on Friday. that gives Joe Biden 306 electoral votes to Donald Trump's 232. The 306 electoral votes for the former vice president may seem awfully familiar. Why? Because it's the same number of electoral votes that Donald Trump won back in 2016, a victory that he called "a landslide."

Perhaps we should apply the same exact word to what Joe Biden was able to do in 2020. How did Biden do it? How did he build on Hillary Clinton's map? Simple. He won in the Great Lakes regions, he picked up the states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, which Donald Trump won last time around, and then he went down to the Sun Belt. He won in Arizona, a state that hasn't gone Democratic since 1996, and in Georgia, a state that hasn't gone Democratic since 1992.

Indeed when you look at the electoral map, you see that Joe Biden pulled off a fairly large victory for a challenger. If you go back since 1920, for example, only three other challengers won a larger electoral vote tally than Joe Biden did this particular year.

If you look at the popular vote where Joe Biden's currently earning about 51 percent and he may end up as high as 52 percent when all the votes are tallied, the victory is even more impressive. How impressive is it? Well, keep this fact in mind. Not since FDR in 1932 did a challenger to a sitting president win as large of a victory as Joe Biden did in the popular vote.

Now, of course the 2020 election isn't completely in the books. We have two runoffs in Georgia scheduled for January 5th and those two runners could, in fact, determine who helps control the Senate. If Democrats win both of those seats, they will have exactly 50 seats, 50 plus Kamala Harris breaking the tie as the vice president, will give the Democrats the majority.

Why are Democrats in that position? Well, take a look at what happened in Arizona. The Arizona Senate race was finally called on Friday when the incumbent senator, Martha McSally, conceded to Mark Kelly, the Democrat.

[06:10:00]

And indeed, with Mark Kelly's victory, this will mark the first time since the 1950 election that Democrats controlled both of the Senate seats in Arizona. When you put it all together, this was in fact a historic win for Democrats.

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BLACKWELL: Harry Enten, thanks so much. Let's bring in now Errol Louis, political anchor for "Spectrum News" and CNN political commentator. Errol, good morning to you.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: ood morning, Victor.

BLACKWELL: You know, so John Bolton wrote in his book that he feared a second Trump election -- second term because when he was national security advisor, he said that what he witnessed was that his decisions were guided by the re-election prospects, not morals, not norms. With that as the context, as we talk about transition, what are the guard rails that would be the incentive for President Trump to initiate transition next week or this month at all?

LOUIS: Well, the incentive should be that he, like every other American, has a vested interest in keeping this country safe. Even if he wanted to disregard his oath of office, which certainly puts him in charge of the armed forces and our national security, as a practical matter, he's got family here just like the rest of us. These are very dangerous times, Victor. Make no mistake about it.

It was only 30 days after Bill Clinton took office that the first World Trade Center attack happened and as has often been reported on CNN and other outlets, the 9/11 Commission established that a long and delayed and confusing transition in 2000 led to weakened security that helped the terrorists who struck on 9/11. So this is not something that Donald Trump should be putting through any kind of a political calculus. When it comes to national security, it should and is above politics.

BLACKWELL: We know that he is putting it through this political lens, though. I want you to listen to what Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford said earlier this week.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SEN. JAMES LANKFORD, (R) OKLAHOMA: There is no loss from him getting the briefings and to be able to do that and if that's not occurring by Friday, I will step in as well to be able to push and to say this needs to occur.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: He said if it doesn't happen by Friday, he'd step in. It is now Saturday. That sounds like he has some authority here. Does he really?

LOUIS: No. You know, unfortunately, the senator is playing sort of the old game. He's the longest serving of the Republicans and so there's a kind of a norms argument, kind of a moral authority argument. I don't know if he hasn't been paying attention, but those were shredded years ago.

That was really kind of the animating force behind the Trump presidency and one of the reasons, by the way, the administration got kicked out of power is that they don't care about norms, they don't care about customs, they just disregard them or, in fact, denigrate them.

So, you know, they're going to have to -- if the Republican conference wants to force this White House to do what it should have done at least a week ago, they're going to have to do something more than point to norms and threaten to, you know, wag their finger at him. they're going to have to really be much more stern and really make clear that this has got to happen, among everything else, by the way, Victor.

We have a former vice president who is the president-elect. We have his vice president, Kamala Harris, who's a member of the Intelligence Committee. They already have high level clearances. There's absolutely no reason to be delaying the transfer of vitally-needed information to them.

BLACKWELL: Let's stay with the Senate for a moment. Republican senators need President Trump to play in the Georgia runoffs that are coming up in January. If we look back to the 2018 midterms, a lot of those rallies were really about the president. I mean, the candidate would come up and speak, but they were about the president and his connection with the supporters.

Do you expect that if the president doesn't have a direct political payoff from coming to Georgia and campaigning for Loeffler and Perdue that he will play heavily or does he still need that adoration from the crowds? What do you expect to see from the president over the next seven weeks? LOUIS: Well, I expect there to be a lot of polling, during which the Republicans will try and figure out whether or not it makes sense to have a defeated president come in and campaign. The state did not go for Donald Trump. He is also an animating force that helps bring out Democrats. So they're going to have to make a very hard choice about whether or not they want this person out here holding potentially high-profile events that will draw out every last Democrat in the state.

The Democrats have already proved that they can carry the state. If they want to have a repeat of that in January, one way to do it might be to put Donald Trump front and center and make him the issue. I suspect the Republicans who want to win those two Senate seats are going to try and make the issue about something else other than Donald Trump and his recent defeat.

BLACKWELL: On the Democrats, before we let you go, we're seeing the beginning of the divisions within the party that we'll see play out over the next two, four years, maybe longer.

[06:15:04]

The first vote that will kind of crystallize this will be for speaker of the next Congress. Is Nancy Pelosi's speakership in serious jeopardy considering the narrowing margin in the House?

LOUIS: My guess would be no, Victor. It's not a job that people necessarily want, to be honest with you. It's a fractious conference, it's a very difficult job. There is a ton of fundraising. I mean, you know, we'd like to think that they're sitting around talking about legislation all day, every day, but they're really not.

I mean, if you want a decent committee -- and this is on both sides of the aisle. You want to be on a decent committee, you've got to raise a certain amount of money and kick it upstairs. You know, whoever wants to be the leader of the Democratic conference or for that matter the Republican conference has got to be ready to go out and pummel his or her members and push them to raise money day after day after day after day. It's not something everybody really takes to.

Nancy Pelosi has proven that she could do it. We shouldn't forget that they won 40 seats just two years ago. They gave some of them back this time, but that doesn't mean she's a weakened speaker by any means.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Fifteen Democrats did not -- voted not to support her the last time, either for another candidate or present, in 2019. We'll see how many vote to support her at the start of the next year. Errol Louis, thanks so much.

LOUIS: Thank you, Victor.

PAUL: Well, do stay with us. Pfizer appears to have the lead in the race to develop this coronavirus vaccine, but there could be two vaccines by the end of the year. We have some big advances to talk about that are happening right now. We'll talk about it. BLACKWELL: Plus, it took almost four decades for Joe Biden to get from Delaware to the White House. We'll take a look at the moments that have defined his political career.

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[06:20:00]

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BLACKWELL: 184,000 COVID cases reported across the U.S. yesterday. That's the highest number of cases reported in a single day since the pandemic started. This is the fourth consecutive day of record- breaking new cases.

PAUL: Yes. Several states have started implementing strict lockdown measures to curb the spread as well. CNN correspondent Polo Sandoval in New York. That's where restrictions for some businesses have already been put into place. So Polo, I know that we're hearing Mayor de Blasio. As I understand it, he may shut down schools if the city hits the COVID-19 positivity rate threshold and that could happen as early as Monday?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Christi. In fact, the governor of New York saying that is well within the mayor's right to actually consider some closures on that front and to that point, there are multiple states across the country that are considering these drastic measures as they continue to fight these increasing numbers and infections and in hospitalizations as pressure mounts.

Meanwhile, the president actually stepping in front of the camera for the first time since last week offering an update on the vaccine efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: More than 244,000 people have now died from the virus and the U.S. Friday reporting more than 184,000 new cases. President Trump held a briefing late Friday in the White House Rose Garden to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine.

TRUMP: My administration reached an agreement with Pfizer to provide $1.95 billion to support the mass manufacturing and distribution of 100 million doses with the option to purchase a total of 600 million doses shortly thereafter. Our investment will make it possible for the vaccine to be provided by Pfizer free of charge.

SANDOVAL: The president said the COVID vaccine will be available to the general population as soon as April.

TRUMP: We will work to secure an emergency-use authorization which should be coming down extremely soon and my administration will then coordinate the distribution of the vaccine and it will be approved, I think, again, it will be approved very, very quickly we hope.

SANDOVAL: Pfizer is proud to be one of various vaccine manufacturers participating in Operation Warp Speed as a supplier of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, the company said. Eventual coronavirus vaccines will be distributed across the states and territories based on population, a top Operation Warp Speed official said on Friday.

Since Monday, the U.S. added more than a half a million new COVID-19 cases since hitting 10 million at the start of the week. At this rate, the numbers should pass 11 million in the next four days, the fastest edition of another million cases, Johns Hopkins status shows. The U.S. currently has more patients hospitalized with COVID-19 than ever before according to COVID tracking projects. Seven-day average for current hospitalizations is up 20 percent from last week.

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We can turn this around. It is not futile.

SANDOVAL: Wearing a mask could help protect you not, just those around you from coronavirus transmission. That's the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance that was released this week. The statement was an update to previous guidance suggesting that the main benefit of mask wearing was to help prevent infected people from spreading the virus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And yesterday, President Trump also announced that when and if a vaccine is available, that the government would not deliver it to the state of New York, saying that the state would not deliver it immediately to its residents. The president there referring to a task force that the governor created back in September that is supposed to serve as sort of a second layer here where they would review any vaccine that's approved by the FDA.

Governor Cuomo and also the state's attorney general firing back, threatening legal action if, in fact, that does happen. In fact, the governor's saying that the president's simply using this vaccine as a retaliatory tool. As for the mayor -- as for the attorney general, Victor and Christi, also responding, and I quote, saying, "It is simply vindictive behavior by a lame duck president."

PAUL: All righty. Polo Sandoval, great wrap up. Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Up next, stocks. Have you seen the stock market? Wall Street is really buzzing here.

[06:25:00] Stocks are soaring while there are a lot of American families who are still struggling. How the state of the struggling economy is set to catch up with investors.

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PAUL: Twenty-nine minutes past the hour right now. Good morning to you. I know it was a turbulent week on Wall Street, wasn't it? U.S. stocks finished higher than expected yesterday, though.

BLACKWELL: Yes. The markets are looking good, but there are a lot of American families that are still hurting because of the pandemic. CNN's Cristina Alesci has more on this.

CRISTINA, ALESCI, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Christi, Victor, the stock market is ignoring how the current surge in COVID cases will impact the economy. The Dow finished up 400 points or 1.4 percent on Friday and the major indexes posted gains for the week.

[06:30:00]

Now, the euphoria began on Monday after Pfizer released promising efficacy data on its COVID vaccine. The hurdles to widespread vaccine distribution and use, well, that doesn't seem to matter to investors right now, and neither does the long-term economic damage that's happening because the virus is out of control. Women are dropping out of the labor force, kids are out of school, and small businesses, well, they're being destroyed.

And the real economy hasn't recovered tens of millions of jobs, 1 million workers filed unemployment claims last week including those who sought pandemic unemployment assistance. Also, this week, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell rejected Democrats big relief package, standing by his push for a highly targeted bail.

And Congress is facing an important deadline here. Emergency unemployment programs expire at year end, investors taking all this in stride, expecting other companies like Moderna to release positive data on the vaccine soon. Christi, Victor?

PAUL: Cristina Alesci there, we appreciate it, thank you.

BLACKWELL: It's been a full week since CNN projected that Joe Biden would be the next president of the United States.

PAUL: Yes, and he's ordered the White House begin living impossible Senate race where Biden really was the underdog by a long shot. CNN's Gloria Borger has more.

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GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST (on camera): Now, that Joe Biden is the president-elect, it's hard to believe there was ever a time when few people even knew his name. Back in 1972, Biden was 29, and he decided to run for a Senate seat in Delaware.

(voice-over): It was audacious if not arrogant for Biden to run as a 29-year-old underdog candidate of change against a well-liked Republican Senator named Cale Boggs.

CALE BOGGS, LATE REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN: What is your last name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miller.

BOGGS: Miller! I know the Miller family.

TED KAUFMAN, BIDEN ADVISER: He's been governor of the state for two terms. He's been a member of Congress for three terms, and he was running for his third term in the United States Senate. Cale Boggs was loved. I mean, he was loved.

BORGER: Once again, Biden asked Valerie to run the show.

VALERIE OWENS, JOE BIDEN'S SISTER: I remember saying to him, Joey, I don't -- I can't run a statewide campaign. I don't know how to do that.

BORGER: She reached out to a local Democratic Party activist Ted Kaufman.

KAUFMAN: So, I went down and talked to him, I said, sir, you're running on civil rights. You're running on environment. You're running on tax reform. And those are really good issues. And there was silence. And I said, but I don't think you have a chance of winning.

BORGER: You said what?

KAUFMAN: I don't think you have a chance of winning.

(LAUGHTER)

BORGER (on camera): And his reaction to that was?

KAUFMAN: Just going to help me. We'll see. We'll see.

BORGER (voice-over): Biden was confident he could talk his way into voters' hearts, but what Kaufman saw was bleak.

KAUFMAN: On Labor Day, we did a big-time poll. You know what the number was? Forty seven percent for Boggs, 19 percent for Biden.

BORGER: But it was also the first year 18-year-olds could vote and young voters saw a candidate who was promising that he understands what's happening today. Fifty years later, this time as a political elder trying to connect with young voters, it's still his mantra.

CROWD: Let's go, Joe!

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): They had this funny feeling that Cale Boggs, just his heart wasn't in it. He had been talked into running one more time by Richard Nixon.

BORGER: And then --

OWENS: We snuck up on him. Boggs, this was the Nixon landslide here. Everybody expected no Democrat to win, and that was the truth.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We won by a rousing 3,100 votes.

BORGER (on camera): I'm sure the president-elect is very relieved to have secured a wider margin in the 2020 presidential race to the tune of more than 5 million votes.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLACKWELL: Gloria, thank you. And you can learn more about Joe Biden's life and career in our CNN documentary, "JOE BIDEN'S LONG JOURNEY", that airs tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

PAUL: Still to come, the U.S. reported another day of record COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Experts say hospitals may have to start rationing care. What does that mean? Dr. Sanjay -- Saju Mathew -- excuse me, is with us next.

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[06:35:00]

BLACKWELL: The U.S. set a new record for both daily coronavirus cases and for the number of people in hospitals. There were more than 184,000 cases reported yesterday. That's the fourth consecutive day of record-breaking numbers.

PAUL: Yes, 19 states have reported record-high hospitalizations. A new CDC data shows black and Latino people are hospitalized about four times higher than any other racial group. CNN medical analyst and public care physician, Dr. Saju Mathew is with us.

Saju, it's so good to see you again. I want to talk about what's happening in the states, first of all. We have Minnesota Governor Tim Walz who instituted new restrictions on bars, restaurants, social gatherings, they start limiting social gatherings to 10 people or less there.

And a recent "Washington Post" article said this. What has worried state officials is that there's no hotspot in Minnesota. The entire state is described as a red zone. And when you talk about red zones, let's talk about Ohio, 68 out of 88 counties are in the red.

They're at level 3 right now. That's more than 75 percent of the state. Do you anticipate as we are heading into Winter months, that we are going to see the necessity for restrictions that lasts longer than 14 days? Do you think that we will get to a second round of these shutdowns?

[06:40:00]

SAJU MATHEW, PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN: Good morning, Christi. You know, it's just really tough as a physician to sit here and keep talking to our anchors about how bad this pandemic is getting. As you just mentioned in the lead up, over 180,000 cases. Remember, 180,000 cases translates in four weeks into way more deaths than 13, 1,400. We could be looking at 2 to 3,000 deaths per day by December, and they're predicting over 400,000 deaths by February. So, yes, unfortunately, Christi, I do see that we might end up having a lot more tighter restrictions and rationing of care.

And one last thing about that point, Christi, is that, we don't always have to have an all or none approach. Open up the economy and not really protect people versus completely shutting down. There is a middle of the ground here where businesses can open and people can be protected while masks are being mandated.

PAUL: Yes, it depends on whether people follow the mandates at the end of the day. I want to talk to you also about the 68,000 people, actually more than that, that are being hospitalized right now. "The Washington Post" is reporting Midwest hospitals will be overwhelmed. You have said that you may have to ration care. What does that look like? What does that mean?

MATHEW: You know, nobody ever, no ER physician -- it's actually the nightmare -- I remember when I was doing my ER residency here at the Bay, 1,000, the county hospital, rationing of care is the last thing an ER or an ICU doctor wants to do.

So, what happens is, as the hospital cases surge, remember, the ICU beds are just a tiny portion of the number of beds that are in a hospital. So, if a hospital has 1,000 beds, they might only have 100 ICU beds, and most COVID patients need ICU care. So doctors might have to decide, listen, a 70-year-old versus a 30-year-old, who has a better chance of survival? Nobody wants to make that decision about a patient's life.

And let's also remember that when you look at colonoscopies and mammograms, these are routine care that patients need to get, maybe even chemotherapy from somebody that's dealing with cancer. All those procedures might have to be put on hold while we focus on transforming the patient or the hospital into a COVID hospital.

PAUL: I want to ask you about the vaccines as well because we know that the Pfizer vaccine is touting a 90 percent efficacy rate. But this is a vaccine that requires thermal shipping. It has to keep it -- keep the vaccine at minus 103 degrees. It also requires a couple of other things that it has to be replenished with dry ice within 24 hours, and that thermal ship will last about 10 to 15 days.

How confident are you in these vaccines that are being touted, and in the president's announcement yesterday that they will be able to be released to the general public by April?

MATHEW: You know, I'm optimistic. I think that Pfizer has some good preliminary results. Again, I want to be cautiously optimistic. We haven't seen the data. It was rolled out in a press release. In the next few weeks, the FDA will get a much larger data package where we can look and see, hey, listen, is this vaccine still 90 percent effective?

And as you mentioned, Christi, it is going to be a cold chain supply. Never before in the history of vaccine distribution, are we going to see these large centers where you have these huge freezers -- and remember, this is a pandemic. A patient cannot just show up at my office as a primary care, we can store the vaccines at that cold of a temperature -- you have to line up people 6 feet away and give the vaccines.

It's going to be two shots -- so yes, there are definitely some barriers, but I'm hoping that as other vaccines develop, perhaps, we might even get a vaccine that's only one shot and doesn't have to be refrigerated. But overall, I'm optimistic, and if any country can do it, it will be the United States.

PAUL: All right, and the other thing that I think a lot of people are sitting at home this morning wondering about, when we talk about these hospitalizations is that we knew this was going to come, you and all of your colleagues have warned us for months, there was going to be a surge. It was going to happen in the Fall into the Winter. Why are hospitals not prepared for this? What needed to happen for them that didn't happen, that means we're having this overwhelming number of people having to go into the ER?

[06:45:00]

MATHEW: We've had two chances, Christi, to learn from our previous mistakes, right? The Spring surge, the Summer surge that was worse, and now we're going into the worst part of the pandemic. Remember, during the Spanish flu pandemic, in October of 1918, more people died at this time.

Five hundred million people were infected and 50 million people died. I think it's a lot of factors. The COVID fatigue. The fact that we've never had a national strategy. And listen, we're always reacting. We should always be really more on the offense and not on the defense.

You can't take the foot off the gas when the peak subsides. We need to always be prepared for the surge and not react in such a panicky way when things are not going the right way.

PAUL: Dr. Saju Mathew, appreciate your expertise, appreciate you helping us understand it all. Thank you.

MATHEW: Thank you.

PAUL: Of course, and be sure to catch Dr. Anthony Fauci, he's on "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper tomorrow morning, that's at 9:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

BLACKWELL: So we've hit the weekend at the first ever Fall Masters. Andy Scholes is live from Augusta. Andy, good morning to you. Tiger Woods trying to stay in contention.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: Yes, Victor, Tiger hanging in there, and he's going to have a busy day here in Augusta at the first ever November Masters. And coming up, I'll tell you why today is critical for Tiger's chances of winning back-to-back green jackets.

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[06:50:00]

PAUL: So, it's a very different Masters this year than it has been in the past. I mean, they get to play in this gorgeous Fall weather, but there are no fans there to enjoy it.

BLACKWELL: So, Andy Scholes, let's go to him. He's live from Augusta for us this morning. Andy --

SCHOLES: Yes --

BLACKWELL: Day three now, but I understand still round 2.

SCHOLES: Yes, still round 2, Victor and Christi, because you know, after that weather delay in round one, the tournament here still trying to play catch-up. You know, this is the first November Masters, so this is the first time they're dealing with it, getting dark early in the evening.

So come 5:30, they've had to call play due to darkness. So, this morning, they're going to wrap up round 2, make the cut, then move on to round 3. And Tiger Woods, he was out there on the course when they called play yesterday.

He was through 10 holes of his second round, and defending champ, an incredible shot out of the bunker on 2. That would have been for an eagle, ends up with a birdie there, Tiger, two birdies, two bogeys on the day. He's still at 4 under 5 shots off of the lead. World number one Dustin Johnson, right now, one of the guys with a share of the lead, D.J. trying to win his first green jacket after finishing tied for second last year. No top-ranked player has won the Masters since Tiger did it back in 2002.

And it's certainly a crowded leader board right now. Four guys share the lead, four more a shot back. Should be one exciting moving day here in Augusta. Elsewhere in the sports world, the Miami Marlins making history, hiring Kim Ng as their general manager, Ng; the first woman ever hired to lead a major U.S. sports franchise, and she's the highest-ranking woman in Major League Baseball. Before taking the GM job with the Marlins, Ng spent more than three decades working for the Yankees, Dodgers, White Sox and for Major League Baseball.

All right, it's Saturday, which means college football takes center stage. But the surge in coronavirus cases around the country really wreaking havoc on the schedule everywhere. Fifteen games out of the 49 that were supposed to be played today have either been postponed or canceled due to the virus. It includes six games involving teams in the top 25.

The SEC is by far been hit the hardest, where 4 of the 7 games have been postponed including the match-up between number one Alabama and the defending champs, LSU. PAC-12 has had to cancel 4 out of its 12 games so far this season.

And though the Conference announced yesterday that Cal and UCLA who were not scheduled to play each other this season, they're not going to play each other tomorrow after their games originally set for today against Utah and Arizona state were canceled due to positive tests on those teams.

Back here in Augusta though, play will resume in the second round at 7:30 a.m. Eastern. And guys, it's going to be a busy day for Tiger Woods. He's going to have to play 26 holes. We'll definitely wait to see how his back holds up. But today, critical for Tiger's chances if he wants to earn back-to-back green jackets.

PAUL: Wow, it's a long day, all right. Andy Scholes, with best view of the house this morning, thank you, Andy.

BLACKWELL: Let's stay with golf now. And look at this video of this huge gator just wandering on a golf course in southwest Florida. This was during Tropical Storm Eta.

PAUL: I seriously thought this was from a movie. This is an alligator that experts say -- which is even scarier, the size is nothing unusual. What are you talking about? The animal's sheer mass, left a lot of people on social media wondering if this thing was real. I mean, this is why I have a cart on the golf course, Victor, because you just hit the pedal.

BLACKWELL: So, I saw something on Twitter where they say when a gator gets this big, he's eligible to run for governor of Florida.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: Yes --

BLACKWELL: Oh, that's funny.

PAUL: He is.

BLACKWELL: All right. So good news, there's likely to be taking a serious turn here, two vaccines for coronavirus available in January. The bad news is, it's going to be hard for people to get it physically. We'll take a look at the distribution plans ahead.

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[06:55:00]

BLACKWELL: You know, now, more than ever, the world needs heroes, and this year's CNN's Heroes isn't just saluting everyday heroes, but the larger moments that define the biggest stories of the year. You can vote for this year's most inspiring moments at cnnheroes.com. The next hour of your NEW DAY starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The country recording more new coronavirus infections than any other day, ever.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be, I guess time will tell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only things that time will tell is how long it takes us to turn around the misanthropic mismanagement of this pandemic.