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Inside Politics
Biden Moves Forward With Transition As Trump Refuses To Concede; Trump Tweet: Biden "Won Because The Election Was Rigged"; Total U.S. COVID-19 Cases Nears 11 Million With 245,000 Deaths; Top U.S. Allies Congratulate Biden; Dems And GOP Regroup For Next Round. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired November 15, 2020 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:21]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN HOST (voice-over): A lopsided Biden win, and the turn to the challenges ahead.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT: We're ready to get to work addressing the needs of the American people. Today, that work begins.
KING: Plus, angry rallies. The loser stokes claims the election was stolen.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I guess time will tell.
BIDEN: I just think it's an embarrassment.
KING: And a devastating COVID surge, cases way up, hospitals under siege.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just terrified. We are entering a very dark phase in this pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our house is on fire and the president has basically locked himself in his bedroom.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm John King in Washington.
To our viewers in the United States and around the world, thank you so much for sharing your Sunday.
Joe Biden is America's president-elect and the sweep of his impressive victory even more clear this Sunday. Georgia and Arizona now called. Now blue on a 2020 map that represents a clear and convincing call for change.
Two hundred seventy electoral votes mean victory in presidential politics and, look, Joe Biden now claims 306. That matches the number President Trump won four years ago, a number he called an overwhelming landslide, but losing and losing big is a fact the president simply refuses to directly acknowledge.
He did tweet moments ago he won, we will dissect that in a minute, but we saw the president for the first time in a week, more than a week, on Friday. For a brief moment, there was evidence he knows the map.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I will not go. This administration will not be going to a lockdown. Hopefully the -- whatever happens in the future, who knows, which administration will be, I guess time will tell, but I can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: More common, though, this. Tweet after tweet after tweet alleging widespread fraud. No evidence and the president claiming he will win. The president also praised weekend rallies here in Washington and across the country that parrot his lies. There is no steal to stop.
Court is where you prove fraud. You take an oath in court, tweets and conspiracy theories just don't cut it and the president's lawyers were turned away time and time again this past week in state after state because they presented zero evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities. Joe Biden will be president in 66 days.
The noise from team Trump is loud, dramatic and disruptive. Yes, it is important in how it complicates the transition of power and it is important in what it tells us about Mr. Trump's grip on the Republican Party and about his future political plans, but it is still noise.
There will be a new president and he will inherit a deeply divided country and a surging coronavirus pandemic that is setting staggering new records, overwhelming hospitals and stirring debates now about new restrictions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JARED POLIS (D), COLORADO: These are our darkest days as a nation. They are our darkest days as a state.
GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R), OHIO: This surge is much more intense, widespread and dangerous.
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER (R), MASSACHUSETTS: People need to change their behavior and get serious about who they spend time with.
GOV. TONY EVERS (D), WISCONSIN: It's not safe to go out. It's not safe to have others over. It's just not safe. And it might not be safe for a while yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: With us this Sunday to share their reporting and their insights on how the president-elect sees the challenges ahead, NPR's Asma Khalid and Michael Shear of the "New York Times." And, Michael, let's start with what we see from the president of the
United States, it's hard to translate Trump tweets sometimes but he has not directly acknowledged a Biden victory, he did just tweet he won because the election was rigged. He goes on to say a bunch of other things I'm not going to repeat because they're not true. What the president says about alleged fraud are simply not true and haven't proven not to be true.
But he does use the words he won. Is that an acknowledgment Biden won or is that just Trump stirring up more stuff?
MICHAEL SHEAR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, look, it's the closest that we've seen to a kind of non-concession concession. I've always thought that he would ultimately do is acknowledge the reality that's in front of him while ranting about the fact that it was stolen from him or that it wasn't valid or continuing to assail the election process.
You know, this looks like the first hint that he said that publicly and, you know, if that continues over the next couple of days I think you could see that as a real kind of break in the dam among his Republican allies who can start to, you know, acknowledge the reality as well.
KING: Well, yeah, it's -- I'm not going to give him credit for that. The math is overwhelming. There is no evidence of fraud. His lawyers are getting kicked out of court.
But I guess if we want to call that progress in Trump land, we can call that progress, he won. We will come back to that later. I want to start with the challenges facing the president-elect.
[08:05:02]
And, Asma, Joe Biden campaigned on the idea Donald Trump is incompetent, his team does not know how to run government, his team has not managed the coronavirus pandemic. And yet, out of the box, the Biden campaign did have a misstep this past week when one of his top advisers on its coronavirus advisory board went on television and said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, BIDEN COVID-19 TASK FORCE MEMBER: We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers, for losses to companies to medium sized companies, or city, states, county governments, we could do all of that. If we did that, then we could lock down for four to six weeks, and if we did that, we could drive the numbers down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: One of the co-chairs of that advisory board quickly had to go out on television, this is what we call clean up.
ASMA KHALID, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NPR: Yeah -- (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. VIVEK MURTHY, BIDEN COVID TASK FORCE CO-CHAIRMAN: Right now, the way we should be thinking about this is more like a series of restrictions that we dial up or down, depending on how bad spread is taking place in a specific region. We are not in a place where we're saying shut the whole country down. We've got to be more targeted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Dr. Osterholm clearly was out over his skis or unless it was a trial balloon quickly pulled back. It's just one doctor, but at the same time, Dr. Scott Atlas says things, and no one says it's just one doctor because he talks to the president of the United States.
Was this an early misstep and have they cleaned it up?
KHALID: So, what we've been told from the standpoint of the president- elect from the overall consensus of the COVID advisory board, a national lockdown is really not what the Joe Biden administration is looking for. But, John, I think that, you know, just looking at the term "lockdown" there is a reason why they had to clean that up so quickly and in part that's because President Trump has deemed this as this is exactly what Democrats would do if they took over in January.
There is a lot of consternation from within some Democrats that as much as voters trusted Biden on a variety of issues, whether it was to handle the pandemic or character issues, consistently we did see throughout the campaign season that President Trump did seem to have an advantage on the economy. Around Republican messaging they've been very effective at suggesting that Democrats do not care as much, right, about the economy and shutting down businesses.
What I think, though, is valid and, you know, we actually had one of the COVID advisory board members tell us this on NPR earlier this week, that they are operating with limited circumstances because this election has still not been ascertained, you know, they don't have access they say to Dr. Fauci on a regular basis, they don't have access to vaccine deployment information. So, much of what they're talking about with COVID is in a somewhat hypothetical realm because they don't have the full information that the Trump administration has been dealing with.
KING: It will be a fascinating challenge day one out of the box.
And, Michael, if you listen to the president-elect as Asma rightly notes the president has refused the traditional cooperation of the transition, funding, office space, access to scientists and agency officials across the government. So far, Joe Biden says, listen, that's okay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I'm confident that the fact that they are not willing to acknowledge we won at this point is not of much consequence in our planning and what we're able to do between now and January 20th. We are going to do exactly what we would be doing if he had conceded and said we won, which we have, and so there's nothing really changing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Says nothing really changes, but it is difficult. Look, he was vice president for eight years, he was in the Senate for more than 30 years, he knows the government, it's like he doesn't know where the builds are, but whether it's a national security or pandemic issue, at what point do they stand up and say enough?
SHEAR: Yeah, look, I think you made the points I was going to make, too, that there is probably nobody that has entered the White House as president and the people around him that know -- that know the government and know what the government is capable of and know what the limitations are more than Joe Biden, certainly more than Barack Obama when he walked in in 2009.
That said, especially in the areas of national security where I think they are very concerned about not having the kind of latest and up-to- date intelligence about threats to the -- potential threats to the country, and I think on the pandemic which as Asma rightly said, there's just not anything more important for them to get moving on on day one than trying to figure out how to kind of help the country slow the spread of this virus, and they don't have the -- they don't have all the information they need for that. I think their position has largely been let's wait, you know, not push this, let's not seem desperate.
And I think that they can probably go another week or another few days, but I think that if it goes beyond that they are going to get concerned and they are going to push really hard.
KING: Asma Khalid, Michael Shear, appreciate the reporting and insights,
Michael is going to stay with us for our next segment.
[08:10:01]
Up next, the president refuses to accept the truth and most Republicans refuse to challenge his lies.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Maybe this is breaking news. Maybe this is just the beginning of another day of conflicting tweets. But just moments ago, about 20 minutes ago, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, tweeting, quote, he won. He goes on to say he won because the election was rigged. You see that there.
Everything after he won is a lie. Everything after he won is not true. It is proven to be not true.
I'm sorry if you're a Trump supporter. You can do this work yourself, everything he says after he won is not true. But he does say he won. That's the first time the president of the United States has acknowledged that Joe Biden won the election. Again, his reasons are wrong, but he says he won. So is that a sign
the president is finally, finally going to give in? Finally going to if not concede at least acknowledge Joe Biden as the winner and let the wheels of government and the transition kick in?
CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins is with us. Michael Shear of "The New York Times" will be back with the conversation as well.
So, Kaitlan, there could be another tweet moments from now saying we will win, but he does say he won. What do we make of that?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this could be the closest we get to a concession from Donald Trump. This is what people around him have been giving a heads up they believe this is how it would go, the president would maintain that he believed, of course, without evidence that the election was fraudulent, and that it was wrong and that it was stolen from him, but that he would acknowledge that Biden won and, of course, leave the White House in January.
[08:15:11]
And that's what we're seeing with this tweet. And you're right, everything past those first two words is inaccurate and it's been rejected by his own administration when it comes to the voting systems where they say no votes were changed, no votes were deleted, nothing like that happened that they have evidence of. But the president is acknowledging Biden's win and this is the first time we have seen this since, of course, CNN and other outlets declared Biden the winner.
But this is about as close as the president has gotten. We started to see him get there on Friday in the Rose Garden, we were at that press conference, I guess you can't call it that because he wasn't taken questions from reporters since the election. But he started saying this administration, a lot of emphasis on this administration, of course, meaning there is going to be another one after him.
And so, this is about as close as we've gotten to the president acknowledging that Joe Biden won, but, John, the question here is does this tweet change anything? This has been the question of the Trump era. Does this change anything and does this actually give his government the ability to sign off and start this transition, start giving funds to the Biden team, start giving them access to emails and office space and all the things we've been talking about that they don't have. That is something that still seems to be unclear at this point.
KING: Right, because you get mixed signals all the time. Michael Shear of the "New York Times" is still with us.
Michael, the mixed signals could include this morning, he starts a tweet with he won. And as Kaitlan and I both know, that everything after that is false, but he won. The president of the United States used those two words for the first time, but just last night, he tweeted I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend our right to free and fair elections. So, last night, Rudy Giuliani was going to continue the fight. Forgive
me, Mr. Mayor, but Rudy Giuliani is now a TV lawyer. He is no at courtroom lawyer anymore.
And the president's real lawyers were turned away. They were turned away in Michigan. They were turned away in Arizona. They were turned away in Pennsylvania, the firm in Pennsylvania gave up and said we are not doing this anymore because they've gone into court repeatedly and been told by judges you have nothing. You can't come in here unless you have evidence of real fraud.
But what do we make of the fact that this morning he won, last night, Rudy was going to lead the charge?
SHEAR: I mean, look, I think one of the striking features of this presidency for four years is that president Trump has always focused on talking to the one audience that he cares about, which is his base, right, the people that are out there rallying for him and this feels to me like, you know, maybe this morning acknowledging a broader reality, but he still wants to talk to that base.
And that's what the Rudy message is about, right? He wants to rally those folks behind him. He wants to continue whatever his fate is going to be in his mind. Obviously we know that it will be leaving the White House, but whatever his fate is in his mind he wants to still be loved and admired and worshipped by the people that he -- you know, that he has sort of had in his thrall for the last five and a half years.
And I think -- I think the Rudy kind of messages and false claims this morning are all part of him trying to keep connected to those -- to those people.
KING: Right. And to that point, Kaitlan Collins, look, this is the administration that brows put the term alternative facts early on and now, many of its officials are living in an alternative reality. Mike Pompeo says there will be a transition to a second Trump administration. Peter Navarro came out and said that on television the other day as well.
The press secretary who somehow thinks she's allowed, even though she's getting paid by taxpayers, to sit at the campaign headquarters and go on television all the time and says the same thing. She also tweeted yesterday this amazing: More than 1 million matches for president to descend on the swamp in support. No, there were 10,000 or so, maybe double that, here in Washington. There were not 1 million marchers.
So the alternative facts, alternative reality continues. I guess the question on this Sunday morning is, is it beginning to crack with that tweet?
COLLINS: Well -- and the question is, and this is why when Kayleigh McEnany was saying things like Donald Trump will attend his own inauguration in January that we all know is not happening, I heard from other White House officials who were wondering why these officials are going on and pushing this because, of course, they know that the minute the president finally does acknowledge Joe Biden won as he is doing this morning, of course, it makes those statements look more ridiculous than they did at the time that they uttered them. It's just a denial of reality in what you're seeing.
And just -- it's striking to see that from the highest officials in the federal government being paid six-figure salaries by taxpayer dollars and they're going on and saying things that are not true and misleading people into believing that they actually do think that they won the election, when we know behind the scenes a lot of these officials around the president have acknowledged they did not win the election, they don't think the legal challenges will be successful.
And now, Mike Pompeo, Peter Navarro and Kayleigh McEnany will forever be on the record trying so say something happened that did not happen. And that's something that they're going to have to deal with, of course. That is, you know, a choice they've made.
[08:20:00]
But it is striking to see federal officials so willing to lie and to say something that's not true just to please the president because he was also denying reality and maintaining publicly that Joe Biden won when our reporting also shows the president, of course, has known for days that he did not win the election and says as much behind the scenes.
KING: Right, and they say it with a smirk all the time, as if it is funny, to undermine the truth, undermine democracy, undermine just common decency as they say it with a smirk.
But others, Michael Shear, are not taking it lightly. The president has had this purge over at the Pentagon to the point that listen here, this is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, sending a clear message here without doubt to the commander in chief.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. MARK MILLEY, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: We do not take an oath to a king or queen, a tyrant or dictator. We do not take an oath to an individual. No, we do not take an oath to a country, a tribe or religion.
We take an oath to the Constitution and every soldier that is represented in this museum, every sailor, airman, marine, coast guardsman, each of us will protect and defend that document regardless of personal price.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: I've been in this town for 32 years, I have never heard a senior general, especially the chairman of the joint chiefs our highest- ranking military officer, that's a stare down to the president of the United States. SHEAR: Well, there has never been an instance where somebody like
that, like General Milley, thought he had to underscore the fact of the oath to the president of the United States. I mean, that's just a sort of backwards inconceivable notion, but I think it underscores, you know, the fact that we still -- he still is president. Donald Trump is still president for another 66 days and there is a lot a president can do.
Look, Joe Biden respects the notion that former president-elects have respected during transitions which is that there is only one president at a time. Joe Biden is going to respect that. He's not going to try to assert himself as some kind of shadow leader. But General Milley's comments underscore whether it's military action, whether it's a lack of action on the pandemic, whether it's legislative efforts or more executive orders, this president still has 66 days where he can exert the power of that office.
And I think, you know, General Milley is trying to remind him that, you know, there's still a constitution, there's still a government, there's still a democracy to protect here and we need to do that no matter who is in the office.
KING: Right. Some people actually honor their oath and believe in the rules and the way things are supposed to work.
SHEAR: Right, right.
KING: Michael Shear, Kaitlan Collins, grateful for the reporting an insights. Just to wrap it again, the president of the United States tweeting a little more than a half hour ago now he won, the rest everything after that -- everything after he won is a lie about rigged elections. But we will see if the president is ready to acknowledge it publicly consistently and do the right thing and get along with the transition.
Up next for us, the stunning COVID surge, new cases are at new highs and rising hospitalizations now causing major stress.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:27:07]
KING: The coronavirus numbers this Sunday are simply depressing, I don't know a better word for it or I wish I had a better word for it.
Look at the map right here. Forty-five states, red and orange on this map means you're heading in the wrong direction, 45 of the 50 states heading in the wrong direction, 17 of them in the deep red. That means 50 percent or higher rate of new infections this rate compared to last week, 17 in the deep red, 28 in the orange, 45 states heading in the wrong direction.
More new infections this week compared to last week. Four states heading steady, only one state Georgia reporting down and we believe that's a glitch in the data. We'll continue to follow that.
But where we were two months ago. This is two months ago. You see the gray and beige, green is down, beige is holding steady.
Only ten states were trending in the wrong direction two months ago. Public health experts warned this was coming, unless more was done, and here we are now.
If you look at the case curve it's just stunning, it is just stunning. The summer surge was horrific, right? That was 77,000 new infections a day at its peak, 184,000 plus on Friday, more than 150,000 yesterday. It's just depressing. Straight up, heading straight up right now. With more cases comes more hospitalizations.
The initial in the spring, then the summer surge, now we're past any of those numbers. Record hospitalizations now 69,455 Americans hospitalized on Saturday because of the coronavirus. And sadly, the death trend starting to trickle up as well, nearly 1,300 deaths reported on Saturday. You see the blue line and you see the red lines above it, that trend line also. Even though there are better treatments and people fair better that trending up as well because the case count is so high.
The case count is so high because of his, the positivity rate, as American get tested for coronavirus, look at this, 60 percent -- 60 percent in South Dakota. 60 percent, 45 percent next door, 42 percent out in Idaho, 59 percent in Kansas, 24 percent in Alabama, 22 percent in Pennsylvania.
This is getting worse and worse and worse, and the IHME out at the University of Washington projects this, look at this, it's just stunning to say it, 2,100 peak in daily deaths somewhere in mid- January, just shy of 440 deaths by March 4th. The IHME project says 68,000 people could be saved from this if we had better mask mandates, universal mask wearing.
Joining us to use these horrific trends, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. She's the chief of division of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.
And Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.
Dr. Jha, I want to start with you, we talked for months about how to stop it when you get to a point -- I'm just going to put the curve up like this, that is straight up. That is straight up.
How do you stop that?
[08:29:48]
DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Good morning, John. Thanks for having me on.
This is -- we're in a bad spot as a country. And I think what you're going to start seeing this week as cases are going to further explode, I think we're starting to outstrip our ability to test people and so you can see percent positive really explode. I expect this week and next, states are going to start peeling way
back. I don't know if we're going to go to full lockdowns but you're going to see substantial impositions of restrictions.
Again, I wish some of this have been done a few weeks ago. It's that, it's mask wearing and it's talking to people about not gathering at home with outside of your nuclear family. Those are all critical things to do in the short run.
KING: And Dr. Walensky, Dr. Jha mentions those steps. Thanksgiving is right around the corner, Christmas comes after that. People are exhausted, eight months of this now.
If you look, some states have already started to do some renewed restrictions. Ohio has a stricter mask mandate. New Mexico banning on in-person services for nonessential businesses. Maryland rolled back indoor dining. New York has a 10:00 p.m. curfew for bars and restaurants. Utah, state-wide mask mandate. Iowa -- a new mask (ph) requirement there. Oregon closing down.
Is this the way to do it state by state? There has been a debate. Dr. Osterholm on the Biden team floated the idea of a national lockdown. They quickly said no. He's out over his skis. That not what the new president wants but might it be necessary?
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Good morning, John.
You know, I think rational people who are looking at the evidence can disagree on the approach here whether we should have guidance or mandates. How strict the restrictions should be. And I do think we have to look at it at the local level.
But I would also say when you start having hospitals that have completely outstripped their capacity to care for patients when they have no ICU beds, when they're looking at field hospitals, they don't have staffing, they don't have supplies, they don't have ventilators. You're really talking about a need for drastic measures to occur.
Yes, I'm extraordinarily worried about Thanksgiving. We know from our own data here in Massachusetts that so many of the new clusters are happening not in the public but they're happening in households.
People think their loved ones, their friends are safe. They want to believe that they're safe, but so many people are unwittingly spreading the virus because they're asymptomatic.
And so when we bring people who we know and love, who we have no expectation would ever put us in harm's way at our dinner tables, the we put people at real risk, especially at multigenerational households.
KING: And so let's hope people are listening as we head into Thanksgiving.
Dr. Jha, I'm going to put another map up on the screen here. Most states now do have a full or at least a partial mask mandate. The three you see in orange there, they have done it since election day. North Dakota, Utah and Iowa and Republican governors in those states.
Answer the person who says well, if most of these states have at least a partial mask mandate and cases are still going up, that masks aren't working.
DR. JHA: Yes. That's not the right interpretation, of course. Look, masks are really, really important and a mandate is helpful. But a lot of people aren't complying with the mandate, because there's so much misinformation.
So that's one part of it is that we really need a campaign of hearts and minds to get people to understand that masks are about protecting yourself, your family, your loved ones, your community.
But masks unto itself aren't going to sort of do the trick. You need that combined with avoiding gathering indoors as Dr. Walensky said, along with policy implementations and we still need to do a lot more on testing.
So masks are really important, but they're one part of a comprehensive solution. To look at them in isolation is really misunderstanding the situation.
KING: I agree. Which is why I wanted to bring up the question because you see a lot of it.
I'm going to put the positivity map back up here, Dr. Walensky. When you look -- 12 percent here, 11 percent there. 51 percent in Iowa. 59 percent in Kansas. 60 percent in South Dakota. That tells you a horrific day today, but it also tells you with the positivity rates so high is the point you're making, that there's people walking around and the more you get into a gathering, it spreads.
We're in this limbo period now. President Trump is president for 66 days. The Biden team comes in in January. Do you worry that there's an inertia or what's -- I don't know what the right word is -- a vacuum of leadership at an absolutely essential moment?
DR. WALENSKY: Absolutely. It's my chief concern right now. I think we have so much to look forward to as we have potential vaccines coming down our way. But the next several months are really going to be critical, and as you note, there's a vacuum of leadership with regard to how we are going to handle this.
We're all so very horrified by over the thousand daily deaths, but what we know about the case fatality rate for this disease now and as you noted it's improved is somewhere between 2 percent and 3 percent.
If we just take that 180,000 new cases of yesterday at 2 percent or 3 percent case fatality, we're going to be at a place that has 3,000 to 4,000 deaths per day if we don't get this under control.
KING: That is horrific. And Dr. Jha to wrap it up, the one good thing we've seen from the Trump administration, the president checked out on this a long time ago.
[08:34:50]
KING: But they do have this Operation Warp Speed. And we have seen from Pfizer and perhaps next from Moderna some positive news when it comes to the vaccine. The question is if that gets approved, if one or two candidates or more get approved, is the infrastructure in place?
The military general in charge of that says he believes so. Do we think if we go state by state, are states ready to deal with it? Now, it's two, three maybe even four months down the road before it's available to most Americans and they shouldn't forget that. But is the infrastructure there when we get a green light?
DR. JHA: Yes, John. Not yet. We've been talking about this for months. When I'm talking to states they don't have it all set up yet. We do still need the CDC and the federal government to be helping states get ready.
Vaccines are great, but they need -- we need to get people vaccinated. And there's a big set of steps between that to having a vaccine and getting them into people's arms. We're not paying enough attention to that either.
KING: Dr. Jha, Dr. Walensky -- I'm grateful for your time this Sunday. And as we continue this conversation and we will in the challenging days ahead. Thank you both.
Up next for us, world leaders embrace math and congratulate President- Elect Biden.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: A new tweet from President Trump this morning suggests perhaps -- perhaps he's coming around to reality. He tweeted he won and a bunch of things after that that were lies but perhaps the president finally coming around to acknowledge the election results.
World leaders, they can do math. They know who won.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I'm delighted to find the many areas in which the Biden -- the incoming Biden/Harris administration is able to make common cause (ph) with us.
ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): Joe Biden brings with him decades of experience in domestic and foreign policy. He knows Germany and Europe well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: President-elect Biden spoke this past week with the leaders of many key U.S. allies -- Canada and across Asia and Europe. There was also a call with the Pope Francis. China said it respects the will of the American people. But America's top diplomat now on a post-election world tour disrespects that decision.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: There will be a smooth administration to a second Trump administration. Right. We're ready. The world is watching.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Yes. Mr. Secretary, the world is watching. With us to share her reporting and her insights, our chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour. Christiane -- grateful for your time this Sunday.
I want to get to some of the big policy changes that will come with a Biden presidency in a moment, but first just the reaction, even Boris Johnson, many people think of as sort of a Trump friend, they seem almost relieved.
[08:39:54]
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Not just relieved but also they see what's happened. That this election has been run and Biden/Harris have won it. And so they are all -- I mean, you mentioned a few, but I mean, there is a list of leaders from all over the world including the populist nationalists in the Philippines Duterte -- I mean all over.
Latin America, Asia, everywhere -- who are eagerly awaiting the transition and eagerly awaiting to do the business of their alliances and particularly on the European alliance, the NATO alliance. Yes.
And Secretary of State Pompeo is in France at the moment. I understand from talking to French diplomats that this was at the request of the United States. We think that he's going to be talking about Afghanistan. You know, they do not want the U.S. to pull troops precipitously out of Afghanistan or Iraq without peace proposal on the ground.
And you know, things like obviously terrorism, the transatlantic allies and the transition.
KING: Right. There is this famous photo we can put it up of the president at one of the summit meetings where he's got his arms crossed and everybody is standing around him.
You know, they haven't had communiques as they normally at many of these meetings because the president simply refuses to go along. Is that the biggest relief from these global leaders that they know Biden is an internationalist? They know he will hug, embrace, and support the NATO alliance. They know on Day One he will rejoin the Paris Climate Accords.
Is that they biggest relief that instead of this America First, they have an America reengaged in the world?
AMANPOUR: You know, John, I do think that is the case. I mean look, you cannot underestimate or overestimate the chaos of the disruption by not just an America first, an America only transactional policy over the last four years. And you mentioned some of them. The Climate accord, the Iran nuclear deal, not to mention WHO which the U.S. has pulled out of.
All these major, major actions that are needed to keep the temperature down and the security high. So I think people are going to be very, very eager. They welcome a more normal, you know, return to a respect for transatlantic alliances and multilateral world order that in fact, it was the United States which helped create and pioneer for 75 years since the end of World War II.
And they have been incredibly -- an I've spoken to, you know, many leaders over the past week of this election. When stop the count shenanigans happened in Washington, they were appalled. I mean I had a senior German official say the United States taught us how to have a peaceful democracy after the war. And we can't believe what we're watching right now.
KING: And that has been one of the lessons the former president Barack Obama, criticizing not only President Trump for refusing to concede but even putting more blame on Republican Party leaders who is enable him saying it sends a dangerous signal. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm more troubled by the fact that other Republican officials who clearly know better are going along with this, are humoring him in this fashion. It is one more step in delegitimizing not just the incoming Biden administration but democracy generally, and that's a dangerous path.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The forces that brought Trump to power in Washington are global. Brexit, nationalism, fear of globalism, some would say xenophobia or nationalism and you see it across elections in Europe. We've seen it in recent years, far right parties, nationalist parties.
Do folks across the pond and around the world think that Trump's defeat is the end of that or do they think we're just at a cross roads?
AMANPOUR: Well, they're hoping that it brings back a level of respect for democracy and the democratic process. And they hope that when you don't have the occupant in the most powerful office in the word pretty much as the presidency of the United States.
When that particular office holder does not denigrate democracy, the values of human rights and all of that, that will stop giving a lesson, will stop enabling and encouraging those who are autocrats around the rest of the world who for the last four years have been able to say it's happening in the United States.
You know, everything from fake news against a free and independent media to attacking the democratic institutions. So I think that is a very, very big issue. The alliance, allies welcome it. Obviously, adversaries are also looking at it, because for them, any chaos or disruption of institutions in the United States, they feel it's an advantage to them. But you know, even Erdogan in Turkey is not meeting with Pompeo. Neither him nor the foreign minister. It's interesting to see they want to get on with the business of doing business with the incoming and the next president of the United States.
KING: It is a fascinating moment here in the United States with its impact around the world.
Christiane Amanpour, grateful for your time this Sunday.
AMANPOUR: Thank you.
KING: Up next for us, 2020's mixed messages. A Democratic president but Republican gains in the House and now control of the Senate comes down to two January runoffs in Georgia.
[08:44:57]
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KING: The 2020 election cycle is not over. In fact, some of it will carry over into 2021 and 2020 is giving us a mixed message, you might say. Look, we know Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States and we know his win is impressive.
He flipped Georgia. He flipped Arizona. He's getting more than 78 million votes. That's a record for a presidential candidate. And he's winning 306 electoral college votes. That's the same number Donald Trump won four years ago he called it an overwhelming landslide. So a big win for Biden. We do know that.
But let's look at house races now. The house races are fascinating. Democrats came into this with the majority. Right? They will still have the majority. These are the races that we've call so far. That guarantees 219 Democratic seats. It guarantees Nancy Pelosi will be speaker again.
But look at this. Still a dozen races that have not been called. Now some of this might change. But if it came out roughly like this, that means the Democrats would lose 10 seats in an election where they thought they might gain ten or more seats.
So there's a lot of infighting and finger pointing among Democrats over who is to blame for this. Speaker Pelosi says all will be fine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: As I said, we had a very big win in the last election. It is smaller now. But it is not -- we still have the power of the majority.
[08:49:50]
PELOSI: But on top of that, our leverage and our power is greatly enhanced by having a Democratic president in the White House. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The biggest remaining question, who will control the Senate come January. There are two runoffs. Two runoff elections in early Georgia, both in Georgia, right. Two Republican incumbents. Here is the math heading into them.
50 Republicans, 48 Democrats. Meaning Democrats need to win them both. 50/50 means Vice President Harris would break the tie in the Senate. This is it. This will be settled in early January. So 2020 will carry over to 2021. Voters in Georgia will decide is Mitch McConnell the majority leader or back in the minority?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): We just had our leadership elections for the leadership team the next two years. And we are ready to get going even though there is some suspense about exactly whether we will be in the majority or not which will be answered in Georgia on January 5th.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Joining us now is Jonathan Martin of "The New York Times". And Jonathan it is interesting, 2020 will carry over into 2021. And you have a great piece in the newspaper today. We're sorting through the rubble essentially.
What message did voters send? And it's a mixed message. Joe Biden won the presidency. It's an overwhelming big win. Losses for the Democrats in the House.
You write this about the warning signs for Democrats. "While Mr. Biden rebuilds the Democrats blue wall reclaiming the swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, he carried them by a fraction of the margins former President Barack Obama achieved. As long as Republicans manage to amass enormous leads with working class white voters. Those states may not be safely Democratic any time soon.
Just as troubling to the party, Democrats sagged with voters of color particularly in Hispanic and Asian American communities where Republican attacks on Democrats as a left wing party appear to have resonated."
So Joe Biden will be president but he has internal family issues, if you will, plus he has lost some voters?
JONATHAN MARTIN, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Yes. And I think the larger message from voters, John. This country is at war in this period political trench warfare in America. And to me 2020 reflected a continuation essentially, not a break but the same story that we have had 2016 and 2018 and now 2020 where the country is pulling further apart.
Folks who live in cities, enclosed in suburbs, and increasingly vote for Democrats. But if you look at sort of the ex-urb, and suburban rural areas they are getting much, much more GOP leaning.
And that is a real break as recently as 2008 where President Obama won a commanding victory and brought House and Senate Democrats with him, did well in rural and urban areas alike, we're just in a much more polarized moment, John.
KING: A much more polarized moment. And so the Democrats have governing challenges and a little family finger pointing over what happened. And Republicans have Trump. He will leave the White House in 66 days but he still has a firm grip on the party. He got a ton of votes, turned out his voters Biden just outperformed him in turns of turnout.
You mentioned, you talk about the Republican problems this way. "Senator Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who just won an easier than expected re-election without ever endorsing Mr. Trump said the president is, quote, "an important voice but not the dominant voice in the party".
MARTIN: Right.
KING: She points to next generation figures like Marco Rubio of Florida, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. It's President Trump's supporters party, said Ron Johnson of Wisconsin who faces reelection in 2022. That's a group of people I think the Republican Party wants to hang on to.
Are both of them a little naive? They are kind of suggesting that this is about other people or just about Trump voters? He not going anywhere.
MARTIN: He is not. And look, I think both parties are having a sobering moment right now after the high of the results the first couple of days. Democrats defeating Trump, of course, was their apex and Republicans doing better in the House and potentially holding the senate was their unexpected good news.
I think both are now sort of waking up and they're feeling a bit of a hangover. Why? Because the GOP is still the Trump party. The president won't concede, John. He's not going to go away. And even if he does eventually concede effectively by leaving the White House he clearly wants to keep control of the party.
And that's going to be a challenge going forward because Democrats are going to keep running against Trump as long as he is still in the picture and Republicans can't fully detach from him.
And for Democrats, John, the only thing that was keeping their coalition together the last year or more was a shared enemy in Donald Trump, a common adversary in Donald Trump.
And now that President Trump is not the president any more even though he is still around, their coalition is frayed because they are such a big coalition and they have got folks on the far left and the political middle. And now they have governing responsibilities. And so I think both of these parties, John, are being put to the test because they have enormous inter pressures that the GOP with Trump and Democrats obviously with their sort of ungainly base from far left to middle.
KING: A dramatic 2020 but a lot still to sort out as we shift through the end of the year and it's 2021.
[08:54:58]
KING: Jonathan Martin of "The New York Times", grateful for your reporting and your insights.
Fabulous piece today, folks. Pour some coffee and read it.
And that's it for us on INSIDE POLITICS. Hope you can catch us weekdays as well. We're here at noon Eastern.
Up next, don't go anywhere. A very busy "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER".
Jake's guests include Dr. Anthony Fauci, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Georgia's Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock.
Thanks again for sharing your Sunday. Have a great day. Stay safe.
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