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The Situation Room
SpaceX To Make History With First Fully Operational Mission To ISS; Trump Tweets Biden Won Because Of Rigged Election; Interview With Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) About Coronavirus Outbreak; Trump Stonewalls Transition To Biden During Pandemic. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired November 15, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:22]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM.
There's breaking news we're following right now here on CNN. The country with the highest number of coronavirus cases by far reaches another terrible milestone. We're talking about the United States of America. Now reporting more than 11 million people either have contracted or are actively infected with the coronavirus. 11 million Americans here in the United States alone. One million new infections, get this, one million new infections in just the last six days.
No other single country around the world has so many cases. And in the wake of this truly awful news, this worsening national health emergency, we are hearing nothing from the president of the United States about the surging number of cases. The record-shattering number of people who need to be hospitalized and the heartbreaking number of people dying. More than 1200 people died here in the United States from COVID-19 just, just on Saturday.
President Trump today instead of acknowledging this truly horrific news from a position of leadership, he once again played golf at his resort outside Washington, D.C., in northern Virginia. We also learned today he has not attended a Coronavirus Task Force meeting in five months.
And he sent out numerous tweets today starting early in the morning, baseless accusations and proven lies about the election he fairly lost to Joe Biden, an election he continues to call rigged and unfair.
All of those stories coming up in just a moment. But first I want to take you live to Florida's Kennedy Space Center where we are only minutes away from a truly historic moment in the history of manned space exploration.
Rachel Crane is joining us now from the scene. Rachel, set the scene for us.
RACHEL CRANE, CNN INNOVATION AND SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, right now, as you just said, we are minutes away from what should be a very historic launch here at Kennedy Space Center. This is set to be the first operational mission for SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. Four astronauts are on board, NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and also JAXA astronaut, Soichi Noguchi, from the Japanese Space Agency.
Now back in May, as you remember, Wolf, there was a very historic launch here from Kennedy Space Center of Demo -- what they call Demo 2. Now that was the first crewed launch of Crew Dragon. But the whole purpose of that was to certify it for human space flight. And that is what has now occurred this week and that's why we are seeing these four astronauts on board and set to soon take off here from Kennedy Space Center.
Now right now, we know that the Falcon 9 rocket is being loaded with over a million pounds of propellent. That propellent is liquid oxygen which they refer to as LOX, and RP-1 which is essentially rocket-grade kerosene.
Now what you'll start to see soon is some steam coming off of the Falcon 9, what looks like steam, rather. But it's really just a vaporized liquid oxygen fuel that I mentioned that you see sort of producing that vapor-like steam around the rocket.
But, Wolf, this is really the point when I start to get the butterflies in my stomach because we are just minutes away from this historic launch. And, you know, there's a lot of firsts happening here today. One of them is that Victor Glover is the first black astronaut that will be making a long-duration stay on the International Space Station. All of these astronauts are planning to stay on board ISS for six months.
Now of course there's been many black astronauts who have traveled to space over a dozen of them, but none of them have done a long-duration stay. So Victor himself will be making history today. So a lot of -- to be excited about here.
Another interesting little tidbit, Wolf, is that there will be seven astronauts on board the International Space Station once they rendezvous, which will be in 27 hours after they have lift off. But there's only six sleeping quarters. So Mike Hopkins, the commander of this Crew Dragon, which they have nicknamed Resilience in honor of the very -- the resilience that the team has had to show to get them to this point, to get them to launch, he has drawn the short straw, so to speak.
And the plan is to have him actually sleep in Crew Dragon, that is until they have another sleeping quarter -- a proper sleeping quarters on board. As you pointed out, we are really just minutes away here.
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The crew access arm has been retracted. That also means that the launch aboard the escape system has been alarmed. Crew Dragon has a very unique capability. It has an end-to-end abort capability which is something that NASA says makes Crew Dragon potentially the safest spacecraft they've ever flown. That's because from pad to ascent, all across the ascent path, they have the ability to abort, push themselves, jettison themselves away from the Falcon 9 in the, you know, unlikely event of an emergency.
But as of now, Wolf, all systems are a go so we are crossing our fingers and toes that this launch takes off at 7:27 p.m. this evening.
BLITZER: Just minutes from now. We're so excited. We so admire these astronauts. They are amazing, amazing, amazing.
All right, Rachel, we'll get back to you. Stand by.
But there's other really important news we're also following right now. I want to go to CNN's Jeremy Diamond over at the White House for us.
Jeremy, the president in the morning today sort of signaled he may finally, finally be coming to terms with reality, with the outcome of the election that Joe Biden will in fact be the next president of the United States. But that changed very quickly. He is still adamantly refusing to concede defeat while citing a string of conspiracy theories out there. So update our viewers on the latest. What are you learning?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. For a brief moments with those two words, "he won," President Trump today appeared to briefly acknowledge the reality that Joe Biden won the presidential election, that he is the president-elect. But then what followed in the rest of that tweet and in a series of tweets throughout today was the same series of lies and falsehoods that we have seen from the president as it relates to the 2020 election and his baseless allegations of voter fraud that he has been making.
The president in a follow-up tweet a couple of hours later after he said those two words "he won" then went on to say that I concede nothing, making very clear that he is not yet prepared to concede this presidential election, Wolf. And what we saw from the president was also making very clear that he intends to continue pursuing these lawsuits.
In a tweet this evening the president said that essentially even though most of the legal challenges that have happened in the last week or so have been either denied by the courts or dropped by those lawyers, the president intends to present more cases to courts in key battleground states over the coming days.
And, Wolf, remarkably, while the president, his tweeter feed has been filled with these allegations about voter fraud in the 2020 election, we have seen almost nothing from the president today as it relates to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the fact that over the last six days we have seen over one million cases of coronavirus in the United States. Records being broken every single day in terms of new daily coronavirus case that are creeping up towards more than 200,000.
The president making clear that while he is focused on these allegations of voter fraud, he is doing almost nothing and showing almost no leadership as it relates to this pandemic.
BLITZER: And the latest forecasts, another 70,000 or so Americans could be dead from coronavirus between now and January 20th. The inauguration of the next president of the United States, Joe Biden.
Jeremy, stand by. I want to get back to you.
As the president focuses in on these baseless claims of election fraud, his refusal to concede, the country clearly is sinking further and further into a truly crippling health crisis. Once again, with more than 11 million cases of the virus in this country now confirmed. That's the highest in the world. Some states including Michigan are implementing sweeping new restrictions in an effort to try to stem the outbreak.
The Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, is joining us now live.
Governor, thank you so much for joining us. I know you just announced major new restrictions within the last hour alone. Tell us what you announced. Give us a few of the major developments. These are serious efforts on your part to save lives.
GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): Yes, that's right, Wolf. So we are listening, of course, to our public health experts, our epidemiologists and we know that we are seeing spread all across the country and certainly here in Michigan as a result of social gatherings. Any place where there are people from more than one household coming together inside as our weather starts to get cooler here in Michigan and on the cusp of flu season, we know this is going to be inherently more dangerous.
But certainly, community spread is a reality here and we have to get serious in order to save lives. And so curtailing these indoor gatherings of groups is the key to getting these numbers down and saving lives.
BLITZER: What about a lockdown? Is that at all being considered, a complete lockdown for the state of Michigan?
WHITMER: You know, we had a stay-home order back in March. It was when we had exponential spread, but back then, we didn't even know that masks were the single-best weapon we have against this common enemy. We've learned a lot about COVID-19 in the intervening months. We've built up PPE. We've got a lot more at our disposal in terms of combatting this.
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But people are fatigued and that's why getting at the heart of where we see the spread, which is these indoor group gatherings, is really the key to bringing these numbers down and we're going to do this for three weeks. If everyone does their part, we will see a big benefit from it. But we'll be assessing it every step of the way.
BLITZER: So there will only be remote learning in all high schools, you're saying, as well as all colleges and universities in Michigan? WHITMER: Yes, that's right. We know that when you see spread happening
in schools, in large part, it is the high school ages. These are kids who have more contacts every single day. These are also kids who can adapt to remote learning, online learning easier than younger students. And so for these reasons, we thought it made sense to get them out of the classrooms and let the local communities decide if they want to extend that policy to younger grades as well.
BLITZER: I wonder if you want to respond, there was a tweet that Dr. Scott Atlas, who's one of the top advisers to the president on coronavirus, even though he's not an epidemiologist, he's a neuroradiologist, he just tweeted this. And let me get your reaction to what he tweeted. He said, "The only way this stops is if the -- if people rise up. You get what you accept, #freedommatters. Step up."
What do you make of that? He seems to be responding to your order -- specific order in Michigan which he released within the past hour.
WHITMER: We know that the White House likes to single us out here in Michigan, me out in particular. I'm not going to be bullied into not following reputable scientists and medical professionals. We listen to people like Zeke Emanuel and Ashish Jha, Scott Gottlieb, (INAUDIBLE), these are people that we consult in addition to our phenomenal public health experts at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, our chief medical executive.
I listen to the people that actually have studied and are well respected worldwide on these issues, not the -- not the individual that is doing the president's bidding on this one.
BLITZER: While I have you, Governor, I want to turn to what happened here in the presidential election. The president's legal team, as you know, has at least five lawsuits filed in your state, Michigan, aimed to try to block President-elect Joe Biden from being the certified winner there. Biden carried Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, that so-called blue wall that we all are so familiar with.
Any concerns that you have, that your lawyers have, that these lawsuits will affect the actual outcome?
WHITMER: No, because the margin was about 14 times greater than when the president won Michigan in 2016. Joe Biden won it 14 times larger margin. The lawsuits to date have been largely meritless and determined so by the judges. They haven't even attached the appropriate documentation to some of them. So I don't think that it's serious litigation and the people of Michigan participated in a historic, fair, free and secure election and the result stands for itself.
BLITZER: Do you expect any delay, possible delay in certifying the results of the election in Michigan?
WHITMER: I do not.
BLITZER: The president, as you know, he's -- we've discussed this in the past. He's considering various people for his cabinet. We discussed this the other day when you joined me. Any additional thoughts about possibly joining the incoming Biden administration?
WHITMER: You know what, I am excited about the group that President- elect Biden is going to assemble for his cabinet. He will have some of the most talented people on the face of the earth and I know that it will be truly representative of the great diversity of this country and bring incredible expertise and as the governor of Michigan, I look forward to working with all of them to get our mutual agendas accomplished.
BLITZER: Well, maybe you'll become secretary of state because you're very, very diplomatic, Governor. Thank you so, so much, for joining us.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer, she's got a lot going on in Michigan right now. Good luck. I know you've got your hands full over there. Appreciate it very much.
WHITMER: Thank you.
BLITZER: As President Trump refuses to concede to President-elect Joe Biden, the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is saying that it is directly, directly affecting the nation's fight against this deadly virus.
Plus, we're only a few minutes away until history will be made. We're going live to the Kennedy Space Center for the launch of today's NASA SpaceX capsule to the International Space Station.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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BLITZER: All right. Take a look at this, live pictures coming in from the Kennedy Space Center. We're now under nine minutes away. Four astronauts aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will make history when they launch into space to the International Space Station. We're going to of course bring you live coverage of that once it happens.
In the meantime, there's other critically important news we're following. 66 days until the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. But President Trump is clinging to the mistaken notion that he can still win the election. His failure to face facts is severely hampering transition efforts that are part of every incoming administration.
CNN's Jessica Dean is joining us right now on the challenges facing the incoming Biden transition team.
Jessica, lots of areas where transition is so critically important. I've covered transitions over the years, but especially when it comes right now to fighting this deadly pandemic. How dangerous is it that the Trump Coronavirus Task Force is still not meeting with the Biden task force?
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, look, lives are on the line. I don't think it's overdramatic to say that. We're dealing with this pandemic that is surging, as you were just talking about, all across the country. And looking at some very dark facts in terms of that coronavirus pandemic and how it's spreading all across the United States. The Biden transition team knows this. The coronavirus pandemic is its number one priority. It's done what it can by announcing its Coronavirus Advisory Board last week.
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But because the General Services Administration hasn't signed off yet on the formal transition process, they're not allowed access to the federal agencies that they need to be talking to plan for this transition. And a transition during a presidential election from administration to administration is always a monumental undertaking. But when there is a pandemic of this magnitude, you can imagine how much more difficult it is right now.
They're not allowed to talk to the Health and Human Services officials about a vaccine distribution. The newly named chief of staff Ron Klain was in an interview today saying how important it is that they're able to coordinate with them when it comes to that.
We also heard from Dr. Fauci about what this means. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Of course it would be better if we could start working with them. The period of measured in several weeks to months is really important in a smooth handing over of the information as well as -- it's almost like passing the baton in a race. You don't want to stop and then give it to somebody. You want to just essentially keep going and that's what transition is. So it certainly would make things more smoothly if we could do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: Now we know that the Biden transition team has been kind of going and back channeling with local officials. They're also going to be talking with the drug companies Pfizer and others this week, trying to coordinate with them about potential vaccines and distributions as well.
But, Wolf, until they can get that formal access and really get in there, it's hard to do what they want to do which is expand testing, expand contact tracing, increase production of PPE, all of these things are going to take talking with the federal agencies -- Wolf.
BLITZER: It's so, so critically important. It's a matter of saving lives.
Jessica Dean, reporting for us. Thank you.
Joining us now, an official member of the Biden transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, Dr. Celine Gounder, the former New York City commissioner of health. Dr. Gounder, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks so much for what
you're doing. As you heard, Dr. Fauci puts it very plainly, of course it would help to be sharing this kind of critically important, life- saving information at this point.
How dangerous, Dr. Gounder, is it that you're not already working with the Trump task force with Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, Dr. Redfield and the others? Aren't all of you losing precious time and potentially thousands of American lives?
DR. CELINE GOUNDER, FORMER NYC ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF HEALTH: Wolf, we are at war. We are at war with the coronavirus. And I know you'll appreciate this having been a Pentagon correspondent back in the day. This would be like we fighting an armed conflict with another country and we are not being told where the aircraft carriers and the tanks and the troops are.
It is impossible to figure out a plan and to marshal the resources we have if we don't have the critical information as to supplies of personal protective equipment, how many hospital beds are full, how many ventilators, to really have granular data on what's available to us and to start moving forward on your planning.
BLITZER: Last night we heard from the U.S. surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams, here's what he had to say about information-sharing with you and the transition team.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: There is no information that we have that we don't share with the American public in general and that is not available to the Biden task force.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: What's your reaction when you hear that?
GOUNDER: Well, he's basically saying -- and I have met and know Jerome Adams a little bit. He is a very nice guy in person. But, you know, I think what's important is that this is what is publicly available information that we're supposed to be relying on, not the full breadth of information and depth of information that is available to him and the rest of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. And if we are meant to be taking over from them, we really need to have the same level of briefing and data as they have.
BLITZER: We got to go to the SpaceX launch in a moment, Dr. Gounder. But is there one specific area of expertise you need to know from the outgoing administration?
GOUNDER: You know, I think we really need to be engaging in discussions with the pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer. We need to be engaging directly in conversations with some of the other private sector players like CVS and Walgreens that will be very instrumental to scaling up vaccines. And with companies that are helping produce diagnostics. I think it's impossible to seamlessly pick up a handover and to make sure that those technologies are scaled up and distributed without being in on those conversations now.
BLITZER: Dr. Gounder, thank you so much for joining us. We'll continue this conversation. Of course good luck to you. Good luck to the entire incoming team. You guys are going to have your hands full. As I said, these are life-and-death issues. Appreciate it very much.
[19:25:03]
All right. We're only about three minutes away from SpaceX. It will make history once again this year. Take a look at these live pictures coming in from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Joining us now for this exciting historic moment, CNN aviation and space reporter Rachel Crane. She's back with us. Also with us, CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien and former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.
Rachel, first to you, give us a sense right now, what are you hearing? What are they doing right now? We're only, what, two minutes and four seconds away.
CRANE: Well, Wolf, I got to tell you, you can feel the energy in the air. I know Scott and Miles are very familiar with it when you're just minutes away from launch like this. You can feel the energy and the excitement.
Now we do know that Dragon has transitioned to internal power and that vapor that you're seeing around the Falcon 9, that is the vaporization of the liquid oxygen fuel that they have been loading into the Falcon 9. So any minute here, we should hopefully if all goes to plan have liftoff and 27 hours later, these astronauts will be docking with the International Space Station. But this is -- you know, we're coming down to that critical go, no go which happens 45 minutes before launch.
And that's when, you know, the engine controller commands for the engine to start the ignition sequence. And at that point, it's really the computers doing the job. And something that's interesting to point out about this launch, that if all goes to plan, the astronauts will really be more in a monitoring mode. They won't actually even be piloting the spacecraft. That's because Crew Dragon is intended to be flown autonomously.
So the computers really are supposed to just take over here and the astronauts can really be in a monitoring mode. But I'm sure you can hear the excitement in my voice, Wolf. Because we are just seconds away.
BLITZER: All right. Rachel, stand by. You know what, we're only about 40 seconds away. Let's just listen and watch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger, go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go for launch and at 37 seconds, the International Space Station flying over Kennedy Space Center. Crew Dragon poised to go catch it. 20 seconds until liftoff.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: T-minus 15 seconds. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero. Ignition. Liftoff.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Resilience rises. Not even gravity contains humanity when we explore as one for all.
That's what we want to hear. Stage one propulsion is nominal. Thirty seconds into this historic mission flying crew on board Dragon and Falcon 9. Stage one is preparing to throttle down. This is in preparation from Max Q which is maximum aerodynamic pressure.
There's that call out for throttle down. Power and telemetry continue to be nominal for the vehicle now traveling at 262 meters per second.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Falcon 9 is supersonic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's the call that Falcon 9 is supersonic and we will be passing through max-Q here shortly. The largest structural load during ascent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Max Q.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's that callout. That Falcon 9 has passed through Max Q.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we've just entered stage one bravo aboard mode. That's going to take them through the end of the first stage burning just before second stage activates off the coast of North Carolina. T-plus one minute and 40 second into flight Dragon and Falcon 9 traveling 700 and nine meters per second. That call that MVac chill is under way. The Merlin vacuum engine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now with the callout of MVac chilling, similar to what we saw in the first stage, Merlin engines, the second stage engine being prepared for its ignition coming up in just over 30 seconds from now. We're a half a minute way from three quick events in rapid succession. We're going to get main engine cutoff, the nine Merlyn engines will throttle down and then shut down. We're going to get stage separation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stage one throttle down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then ignition of the second stage engine. We begin the throttle down in preparation for stage separation.
[19:30:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For stage separation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stage separation confirmed.
[APPLAUSE]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you see that stage separation has confirmed, there goes that MVAC engine. Stage two: The crew one is now on their way to the International Space Station.
On the right side of your screen, you see stage two continuing to burn. Over on the left hand side is stage one preparing for its return to Earth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Currently, on the left side, you can't make out much. It is a couple hours after sunset in Florida, but the grid fins have deployed on the first stage.
The first stage is now unpowered, but with the velocity ahead, it continues to coast up to an Apogee before it begins to descend back into Earth's atmosphere.
Now, as we watch, maybe we'll see the lights of Florida or the Eastern Seaboard in the background. But otherwise, there's not going to be much to see.
BLITZER: On that note, Miles O'Brien, you've watched a lot of these historic moments in space history. Tell us what we've just seen and what we're about to see in the next few minutes.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, what we're seeing is that the very difficult struggle of pulling ourselves away from the force of gravity.
This is about eight and a half minutes of terror for anybody who really pays much attention to this.
Essentially, what you've done is you've got the force of more or less a small nuclear weapon going out those nozzles in a controlled fashion, with four soles on top, and at the end of all that combustion, with any luck, they will unbuckle their seat belts, and things will just start floating and all of a sudden, they will be quiet and they will be in space.
But that eight to half minute ride is a perilous ride, indeed, Wolf. This is a different way to get to space. You and I have many times talked about space shuttle launches in the midst of them.
The crew members on space shuttles did not have a practical way of ejecting or getting out during the launch portion of the flight.
This crew has a crew escape system. It is essentially rockets that are on top of the capsule itself, which allow the capsule to be separated from the stack -- that is a stack with all that force in it and get them safely down to earth.
So there are many more safety features that are inherent to this kind of flying, and then on top of that, what you're seeing is a fundamentally different way of writing the check to pay for it.
NASA is doing this as a big customer of SpaceX. SpaceX builds it on its own with supervision, but not the kind of supervision the space shuttle had, and is allowed to sell seats to other people, and NASA is one of them.
So this is a big shift on so many levels. It's safer. It's cheaper and it portends a whole new era in space -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, it's an amazing development that's going on. You've got to give a lot of credit to Elon Musk for helping to put this whole SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in the works.
Scott Kelly, you're a retired NASA astronaut. Take us inside and tell us what's going on with these four astronauts: Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and so Soichi Noguchi?
SCOTT KELLY, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, one thing that Miles didn't mention, Wolf, is that despite it being -- you mentioned it being risky, and that's true, but it's also a lot of fun, and I'm sure they're enjoying the ride, even though they are doing their jobs, which are monitoring the systems in case something would happen would go wrong in there, if there was a way that they could, you know, interact.
The space shuttle actually was very similar in that the crew didn't do a whole lot on ascent. They always had the potential of having to do an incredible amount of work in the shuttle.
But, you know, like SpaceX, the shuttle was basically automated throughout the whole launch.
BLITZER: And so, are they talking to each other or are they -- can you just give us a little sense of what's it like, at a critical moment like this?
KELLY: Yes, they're probably being pretty quiet. They are looking at their displays, monitoring, mostly probably the abort boundaries, the -- you know, the performance of the engines and the systems on board.
I'm sure they are, you know, doing some nonverbal communication, too, which we often did, just pointing to things and, you know maybe hitting the other person on the arm, hey, look at this.
You know, trying to keep quiet and you know, as much as possible, so the -- you know, because the ground is listening into what they are saying.
So, you know, it's probably a fairly quiet ride, but I'm sure, they are exchanging some smiles with each other and enjoying this incredible privilege that they have of flying in space.
[19:35:17]
BLITZER: Yes, and these, you know, Scott, these are pretty sensitive moments right now, potentially the most dangerous, right?
KELLY: Well, sure, anytime you're -- you know, you're flying on a rocket and the rocket motor is firing, it is pretty, you know, risky proposition.
The engine is getting ready to shut down here pretty soon. I'm not exactly sure of their Mico time, but it is probably in the next minute or so, and then there will be, like Miles said, floating in zero gravity, all the stuff that might not be secured floating along with them.
But I'm sure they are feeling a little bit more at ease now because the launch sequence is almost completed.
BLITZER: Yes, it's a major moment, Miles, walk us through once the engine shuts down, walk us through what's going to happen.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, of course, Scott was showing off by talking about how much fun it is. We all wish we had the opportunity, right, Wolf? But once they unstrap, there'll be some high fives and finally a moment to, you know, communicate about what just happened.
It's noisy. You want to maintain what we call in aviation a sterile cockpit, listening to the calls, making sure there aren't any abort scenarios, and then that tremendous relief once you get into orbit.
You know, and frankly, statistically, a few of them are going to not feel so great. Space adaptation sickness is a real thing and that might happen.
But once they get through all that phase, they will kind of bat things down and get out of those suits, get a little more comfortable and begin the ride to the International Space Station that will get them there at about 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday, tomorrow, at which time they would dock and begin a six-month tour on the International Space Station.
Once you get into the zero gravity world of low Earth orbit, things get a little less frenetic.
WOLF: And Rachel, walk us through what is going to happen 27 hours from now when they get aboard, get on the International Space Station. They are going to be there for six months.
RACHEL CRANE, CNN BUSINESS INNOVATIONS AND SPACE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. I just want to draw your attention to what we're seeing on the screen right now. There you see the first stage booster has successfully landed on the drone ship.
Now, this is something that SpaceX has been able to do over 60 times at this point. It's pretty routine. But it's really a key part of their whole strategy. It's all about reuse.
So that booster that you see there will hopefully after it is refurbished, be reused on the next Crew Dragon mission, which, if all goes to plan will be in the spring.
And the spacecraft that they will be flying will be the same one that Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley flew in May on that first crewed mission.
Of course, the whole idea of reuse is to drive down the cost of space exploration.
You know, also important to point out the whole point of the Commercial Crew Program here, which is what led to the creation of Crew Dragon. Plus, to have a homegrown way of getting back to the International Space Station, we haven't had that since the retirement of the shuttle program back in 2011 and we've paid the Russians over $4 billion over the years to transport our astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station. That's a pretty penny, of course.
Now, the whole idea behind reuse, as I pointed out can drive down the cost of space exploration. NASA-SpaceX estimate that a seat on Crew Dragon is only $55 million. We recently paid the Russians over $90 million for a seat on their Soyuz.
So really, a key point of driving down the cost of space exploration is the ability to reuse and seeing that booster land on that drone ship, you know is beauty to everybody at SpaceX and NASA because it really highlights that that is now regularly happening -- Wolf.
BLITZER: You know, Scott, three of the crew members, Shannon Walker, Michael Hopkins, and Soichi Noguchi, he is from Japan, have been in space before. How useful is that experience, as opposed to going up for the first time?
KELLY: Well, it's going to be incredibly useful, especially once they get on the space station for the first month or so. The last time Shannon Walker was in space was 10 years ago and I closed the hatch on her when they were leaving. Her, Doug Wheelock, and Fyodor Yurchikhin.
And in my first month that I was there, I don't think I could have really, even though I had flown in space twice before on the Space Shuttle, I don't even think I would have been able to perform my job very well if it wasn't for her help.
So you know their experience, all of them is going to be great. Yes, I'm really happy for Victor. This is his first flight. That's an incredible experience, but also Mike Hopkins, my crew support astronaut for my year in space mission.
[19:40:10]
KELLY: Soichi Noguchi is one of my classmates, so I'm really happy for all of them. And they are a very, very experienced crew. And, you know, they're going to have a very, very successful mission, I'm sure on the International Space Station.
BLITZER: Yes, Victor Glover, 44 years old. He is the pilot of this mission. Shannon Walker is 55, Michael Hopkins, 51; and Soichi Noguchi is 55 years old. So they're not teenagers, by any means. They are really experienced, Miles. They obviously all know exactly what they are doing.
O'BRIEN: Absolutely, you know, the amount of training that a crew goes through to get to this moment, it's hard to overstate it, and you know, in the course of it, not only do they learn a lot of things about what they are supposed to do on a technical front, but they bond in a very significant way. They truly become like family.
So this experience is for them is like, you know, a family outing. It's just that this particular Winnebago happens to be 250 miles above us orbiting and talk about the ultimate road trip.
So I think I think what you're going to see is, as you always see, a well-trained group of astronauts, combining efficiency getting the job done. But as Scott reminds us, they're having some fun, too. And in a certain sense, we all vicariously get a little piece of that thrill.
BLITZER: You know, Rachel, tell our viewers what these four astronauts are going to do once they get to the International Space Station in 27 hours. They are going to be there for six months. What is their mission?
CRANE: That's right, Wolf, six months, and that will be the first time that a black astronaut, Victor Glover, will be doing a long duration stay on the International Space Station. They will be doing a lot of critical science.
And actually, there will be seven astronauts onboard the International Space Station, something that hasn't occurred in quite some time. So that's going to significantly increase the amount of science that the astronauts are able to do on board.
Interestingly enough, you know, there's not enough sleeping quarters, actually, for all of the crew. So Mike Hopkins, the Commander of Crew Dragon, drew the short straw so to speak, and he'll apparently be sleeping in Crew Dragon itself, because there's not an actual crew sleeping quarters.
But they will be conducting a ton of research and science while they are on board, and we are seeing now live images of them inside the crew capsule.
Shortly, we will be seeing the Zero G indicator, which everybody always waits to see what that is that shows that they're really in space. And you know, it's usually something that the children of the astronauts have also weighed in on what that item is with Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. We saw that it was this little dinosaur which they would name "Tremor."
So everybody is very anxious. You know, we love these little personal tidbits that the astronauts put, whether it's on the playlist that they listen to when they're on the way over to the pad or The Zero G indicator that they choose. So we'll hopefully be seeing that soon.
But I've got to point out, Wolf, you know, there's not the same amount of media here at Kennedy Space Center that typically would be covering this event, of course, because of the coronavirus.
But I have to tell you, there was still such excitement in the air. You heard cheers, you heard clapping from the spectators here from the members of the media, and normally there would be over a thousand of us.
There's only a handful of us here because they had to be so careful, and NASA and SpaceX taking tremendous precaution to prevent the spread of the virus.
As we know, the astronauts had been in a strict quarantine period before they had liftoff. But you still could feel the energy and the excitement and the celebration of this historic launch -- Wolf.
BLITZER: You know, Scott Kelly, are you surprised that this is all happening in the midst of the corona virus pandemic? You heard Rachel say they were all -- all four astronauts -- were in a very strict quarantine not just a regular quarantine, but a very disciplined quarantine to make sure that obviously, none of them had come down with the virus and gone into space with it, but it seems a bit riskier than usual, is it?
KELLY: Well, I'm not surprised at all, Wolf. We've had astronauts living on the space station for the last 20 years now and I don't think NASA would just give up because of a worldwide pandemic, which is obviously a serious issue.
But, you know, it's what NASA is good at. You know, we look at the problems and we take the appropriate precautions and mitigate the risks. So I think, you know, they are perfectly safe flying in space during this time.
BLITZER: I read, you know, Miles that these four astronauts all have to learn at least some Russian in order to be aboard this International Space Station for six months. Is that right?
O'BRIEN: Yes, on the Space Station, of course, Scott knows a lot about this, but on the Space Station, Russian is spoken and English is spoken, a mix of both. Obviously, when the four crew members on the Dragon right now conduct a conversation, they will do it in English. Soichi Noguchi, very fluent in English, of course.
[19:45:17]
O'BRIEN: But they all learned Russian in order to communicate with the Russian side of the house, and so there's a combination and the Russians have a fair amount of English.
So somehow, someway, they have always managed to communicate. It's worth pointing out, by the way, that Elon Musk is not present at the launch because of testing positive for COVID-19. Two positive tests, two negative tests. But that wasn't enough to reassure NASA and so, he is not there in person. I'm sure he is a bit disappointed about that.
But seeing all of this as we are watching it, it is a great deal of satisfaction, I'm sure for the entire SpaceX team.
BLITZER: Yes, there's no doubt about that. And Scott, Elon Musk, he deserves a lot of credit. This is a commercial venture. This is not -- I mean, they're working with NASA, but this is private enterprise, right?
KELLY: Absolutely. He deserves a ton of credit. I remember when he was talking about landing that the first stage booster on a ship, and you know, I thought he was crazy. NASA looked at that a long time ago, and decided it wasn't feasible and he has done it. You know, he is just an amazing individual.
BLITZER: We salute these four astronauts: Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Soichi Noguchi and we wish them only, only the very best on their 27-hour mission right now to the International Space Station. They are going to be spending six months there, then we will welcome
them back out here to the United States.
Rachel, Miles Scott, guys, thank you very, very much. We all watched history unfold right here on CNN.
Coming up, the President of the United States today doubling down and is completely false conclusion that the election might still go his way. So what kind of knock on effect will this have on the incoming administration? We're going to discuss that and give you new information when we come back.
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BLITZER: President Trump continues stoking baseless and dangerous conspiracy theories that the election was stolen; doubling down today, the Joe Biden only won because it was supposedly rigged. Obviously, that is not true.
And it is critical for the sake of democracy that people understand that Joe Biden was duly elected the next President of the United States, but President Trump who appeared, at least for a few minutes to be coming to terms with his loss quickly refuted that he is refusing to concede to fate and he is promoting all sorts of wild conspiracy theories.
CNN politics reporter editor-at-large, Chris Cillizza is joining us right now. Chris, the President made it very clear. He is not going to leave quietly. How dangerous is all of this? The rhetoric that we see him tweeting about, it seems to be getting worse.
CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yes, it's getting worse, Wolf. Unfortunately, I think it may continue to get worse because Donald Trump isn't about the good of democracy at this point. Donald Trump is about what is good for his base, his business interests going forward in his political future.
And those things, stoking the base, putting, as you know, putting out these pointless and backless conspiracy theories about the vote. If he lost, it was because it was rigged, but he actually didn't lose.
It is all to the bad, it doesn't mean that Joe Biden won't be able to eventually take over, but what it does is it does two things. One, it slows some of these processes that should be happening. The transfer, the transition of power here over these next few weeks and months, and when Joe Biden becomes President on January 20th, he takes over a country that Donald Trump has so poisoned the well when it comes to his followers, that the ability of Joe Biden or anyone else to unify the country or even attempt to unify the country, it's just made that much more difficult.
BLITZER: You think we're going to see the President concede?
CILLIZZA: No, I don't, and honestly, Wolf, if we hadn't talked about this a month ago, prior to the election, I would probably have told you the same thing if he had lost because he had given every indication before the election, he had no plans to because he was laying the groundwork for exactly what we are seeing.
He was planting the seeds for what is coming up now, which is, it is a rigged election because there is mail-in voting. Not true.
There is zero widespread fraud ever proven in either mail-in or in- person voting. So he was already doing that.
I think he has now convinced himself because he is always telling himself a story of his life. He has convinced himself that he didn't, in fact, lose, even though he did.
And so I don't think he will ever concede and I think he will continue to stoke the idea that he might run in 2024. Whether he does or he doesn't, he will continue to do that and keep his followers with him as close as possible, and maybe try to monetize those followers through some sort of next venture for himself.
So I don't think it's in his business or political interest to concede, which means he won't, but of course, it's in democracy's interest to do that. But that's not his concern, unfortunately.
BLITZER: What about the Republican leadership in the House and the Senate? Are they going to come to reality and acknowledge that Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States?
CILLIZZA: Well, it's been slower than I would have hoped, Wolf, simply because you can say as Mitch McConnell does, as others in the Republican leadership do, of course, if there was proven election fraud, we should investigate it. Yes. A hundred percent, I agree. Joe Biden agrees, anyone would agree with that.
The problem is, we can't just keep holding out that line. We at some point have to say, look, we have had a number of instances in which, this has not been proven out.
[19:55:12]
CILLIZZA: Therefore, if I'm Mitch McConnell or the House Leader, Kevin McCarthy, I have to acknowledge this and move on for the good of my party. Sure.
But more importantly, Wolf, the good of the country and I feel like that's getting lost amid all of this politics.
BLITZER: Chris Cillizza, that's an interesting machine you've got behind you. I don't know if you want to explain to our viewers what it is. But I seem to --
CILLIZZA: Yes, this is where I write my --
BLITZER: I think I've seen one of those before.
CILLIZZA: This is connected directly to the internet. I just write right on here, it goes right to the internet.
BLITZER: And you can have carbon paper. You can have everything you need, without issue. Very, very important.
All right, Chris Cillizza. Thank you very, very much.
CILLIZZA: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: Still ahead, even as the President of the United States refuses to concede, the country is still in the midst of a pandemic that is surging across the country right now.
And while he is spreading debunked conspiracy theories about the election, he has been totally silent on the milestones being passed on a daily basis.
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