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Pandemic Raging in U.S. as Trump Blocks Biden Transition; Today: Biden and Harris Deliver Remarks on Economy; Trump Advisor: Michigan Should 'Rise Up' Against Virus Restrictions; Trump Campaign Drops Key Part of PA Election Lawsuit. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 16, 2020 - 06:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The U.S. just surpassed 11 million coronavirus cases. The nation's healthcare system is overrun.

[05:59:35]

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The last time the president was physically at a task force meeting was several months ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Imagine if we are at war with a foreign adversary, and the president has not met with his generals for five months. That's just unimaginable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump is still refusing to concede.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Blocking President-elect Joe Biden from receiving critical COVID-19 data.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joe Biden is going to become president of the United States in the midst of an ongoing crisis. That has to be a seamless transition.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Monday, November 16. It's 6 a.m. here in New York.

And I want you to stop what you're doing and listen to this. Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, West Virginia, Wyoming. Each of those states with a record number of hospitalizations for coronavirus. People so sick with COVID that they need to be admitted to the hospital. I wanted to read them one by one so maybe, maybe it wouldn't just seem like another number.

Don't get me wrong, the numbers are horrible this morning. The highest number of coronavirus cases reported on a Sunday ever. Thirteen straight days with more than 100,000 cases. The most deaths on a Sunday since May.

And with 66 days left in office, the defeated president has moved to a new phase here. No longer just public indifference, which is plenty dangerous in itself. No, now his chief coronavirus adviser, his COVID Rasputin, is actively working against those trying to fight the virus, urging active resistance around the country.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: This week, President-elect Biden's top scientific advisers will meet with drug companies to discuss a coronavirus vaccine, but Biden's chief of staff is warning that it's distribution that is the issue. That's what the transition team needs help with from HHS, but that's being blocked.

CNN has learned it's been five months since President Trump attended a coronavirus task force meeting. What's he doing instead of working on the pandemic? Well, he spent the weekend golfing and firing off angry tweets about his election loss. It -- it appears he is much more concerned about the election than the death toll.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov has more details from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where cases are skyrocketing -- Lucy.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn. It is bad. Nowhere has the disease spread more than the Dakotas, each with more new cases per capita than anywhere else in the country.

Here in South Dakota, the positivity rate is over 50 percent. That's more than ten times the rate the World Health Org -- Organization -- pardon me -- says needs to be cause for concern, and that's sadly just a snapshot of what's happening across the country. The situation, dire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAFANOV (voice-over): Record case numbers and hospitalizations, and more deaths sweeping the nation as the coronavirus pandemic shows no sign of slowing. Sunday marking the 13th consecutive day the country reported more than 100,000 new cases. Nearly 70,000 patients hospitalized nationwide with the virus.

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN COVID-19 ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER: We have got to have help right now, and so I -- I just urge that the last thing we do is support our governors. They are the front lines right now. There is no national leadership on this issue.

KAFANOV: The Biden transition team does not have access to the Trump administration's COVID-19 data and vaccine distribution plans, something Dr. Anthony Fauci is concerned about.

FAUCI: It's almost like passing a 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.

KAFANOV: Governors from both parties now forced to implement their own mitigation efforts, including shutting down businesses to stop the spread.

In Michigan, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer announcing new restrictions, closing indoor dining in bars and restaurants, urging people to work from home and moving high school and college students to virtual learning.

White House coronavirus task force adviser Dr. Scott Atlas criticizing these measures and suggesting residents to rise up in a tweet.

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): I'm not going to be bullied into not following reputable scientists and medical professionals.

KAFANOV: New Mexico ordering a statewide order, closing all nonessential services for the next two weeks. And in Oregon, in-person dining and gyms closed for at least two weeks to try to curb the number of cases the state is seeing.

DR. ESTHER CHOO, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, OREGON HEALTH AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: It is so hard to ask all of you this again. Many of you cheered and rang bells and put up signs calling us heroes. And we're so grateful for that. Right now, we're asking you to be our heroes.

KAFANOV: In Illinois, a stay-at-home advisory goes into effect today in Chicago.

In North Dakota, the governor announcing new mitigation efforts, including finally implementing a mask mandate. At least two sheriffs already saying they won't enforce it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a nutshell, we will not be enforcing mandates -- mask mandates.

KAFANOV: Despite the state reporting more than 2,200 new cases Saturday, its highest day since the pandemic began.

GOV. DOUG BURGUM (R-ND): Right now, the data demands a higher level of mitigation efforts to reverse these dangerous trends, to slow the spread of the virus, and to avoid the need for any economic shutdowns.

KAFANOV: And in neighboring South Dakota, the state has the highest seven-day moving average of any other state in the country, at nearly 60 percent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAFANOV: And experts are extremely concerned, because it takes a few weeks for the new number of cases to actually translate into hospitalizations. In many states across the country, hospitals are already strained.

And experts are warning that Thanksgiving, they fear, could be another super-spreader event, sending the numbers across the country and here in South Dakota in the wrong direction -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: It's hard to imagine how it could get worse in South Dakota. Lucy, thank you very, very much. [06:05:04]

The pandemic continues to devastate people financially. Over the weekend, a line of cars stretched for miles. Look at your screen. This is outside a Dallas food bank.

Today, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris will speak about the economy in a joint appearance in Wilmington, Delaware, and CNN's Jessica Dean is there for us.

What do they plan to say, Jessica?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Alisyn.

We are expecting to see both of them later this afternoon. We know, first, they're going to get a briefing on the economy. And then we're expecting that they're going to give remarks on the economic recovery and building back better.

Now, that was their campaign slogan. That was what they talked about on the campaign trail. Now it's time for them to turn that into action and to talk about what steps they're going to be taking to get people back on their feet all across the country.

And they know, as well as anybody, that the economy and it coming back is very much tied to getting the coronavirus under control. So expect them to draw that line, as well.

Meantime, as you all mentioned, the transition still stalled in an official way. The transition team saying they're moving ahead at rapid speed. But the general services administration, which is the federal office responsible for signing off on starting the formal transition process, which gives them access to the Health and Human Services employees, which gives them access to the data, and the White House coronavirus task force, that has still not been signed off on.

So they're not allowed to be communicating with them as they're planning for the economic recovery, as they're planning for what they want to do with the coronavirus pandemic.

Here's newly-named chief of staff Ron Klain yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON KLAIN, CHIEF OF STAFF FOR PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN: Joe Biden is going to become president of the United States in the midst of an ongoing crisis. That has to be a seamless transition.

We now have the possibility -- we need to see if it gets approved -- of a vaccine starting perhaps in December, January. There are people at HHS making plans to implement that vaccine. Our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible, so nothing drops in this change of power we're going to have on January 20.

(END VIDEO CLIP) DEAN: They know what a massive logistical challenge it's going to be to distribute this vaccine. That's why they want to get a jump start on it -- a jump on it as soon as possible. They want it to be seamless. They want to be coordinating with the federal officials.

In the meantime, we know the transition team, scientific advisers from the transition team will be meeting with the heads of drug companies, including Pfizer, to talk about the vaccines this week, Alisyn. This as, again, they try to build out this plan while they wait for official access to federal officials -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. Jessica, thank you very much for that update.

So the Trump administration appears to have given up trying to slow down the coronavirus pandemic. And you won't believe what top Trump adviser Scott Atlas said overnight. That's next.

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[06:12:15]

BERMAN: This morning, nearly 70,000 Americans hospitalized with coronavirus, more than ever before. The U.S. reported 100,000 new cases for the 13th day in a row.

Joining us now, CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He's a professor of medicine at George Washington University.

Dr. Reiner, thank you for being with us.

The president has long abdicated responsibility. He won't concede the election, but he's abdicated responsibility for coronavirus. But now going one step even further.

Scott Atlas, his main COVID adviser, his COVID Rasputin, if you will, is now not only abdicating responsibility to battle COVID, but he's actively campaigning against those who are trying.

So Michigan instituting some new restrictions. What does Dr. Atlas do? He tweets, "The only way to stop -- the only way this stops is if people rise up," Dr. Atlas writes. He's asking people to rise up against the COVID measures being put in place in Michigan.

Now, he claims he's not inciting violence, even though people have plotted on the life of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Even if he's not inciting violence, which it does seem to be happening, at least a little bit, he's telling people not to abide by the rules that people are trying to put in place to get beyond this stage of the pandemic. Your reaction?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: He's a menace. You know, it's one thing for Dr. Atlas to have simply wrong medical policy advice to the president. It's another thing for him, essentially, to advocate, you know, insurrection.

So -- so let's talk about Michigan for a second. At the beginning of October, Michigan was averaging about 1,100 COVID cases per day.

On Friday, they had 7,500 cases. So -- so their COVID volume has risen about six-fold in a little over a month.

So in response to that, Governor Whitmer instituted what most people would think would be relatively common-sense restrictions: restricting indoor dining, and theaters, and bowling alleys, and things like that. So in response to that, Dr. Atlas advocates an uprising?

You know, I'll remind you that Dr. Atlas has no medical experience in infectious disease, or epidemiology, or even internal medicine. What he is, essentially, is a libertarian who also just happens to be a doctor.

He's wrongly suggested that younger people are essentially immune to COVID or the effects of COVID. There have been about 50,000 Americans younger -- younger than the age of 65 who have died from COVID.

He has testified before Congress, advocating for herd immunity, a roundly discredited strategy that would result in millions of Americans. And now he basically is advocating for insurrection in a state. He needs to go.

[06:15:09]

CAMEROTA: Doctor, I have spent some time this morning trying to figure out any other explanation beyond dumb or dangerous. There's no other explanation.

Either dumb and doesn't know that words like that incite violence and that there was a domestic terror plot against the governor of Michigan, because she tried to enforce some rules.

Or dangerous in that he's on some sort of dangerous power trip and likes the idea that this would incite violence.

I can't think of another explanation. And I don't know where we go from here.

REINER: Yes, well, Scott Atlas is not dumb. That's the thing. He is dangerous, but he is not -- he is not dumb.

Remember, he gave an interview to RT, and then after the fact, tried to claim that he didn't know that RT is essentially an arm of Russian propaganda. He knows exactly what he's doing. He measures his words very carefully.

Two weeks ago, he tweeted that rising case levels in the United States do not equal rising deaths. Really? How is it possible that this infectious disease can have skyrocketing cases and not translate to more deaths? We're now seeing those deaths rise.

He knows exactly what he's doing, but he's essentially an arm of disinformation for this administration. That's his role.

BERMAN: We had more deaths on this Sunday, yesterday, than we've had on any Sunday since May. So deaths are rising. Hospitalizations are at record numbers.

Obviously, the situation is, is that President-elect Biden talks over, but it's in 66 days. So we need to last 66 days before a new administration comes into place to take things over.

The current administration is not cooperating. Not cooperating at all. And it's standing in the way of the Biden team getting up to speed on key things like vaccine distribution and whatnot.

Listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci talk about the need for coordination. Listen. We don't have Dr. Anthony Fauci. Do we have Ron Klain?

All right. So we don't have any sound -- let's listen to Dr. Fauci.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAUCI: 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 a 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)

BERMAN: That's Dr. Fauci being diplomatic there, obviously, Dr. Reiner.

The Biden team needs to be talking to the doctors and scientists, so that when they come into office on January 20, they can hit the ground running.

REINER: Yes, absolutely. So let's think about what -- what they need to know or what I would want them to know.

They need to know, for instance, PPE supplies. What are the national strategic stockpiles of PPE in the United States? What kind of impediments did this current administration encounter when they tried to get manufacturers to increase production? Why wasn't the Defense Production Act instituted?

What are the stockpiles of therapeutics around -- around this country? You know, how are manufacturers increasing -- increasing that?

What's our testing capacity? What's our capacity to increase testing around -- around the country?

All of these things need to be done in coordination with existing agency personnel. You know, there are some workarounds. You can go direct to manufacturers, but this is crucial information that the administration needs to get ready for the onslaught of hospitalizations and cases that are coming and are happening now.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, thank you very much. We always appreciate talking to you.

REINER: My pleasure.

BERMAN: All right. So last night, maybe you missed this. High drama at the Kennedy Space Center. History being made with this launch to the International Space Station. We'll bring you the very latest on SpaceX and a little bit of the background drama about who was there to see this launch and who wasn't. Stick around.

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[06:23:31]

BERMAN: All right, this morning, we have new numbers in from the vote counting in Pennsylvania, a state that Joe Biden won. Actually, he didn't just win, he won by an expanding margin. More than 68,000 votes so far, and that number is going up. That is well outside the margin for a recount, and maybe that's why the Trump campaign has now withdrawn a key part of its lawsuit against the state in the counting of votes.

CNN's Kristen Holmes joins us with more.

These bogus claims disintegrating by the second here, Kristen.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. So originally, they had claimed that hundreds of thousands of ballots were basically illegally processed and counted, because none of the Trump campaign observers were allowed to watch this process.

And we should note that Republican lawyers in a separate federal court had actually said that that wasn't true and that their own observers had been allowed to watch this process.

Now, there is still a lawsuit that they have filed to try and stop Pennsylvania from certifying Joe Biden as the winner. But this now is all about curing ballots, which is the fixing of those minor errors. They're arguing that Democratic heavy-leaning counties broke the law and contacted voters to tell them that they had minor errors and they could come fix them, whereas Republican-leaning counties, they instead didn't do that and, therefore, disenfranchised potential Trump voters.

There are two big things to note here. One, of course, is the law. What is it? I've spoken to one expert who says that Pennsylvania law says that election officials are not required to contact anyone to fix their ballot, but it's also not prohibited. But of course, we'll let the courts decide on that.

[06:25:06]

But the other is that 68,000-plus number that you mentioned. That is not peanuts. That is a huge margin. And what the experts that we have spoken to have said that a case like this is not going to affect anywhere near that. It wouldn't change the outcome of the election.

So it's unclear what exactly they're trying to do here. But this is coming at a time where we're seeing a lot of these lawsuits across the country that have been filed by Republicans and the Trump campaign, are really grinding to a halt. So we'll have to watch and see where their legal strategy goes from here -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Kristen, thank you very much for that reporting.

Joining us now, we have Anna Palmer, senior White -- senior Washington correspondent for "Politico" and author of "Politico Playbook." And Natasha Alford, vice president of digital content and senior correspondent for TheGrio. Great to see both of you.

Well, Anna, it seems like that plan that a lot of people had to just give President Trump a few days to let his loss sink in and to work through the five stages of grief is not working. And it doesn't seem like there'll be at any point in the next 65 days that he'll accept the outcome or concede.

And it's more than just an annoyance. Obviously, this has ramifications for public health and our international standing on the international stage and other things.

ANNA PALMER, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": Absolutely. Yes, the president seems to still be kind of holding a temper tantrum, frankly. Last night at 11:55, he tweeted in all caps, "I WON THE ELECTION." If that's not what losing sounds like, I don't know what is.

It's unclear how or when he will find a way to pivot off of, you know, this is a rigged election that he's still winning it, even though every single other person, Republicans alike for the most part, are really shaking their heads at him right now.

And to your point, it isn't just, Oh, he's having a temper tantrum. We'll just let him do this for the next several days until the transition of power happens. There's real implications here when it comes to the U.S. security, when it comes to how foreign governments are looking at this.

But also just even the transition of power and making sure that President-elect Joe Biden can get the preparation he needs, the briefings he needs, the money that they need to actually have this transition happen. Right now, that is not happening.

BERMAN: But right now, the defeated president every day is getting smaller and smaller. He really is. I mean, his relevance is getting smaller and smaller, and he is nothing more than a side show. I mean, Joe Biden will become president on January 20.

CAMEROTA: But there's a lot of policy things that can still happen --

BERMAN: Oh, no, don't get me wrong.

CAMEROTA: -- between now and then in next 65 days.

BERMAN: Don't get me wrong. He's -- What he's doing is actively now impeding a transition. Listen to Ron Klain talk about this, about what isn't happening that needs to happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KLAIN: Joe Biden is going to become president of the United States in the midst of an ongoing crisis. That has to be a seamless transition.

We now have the possibility -- we need to see if it gets approved -- of a vaccine, starting perhaps in December, January. There are people at HHS making plans to implement that vaccine. Our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible, so nothing drops in this change of power we're going to have on January 20.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Right. So that's what needs to happen. The president-elect and vice president-elect will be giving an economic speech today, Natasha.

I'm a little bit sick, frankly, of talking about the president's childish tantrums. And I would much rather be speaking about the presidential transition and what will be happening for the next four years. So assess, if you will, that part of this story.

NATASHA ALFORD, VP, DIGITAL CONTENT AND SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, THEGRIO: It's starting to feel like Groundhog's Day. Every day, the headline is the same.

And to make this super relatable, Alisyn and John, it's like expecting an ex to be happy for you. We've moved on. We've selected a new administration, and it doesn't matter if he gives us the concession or -- or closure that we want. We're moving on.

I think what's important to remember is that Donald Trump is putting the lives of every American at risk right now. If you think missing Thanksgiving is going to be tough, imagine going to a COVID-19 funeral, where you have to be socially distanced, and you have to wear a mask, and you don't get to say good-bye. That is real for so many Americans.

And, you know, we're also losing sight of the fact that Latino communities in the U.S. -- which includes Afro-Latinos -- African- American communities are contracting and dying from this virus at disproportionate rates.

And so while Donald Trump wants to talk about vaccine distribution, we're not hearing about how he's going to address that racial inequity in an explicit way. And that's why, of course, we know New York Governor Cuomo has talked about joining the NAACP and the Urban League to potentially pose a legal challenge if we don't figure this out.

So, again, bigger issues to focus on. Every single minute counts. And we're not getting to the issues that matter.

CAMEROTA: Natasha, I totally agree, and I totally love your analogy about the ex- doesn't accept that we've broken up with him.