Return to Transcripts main page
New Day
Coronavirus Hospitalizations Reach All-Time High; Biden Still Not Getting Classified Briefings, National Security Experts to Advise Him Today; Trump Expected to Order Troop Cuts in Iraq, Afghanistan. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired November 17, 2020 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: More than one million new infections in the United States in just the past week.
[06:00:08]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've seen our cases go up five times, our hospitalizations go up three times.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governors forced to implement their own mitigation efforts, including shutting down businesses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The transition still stalled. Heath experts are warning that delays could hurt the coronavirus response, including vaccine distribution.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Transitions are very important.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would be better if we could start working together.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: More people may die if we don't coordinate. If we have to wait until January 20, it puts us behind.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, November 17, 6 a.m. here in New York.
And we begin with a warning from President-elect Biden about the explosive spread of coronavirus and the critical challenge that lies ahead in distributing a vaccine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: More people may die if we don't coordinate. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: That message appears lost on President Trump and other Republican leaders. The outgoing president continues to block President-elect Biden's transition.
This morning 73,000 Americans are hospitalized with coronavirus. That is the highest total ever. More than 166,000 new cases were reported yesterday. That's the most ever reported on a Monday.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So as of this morning, President-elect Joe Biden won the popular vote in this country by more than 5.6 million votes, and that number is still growing. He received more votes than any candidate in history. His margin of victory stands at 3.6 percent and growing. That's more than the winner in 2016, 2004, 2000, 1976, 1968 and 1960.
The point is, he will be a majority president by a comfortable amount. Yet, this morning, there is new reporting that key Republicans are looking for ways to invalidate that victory.
In a stunning new interview, the Republican secretary of state in Georgia says he felt pressured by Senator Lindsey Graham to throw out legally-cast votes. The reporter who broke that story joins us a little bit later.
We begin, though, in El Paso, Texas, just one of so many places the pandemic is running rampant this morning. Omar Jimenez is there.
Omar, I understand that inmates in El Paso have been brought in to help transfer the dead?
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. Inmates that volunteer are being outfitted with full PPE to help morgue personnel as the medical examiner's office struggles to keep up with the pace of bodies. And remember, that's on top of the refrigerated units that had to be brought in, as well.
It's part of the reality here in El Paso, as it is across the country, either as they approach record levels of COVID-19, surpass them, or in some cases, find themselves at risk of being overwhelmed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIMENEZ (voice-over): An unending surge in coronavirus cases nationwide.
The United States reporting another 166,000 new cases on Monday. More than 73,000 patients are currently hospitalized with the virus. Hospitals are overwhelmed nationwide, but especially in rural communities.
And in St. Louis, health officials warn area hospital ICUS will run out of room by the first week in December.
In California, Governor Gavin Newsom is considering a curfew to help slow the spread after the state reported nearly 10,000 new cases Monday, its highest figure since August.
This after Newsom pulled the emergency brake on the state's reopening and has placed 41 of the state's counties in the highest tier of restrictions.
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): We are seeing case rates increase and positivity rates no longer concentrated in just a handful of counties.
JIMENEZ: In Oklahoma, bars and restaurants will close at 11 p.m., and tables must be at least sex feet apart to try to quell the current uptick in cases.
GOV. KEVIN STITT (R-OK): Now is the time to do more. We need to pull together. Oklahoma, I need your help.
JIMENEZ: The hardest-hit Midwest is seeing an aggressive spread of new cases. The region has some of the highest seven-day test positivity averages in the country, including Iowa, which is reporting an average of more than 50 percent of tests coming back positive over the last seven days. The governor there is is limiting indoor gatherings to no more than 15 people and issuing a mask mandate for all indoor public spaces where physical distance can't be maintained.
President-elect Joe Biden urging the nation to wear masks amid the upswing.
BIDEN: I strongly urge you to do it. There's nothing macho about not wearing a mask.
JIMENEZ: But South Dakota's governor, Kristi Noem, still vowing to fight any mask mandates, insisting on a limited government approach, despite South Dakota seeing an alarming uptick in cases this month.
[06:05:05]
And in El Paso, the deaths have reached such highs that medical examiners are having inmates help move the bodies.
There is one bright spot, though, after pharmaceutical company Moderna released preliminary trial data saying its vaccine is nearly 95 percent effective. Dr. Anthony Fauci saying --
FAUCI: The cavalry is coming, but the cavalry is not here yet. So what we should do is that we should make the hope of a vaccine motivate us even more.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JIMENEZ: Now, as far as the daily fight goes, that vaccine is still far from the minds of many.
And if you remember, last week, the county had put in place a shutdown of nonessential businesses the state of Texas had been fighting. Well, the state won in an appeals court decision as leaders here try to get on the same page on how to fight this pandemic from the ground, especially when you're considering this has only grown in urgency here when you look at the total population, versus the over 30,000 now active cases we have here. It translates to about one in every 25 people here in El Paso actively has COVID-19.
BERMAN: That's just amazing, Omar. And it is the time for leadership. It's for -- it's the time for people to step up and start to agree on measures to try to fight this. Thank you for being there. Please keep us posted.
News flash: This morning Joe Biden is the president-elect. He will be sworn in. He will be sworn in --
CAMEROTA: Yes.
BERMAN: -- on January 20. But President Trump is still refusing to cooperate with the transition and refusing to allow the president- elect to receive classified intelligence briefings. So today the Biden team has assembled a group of its own experts who will brief the president-elect today.
CNN's Jessica Dean is live in Wilmington, Delaware, where we also have some really important staff announcements today, Jessica.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We'll get to all of it, John. Good morning to you.
Listen, the Trump -- I'm sorry, the Biden transition team will tell you that they are able to work around the Trump administration's refusal to begin this formal transition process. They're doing everything they can to work around that.
But the stonewalling is not only threatening national security, because Biden isn't getting those presidential daily briefings yet, Biden himself said yesterday it's also threatening American lives, because they're not allowed to coordinate on the coronavirus vaccine distribution plan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEAN (voice-over): An urgent warning from President-elect Joe Biden, calling the Trump administration's refusal to coordinate on the coronavirus pandemic not only dangerous but deadly.
BIDEN: More people may die if we don't coordinate.
DEAN: Biden says he's making the crisis a priority but adds President Donald Trump's delaying of the transition makes it complicated to plan efforts like vaccine distribution.
BIDEN: Getting the vaccine and a vaccination, though, are two different things. The sooner we have access to the administration's distribution plan, the sooner this transition would be -- smoothly move forward.
DEAN: While the White House has said its pandemic plans are publicly available, health experts on the president-elect's coronavirus advisory board say that's not enough. DR. CELINE GOUNDER, MEMBER, BIDEN TRANSITION COVID-19 ADVISORY BOARD:
We need to be in the room or at least in the Zoom meetings with Pfizer and Moderna, as well as local and public -- and state public health departments. We need to be in those discussions now so that there is a seamless transition.
DEAN: The president-elect trying to work around the Trump administration obstacles, expecting an unofficial national security briefing from experts today, even as the White House blocks him from the presidential daily brief.
Biden, playing down the situation, referring to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
BIDEN: The good news here is my colleague is still on the Intelligence Committee. So she gets the intelligence briefings. I don't anymore. So that that is -- but there's a number of Republicans calling for that. I -- I am hopeful that the president will be mildly more enlightened before we get to January 20.
DEAN: As the president pushes lies about voter fraud to defend his loss, new accusations that top Republican ally Senator Lindsey Graham is trying to help him. Georgia's secretary of state alleging Graham hinted that he should try to discard some legally-cast ballots as he oversees a recount.
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, he asked if the ballots could be matched back to the voters, and then I got the sense it implied that then you could throw those out, any -- really, would look at the counties with the highest frequent error of signatures. So that's -- that's the impression that I got.
DEAN: Graham called the claim ridiculous, saying he just wanted to understand the ballot verification process.
[06:10:04]
President-elect Biden saying Trump's refusal to accept defeat is incomprehensible.
BIDEN: I find this more embarrassing for the country than debilitating for my ability to get started.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DEAN: Now, on some of these future White House staff announcements, we're learning more this morning. We're told that Congressman Cedric Richmond is expected to join the Biden administration in a senior role of some sort. Remember, he was the co-chair of the Biden campaign.
We've also learned that the campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, will be joining as deputy chief of staff. She was the first woman to successfully run a Democratic presidential campaign, and Alisyn, now she is headed to the White House along with Joe Biden.
CAMEROTA: OK. Thank you, Jessica, for all of those updates very much. All right. As for the national security threats during the transition,
this morning, "The New York Times" reports that President Trump asked senior aides last week about options about striking Iran's main nuclear site.
And there's more. Sources tell CNN that U.S. military commanders are anticipating the outgoing president will order a further withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq before he leaves office.
CNN's Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon with more. What have you learned, Barbara, about these stories?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Alisyn.
What we do know is the U.S. military already has an initial planning order for that troop withdrawal from both Iraq and Afghanistan. The president aiming to draw troops down to keep just 2,500 troops in each country.
Now, 2,500 in Iraq compares to the 3,000 there right now; 2,500 in Afghanistan more substantial, because there are currently about 4,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Let's take Afghanistan for just a minute. What -- what does this mean? Look, everybody wants troops to come home. Nobody wants to be at war. Wars end at the negotiating table. The U.S. did sign an agreement with the Taliban about the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops. This would accelerate it.
So what leverage is left now may be the key question. The Taliban were supposed to bring violence down in that country. They have not done that. With more U.S. troops leaving, that leverage to get the Taliban to obey the agreement that they signed may be very difficult.
And at the end of the day, it leaves two fragile governments, both Afghanistan and Iraq, without the number of U.S. troops that commanders, at least right now, believe are necessary to help maintain security in both those countries. It closes future options out to -- potentially, to President-elect Biden. All of this now, according to the president's plan, supposed to be done by January 15, five days before he leaves office -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Barbara, thank you very much for giving that all of that context. Obviously, we will cover that throughout the program.
This morning coronavirus hospitalizations are at an all-time high. Governors across the country now forced to enact stricter regulations. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:17:36]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: The idea the president is still playing golf and not doing anything about it is -- is beyond my comprehension. You'd at least think he'd want to go off on a -- on a positive note.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: That's President-elect Joe Biden, criticizing President Trump for not doing more to control the coronavirus pandemic.
BERMAN: More?
CAMEROTA: Anything.
BERMAN: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Anything. I mean, as this virus spreads rapidly across the country, this morning more than 73,000 Americans are hospitalized. That's the highest total ever.
Joining us now is Dr. Peter Hotez. He's the Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and the co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.
And Dr. Hotez, as John points out there, it's astonishing how checked out President Trump is as the rest of us are in the grip of this nightmare, this national nightmare that gets worse every morning.
We just showed the hospitalizations. Here's the -- the -- I also want to just show the new cases, because what that graph looks like, this Mount Everest of a graph of new cases, now yes, that means more people are being tested. Why would more people be tested? Because they have symptoms; because they've had exposure. Being tested is kind of a pain. You only do that when you are worried that you've been exposed. And that's what that curve looks like. What are you seeing this morning?
DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: You know, Alisyn, one thing you can't hide are deaths. And now the deaths are starting to come. We're, you know, regularly over a thousand deaths per day. And the projections are we're going to move towards 2,000 deaths per day and maybe even higher than that.
So practically speaking, what that means, within a few weeks, COVID-19 will be the single leading cause of death on a daily basis in the United States, point one.
The second point is we are looking at 150,000 people -- 150,000 Americans who will lose their lives between now and a couple of weeks after the inauguration.
These are individuals who do not have to lose their lives. We can prevent all of those deaths if we can just organize ourselves, wear masks and then in the areas where we're starting to see those surges on intensive care units, get people to stay at home.
And the reason for that is that's when the morality rate, the case mortality rate really skyrockets. It's when we start seeing surges on ICUs and hospital staff gets overwhelmed. We're already starting to see that in North Dakota, South Dakota. We're seeing it in El Paso. And that's when the deaths are really going to start to rise.
[06:20:11]
And remember what this looks like a few months from now. We're going to have vaccines. So all of those people who die could have normal life span, had we kept them alive by enacting aggressive measures now to get them vaccinated.
And so, in the past, Alisyn and John, when I've spoken about the importance of aggressive social distancing and masks, I never had a bracket on the right-hand side. I never -- all I could offer is we -- this is what we need to do to save lives.
Now I can say, look, it's not in perpetuity; it's not forever. This has a short time limitation to it. Just hang on for a few more months. Get your mother vaccinated, your father vaccinated, your brother and sister, and they will have a normal life span. And I don't know how to push that any harder.
The fact that we have no leadership in the federal government, nobody in the White House saying, that, in fact, we have somebody in the White House who -- Scott Atlas and his colleagues, who are putting out aggressive disinformation, goes beyond heartbreak. There are almost no words to describe it.
BERMAN: Yes, look, and you can add Missouri. You can add Wisconsin. You can add Michigan to those states seeing the same problems with ICUs you just listed. It's happening all over the country. The point is where it's not happening quite yet, it will soon at the rate we're going.
Dr. Hotez, you just offered more leadership than we've had from the defeated President Trump in months on coronavirus. And this morning he's getting pleas from his own political allies to do more.
Listen to West Virginia Governor Jim Justice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JIM JUSTICE (R-WV): How do I feel about the masks? Well, I don't like them. I don't want to -- I don't want to wear them.
I am Donald Trump's best friend. I absolutely stand with guns and for life, for no new taxes, for balanced budgets. But more than anything, I want us to get more control, more control over this terrible virus that's just eating us alive. I want us to absolutely wear a mask.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Wear a mask, he says, and West Virginia now does have mask mandates for indoors.
We are seeing new measures being put in place by state governors across the country. California is rolling back some measures right now. You can see on this map where it's happening. Michigan. Other states now doing things because they have to, Dr. Hotez.
So what are the most important things to do? Wear a mask, yes, but what other measures do these states need to put in place?
HOTEZ: Yes, I mean, this is what we've been seeing all year, just a very fragmented response without any guidance or leadership from the federal government, providing directives from the Centers for Disease Control. The states have had to figure it out themselves, and they don't have the epidemiological horsepower, the models to really know to do this. So they're kind of going by the seat of the pants in figuring it out.
This is why we've had 250,00 Americans lose their lives. And that's where we're headed.
Look, what has to happen -- and masks, the fact that we're even discussing masks now is just ridiculous. Of course, we have to have masks, but we're going to need more now. We've got to prevent those surges on intensive care units.
We've got to -- because the minute you start getting ICU staffs overwhelmed, as I mentioned, the mortality rate, the death rate goes sky-high. And so the focus right now for all of the governors is to save lives between now and the next few months so we can get people vaccinated.
And for each state, there needs to be a plan, in the absence of a federal guidance, to go ahead and do everything you can to save lives. And it's -- nothing could be simpler at this point.
Many places are still OK. We don't have to do aggressive social distancing. Others are in an absolutely catastrophic situation. Examples, El Paso, what we're seeing in North Dakota, South Dakota. Just do this.
And I think one of the problems is we -- we need more Republican leaders also to step up. Because you know, this is mostly in the middle of the country. These are mostly red states. We need strong Republican leaders to get together and talk to all of the governors and get their buy-in at this point.
And we have to throw out these sort of fake ideologies that we've had over this last year, that somehow not wearing a mask is tied to political allegiance; or calling COVID-19 a hoax; or saying that the deaths are due to other causes. That was all due to a deliberate disinformation campaign that came out of the White House.
We need Republican champions to step up and say, you know, Forget all of that stuff. We've got to save lives between now and when the vaccines are available.
CAMEROTA: Speaking of those, of that disinformation and fake ideology, I think that the messaging, the -- even just the word "lockdown," which is something that you hear from Scott Atlas, and President Trump. Not being able to go to a bar after 10 p.m. is not a lockdown. That's just not a lockdown. I mean, you can call it safety measures. But they call it lockdown, as though there's some sort of nationwide, you know, lights-out situation.
[06:25:12]
It's just not true. That's not what's happening. Each governor is taking their own approach based upon the metrics that they're seeing.
And now you're seeing Stanford University distance itself from Dr. Scott Atlas. Because they say they can no longer, in good conscience, go along with his mindset.
Here's just half of their statement: "Dr. Atlas has expressed views that are inconsistent with the university's approach in response to the pandemic. Dr. Atlas's statements reflect his personal views, not those of the Hoover Institution or the university."
Your response?
HOTEZ: Yes. I mean, this -- this term "lockdown," that's a fake term. Nobody in the public health and scientific community uses the word "lockdown." It's -- it's this false dichotomy created by the disinformation campaign to see either -- to say -- to try to make the case for either a free society or we're all locked down.
And it's -- it's just made up. It's not the case at all. Nobody's talking about a lockdown. What we're doing is asking people to social distance and do it as aggressively as possible right now in order to prevent those surges and save the lives of your family and neighbors. It's -- it's nothing more than that. And for a short period of time, of two or three months.
So this is -- this is part of the disinformation. They create this false dichotomy. And this has happened all year, Alisyn. You know, it's either -- either we're going to save the economy or we're going to do public health. It's nonsense. We -- of course, we do both.
CAMEROTA: Yes. Thank you, Dr. Peter Hotez. Great to talk to you, as always.
HOTEZ: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: A new report says that President Trump is considering striking Iran before he leaves office. We will talk with the reporter who helped break that story. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
