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U.S. Reports Highest Day Of New COVID Cases To Date; Rudy Giuliani Self-Isolating After Son Tests Positive; Biden Meeting With Transition Advisors Today; People Line Up For Hours To Get Food Bank Help; Attention Turns To GA Senate Races With Biden Win Certified; Over A Quarter Of This Week's College Football Slate Called Off. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired November 21, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:14]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin this hour with this nation getting sicker. The number of coronavirus cases expected to surpass 12 million today. Friday saw our highest day of new infections to date, more than 195,000. This, as the president seemingly ignoring this crisis while focusing instead on trying to overturn presidential election results.

This morning the president is golfing once again, as his election lawsuit losses mount up. It's been an uphill battle. The president has lost or withdrawn 28 legal challenges thus far.

All this as we've learned the virus has, once again, infiltrated the president's inner circle. President Trump's son, Don Jr., and the son of his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, both revealing they have tested positive. That news now sidelining Giuliani from the president's voter fraud case. He is now self-isolating.

Experts are again warning of what's to come as the record surge in new coronavirus cases pushes hospitals to the brink.

CNN's Polo Sandoval joining me from New York. Polo, what are you learning?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, not only are infections up right now, death rates are as well. Just last week alone over 10,000 people lost their lives to COVID in the United States. When you look at the weekly death rate from just about a month ago, that's nearly double.

As we get closer to Thanksgiving, don't be surprised if you see less people at airports across the country, including here at New York's JFK. A couple of reasons there, airlines are reporting drops in bookings, increases in cancellations, and of course, that guidance from the CDC recommending against Thanksgiving travel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL (voice over): It's a broader, and some fear, longer lasting wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths. And you can see it in the latest COVID trend map showing a virtual sea of orange and red ten months after the first U.S. COVID-19 case was confirmed. At just over 13,000 new infections, the state of California shattered its own record Friday.

Then there's the reality of the fights on the front lines to save patients from the virus' suffocating grip. It's a struggle compounded by staff shortages in some of the nation's rural medical facilities.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, VACCINE SCIENTIST: We're seeing these surges on intensive care units and that's when the mortality rate, the death rate goes like this to this, vertical, because nurses, other staff, doctors get overwhelmed. And it's not just a matter of the beds, it's having trained staff in order to take care of them.

SANDOVAL: On Friday, the American Hospital Association flagged reports from care facilities in at least six states where fears are growing about the physical and emotional toll on medical personnel.

LACIE GOOCH, NEBRASKA NURSE: I have seen so many emergent intubations, I've seen people more sick than I've ever seen in my life.

SANDOVAL: There is, however, hope that front line medical workers could soon be better protected against the virus. On Friday, Pfizer and BioNTech were the first to apply for FDA Emergency Approval of their coronavirus vaccine.

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: This is what we had most hoped for, but it's not just around the corner. A vaccine rollout is going to take a long time. It's not a vaccine that saves lives, it's a vaccination program.

SANDOVAL: Until that happens, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues urging Americans to avoid travel and to keep the Thanksgiving celebrations small.

DR. DEBORAH, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE COORDINATOR: I'm making the personal sacrifices not to infect my parents and my pregnant daughter. And there's a lot of people out there who know how to protect one another. And we just need to make sure we're all doing that.

SANDOVAL: Including by continuing to wear a mask. The CDC out with another reason to do so. The researchers took a look at the state of Kansas and its July 2nd mask mandate. A majority of the state's counties, some two-thirds, opted out of the governor's mask order. They later recorded about a 100 percent increase in COVID-19 cases. Compare that surge to a 6 percent decrease in the counties that did require masks in public.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL (on camera): And finally, a little bit of perspective. When you look back at July you see that the highest number of daily COVID cases during one of the last spikes was about 77,000. Again, that's in July.

Yesterday, Fred, just over 195,000. So it certainly gives you an idea of where we've been, where we are right now, and potentially how things could continue to deteriorate in the coming months if people don't heed those warnings from authorities and officials.

WHITFIELD: Right. It's up to every individual. Extraordinary numbers -- thank you so much -- and those numbers are people. Polo Sandoval, appreciate it.

[11:04:54]

WHITFIELD: All right. There are new COVID cases within the president's inner circle and that could impact the legal fight that Trump is waging to try to overturn the election results.

The president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is going into self- isolation after his son tested positive for coronavirus. It comes just days after he held an unhinged press conference lobbying false facts -- false information, and baseless conspiracy theories about the election results in key states.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House. So Kevin, what could Giuliani's absence mean for the president's legal challenges, which are already, you know, running into a lot of brick walls?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think the president's legal challenges are fizzling with Rudy Giuliani or without Rudy Giuliani.

But as you said, he's self-isolating after his son tested positive for coronavirus. It has already affected some of Giuliani's plans. He had initially been scheduled to participate in what had seemed like an extraordinary meeting here at the White House yesterday between the president and two Michigan lawmakers.

The president and Rudy Giuliani taking their legal efforts as they fail in court, turning them into more political pressure efforts to try and persuade Republicans to either delay the certification of votes in their states or to convince them to assign electors to President Trump instead of Joe Biden.

Now, all of this is becoming less of a legal fight and much more of a political fight and a PR fight, and Rudy Giuliani clearly is taking, from his self-isolation, he's been beaming into some news channels from there.

The other case at the White House is the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. His spokesman said that he tested positive earlier this week, but that he's asymptomatic and that he's self-isolating at his cabin.

Of course, there's a long list of people who have tested positive for coronavirus at the White House in the president's inner circle.

The president still continues to downplay the virus. In fact, at the G-20 this morning, the president was participating, it's a virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia.

They're due to begin a side session on the margins of the G-20 about pandemic preparedness. Leaders like Emmanuel Macron of France and Angela Merkel of Germany, they're all speaking at this event.

The president is at his golf course in Virginia.

WHITFIELD: Ok. And will be attending the conference call that way.

So Kevin, let me also ask you about this fundraising effort off Giuliani's press conference earlier in the week. What are you learning about how that came to be and the consequences of it?

LIPTAK: Yes. So plenty of the president's aides were watching that press conference with sort of a sense of horror because it was riddled with lies and it came across as sort of unhinged.

But the president seems to think it went well. He said in this fundraising email that he sent to supporters, "Did you watch my legal team's press conference yesterday? They were spectacular."

This is part of this onslaught of fundraising emails the Trump campaign has been sending out since the election concluded trying to bolster support for the president.

And something that I think is really, really important is when you look at the fine print of these email fundraising solicitations, 75 percent of the money that's donated goes to the president's PAC, the one that he just established. It's meant to establish his post White House political life. He'll be able to funnel money to his preferred candidates, sort of maintaining his influence on the Republican Party going forward.

Only 25 percent of the fundraising goes to these actual recount efforts. A lot of people are saying that's a bait and switch.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kevin Liptak, thank you so much for that. We'll check back with you.

So the presidential transition remains blocked by the Trump administration, leaving the Biden team on its own as it prepares to take over. The president-elect meeting with his transition advisers today.

So let's check in with CNN political reporter Rebecca Buck. So Rebecca, you know, what are you hearing about their plans, how they move forward?

REBECCA BUCK, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, that's right, Fred. The president-elect, as you mentioned, meeting with his transition team this weekend. We don't expect to see President-Elect Biden this weekend. These talks are going on behind closed doors. But a lot has been happening in the transition, despite some significant obstacles put up by the administration, of course.

Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris met yesterday with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. They discussed some of the big issues that Biden is going to be facing when he takes over. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic foremost among them, and with that the economic recovery and the idea of getting a stimulus passed through Congress, if it doesn't happen in this lame duck session. So that's a big thing.

And then of course, next week we have reporting suggesting that Joe Biden will be naming his first cabinet picks. He said this week that he has already selected his treasury secretary and will announce that soon. We are reporting that one of the front runners is Lael Brainard, who is on the board of governors for the Federal Reserve and would be considered a consensus pick for that position.

[11:09:59]

BUCK: And then they're also nearing a pick for the secretary of state, something that will obviously send a signal not only domestically but to the entire world about how Biden is going to approach his foreign policy, what his priorities and style are going to be there.

So they are doing what they can, but there is a lot that is out of their control, especially because the administration and the General Services Administration specifically, refuse to grant Biden and his team access to some of the information and data that normally would be at their disposal in a transition. The president still has not conceded this race, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Rebecca Buck, thank you so much for that. We'll check back with you.

All right. Let's bring in Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease expert and a member of President-Elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 advisory board. Doctor, good to see you.

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, MEMBER, PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE BIDEN COVID-19 ADVISORY BOARD: It's great to be here, Fred.

WHITFIELD: So let's talk about what's at hand right now while some families are tangling with whether to get together or not this holiday. You know, the U.S. is on track to pass 12 million cases at some point today and the Trump administration is still withholding information from President-Elect Joe Biden's team.

How dangerous do you see this delay? How do you see it, you know, translating into, you know, more lives lost?

DR. GOUNDER: Fred, this is a national crisis. This is a national public health crisis. This is a national security crisis. We really need that information now. I am really concerned that this is going to delay our ability to disseminate the vaccine and get people vaccinated. It's going to delay our ability to scale up and ramp up testing, which is really critical in terms of trying to get a handle on this.

So, you know, this is information that needs to be shared with us now. We need to be on the inside of these negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies, with the local and state health departments, with the pharmacy retailers, who are all going to be important stakeholders in the response to coronavirus in the coming months.

WHITFIELD: Lawmakers have been unable to agree on another stimulus package and now some 12 million Americans are set to lose crucial unemployment benefits just after Christmas, unless lawmakers are able to come to an agreement soon.

You know, what are the health implications that come with this kind of delay, the stressors that come with people worried about, you know, one day to the next?

DR. GOUNDER: Well, you know, people need the support for putting food on the table now, to make rent now. And those are not minor concerns and it's going to be a lot harder also to convince people to work with us on public health restrictions, whether that is wearing a mask or social distancing, if they feel that their other needs, their very immediate social and economic needs are not being met.

So this stimulus needs to be taken up by Congress now. It needs to be taken up by Senator Mitch McConnell now. This cannot wait until January 20th.

WHITFIELD: You mentioned how with the promise of these vaccinations, how the transition teams need access to information so as to implement vaccines, come up with a strategy, if and when that day comes. Dr. Anthony Fauci and others have said that average Americans could get vaccinated as early as April.

It will likely be up to President-Elect Biden's administration to carry out this distribution plan. How do you make plans, even though your hands may be tied given you're not receiving access to all the information? What do you put in place, what do you plan for anyway?

DR. GOUNDER: Well, we have a very deep bench of doctors and scientists and public health and policy experts who have been studying those issues for months, who have been drawing up blueprints and plans and figuring out how to operationalize this in terms of the nuts and bolts.

We are going to be reaching out to state and local health departments, to partners in the private sector, to figure out what we can now. But at the same time, if we don't have the full data, if we don't have, for example, information on what are the nurses that we might be able to redeploy to certain areas to help with either surges in cases or with vaccination, if we don't have critical information on supply chain, cold chain, which is the deep freezer network that you're going to need, there are a lot of things that we really need to have really fine granular data in order to make accurate plans.

WHITFIELD: Can you reach out directly to Pfizer or Moderna, two of the three, you know, promising makers of these promising vaccines?

DR. GOUNDER: Yes, I mean that's going to be part of what the transition team is doing is trying to fill these gaps by reaching out to every one of these stakeholders.

But by making the process so inefficient, you know, having to sort of rebuild this knowledge base on our own, that slows things down. And there are still going to be gaps.

[11:15:00]

WHITFIELD: Pfizer has now submitted its vaccine for emergency use, Moderna is expected to apply for emergency approval in the coming weeks. The FDA could make a decision about whether to issue emergency use authorization for the first coronavirus vaccines December 10th. So what do you do with that information?

DR. GOUNDER: I mean, this is really this is really exciting news that we will have one, if not two vaccines with emergency use authorizations probably by the end of this calendar year. But it's not enough to have done the science, to have had the FDA vet the science and to authorize their use.

WHITFIELD:

DR. GOUNDER: You need to make the vaccines --

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Or even to make a determination -- or even to be able to make a determination as to who would get it first?

DR. GOUNDER: Well, in terms of who would get it first, we're looking healthcare workers and essential workers on the front lines, as well as probably facilities like nursing homes, which we know are extremely high risk for transmission. But, you know, even that, we need to have plans. You're still talking about millions of health care workers, millions of elderly living in nursing homes. So that's still a huge logistical challenge.

WHITFIELD: It sure is. All right. Dr. Celine Gounder, thank you so much.

All right. Still ahead, the president's losses are piling up, but that's not stopping him from falsely alleging widespread voter fraud as the reason why he lost the election. Why the president is honing in on Michigan next.

Plus, the pandemic causing food shortages for people around the country. Now thousands of Americans are waiting for hours for a free meal ahead of the holidays. We'll take you to a food drive live next.

[11:16:41] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: President Trump and his legal team continue to try to overturn the results of the election, but the law continues to stand in the way. The Trump campaign had three more election lawsuits rejected late this week and Trump and his allies have lost or withdrawn at least 28 cases that they have fought in court since Election Day.

The president suffered more setbacks on Friday after Georgia certified Biden's win in that state. And members of the Michigan state legislature's Republican leadership, who met with the president at the White House Friday, say they have not seen any evidence that would change the fact that President-Elect Joe Biden won their state.

For more on these developments, let's bring in CNN Justice Correspondent Jessica Schneider. Jessica, Michigan set to certify its election results on Monday, especially after the Republican leadership of that state met with the White House and said we're going to follow the law. Does this simply mean after Monday, you know, it's over in terms of the president trying to challenge Michigan?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's pretty much the ballgame, Fredrick.

You know, these certified votes, as we keep seeing them throughout the next few days, the next few weeks or so, it means that the Democratic slate of electors in these states, they will be voting for Joe Biden when the Electoral College meets on December 14th.

And at this point we've really seen all of the president's efforts to stop the certified vote for Joe Biden in these key states fail both on the political and the legal front. And in many cases, you know, it's Republicans who are stepping in to rebuff the president's attempts.

So let's run down some of these key states here. You mentioned first in Georgia, the state's 16 electoral votes, they have officially been granted to Joe Biden. It was last night that the Republican governor there, Brian Kemp, he signed the paperwork to formalize the certification. That was right after a federal judge rejected a last- ditch lawsuit to block the certification.

Here's what the governor said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): As governor, I have a solemn responsibility to follow the law, and that is what I will continue to do. We must all work together to ensure citizens have confidence in future elections in our state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: and the final tally there in Georgia shows that Joe Biden won the state by 12,670 votes. Now, in Michigan, despite the president inviting those top Republicans from the state legislature to the White House on Friday, those Michigan lawmakers, they reiterated last night that they will not intervene in the state's electoral process. And state certification there is scheduled for Monday.

The vote count puts Joe Biden up in Michigan by more than 150,000 votes. Now, at this point there is some concern that the two lawmakers -- sorry, the two Republicans, actually, who make up the four-member canvassing board, they could refuse to certify the vote and that would lead to a potential court intervention where those members would be found in contempt or it could even mean that the Democratic governor there, Fredricka, could step in and replace one or both of them.

So we'll see how it shakes out. There's some concern, but in the end it looks like certification in Michigan especially will happen on Monday, Fred.

WHITFIELD: It's still not clear why they went to the White House in the first place?

SCHNEIDER: Right. They actually issued a statement last night saying that they talked to the President about coronavirus relief. You know, a bill passed, measures that would help their state of Michigan.

So really, I mean they took this opportunity, this invitation, they said they weren't going to turn it down from the White House. They came there, they asked the president for what they need, coronavirus relief, and then they came out and said, look, we're going to let this play out. The votes speak for themselves. Joe Biden will win Michigan, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jessica Schneider, thank you so much.

And this programming note. She was a born leader, a fearless adviser, a political force. The "CNN ORIGINAL SERIES FIRST LADIES" profiles Hillary Clinton tomorrow at 10:00. We'll be right back.

[11:24:42]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: President Trump and his legal team continue to try to overturn the results of the election, but the law continues to stand in their way. The Trump campaign had three more election lawsuits rejected late this week and Trump and his allies have lost or withdrawn at least 28 cases that they have fought in court since Election Day.

With me now is David Swerdlick, an assistant editor for "The Washington Post" and a CNN political commentator. David -- good to see you.

DAVID SWERDLICK, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hey, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. So Georgia just certified a Biden win. Michigan is set to do the same on Monday. Michigan Republican leadership went to the White House, we understand under the auspices of talking to the president about coronavirus relief, even though there was the impression, because the president wanted to challenge Michigan's results that perhaps there would be something untoward.

[11:30:05]

WHITFIELD: So what was the point? You know, what was the point for the president and what was the point for the Michigan leadership to do this?

Good morning, Fred. So the Michigan Republican leaders came out and issued that statement saying, among other things, that they've seen no information leading them to believe that the Michigan results will change.

But as you suggest, it does leave the question as to why the president right now, with everything going on, invited them to the White House to apparently sound them out about what they might do if he continues to challenge this election.

You know, Fred, the rub of this whole big picture for the president is that if he had put in half the effort toward fighting the pandemic that he has put in to pretending that he didn't win the election, he might have won the election.

But now we're in a situation where the president has done some things that are legal, like going to court, some things that just look fishy, like inviting these Michigan legislative leaders to the White House right in the thick of this dispute, and then also have the clearly illegal refusal of GSA administrator Emily Murphy to release transition funds to the Biden/Harris, now that they are the apparent, really just plain, winners of the 2020 presidential election.

WHITFIELD: Yes. I mean What is the next month and a half or two going to look like if this is the tone and tenor being set by the president during this lame duck session?

I mean the president continues to deny he lost the election. He appears to be doing everything he can to create problems for the incoming Biden administration, including ending a federal lending program to help struggling businesses, the president withdrawing troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, cracking down on China and appearing to show no interest whatsoever in a COVID stimulus bill.

I mean does he not realize how damaging this is for him trying to cement a more positive legacy?

SWERDLICK: Fred, it's already ugly as we know and it could definitely get uglier. I mean apart from these sort of sore loserism and cry babyism that we've come to expect from President Trump in some of these situations, both before and during his presidency, you have that situation as you described where there is a budget deadline looming. There could be a shutdown.

Democrats and Republicans aren't on the same page yet and that we're heading into that in early December. You have a situation where the president is pulling troops out of Afghanistan, and no matter which side of that issue you're on, the reality is that they were there for a reason.

He would have pulled them out sooner, past administrations would have pulled them out sooner if they thought it was prudent to do that.

And then you have the news in the last day or so of Secretary Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, clawing back money from the Fed that was still potentially could go to small businesses and municipalities to help them deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

You know It may not be a grand plan or a conspiracy to salt the soil, but it sure does start to look that way, especially if the administration and the president's campaign persists in pretending they didn't win the election past the day that some of these key swing states certify their results.

He is the president of the United States until mid-day on January 20th, and that's a lot of time for a lot of mischief.

WHITFIELD: Yes. and David, perhaps equally terrible is you've got, you know, so few Republicans who are willing to say something direct to him. We know Mitt Romney has spoken out and now Maine's Susan Collins is also saying, I'm quoting her now, "The President-Elect should be receiving the briefings, office space and access to government resources. He needs to be ready to govern on inauguration day."

But gosh, why aren't more speaking?

SWERDLICK: Look, Fred, I think it's simply a matter that they are enthralled to or afraid of the president. If you go back to the 2008 presidential race, the 2012 presidential race, the tag on Mitt Romney was that he was a flip flopper. No one had on their bingo card -- no one had on their bingo --

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: But it's over. But this administration is over. So if they were reticent because it was the early stage of then, what's the problem now?

SWERDLICK: Oh, yes. I was just going to say that Senator Romney, no one had him as the most courageous Republican in the country, but here we are.

To your question, Fred. Yes, this is a situation where the Republicans in Congress and other Republican leaders and people around the Trump orbit know that they need the support of the Trump voters who are still with President Trump and it's fine to be with President Trump, to support him and say you should run in 2024, that's a democracy. They can support him. Of course.

[11:34:56]

SWERDLICK: The question is whether they will accept reality and do, frankly, the politically conservative thing, which would be to accept reality, move forward, and try to win the next election rather than trying to plead their case to the rest (ph).

WHITFIELD: Right. Rather than trying to overthrow a free and fair election, what democracy stands for in this country.

David Swerdlick, thank you so much. Good to see you. and Happy Thanksgiving.

SWERDLICK: Happy Thanksgiving. Good to see you, too.

WHITFIELD: Thank you.

All right. Coming up, Americans desperate for help right before the holidays. We'll visit food banks in two states next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We're just a few days from Thanksgiving and millions of Americans are having a hard time keeping food on the table right now as the coronavirus outbreak worsens across the country.

For many their benefits have run out and there is no deal on the horizon for another economic relief package from Congress.

[11:39:55]

WHITFIELD: CNN's Paul Vercammen is at a food bank giveaway in Los Angeles. And Paul, people have been lining up there for hours, I understand.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They have, Fred.

Actually they started lining up yesterday, some of them in the evening. And look in here, this is the First (INAUDIBLE) Church. We're going to give you two views of this.

This is the behind the scenes, the volunteers furiously working to get the food out. They have a deejay in here.

And then up above you can see just how long this line is. Well over a thousand people are going to walk up to get food here.

And these are the stories that we're hearing. It's not only are they not getting the stimulus check, but many of them let's say have restaurant jobs, either they got laid off or their hours were cut. So they're scrambling to make ends meet, they want to have something to put on the table for Thanksgiving.

And look at this operation. Here is the front of the line, at a fast pace with a long stride, it would take you five minutes to walk this entire line. And Among the many volunteers here, 50 of them that are putting food on the table for people, Fred Johnson, show us, what do you have in the box?

FRED JOHNSON, VOLUNTEER: We've got, first of all -- we've got turkey, turkey, chicken, fries, potatoes, everything, watermelon, everything you had here.

VERCAMMEN: And I know that people are extremely grateful when they receive this box. How does it make you feel to hand out a box like that?

JOHNSON: I feel wonderful. I love it, love it.

VERCAMMEN: And what would you say to somebody who has never really seen anything like this, sort of unaware of the level of desperation that some of these people have when they come up to get their box of food?

JOHNSON: They are desperate and this line going all the way around the block.

VERCAMMEN: We thank you so much, Fred, for taking time out.

JOHNSON: Ok.

VERCAMMEN: Again, we'll take a glimpse over my shoulder. And also an interesting development here. If you look just over to the right, a pop-up COVID testing site, the city of Los Angeles and the county have become very aggressive and these sites have been trying to address people in many of the Latino communities in Los Angeles who were sort of reticent to get tested, some of them had some misconceptions about getting COVID tested and the possibility there was a rumor going around that you could get the virus this way.

But they've been very successful in doing this at a grassroots level So we're seeing more of this across the city of Los Angeles. Last week they set a record, some 23,000 residents tested, you know, in just a short order.

So we're seeing an aggressive testing campaign here. We're also seeing a lot of great work by these volunteers, helping people get a box of food before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Back to you.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Extraordinary effort by that food bank and so many other food distribution sites who are trying really hard to meet the growing need across America.

Thank you so much, Paul.

All right. Let's check in with CNN's Natasha Chen. She is at a food giveaway just outside of Atlanta.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, the first cars arrived at 5:30 a.m. for an event that was scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m. So that just goes to show the desperate need of the people in this community.

You can see these are the final cars coming through, getting a box of produce, getting a gift card for turkeys and hams at Walmart. Some of these people tell me that they had not been to a food drive prior to 2020. It's because of the pandemic and the economic strains that their jobs have been affected. Others tell me they're here picking up food for their elderly relatives just so that they can keep them safe.

We talked to the Dekalb County CEO about the people he's met in line. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL THURMOND, CEO -- DEKALB COUNTY, GEORGIA: I spoke with one lady who said that she never dreamed that she would end up in a food line, having worked her entire life. And I just told her that there's nothing to be ashamed of, that we're in this together, we're going to rise through this challenge, we'll meet it and we'll stand together as a county, as a state and as a nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: they gave out about 850 boxes of food today and this is just one of three locations in Dekalb County. We know of so many other food drives around the metro Atlanta area and around the country.

It's a similar story wherever we are talking to those people. It's a lot of folks who are coming to these drives who may not have needed this help before, and of course everyone has in mind the safety of Thanksgiving gatherings and a lot of people here telling me they're going to try and keep those gatherings small.

Fred, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Natasha Chen, thank you so much.

Those words cannot be stressed enough.

All right. So if Democrats are to control the U.S. Senate next year, they'll have to win both of the Senate runoffs in the state of Georgia.

Up next, how Democrats there are hoping to pull a page out of the Biden playbook to change the balance of power.

[11:44:35]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Georgia's governor has officially certified Joe Biden's win, but it has been clear since election night that the state is playing host to another fight, dual runoff senate races threatening to change the balance of power on Capitol Hill.

Here's Kyung Lah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWD: Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): You are hearing correctly. This Georgia crowd is calling for a second Trump term despite defeat.

Vice President Mike Pence on his first return to the campaign trail pledged it's not over.

[11:49:48]

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted. We're going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out. And whatever the outcome, we will never stop fighting to make America great again.

LAH: That's despite the hand count led by a Republican secretary of state in Georgia.

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Working as an engineer throughout my life, I live by the motto that numbers don't lie.

LAH: A fact that the vice president is ignoring while he dances a political two-step. President Trump still insists he won. Meanwhile, Pence is calling for Georgia Republicans to vote in the January 5th senate runoff to fight a Joe Biden presidency.

PENCE: The Republican senate majority could be the last line of defense.

LAH: Supporters who showed up to see the Vice President have no problem following this logic.

(on camera): Do you believe the election results?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

LAH (voice over): Penny Clopton (ph), who came to see Pence, carried a stop the steal sign. She says all this makes her want to vote in January even more.

(on camera): And how different is the energy from November to January?

PENNY CLOPTON, TRUMP SUPPORTER: It's still here. It hasn't gone anywhere.

LAH: What do you believe will happen in January -- on January 5th?

JODIE DYE, GEORGIA VOTER: I believe that people will come out and vote for Republicans so that we can -- I guess so that it will be a fair fight when things come to the Senate.

CROWD: Let's vote blue. Let's vote blue.

LAH (voice over): The Democratic challengers for the two senate seats, Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock attacked the GOP fight with reality. REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D), GEORGIA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: They didn't

like the results. It wasn't supposed to turn out that way. Explain that to me.

LAH: The challenge for the Democrats will be turnout. Something even the most diehard Democratic Georgians understand.

TINA MARIE HEAD, GEORGIA VOTER: I think that the people that voted in the general election will not come out for the runoff.

AMANDA GAINER, GEORGIA VOTER: We've been red for so many years, you know, I'm just a little concerned about that.

LAH (on camera): Reporter: Georgia's Governor Brian Kemp formally certified the state's vote, but in doing so offered a mash-up of illogical statements, toeing the Trump line. Sowing doubt on the vote and saying, yes, he would certify the vote just because he had to.

Kyung Lah, CNN -- Canton, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, usually just ahead of Thanksgiving, this would be a big weekend for football. Well, maybe not so much this go- around. Why the big Clemson/Florida State football game is off, when we come back.

[11:52:37]

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WHITFIELD: A developing story in college football. The game between the Clemson Tigers and Florida State Seminoles has been postponed. 18 games in all have been called off this week because of COVID. That's over a quarter of the slated schedule.

Let's bring in Coy Wire to go through all of this. So Coy, walk us through what is happening or maybe we should say what's not happening.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hi, Fred.

This latest involves the fourth ranked team in the nation in Clemson. They're already in Florida for their matchup with Florida State, but just hours before their noon kickoff it was unexpectedly called off.

The ACC releasing a statement and the wording has some perplexed. It reads in part quote, "The postponement follows this morning's game conference call at which time both teams medical personnel were unable to mutually agree on moving forward with the game," unquote.

Clemson's athletic director, Dan Radakovich tweeting in part, "We are disappointed that we will not be able to play today's game against Florida State." Clemson has followed all of the ACC's protocol in preparation for this game.

Now Clemson's star quarterback Trevor Lawrence tweeting, "Man, we were ready to play with defensive -- Florida State's defensive Janarius Robinson responding, "We were, too. We're good over here," he said.

Now we've reached out to the ACC asking them to clarify what specific factors may have led up to this game being postponed but have not heard back, Fred.

You said it. This makes 18 of the 62 games scheduled this week now not being played. Six involving teams ranked in the top 25. Every single conference is missing games this weekend. This is the most impacted week of the season so far, topping last week's total.

The rise in the number of cases across college football, Fred, paralleling the surging numbers we're seeing all across the country.

WHITFIELD: All right. I know a lot of folks are pretty shaken up. But it will be interesting to learn, perhaps later, why. What was at the core of it all.

All right. Coy Wire, appreciate it. Thank you so much.

WIRE: Yes.

WHITFIELD: All right. Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin this hour with this country facing an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases as Americans prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday. The number of infections is expected to surpass 12 million today.

Friday saw the highest day of new cases to date, more than 195,000. And more than 80,000 Americans are in the hospital heading into the holiday week.

But as this country struggles, President Trump is seemingly ignoring the crisis, focusing instead on trying to overturn the presidential election results. And today, skipping a virtual G-20 summit session on the pandemic instead to play golf.

[12:00:01]

WHITFIELD: This as we have learned the virus has once again infiltrated the president's inner circle.