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New Day

Trump Campaign Asks For Another Recount In Georgia; Millions Travel For Thanksgiving Despite Surge In Case; Israeli Prime Minister Secretly Met With Saudi Crown Prince. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired November 23, 2020 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

GABRIEL STERLING, GEORGIA ELECTION IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER: Yes.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And the -- you did -- you just finished this hand recount. Now this time, with this recount, you'll be doing it by scanning machines. Does that method produce more accurate results?

STERLING: Generally speaking, computers are always going to be more accurate than human beings. But even with the hand audit we did -- on the amount of ballots, we were off by .1053 percent and the margin difference was .0099 percent, which most studies say if you do a hand count you're usually off by one to two percent. So we had a very tight, good hand count.

My one big concern is we're running these election officials in these counties into the ground. I mean, we've got actual elections that are taking place a week from Tuesday in this state. We have a January fifth runoff for two Senate seats and a statewide Public Service Commission race and they're all busy doing that.

They just got finished doing this hand count and they're going to have to do this recount again. And it's just a lot of work, and a lot of stress, and a lot of strain for a lot of our counties that are very under-resourced.

CAMEROTA: And so, what -- how are they tackling that? What is happening to these folks?

STERLING: They -- they're stressed and they are tired, but they are doing their jobs. I'm amazed at how well they've done their jobs.

One of the things that's frustrating is this was a very successful election in our state. And this generalized 'we don't like the outcome, we think there's a problem', I can get that to a degree. But we keep on going through these machinations and showing there's nothing -- you know, there's nothing here. There's been no widespread issues.

And we're investigating every real issue we've seen. We've got a handful of people we found in the signature match system that it looks like it might have tried to cast a vote for dead relatives. I mean, that's like a handful -- like two, I think, right now.

We continue to investigate every specific thing but we can't investigate a generalized 'we don't think this went well because our guy lost'. And I get you're angry or upset. Yes, it's surprising to you. But if anybody has watched Georgia over the last few years has seen this state is in a state of flux.

I mean, Stacey Abrams losing by 55,000 votes and she still hasn't conceded that race. And you have in this case, Vice President Biden -- or former Vice President Biden wins the state by 12,000. None of this stuff is weird looking from a political science perspective.

I mean, the Republicans still won a majority of the votes for the State House, State Senate, and Congress in this state. And you go to eight counties where Sen. Perdue got 19,000 more votes than President Trump, and that's the margin by itself right there.

CAMEROTA: When you did the hand recount or the audit, didn't you find a few thousand more ballots?

STERLING: Yes, we did -- and so the audit did its job. I mean, those election officials should have caught that and they're under conciliation. And there's about 5,500 ballots and it gave a plus- margin to the president of 1,375 votes but still didn't close it down to below 12,000.

CAMEROTA: So what's this recount going to prove? Is there any way anything changes significantly?

STERLING: At this point, Alisyn, it's 2020. I am loathed to say nothing can change. But what we've seen historically in recounts, when you're especially using equipment like this, is the outcomes remain the same.

CAMEROTA: And about your personal experience. You tweeted this weekend, "So this is fun. Multiple attempted hacks of my e-mails, police protection around my house, the threats. But all is well. Following the law, following the process, doing our jobs."

That's awfully responsible and rosy of you but I'm sure that this has taken a toll on your family.

STERLING: Well frankly, it was just frustrating because I was sitting there watching football on Saturday and I get a notification on my e- mail that someone's trying to hack it again -- and I, out of frustration, sent that out.

I'm not overly worried about myself. I'm more worried about the people around me. And I'd rather it be me than any of those 159 elections directors who are having to do the really hard work. I get to go around T.V. and do Zoom meetings, you know.

They're doing the really hard work with limited resources. We're trying to get them the resources they need.

And the secretary is in a similar position. I've been a Republican my entire life and it's frustrating, but one of the things -- a touchstone for me is you follow the law. And the law is showing what we're supposed to do here.

And the will of the Georgia voters, by about 12,000 or so out of five million -- which is a record, by the way -- shows that they wanted them to have the electors of Vice President Biden go to the Electoral College and meet on December 14th.

CAMEROTA: Last, in terms of the upcoming Georgia Senate -- well, the U.S. Senate runoff races, do you think that any of this -- these hand recounts and now this -- an audit, and now this other recount, and just all of this -- do you think that it will have some sort of effect on -- or what do you think the effect of all of that will be on the runoff races? Do you think that people in Georgia are experiencing some sort of, I don't know, voter fatigue?

STERLING: I think all of us are experiencing some level of fatigue after this year. But the situation in Georgia is unique because we have those two runoffs that will decide the balance of the United States Senate.

But one of the things that I'm personally worried about now -- again, I'll put my Republican hat on versus my implementation hat -- is this is a distraction at this point. I think a lot of people thought it would keep people ginned up -- that it will get the Trump voters out to vote for Sen. Loeffler or Sen. Perdue.

[07:35:08]

But I talked to a friend of mine this weekend who got five text messages from the Democrats saying this is how you request your absentee ballot. And he got eight text messages from the Trump campaign going please give us money. I mean, they need to make the main thing the main thing, and the main thing right now ought to be for them this U.S. Senate race.

But our job is to executive this election -- again coming up -- and we have about 800,000 absentee ballots that have already been requested, most of them through our 65 and over rollover list, to get a ballot for every election this year. We've had about 220,000 new requests come in.

So it's going to be a lot of work for our elections workers. We are going to continue to follow the law and follow the process because that's what we do.

CAMEROTA: Gabriel Sterling, hang in there. Thank you very much for all the information, as always.

STERLING: All right, have a great day.

CAMEROTA: You, too.

Millions of Americans are ignoring the dire warnings from the nation's top health officials and the CDC about traveling for this Thanksgiving and, of course, the pandemic is getting worse. All of that, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:40:20]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So this morning health officials are urging Americans to stay home this Thanksgiving but judging by the pictures, clearly, a lot of people just aren't listening -- not heeding the warnings.

Joining me now is CNN contributor Erin Bromage. He's a biology professor at UMass Dartmouth. Professor, thanks so much for being with us.

I kind of want to go through some of the things that people say they're doing to protect themselves and expose why there are serious limits to them.

So one of the things you hear is oh, you know, we're getting tested. Well, I think one thing we've learned from the four or five outbreaks at the White House, so far, is you can't test yourself into a hermetically-sealed bubble.

What do people need to know about the limits of testing?

ERIN BROMAGE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR, BIOLOGY PROFESSOR, UMASS DARTMOUTH (via Cisco Webex): Well, testing is one of the tools we have to lower the risk of infection but it's not a 100 percent solution.

I mean, we saw just recently that there was a case where somebody was infected or infected other people on a plane and they say I tested before I flew. The problem was they tested five days out from flying and testing is just a snapshot in time of when you got tested. It's really easy to see in that case that the person got the test, got infected that day or the next day, brewed an infection, and then was able to transmit on the plane.

So testing is only as good as the strategy that you put in place around it. You need to lower your interactions before you get tested and then you need to lower all your interactions after you get tested so that you don't get infected between that snapshot in time. You've got to apply the tool correctly.

BERMAN: And then another people often say is well look, I'm in a bubble. Like, I have a very limited number of people that I see and I'm very careful.

You know, Farhad Manjoo, in "The New York Times," wrote a fascinating piece. It made me think about my bubble. And I'm pretty careful, right?

I have two kids. They are each in school a couple of days a week, 20 kids per class. So that's 40 people that I'm two degrees separated from.

I sit next to Alisyn Camerota for three hours a day unmasked.

CAMEROTA: That's a problem.

BERMAN: So I'm two degrees separated from every human on earth that she sees. Not to mention, my boys play soccer and that's another 20 kids. I'm up to 100 people -- two degrees of separation from at least 100 people like that.

So I think a lot of times people's bubbles aren't quite as safe as people think they are.

BROMAGE: Right, and your bubble is what is around you on that day, but that is just your bubble for that day.

So if Alisyn, tomorrow, goes out and spends a lot of time with a lot of people, then two days later she's brought that bubble to you. So your bubble is changing all the time based on the risk of your -- the people that you are around.

So they may go out and -- you know, your kids, for example. They go to gymnastics. Well, at gymnastics they get exposed. Well, two, three, four days later your bubble -- you know, the infection risk has now just increased inside your bubble.

So it's not really the one that you think you have -- oh, I only hang around four or five people. It's really what they do in their time away from you that makes the difference over time.

BERMAN: What I'm really just trying to say is no one should invite me over to their house for Thanksgiving, which is their loss because I'm a hoot.

Professor, another thing people are doing when they're talking about gathering indoors for Thanksgiving is oh, we'll all be masked. Well, there's one thing we know from restaurants and bars as opposed to schools where kids are staying largely masked all day without taking them off. In a restaurant, you take your mask off to eat. So the act of having Thanksgiving in and of itself has a maskless period.

What do people need to know about that?

BROMAGE: Right. So, you have to take the mask off. And everyone with good intentions saying you're going to keep your mask on inside your house, we know it's probably not going to happen. We really need to focus on multiple layers of defense inside your home.

Most restaurants are actually really quite well-ventilated but your house is not. You're lucky if you're changing the air inside your house once an hour. So you really are sharing air inside that house.

So things that you must do, and this is really a must if you're going to mixing households, you crack open windows and doors. Take it outside if you can but it looks like we're not getting outside. Crack open windows and doors to ventilate the space.

Distance becomes important when you don't have masks. Get a little bit further away from each other. Three feet is OK, four feet is better, six feet is better again. Opposite sides of the room even better. But we need to put different layers of defense up when we lose our masks, so distance and ventilation is really a great place to start.

BERMAN: I want to be clear about one thing -- you brought up the weather. The northeast has a terrible forecast. It's a really bad forecast for Thursday -- rain. And look, I'm not trying to depress people here but they need to take this seriously and they need to face reality.

[07:45:06]

So, it's Monday. Thursday, the forecast is terrible -- pouring rain all day. How much should people take that into account?

BROMAGE: Well, we really need to take it into account. I mean, it's not too late to change your plans. I am really reluctant to give my own personal beliefs and shove them into your own home and say this is what you should do.

You know, we really should not be mixing households because the real big problem that we're facing right now that I don't think people have appreciated is that we saw how quickly infections spread in China after the Chinese media. It was a time when everybody moved at the same time.

We're facing exactly the same problem now with Thanksgiving where everybody is going to move at the same time and we're going to synchronize infections right around the country. That's the problem because a massive wave of new infections and new people being in the hospital is just unsustainable for our health industry.

So we need to really think about our decisions and make a communicative -- a collective decision on what is right for everybody.

BERMAN: And I understand that people obviously have a lot of emotional needs and psychological needs, but it's not just about you either, is it? Because potentially, if you get sick, you're a patient in a hospital. You're filling an ICU bed. What you choose to do over the next few days has an impact beyond your house.

Professor Bromage, thanks so much, as always, for helping us understand what's going on.

BROMAGE: Thank you, John.

CAMEROTA: Breaking news. CNN has just learned that Israel's prime minister secretly traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet with the Kingdom's controversial crown prince. This is the first known meeting between the leaders of the longtime enemies amid a push by the U.S. to normalize relations.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is live in Jerusalem with the breaking details. What have you learned, Oren?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, this meeting happened on Sunday -- so just yesterday -- where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a private business jet and flew directly from Israel to the Saudi city of Neom, on the Red Sea, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in what is believed to be the first meeting between these two leaders who for all of their other agreements and disagreements, they certainly see eye-to-eye on Iran.

Worth noting that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in the same city at the same time where he, too, and the Trump administration have been pushing Saudi Arabia, putting huge pressure on Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel.

Pompeo was in Israel just a couple of days earlier where he said that he truly believes in the Trump administration's approach to the region and he believes other countries will follow the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan in normalizing relations with Israel.

Of course, Pompeo's presence at the same city at the same time raises the possibility of a trilateral Israeli-Saudi-American meeting there in that city. After a few hours, according to flight-tracking Web sites, that Israeli private business jet with Netanyahu returned to Israel.

The key issue here that has brought these countries together, as has been pointed out by Pompeo, by Netanyahu, and by the Trump administration, has been opposition to Iran. And that seems to be the same issue that's bringing them together now with Netanyahu making statements about the commonality between these countries on Iran when it comes to a changing Middle East.

Pompeo has said he would like to see other countries normalize relations with Israel. But, at least so far, public statements from the Saudis and Saudi officials have been that first, they want to see a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a recognized two- state solution, according to the 2002 Saudi-led Arab Peace Initiative. Then and only then will they agree to normalize relations with Israel.

As of right now, it seems this remains a secret meeting. It was, however, confirmed, it seems, by one of those ministers close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant, who on Israel's army radio called it an incredible achievement and one for which that he should congratulate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Officially, the Israeli, Saudi, and American governments have not commented on this yet. We'll see if that changes and if President Donald Trump perhaps takes credit for this meeting, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Oren. Thank you very much for all of that breaking news. We'll check back.

We could be weeks away from Americans getting the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine. And how we got to this point is a scientific marvel. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to look at the path to this achievement, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:53:22] CAMEROTA: Breaking news.

Oxford University and AstraZeneca announcing that their vaccine showed an average efficacy of 70 percent. As you know, two American companies have reported similar results. Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines could be the first authorized by the FDA to use this new technology. It's based on our own genetic code.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more on the science that could solve the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALBERT BOURLA, CEO, PFIZER: This is (INAUDIBLE), a historic day for science and for all of us.

DR SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Albert Bourla is CEO of Pfizer and he's talking about their vaccine for COVID-19. Two hundred forty-eight days from an idea to now, applying for the vaccine to be authorized. That's just eight months. For context, eight years would have been considered speedy.

But the truth is the story I'm about to tell you actually began more than two decades ago, and to really understand it you first have to understand how most vaccines work.

Since the first vaccine for smallpox back in 1796, they've all relied on the same basic concept. Give a little piece of the virus, also known as antigen, to someone -- not enough to make them sick -- and their body will then be taught to make antibodies to it. Those are the proteins that neutralize the virus if it ever tried to invade again. That's what makes you immune.

But what if the body could be taught to do the whole thing -- not just make antibodies but also to make the antigens as well. To essentially become its own vaccine-making machine.

[07:55:08]

It's why in the 2000s, Dr. Drew Weissman started focusing on this tiny strand of genetic material that our cells make all the time. It's known as MRNA.

DR. DREW WEISSMAN, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PERELMAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Back then, we were thinking of using it for vaccines, for therapeutic proteins, for gene editing, for lots of different applications.

GUPTA (voice-over): MRNA stands for Messenger RNA. It carries the instructions for making whatever protein you want.

WEISSMAN: Once you've got the sequence, it's a one-step reaction to make RNA and that reaction is identical for every vaccine that we make.

GUPTA (voice-over): If this sounds more like code in a computer rather than medicine from a lab that means you're getting it. This is an entirely new way of thinking about vaccines. It's also the basic technology behind Pfizer and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: Vaccines are close by. They are coming. You know, I said help is on the way.

GUPTA (voice-over): It's truly bio meets tech. The vaccine is not the virus at all. It's essentially just a genetic code for a portion of the virus -- this portion, the spike protein. Why the spike protein? Because it's the key the virus uses to enter the human cell. But if you create antibodies to the spike protein, it's then blocked.

So putting it all together, once the vaccine made up genetic code is administered through a shot in the arm, our own cells then start making the spike protein over and over again. Now remember, you're just making a part of the virus so you can't get infected from this vaccine. And within days after that, the body reacts and starts churning out the antibodies -- plug and play.

WEISSMAN: With RNA, all you need is the sequence of the protein of interest. Within weeks, you can have a new vaccine.

GUPTA (voice-over): It's a technology that could help lead us out of this pandemic.

FAUCI: We're going to get a heck of a lot of help from a very efficacious vaccine -- two vaccines that just two weeks ago and this past week were shown to be extremely effective -- I mean, efficacious in 95 percent and 94.5 percent.

GUPTA (voice-over): If true, remarkable results for an entirely new type of vaccine. And also, a new way of thinking about medicines going forward.

GUPTA (on camera): Now, it is really fascinating science and again bears repeating that what you've just seen there -- what is unfolding there has never been done before. There's never been a vaccine like this -- an MRNA vaccine.

And it also is worth noting that until the chairman -- the CEO of Pfizer got a call from this independent entity telling him that, in fact, the vaccine was very efficacious -- 90-94 percent efficacious -- they didn't really know for certain that it was going to work. That it was actually going to prevent COVID disease.

So there's a lot of remarkable science here and remarkable outcomes as well. Now the big question is can you take that vaccine and actually use it to vaccinate large communities of people and hopefully, start to bring this pandemic to an end. It's going to take months and it's not going to flip on a dime or it's not going to flip a switch, but it is a huge step in the fight against this pandemic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, thank you very much. And, NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, SENIOR BIDEN TRANSITION OFFICIAL: The cabinet will look like America.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The position of secretary of state, the leading contender for that job is Tony Blinken.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The president's legal team now says that Sidney Powell is not a member. Sidney Powell has been trafficking in conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: The conduct of the president's legal team has been a national embarrassment.

FAUCI: When you see people traveling, those are the things we've got realize are going to get us into even more trouble.

DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: I would expect day two after approval, hopefully, the first people will be immunized.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES: We're going to need about 225 million people vaccinated and it's going to take a long time to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CAMEROTA: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

And breaking overnight, President-elect Joe Biden beginning to build his cabinet. CNN has learned that Tony Blinken, a longtime foreign policy adviser, will be nominated for secretary of state, which signals a desire to mend fences with allies -- along with two other top names on his national security team.

President Trump again has no public events on his schedule today. Instead, he blew off most of the G20 Summit over the weekend. But he is finding plenty of time for golf.

BERMAN: And plenty of time not to concede the election. The legal spectacle of the president trying to overturn.