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Trump Makes Surprise Appearance At W.H. Briefing, Touts Dow Record As Biden Transition Finally Begins; Soon: Biden & Harris Introduce National Security & Foreign Policy Picks; U.S. Averaging 1,500 Plus New Deaths Every Day As Toll Tops 258,000; Data Reveals Alarming Racial Disparity In COVID-19 Deaths. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 24, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:31:04]

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN HOST: We've just been told that President Donald Trump plans to make remarks in the briefing room at some point and we'll bring you that as it happens. Next, our President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will introduce their picks for key national security and foreign policy pros.

And as the Biden team moves forward with a formal transition process, progressive Democrats are pushing for a voice in the administration and sounding the alarm on potential pick, specifically former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Many of those Democrats rallied last week in front of the Democratic National Committee to push Biden to follow through with his campaign promises to build back better and ignore corporate agendas.

Joining me now is Congressman-elect Jamaal Bowman of New York. Thank you so much, Congressman-elect, for being here with us. And you wrote on Twitter about the potential of Rahm Emanuel but also about the potential for Biden to give a post to his former Chief of Staff, Bruce Reed, and this is what you wrote. "We don't we don't want Bruce Reed neither." Do you think the Biden team is actually hearing the complaints and concerns of progressives are like you and Trump? I'm going to bring you Trump.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Absolutely incredible. So, nothing like that has ever happened medically. And I think people are acknowledging that and it's having a big effect, but the stock market's just broken. 30,000 never been broken that number. That's a sacred number, 30,000, nobody thought they'd ever see it.

That's the ninth time since the beginning of 2020. And it's the 48th time that we've broken records in during the Trump administration. And I just want to congratulate all the people within the administration that work so hard. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the people of our country because there are no people like you. Thank you very much, everybody. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, why not (INAUDIBLE), sir?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENDERSON: You just heard from the President of the United States, Donald Trump, we're going to take a quick break.

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[12:37:42]

HENDERSON: Let's bring in Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta. Now on that surprise appearance by the President just moments like, go Jim, I got to say, I was all prepared to take notes on what the President had to say. And I ended up scribbling the number 30,000 and the words, the stock market is up. What was that presser --

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

HENDERSON: -- about?

ACOSTA: That was the weirdest thing I've ever seen over here at the White House. And I've seen a lot over the last several years. I will tell you, Nia, the President came in there. I think it was about 30 seconds. It may have been a little longer than 30 seconds. He obviously wanted to tout the performance on, you know, in the Dow this morning, down on Wall Street this morning.

The Dow hitting 30,000. And the President wanted to take credit for that. There was a lot of talk on social media, we saw it on Twitter. People crediting the Biden transition, the decision for the General Services Administration to begin the ascertainment, you know, procedures that are now in motion. And, you know, there was a lot of chatter on wall street that this pop in the Dow was somehow related to the Biden transition team getting going and the appointment of Janet Yellen over at the Treasury Department. I think that probably precipitated, you know, the President wanting to go out there and take credit for himself.

We saw some of White House officials over here, taking credit for the Dow hitting 30,000. And as you and I both know, Nia, the President talks about the Dow as a metric that he judges, you know, any administration by -- particularly his own and so it's not surprising that he wanted to come out here.

Now, we will have another chance to see him later on this afternoon. He's going to be doing the ceremonial pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey over here at the White House. But that was just the strangest thing to see the President run, you know, basically come out into the briefing room. We had White House staffers, you know, shouting at us to get in our places because he wanted to walk into the room. So he was ready and wanting to walk into the briefing room before we were in our seats. Because we had White House wranglers and staffers telling us to sit down because the President was about to walk in. He didn't take any questions, as we all know. And it's worth noting, he's, you know, he has been in this period of dealing with, you know, losing Joe Biden for the last three weeks now, and still has not taken any questions for reporters.

So, you know, it's hard to put the cereal back in the box after you've gone cuckoo for cocoa puffs, Nia. And I think that's the situation over here. Just the strangest weirdest thing I've ever seen in the White House briefing room.

[12:40:06]

HENDERSON: And for whatever reason, he decided that a tweet wasn't good enough for that announcement about -- or statement about the Dow. And so, there we saw him and as you said we'll see him later today pardoning two turkeys.

ACOSTA: That's right.

HENDERSON: Jim Acosta, thanks for that report.

ACOSTA: You bet.

HENDERSON: And we're going to bring back Congressman-elect Jamaal Bowman of New York. And we'll just pick up where we left off. We were talking about the Cabinet selection process for Biden, and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont have this to say. "It would be, for example, enormously insulting if Biden put together a team of rivals-- and there's some discussion that that's what he intends to do which might include Republicans and conservative Democrats -- but which ignored the progressive community. I think that would be very, very unfortunate." Bernie Sanders had to say.

So based on Biden's selections so far, do you see anyone that's progressive enough for you?

JAMAAL BOWMAN (D), NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN-ELECT: Well, first, let me say off the top, thank you so much for having me. When I hear names like Rahm Emanuel being floated as part of Biden's Cabinet, considering the fact that he covered up the murder of Laquan McDonald in Chicago, considering the fact that he closed over 50 elementary schools and 30 mental health institutions, it's incredibly alarming. And --

HENDERSON: So, we lost the Congressman-elect there, sorry about that. We'll try to bring him back at some other point.

Next, the color of the coronavirus. The disparity in the death toll and what's being done to slow it down. As we wait for President-elect Joe Biden to take the stage and introduce his Cabinet picks.

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[12:46:37] HENDERSON: You're looking at live pictures out of Wilmington, Delaware, where we're waiting for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to come out and introduce the Cabinet picks that they announced this week and those nominees will also be with them and we'll, of course, bring that to you live.

A growing number of Americans will be without a loved one this Thanksgiving due to COVID-19. Nearly 900 new deaths were reported just yesterday, the most for a Monday since late July. More than 1,500 deaths are being reported on average every day now. And as this pandemic has reminded us over and over and over again, not every community is impacted equally.

Joining me now to share his findings is Ali Mokdad, a professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Thanks, Doctor, for being here. IHME has new research that shows the risk of death disparity from COVID-19 when it comes to race, and ethnicity. The risk of dying from COVID is 6.9 times higher for Hispanics and 5.5 times higher for Blacks compared to their white counterparts, what can be done, Doctor, to prevent these deaths?

DR. ALI MOKDAD, HEALTH METRICS SCIENCES PROF., INST. FOR HEALTH METRICS & EVALUATION: Thank you for having me. Also, in our analysis, we have shown also the elevated risk in Hispanic, Latino and Black Americans, African Americans mean that the risk of dying at age 50 for them is equal to the risk of dying for a 65 or more non-Hispanic white. So what we need to do is protect our essential workers because they kept food on our tables, and they kept our country running through PPE and masks at workplace and even in their social gathering as well at home.

And also in terms of giving the vaccine, in terms of prioritization of the vaccine, they should be considered first. And for them, of course, the age should be 50 and not 65.

HENDERSON: And some research shows that Black Americans aren't as keen on taking the vaccines that are will be rolled out in the next month as white Americans or I think it's something like 70 percent of whites are much more likely to take it and something like 55 percent for African Americans. You see the numbers there, Hispanics are at 72 percent. How can you close this gap in terms of who's going to get the vaccine and who feels comfortable getting the vaccine? And we know that African Americans have a history of mistreatment from the medical community. So these fears about the vaccine are oftentimes based on history and lived experiences.

MOKDAD: Very true. And, unfortunately, we have a bad history here in the United States, so we have to address this. And we have to make sure we do house promotion, reach out to the community leadership and the community. Get the hub of everybody and make sure we tell them how safe the vaccine is and how important for them to take the vaccine to protect themselves because they are at a higher risk. And they are part for our essential workers. So it's very -- it's on us to make sure we make -- let them know how safe it is and why it's important to take it and make it available for free to them. HENDERSON: So I want you to listen to this doctor who was on CNN this morning talking about the disparity she seen at her hospital in Minnesota. How does that line up with what you're finding in your research and what needs to be done that help folks who don't stay home because they simply don't have an option. I want you to take a listen to this.

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[12:50:09]

DR. SHIRLEE XIE, ASSOC. DIRECTOR, DIV. OF HOSPITAL MEDICINE AT HENNEPIN HEALTHCARE: We're a safety net hospital that serves this really amazing and diverse patient population. But it is a lot of patients from marginalized communities and people that have fewer resources and less access. We're seeing a lot of essential workers that can't stay at home. We see a lot of families that have housing insecurity, so they have no homes to go to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENDERSON: I imagine, Doctor, you're seeing some of those same disparities.

MOKDAD: Yes. And, you know, quite honestly, we failed to protect our vulnerable population. We know that we had -- before COVID-19, we had disparities in house. African Americans had a lower life expectancy, they had a higher probability of dying across our nation, and we failed to protect them, same for Hispanics and Latino.

This COVID-19 disparity came on top of pre-existing disparities that has been going on for a long time. And now we have realized in this country that it is important for us, our health, as a nation, is as good as the health of the weakest person in our community. And unless we address these disparities, in terms of health, environmental and socioeconomic equity, we cannot as a country develop and keep our pace of development.

HENDERSON: Doctor, we thank you for your time and your critical research as well.

MOKDAD: Thank you.

HENDERSON: And thanks for joining us. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage after a quick break.

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[12:56:07]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hi there, I'm Brianna Keilar and I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. We're about to see part of the new Biden administration live. In just moments, we will watch President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris introduce the first of their Cabinet choices, hours after the Trump administration finally lifted its obstruction of the transition process, allowing the Biden team to start coordinating with the government that they are about to lead.

Precious time lost, but Biden trying to assuage concerns about the vulnerabilities that will create by putting forth his national security team. And that includes State Department veteran and former top aide to then Vice President Biden Tony Blinken, who is nominated to be Secretary of State, Avril Haines for Director of National Intelligence, Alejandro Mayorkas as Homeland Security Secretary and former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, the first female Treasury Secretary if she is confirmed.

Now last night, the head of the General Services Administration finally acknowledging what the voters chose three weeks ago, signing off on the election results to allow Biden transition funds and the ability to move forward with security clearances. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy wrote that she came to the decision independently, then was almost immediately undercut by President Trump who tweeted that he recommended she do it.

In the meantime, President Trump's legal challenges continue to dry up yet he's still insisting he will not concede and soon he'll make a rare post-election public appearance for the traditional Thanksgiving pardoning of the turkey. Moments after a bizarre one minute briefing room of hearings during which he touted the stock market's performance.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is in Wilmington, Delaware where the Biden team is being introduced. Arlette, tell us what kind of rollout we're expecting today.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, in just a short while we will get the first glimpse at President-elect Joe Biden and his incoming administration. We are expecting that each of those six national security and foreign policy appointees and nominees that he named yesterday will be joining him and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on stage today. They also, each of those nominees, will also have the opportunity to speak as this is a moment to introduce them to the American public.

Now Biden, in this first batch of nominees focused on national security and foreign policy, as he has stressed that one of the key pillars of his incoming administration will be repairing relationships with allies and trying to restore America standing in the world. And over the course of the campaign, you also heard Biden portray himself as the experienced candidate. And you are seeing that extends all the way down to these nominees and appointees that he will be introducing today. Between all of them, they have decades of experience in each of their sectors from the Foreign Service to the Department of Homeland Security. And Biden is trying to show that he has assembled a team of experts who are key officials in their areas to leave the country when it comes to these two issues.

Now, in addition to this official rollout of his incoming Cabinet and what it's going to look like, this will also be the first time that we hear from the President-elect since the GSA Administrator said that he can move forward with that official transition process. We know that Biden's transition team has already been in contact with key agencies like the Department of Defense, Department of State and also the Health and Human Services at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is front and center for all Americans and as it continues to grip the country. We know that the Biden transition wants to get access to key coronavirus details as they are trying to plan for what their response will look like in the early days of their administration.

KEILAR: All right, Arlette, so many days, months ahead for them as they get ready. Arlette Saenz covering the Biden transition for us in Wilmington.

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