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Trump Finally Relents, Allowing Biden Transition to Begin; Millions to Travel Despite Warnings; Biden to Announce Cabinet Picks Today; FDA to Meet in December to Consider First COVID-19 Vaccines. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 24, 2020 - 06:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: GSA administrator Emily Murphy has sent a letter to Joe Biden, ascertaining that he is the winner of the 2020 election.

[05:59:51]

REP. VAL DEMINGS (D-FL): It is about time.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: As one adviser put it, it's the end of the road for the president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some history-making choices. All of these nominees think they can get confirmed in the Senate.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You're seeing a team develop that I have great confidence in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Clear signs Americans are not heeding the CDC's warning to stay home.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTES FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You will see a surge, superimposed upon a surge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would just urge everyone, please cancel your nonessential travel. We're going to see much higher rates of hospitalizations and deaths in the weeks to come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. This is NEW DAY. it is Tuesday, November 24, 6 a.m. here in New York. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world.

Welcome to the first, official morning of the Biden transition. Welcome to the first morning where President Trump is waking up functionally acknowledging that he lost the election, which he did, by a lot.

Voting in that election ended three weeks ago today. Joe Biden was declared the winner more than two weeks ago. But it took until a few hours ago for the head of the General Services Administration to come to that conclusion, ascertaining that Joe Biden is president-elect, which finally and officially frees up millions of dollars in resources and opens the doors for agencies to start cooperating, including, and especially, on the pandemic.

It's a big moment for the nation. A tweet in the president's name declared that it is in the best interests of the country to begin the initial protocols of transitioning power. Now, the clean syntax and multisyllabic language indicates the president didn't actually write the tweet himself, but a senior Republican to the White House tells CNN this is as close to a concession as you may get from Trump.

And indeed, he seemed to backtrack a bit, overnight. But you know what? It's effectively irrelevant. What's done is done, whatever his mood swings.

We have no report -- more reporting this morning about what a truly eventful day in the White House it was among the president and his advisers.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK. So meanwhile, President-elect Joe Biden will formally introduce his historic cabinet this afternoon. It includes the first woman as treasury secretary and as intelligence chief; the first Latino and an immigrant as homeland security secretary. And they join a list of career foreign service and national security officials from Biden's inner circle.

Meanwhile, as millions of Americans make their Thanksgiving plans, Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning that holiday travel and gatherings could trigger a, quote, "surge upon a surge." We'll get into what that means.

On Monday, the United States, again, set a record for hospitalizations for the 14th consecutive day.

So, let's begin our coverage with CNN's Arlette Saenz. She is live in Wilmington, Delaware.

It truly is a new day there, Arlette.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, Alisyn and John. Good morning.

And 16 days after President-elect Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 race, the Biden transition has finally gotten that green light they've been waiting for. And that is for the formal transition process to begin.

But, even as this transition process is getting officially started, it doesn't mean that President Trump or the White House have accepted his defeat.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAENZ (voice-over): After a 16-day standoff by the Trump administration, the transition to President-elect Joe Biden can formally begin.

President Trump is still refusing to concede. But the General Services Administration is now acknowledging Biden as the apparent winner of the election.

The agency's Trump-appointed administrator, Emily Murphy, initially stonewalled giving Biden access to resources that should have been available to him as president-elect, including coronavirus data, intelligence briefings, and over $6 million in funding.

This delay while the president tries to overturn his loss by fighting the election results with the help of his legal team.

DEMINGS: It has been clear, since November 3, that the president's legal team has absolutely zero evidence of any wrongdoing. The bottom line is they lost.

SAENZ: But hours after Michigan certified Biden's victory by over 150,000 votes Monday, Murphy sent the president-elect a letter, writing she made her decision independently and adding she was never directly or indirectly pressured by any executive-branch official, including those who work at the White House.

REP. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): I hope Michigan serves as an example. We were obviously under tremendous pressure. Our Republican colleagues were called to the White House, and they resisted. I think we all need to remember that transition isn't just a political thing. It's about national security and protecting our homeland.

SAENZ: Trump indicating he was involved in the decision, sending a series of tweets saying he is recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with initial protocols, "and have told my team to do the same."

Meantime, Biden's team calls the move a needed step to begin tackling the challenges facing our nation, including getting the pandemic under control and our economy back on track.

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): Certainly, an important moment, and it should have happened three weeks ago. But we are here now, and we're going to be forward-looking.

SAENZ: Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are expected to formally introduce nominees for key foreign policy and national security posts, later today, bringing in new and old faces like Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden's pick for homeland security secretary; John Kerry for special presidential envoy for climate; and Avril Haines for director of national intelligence.

Two sources tell CNN he's also chosen former Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen for treasury secretary.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAENZ: And Biden is expected to name some members of his economic team next week. But in the meantime, these names that we're seeing from Biden also

signal some historic picks. You will have the first Latino, potentially, leading the Department of Homeland Security. And also, the first woman leading the intelligence community. And a little later today, Biden and his vice president-elect, Kamala Harris, will be introducing their nominees to the American public.

BERMAN: It will be very interesting to see that. Arlette Saenz in Wilmington. Thanks so much for being there for us.

To be clear, it should not be forgotten that the president worked hard to overturn the results of the election; to throw out democratic votes. And by that, I mean small "D." People who voted. Millions, across the country. He wanted them tossed.

But, that's basically over, now, even if the president refuses to use the word "concede."

CNN's Jeremy Diamond live at the White House with how we got to this really big point -- Jeremy.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, listen. It's been three weeks since election day and three weeks of the president hunkering down inside the White House, bitterly refusing to accept his loss here and watching as one court challenge after the next was either dismissed in the courts or withdrawn by his legal team or the legal team of his allies. More than two dozen cases, at that.

And ultimately, it seems that the final straw for the GSA administrator was this certification in Michigan and the president's loss in a key case in federal court over the weekend.

But the president suggesting that he had something to do with this, in reality, Emily Murphy said that she arrived at this decision, by herself.

The question is how did the president arrive at this decision to allow this transition to proceed, to not stand in the way? Sources close to the White House telling us this is perhaps the closest that we will get to a Trump concession, him allowing this transition to move forward.

One source close to the White House calling this a blaring wakeup call. And another saying that it is now time to move on. We know that the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has even acknowledged in an e-mail to staff that this transition, is, indeed, moving forward.

Now, to be clear, the president is insisting that he is going to continue pursuing what little legal avenues he still has left. And he is insisting that, while his allies may be considering this to be the closest thing to a concession, he says he's not conceding.

Let me show you a tweet from the president from late last night. He says, "What does GSA being allowed to preliminarily work with the Dems have to do with continuing to pursue our various cases on what will go down as the most corrupt election in American political history?" And then he says, "We are moving full speed ahead. We will never concede to fake ballots and 'Dominion.'"

Dominion is a reference to this baseless conspiracy theory that the president has been peddling, suggesting that votes have been deleted for him, which is, of course, not true, has been debunked by state and federal officials over the last couple of weeks.

Though what this makes clear, Alisyn, is that ultimately, the president is going to be continuing to spread these conspiracy theories, saying that he refuses to concede, but in practice, at least allowing this transition to move forward.

CAMEROTA: That's a big distinction. And it's a big morning because something has changed, this morning. So, Jeremy, thank you very much for all of that reporting.

So, coronavirus is spreading across the U.S. And yet, millions of Americans are ignoring the public-health warnings to stay home for the Thanksgiving holiday.

CNN's Ryan Young is live at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport with more. What's the scene there?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Alisyn. You know, when we used to do these holiday travel stories, we'd focus on all the people who are traveling. Of course, they're expecting more than a million people to travel here. That's down a third.

But really, the story here is look, I'm wearing a mask. The people walking in are mostly wearing a mask. And the airport has prepared for people who are not wearing masks. If you look behind us, there are even people who have masks in their hands. They hand out to passengers as they arrive here.

They're telling people to come early. To be ready for all the people that are showing up. I can tell you as someone who's been in airports as the pandemic started, we're seeing a heavier flow of people, already, so far this morning.

This is all happening with all the rise in cases all across the country. In fact, 14 states are breaking records when it comes to hospitalizations. And there have been record numbers of people getting tested.

So you think about these numbers, as well. There is a big concern about what the impact of this holiday could be on the overall hospital situation in this country, especially when it comes to COVID-19. Dr. Fauci talked about this travel and the increased risk, just recently.

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: When you leave a location, have to go to an airport or wherever it is, a train station, et cetera, the possibility of exposing yourself. And then, going home to your home community for, you know, a wonderful, traditional Thanksgiving holiday might actually, unfortunately, be a source of an even amplification of the surge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:10:18]

YOUNG: Look, obviously, Alisyn, we're in a state where you see people. Some not wearing to wear a mask. But here, at the airport, you are seeing people wear the mask.

They also have more hand-sanitation zones set up through the area. More than 500 of them available. And when you go through the TSA check-in, there's someone actually standing there, a human person who will squeeze it into your hand for you. So you understand there's a process here.

Now we know, of course, airlines believe the airplanes are clean, but there's a whole lot of contact points between here and the airplane that people are concerned about -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes, absolutely. We've heard that from our health experts, as well. Ryan, thank you very much for explaining to us what's happening in crowded airports.

So this morning, the transition to the Biden administration is finally underway. Just in time for some major cabinet announcements, which we'll bring to you. We have a preview of what we can expect today from the president-elect and how the outgoing president got around to this. Next.

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[06:15:19]

BERMAN: So this morning, the closest President Trump likely will ever come to a concession, the government finally acknowledges that Joe Biden is president-elect. And today, the president-elect officially unveils much of his national security team.

Joining us now, CNN political analyst Margaret Talev. She's a politics and White House editor for "Axios." And CNN political commentator Joe Lockhart. He was White House press secretary under President Clinton.

Margaret, I want to start with you. "Axios" reporting that, you know, President Trump isn't going to use the word "concession," but the world basically told President Trump, You've conceded. And by that, I mean, Republican senators started coming out. The business community started coming out. "Axios" had great reporting on Steven Schwarzman.

And then the states basically said, This is done. Michigan, Pennsylvania, other states getting in line.

So you're reporting with Steven Schwartz. And what does "Axios" think went on behind the scenes to get the president to at least write that tweet or sign off on that tweet?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: John, good morning. I mean, ultimately, it was these three trends, all kind of coalescing.

Avenues in court and with the states being blocked off. The business community, this was huge, to have a figure like Steve Schwarzman, as well as like more than a hundred other business leaders, saying it is time to move on.

And then, finally, it was the Republican senators, who have been such an important firewall for the president -- I mean, I guess firewall is the right word. They've given him the space to kind of play this out in front of the whole public. Starting to dial it back and say, OK, this is over now.

And so "The New York Times" has some great reporting on this. You saw, then, behind the scenes, the president's chief of staff, the president's attorneys, saying it is -- it's time to bring this to an end. Use whatever words you want; don't use whatever words you don't want, but it's time to get out of the way and let the GSA begin this process.

CAMEROTA: Joe, I think one of the really interesting postmortems on all of this, the three weeks of tortured exercise that we've all just gone through, is that it did reveal to the American public the loopholes, actually. The loopholes in the system that seemed to put us in a precarious position. When it comes down to local-canvassing boards being able to go rogue or state electors or a GSA administrator, one woman who can hold up the, you know, stop the wheels from turning.

And I don't know. I guess I'm just wondering if you think that Joe Biden will take any of that and change any of that or Congress will, moving forward? Because I don't think we ever knew that we could be in this position.

JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the system's always been based on trust. And trust is the one thing that's gone away since Donald Trump has been here.

I mean, Hillary Clinton lost by much less, you know, if you look at the states and won the popular vote. But there was no holding up of GSA.

I think they probably will take a look at that. I don't know that Democrats and Republicans can agree on anything when it comes to elections, because everyone's looking for an advantage. But it does -- you know, it's one of the legacies of Trumpism that -- that the norms don't matter. The -- the -- the trusted figures don't matter. And he will do whatever he can to take advantage of the system, and we've seen that the system, ultimately, held. But it was pretty ugly to watch.

BERMAN: Yes. It ultimately held but it wasn't for lack of trying to overturn an election. The president tried. And failed. But he did try.

And as you said, the institutions were based on good faith. Built on the idea that people would have good faith. We now know what happens when they don't. Joe, President-elect Joe Biden's going to unveil his national security

team, much of it, today. We've learned the identity of some of the other cabinet picks. You've worked with a lot of these people when you were in the Clinton White House, which is to say, they've been in the business of government for a long time. A vast body of experience.

We can put up on the screen so people can see the people who will be announced and nominated today. And it includes people who have served as deputy secretary of state, deputy of homeland security, deputy national security adviser. That tells you. Janet Yellen, who was the Fed chair. I mean, that tells you that these are people with depth of experience, depth of relationship with Joe Biden, and also adept in the area of diversity, as well.

What strikes you with these nominations, Joe?

LOCKHART: Yes, a couple things. One is how long many of these people have been with Biden. There is a -- there will be a strong working relationship to, you know, the cliche of hit the ground running. Well, these guys are going to hit the ground running.

They know how government works. They know how Biden works. And Biden knows how they work.

You know, with the Trump team, Trump -- Trump's cabinet were strangers to him, on the most part.

The second is, you know, deep experience. Just people who know the buildings they're in. You know, you look at Tony Blinken and, if you're a career foreign service officer, you're popping champagne bottles this morning, because finally, you have someone who respects what they're doing, and the hollowing out there I think will end.

Third, and I think most importantly, is -- is it's historic. And I mean, it's just kind of ridiculous, in 2020, that women have never held the job of treasury secretary or head of intelligence. And maybe, down the road, secretary of defense.

But Janet Yellen and Avril Haines, you know, perhaps down the road, Michelle Flournoy, they not only were the most qualified for the job but we're at a place right now where their gender doesn't stand in their way. And that's historic, and we should take a moment to -- to really recognize that, today.

CAMEROTA: Margaret, on the flip side, the other way to look at it, the way that conservative media like, say, "Wall Street Journal" is looking at it this morning, is you can call it experience or you can call it status quo.

And one of the experiments is that when you bring back John Kerry and, you know, even Tony Blinken, to some extent, you're going back to the kind of policies that favor international treaties, NATO, the U.N., things like that, that, you know, many -- millions -- of Trump voters rejected, and we're sort of swinging the pendulum back to that. TALEV: Well, I mean, this is what Joe Biden ran on. I mean, it's like

literally, exactly, what he ran on.

If you were going to take people who were not really political figures or lightning rods but just kind of people in the civil service or public servants, political appointees, who'd spent 30 years in government pursuing these avenues that Biden campaigned on, these would be the people that you would have.

So, if you were going to shake up the status quo and you were Joe Biden, you would be looking at, probably, the more progressive side of the lens. And I'm not sure that the core readers of the "Wall Street Journal" opinion page want those folks. But they would -- they would signal a cabinet fight.

And I think, what we don't know, yet, are some of those picks coming? There's some notable people who were crucial to Democrats' success in the election. People like Stacey Abrams, Pete Buttigieg, who have been thought of as people who could play high-profile roles -- roles in this incoming administration. We haven't seen if or what those roles are going to be, yet. So that's one thing to be watching.

The other is how much of a fight is the president-elect going to pick, both with the progressives in his party and with Republicans on the Hill, when it comes to defense secretary, when it comes to the attorney general.

I'll just float one thing with you all, because I think we'll be hearing more from her and be paying a lot of attention to her. It's not just that she's the first woman. It is the first time there's been someone who's served as the chief of a president's Council on Economic Advisers and the head of the Fed, first, before being treasury secretary. Knowing how to use all those levers in the coming months when anything could happen with the economy is going to be really important.

But none of these folks are people we think of as key liaisons to the corporate world. And I think that is one thing we're going to be watching for. Who is going to play that role in a Biden administration?

BERMAN: All right, Margaret, Joe, we've got to let you go. We're going to have to save the amazing video of the prescient turkey pardon for President Trump for another time --

CAMEROTA: Stick around for that. It's that good.

BERMAN: -- in this broadcast. It is that good. He predicted, more or less, everything he's done over the last three weeks in a turkey pardon. All right, Margaret, Joe, have a happy Thanksgiving. Thanks so much.

So, how soon will the coronavirus vaccine be available to Americans? We have new details on the next steps in the approval process. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:28:02]

BERMAN: CNN has learned the FDA is now asking its Vaccine Advisory Committee to meet twice next month to review both the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines. Both show great promise in late-stage trials.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen joins us now to explain what this all means -- Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John, what we're seeing is the process is starting.

We've heard from two U.S. vaccine companies that their vaccines have great efficacy, 95 percent. And now is the process where the FDA and the CDC start to look at these vaccines and see if they ought to go on the market.

Pfizer will go first, because they are a little bit, about a week further ahead in the process.

So let's take a look at what this timeline will be. And this is all sort of looking into the future. Things may, you know, change a bit, of course.

On December 10, an FDA advisory committee -- committee is scheduled to review Pfizer's vaccine application. They are expected to make a decision that day. That same thing is scheduled to happen, on December 17, for Moderna.

Now, what happens is that, let's -- let's assume that emergency-use authorizations are authorized, the FDA gives the green light. Twenty- four to 48 hours after that, the CDC needs to chime in. Just the FDA is not enough. The CDC needs to chime in. An independent committee meets, and decides who should be getting this vaccine, who shouldn't. And most importantly, who should be getting it first.

And then, after that guidance is issued, then needles can actually go into arms.

And so, the bottom line of all of this, as Dr. Anthony Fauci telling me last week that he thinks that some groups, just high-risk groups, will start getting vaccinated towards the latter half of December. Those high-risk groups including healthcare workers, the elderly, people with underlying medical conditions that put them at high risk for having COVID complications, as well as essential workers, such as firefighters and police officers -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: And we just have to get there. We just have to get to that, one more month, to that point.