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U.S. Reports Deadliest Day of Pandemic as Millions Travel for Thanksgiving; President-elect Biden to Deliver Thanksgiving Address Today; Trump Expected to Join Giuliani at Voter Fraud Event in PA. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 25, 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 MALE: The safest thing to do this Thanksgiving is not travel.

[05:59:39]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's potentially the mother of all super-spreader events.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is, again, the time for us to really hunker down. Do not gather indoors with anyone who's not in your immediate household right now.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: America is back. We're at the head of the table once again. America is going to reassert its role in the world.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House has signed off on Joe Biden getting that president's daily brief. He does expect to start, potentially, as soon as today.

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE NOMINEE: America at its best still has a greater ability than any other country on earth to bring others together to meet the challenges of our time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, November 25, 6 a.m. here in New York.

And this will be a different Thanksgiving. Many Americans are playing it safe, celebrating with family only virtually. Others are going against CDC advice and traveling to be with loved ones in person.

And then there are those families who will gather without a loved one at the table, that loved one lost to coronavirus.

On Tuesday, the United States reported its deadliest day of the pandemic in more than six months: 2,146 Americans reported dead yesterday.

Just look at this map. Fifteen states are seeing deaths rise by more than 50 percent. The U.S. also again broke hospitalization records yesterday.

The White House coronavirus task force is now stressing that more aggressive testing is needed to get out of this. And it must, quote, "be combined with significant behavior change of all Americans."

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President-elect Joe Biden will address the nation today with a Thanksgiving message. We're told it will discuss a path forward in the pandemic.

Coordination is currently also underway for the president-elect's first official national security briefing, which could happen as soon as today. This comes a day after the president-elect publicly unveiled his national security and foreign policy team with the message, America is back.

Meanwhile, CNN has learned that the outgoing president, Donald Trump, is making his first public appearance since the election outside of the Washington, D.C., area. He's attending what is billed as a hearing on the election in Pennsylvania, an election he lost in a commonwealth that he lost. But he's still apparently harboring fantasies of overturning the will of the people. Rudy Giuliani will be there, too.

So with apologies to Pennsylvania native son Mr. Rogers, while the event is in that state, it might as well be in the neighborhood of Make-Believe.

Let's begin with the deadly pandemic. CNN's Rosa Flores live at Miami International Airport.

Rosa, I am really interested to see what the airports look like today, if people maybe, maybe finally decide to stay home. What are you seeing?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, we are seeing some traffic this morning here at Miami International Airport. And as you said, there are millions of Americans that are expected to travel this holiday season.

But let's start with this deadly pandemic across the country. The U.S. shattering its hospitalization records yesterday, reporting more than 88,000 hospitalizations and just reporting that yesterday.

Now, this as the U.S. reports more than 12.5 million cases and also nears 260,000 deaths. That is the most of any country in the world.

Now, medical experts say that this virus is spreading in homes with younger people who are asymptomatic, passing it along to older people. Now, this is family transmission.

That is why I'm live here at Miami International Airport, because millions of Americans are doing just that: traveling this holiday season to visit with their families. Here at Miami International Airports, officials tell us that they are

expecting 621,000 people to travel within a 12-day period. That is a 59 percent decrease compared to last year. But that is still a whole lot of people.

Now, Admiral Brett Giroir says that, even though people are maybe taking tests before they travel, that is giving people a false sense of security. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HHS: The safest way -- thing to do this season is not travel.

It is certainly not wrong to get a test before you travel, because if you are positive, you need to stay home, no questions asked. But that -- but if you do get a negative test, it doesn't give you a free pass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, as cases continue to surge across the country, some states are taking measures. Some states are rolling back some of the reopening plans, as is the case in Louisiana. Others are tightening mask mandates, as is the case in North Carolina.

Here in the state of Florida, where I am, there is no mask mandate. And John, you and I have talked about Florida a lot throughout this pandemic.

I can tell you that Governor Ron DeSantis reopened this state in one swoop in late September. I did the math this weekend. The number of weekly cases has tripled weekly, since then.

BERMAN: And the White House task force, Rosa, says there needs to be a significant change in behavior by all Americans.

Thanks so much for being there. Please stay safe. Please keep us posted.

President-elect Joe Biden plans to deliver a Thanksgiving address today after announcing key members of his national security and foreign policy team.

[06:05:03]

CNN's Jeff Zeleny live in Wilmington, Delaware. And Jeff, no matter what Alisyn says, I am thankful for you today.

CAMEROTA: Me, too.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning. I'm thankful for both of you and your jokes and wittiness.

But you actually are making a good point. This contrast could not be more stark between President Trump as he visits Gettysburg today and President-elect Joe Biden as he delivers a Thanksgiving day message here, clearly showcasing his empathetic sides about the deaths and rising coronavirus cases here in the country. All this is coming as he's setting up his new team and forming his government.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY (voice-over): President-elect Joe Biden is building his new government.

BIDEN: It's a team that reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it.

ZELENY: And making clear he's not fixated on punishing President Trump.

BIDEN: I will not do what this president does and use the Justice Department as my vehicle to insist that something happen.

ZELENY: Biden telling NBC News that investigating the president is not his priority but adding that some probes are beyond his control.

BIDEN: There are a number of investigations that I've read about that are at a state level. There's nothing at all I can or cannot do about that. But I'm focused on getting the American public back in a place where they have some certainty, some surety, some knowledge that they can make it.

ZELENY: For the first wave of nominees to his cabinet, the president- elect is turning to longtime advisers, steeped in Washington experience.

BIDEN: They'll tell me what I need to know, not what I want to know. What I need to know.

ZELENY: It's a changing of the guard, at least from the Trump era. But with familiar faces from the Obama and Clinton administrations, and an eye on restoring America's place in the world.

BIDEN: This is not a third Obama term, because there's -- we face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration. The president -- this -- President Trump has changed the landscape. It's become "America first," which meant America alone. We find ourselves in a position where our alliances are being frayed.

ZELENY: For secretary of state, Biden said he will nominate longtime adviser Tony Blinken, who told of his father's Holocaust survival as an example of America's unparalleled promise.

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE NOMINEE: He ran to the tank, the hatch opened. An African-American G.I. looked down at him. He got down on his knees and said the only three words that he knew in English that his mother taught him before the war: "God bless America." That's who we are. That's what America represents to the world.

ZELENY: For homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, an immigrant and veteran of government service. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY NOMINEE: The

Department of Homeland Security has a noble mission, to help keep us safe and to advance our proud history as a country of welcome.

ZELENY: And as director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, the first woman to lead the intelligence community.

AVRIL HAINES, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE NOMINEE: You've selected us not to serve you, but to serve on behalf of the American people. To help advance our security, our prosperity, our values.

ZELENY: And U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield.

LINDA THOMAS GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N. NOMINEE: In my 35 years in the foreign service across four continents, I put a Cajun spin on it. I called it gumbo diplomacy.

ZELENY: The Biden team also featuring John Kerry as a special envoy on climate, elevating addressing the crisis to a cabinet-level post.

They will all face Senate confirmation, and the new lineup is hardly a guarantee of success but a key part of Biden's effort to turn the page.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: So now the transition is fully underway. We are told that landing teams, as they're called, from the Biden transition have already been in touch with every agency in the government, including the White House.

Also today, President-elect Joe Biden could receive the presidential daily brief for the first time. Of course, this comes after the White House signed off on it yesterday. So clearly, this government setting up quickly and more announcements set for next week, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much for all of that. Thank you for appreciating our humor.

OK, we'll be back.

Sources tell CNN that President Trump is expected to join Rudy Giuliani at a Republican voter fraud hearing in Pennsylvania today.

BERMAN: Speaking of humor.

We'll find out what that's all about. Also, President Trump is busy considering pardons in the waning days of this administration. CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at the White House with more.

What have you learned, Kristen?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Yes, some people are calling it a hearing. Others are calling it a meeting. But whatever you are calling it, details are scarce. And the reason is, it's no -- not on the president's public schedule yet.

All we know is coming from sources and what they say is that President Trump expressed a strong interest in joining Giuliani, who, of course, has led his legal efforts against the election or within the election against Joe Biden winning. And that he directed aides to make plans for him to travel. So that's what we know here.

[06:10:14]

Now this, of course, as President Trump seems to be the only one who has not accepted the results of this election, even though those around him are encouraging him to do so. And instead, he continues to sow doubt and claim that there was widespread fraud without any evidence of such.

Now, again, this hearing today is supposed to be about voter fraud. So no real surprise there, given what we're seeing from the White House, from the president, that he would want to attend this.

But as the rest of the country and even the world moves on and prepares for a Biden administration, the real question is, what is President Trump going to do with the final days of his administration?

And of course, what we're looking at very closely is pardons. And we have learned that at the top of the list of potential pardons is Michael Flynn. And that is a name that we have not heard in quite some time. So I want to give a little bit of a background here on who he is.

He was the former national security adviser to Trump. He pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI back in 2017. And then he cooperated with the Mueller investigation. Then later, he tried to withdraw his plea and now, the Department of Justice is seeking to dismiss his case. This is just the latest in a long list of close associates of President Trump's that have been pardoned or considered for pardons. It's a completely different system than we've seen in any other administration.

But I do want to give you a bit of a fun fact here or an interesting fact that brings it all full circle. Sidney Powell, the lawyer who was in that press conference with Rudy Giuliani, who then was ditched by the Trump team, put out a statement saying she was no part of the team, is actually Michael Flynn's attorney. So just goes to show you there, everything, again, comes full circle.

CAMEROTA: That is a fun fact. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Kristen. We appreciate all of that reporting.

Is there anything we can do right now to slow down this deadly pandemic? We discuss with our experts, next.

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[06:16:18]

CAMEROTA: Developing overnight, the United States reporting the deadliest day of the pandemic in more than six months: 2,146 deaths reported on Tuesday. That's the most since May.

This morning, more than 88,000 people are hospitalized across the country. We've broken the record every day in hospitalizations for the past two weeks.

Joining us now, CNN medical analyst, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. She is the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Well, Dr. Walensky, thanks so much for being here.

In terms of hospitalizations, here are the states that are experiencing record hospitalizations right now. And you can see, it's coast-to-coast. So it's everywhere. You know, Midwest, East Coast, West Coast.

But this time around, is this surge different than when we had broken records in the past?

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Alisyn.

You know, I think what's most concerning is we look at the numbers on the map, first of all, hospitalizations are up about 50 percent, compared to our last prior peak.

The other thing that I think is really concerning about it is how widely distributed it is that all states, many hospitals, are experiencing this surge.

So when we had challenges in the spring and over the summer, many generous healthcare workers would travel across the states to be in areas of help, so that people could really help one another. And we don't have that capacity this time. You look at that map, you realize everybody has to be in their own state to help their own state.

And what that's creating is really massive shortages of person power. Not just to care for people who are in the ICU, to care for inpatients to travel in the emergency departments, but also because right now, we need a pretty large healthcare workforce to try and figure out how we're going to distribute vaccines and implement all of these prevention interventions that we're so excited will be coming down the pipeline.

BERMAN: Yes. Dr. Craig Spencer here in New York last night told me it's not just about beds. You've got to stop thinking about beds. We can go to IKEA for beds. We don't have the people to staff the beds right now as the hospitalization rate goes up.

And if you can put the chart back up on the screen so people can see, with hospitalizations hitting new records every day for the last 15 days and the curve just rising and rising and rising, deaths will follow. We had more than 2,100 reports death reported yesterday. And that's the highest ever since May. And you can just see, it's going to go up over the next few weeks, and people just need to brace themselves for that. I'm sorry to be depressing, but it's true. You need to brace yourself

for the fact that there will be way more deaths reported over the next few weeks, which is why it was interesting to hear the White House coronavirus task force say now, Dr. Walensky -- now, before Thanksgiving, as deaths reach 2,100 -- that what we need is a significant behavior change of all Americans. What would that entail?

WALENSKY: Well, I mean, we were looking for that guidance months ago. You know, we -- we know that we need to distance. We need to mask. We need to wash our hands. We need to not gather. That's really a hard thing to say when you're reversing course after months of saying that this will probably be fine. And especially hard to say, you know, the day before Thanksgiving.

So I agree with the advice. I just wish it had come months ago.

The other thing I think that's really important as we look at the hospitalizations is so many hospitals now are trying to maintain their regular procedures and other operations, because they had lost so many of those procedures and operations. People were not able to -- to attend to their regular healthcare maintenance.

It's really hard to be able to attend to regular healthcare maintenance, to attend to elective procedures when, in fact, your hospitals are getting fuller and fuller of coronavirus patients.

[06:20:07]

CAMEROTA: Admiral Giroir also had an interesting announcement about how long to quarantine, which is now different. They're considering, I should say, considering announcing a different guideline. So listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF HEALTH, HHS: As you know, it's quarantine for 14 days. Half of people become symptomatic by day five. That's when the virus is present, and there's a long trail of very low probability afterwards.

So the postulate is -- and the CDC is looking at -- it will be driven by data -- if you get a test at day seven or day ten, particularly, can that lengthen -- shorten your quarantine from 14 days to perhaps 10 days? This is not an announcement that it's safe, but we're looking at that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: And Dr. Walensky, that would make it easier to comply with. What do you think about that possibility?

WALENSKY: So I think the thing that we need to remember is to be humble here and that the virus gets to decide, and we're following the science. And the science is evolving, which is why I think these recommendations may, in fact, change. So early on, through contact-tracing studies, which have their

limitations, we thought that people could potentially be infected out to 14 days. And so that was the duration of quarantine needed.

Increasingly, over time, we now have really good studies, people who have quarantined in the context of sports, the NBA, for example, or in the context of universities, where they really have been watched and tested frequently during their quarantine. And increasingly, we're seeing that, really, none of those cases are getting infected after day 10 or so.

We in Massachusetts, the Department of Public Health here have already changed the quarantine guidance. So here it's 14 days, as it was before, or 10 days, if you have remained completely asymptomatic. If, after day eight, you get a test and it is negative. And if you continue to monitor your symptoms for 14 days.

And the reason that I think it's really important to think about how we can follow the science to try and make this a shorter quarantine is because, again, as you said, people are more likely to comply with it. And also, again, because we need the work force.

BERMAN: Dr. Walensky, thank you so much for being with us today. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Albeit, with a much smaller group this year than usual.

WALENSKY: Thank you. Mine will be small. Mine will be small. Happy Thanksgiving to you.

CAMEROTA: You, too.

BERMAN: All right, today, the stark contrast between President Trump and President-elect Biden will be on full display. The president-elect due to address the nation, and wait until you hear what the defeated president plans on doing.

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[06:26:53]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: We're already working out and meeting with the COVID team in the White House and how to not only distribute, but get from a vaccine being distributed to a person able to get vaccinated. So I think we're going to not be so far behind the curve, as we thought we might be in the past. And there's a lot of immediate discussion, and -- and I must say, the outreach has been sincere. It's not been begrudging so far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Well, that's good news. President-elect Biden says there has been sincere outreach and sincere contact between the transition and the outgoing Trump administration. You can see, the president-elect also seems optimistic, as he approaches the next 56 days. The president-elect scheduled to address the nation today for the

Thanksgiving holiday. The defeated president going to Pennsylvania, but honestly, might as well be going to Fantasy Land.

Joining us now, CNN political analyst Toluse Olorunnipa, White House reporter for "The Washington Post." Also with us, Anna Palmer, senior Washington correspondent for "Politico" and author of "The Politico Playbook."

And Anna, I want to start with you, because that contrast between Joe Biden laying out his cabinet with all of them masked behind him, speaking about the future calmly, the interview he did with Lester Holt, saying, The transition, we're now in it, we're going to be OK. Addressing the nation on Thanksgiving today.

It's the contrast between that and defeated President Trump going to Pennsylvania with Rudy Giuliani to continue to try to overthrow the election. I think it's a contrast that increasingly, the Biden transition is perfectly OK with, and in fact, leaning into.

What do you think?

ANNA PALMER, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": Yes, it's a split screen we've talked a lot about, right? Where the president kind of is in his own camp, as you say, fantasy world, thinking that somehow they're going to overturn the results of the election.

But now that the Biden team has this transition and has the money and is actually meeting with folks in the EPA, at the DOJ, and this kind of orderly transition is happening, I think they are well-equipped and fine with the president doing whatever it is he's going to do, because they are marching towards 56 days for him to come into office.

He wants to provide a real contrast, frankly, to the world and to Americans, about what his leadership is going to look like, how there -- America is going to be a leader in the world again. He's talking about America is back. I think you're going to hear a lot of that. And just kind of pressing forward as a serious leader to get this country back on track.

CAMEROTA: Isn't he, like, remarkably positive? Did he take an anger management class or something? I mean, how is he so positive, while all of this has been going on these three weeks?

BERMAN: It's, to an extent, for better or for worse, it's who he has been the entire campaign, where Twitter in some parts of the Democratic Party are on fire. Their hair is on fire, concern over this. Joe Biden is just like, yes, the transition is going to happen. I'm going to be president. You go be concerned somewhere else. President Trump, you go be crazy somewhere. He just doesn't seem to be fazed -- as fazed by it as others.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but it is a stunning style, given in this day and age of hair on fire, Toluse.

But speaking of contrast, why is President Trump really considering going to Pennsylvania to be with Rudy Giuliani at this state.