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New Day

U.S. Reports Deadliest Day of Pandemic in More Than Six Months; Biden Outlines Urgency of Acting on Pandemic, Aid Package; Sources Say, White House Discussing Potential Michael Flynn Pardon. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired November 25, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is New Day.

And this morning, nearly 90,000 Americans will spend Thanksgiving in the hospital trying to survive coronavirus. That is a new record, 15 straight days of record hospitalizations. 2,146 new deaths were reported overnight. Each and every one matters. That's the single highest day total since May.

This morning, thousands of Americans are ignoring CDC warnings and are on the move for Thanksgiving, even as the White House coronavirus task force is urgently calling for, quote, a significant behavior change of all Americans.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: The pandemic is priority one for the incoming Biden administration, which is now finally able to work closely with every federal agency. Yesterday, President-elect Biden introduced key members of his national security and foreign policy teams. And this afternoon, the president-elect will deliver a Thanksgiving address to reflect on a difficult year and the way forward, he says.

As for President Trump, he's planning his first event outside of the White House since Election Day. He will join his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, at a so-called election hearing, with Pennsylvania Republicans still searching for that widespread fraud that no one has found evidence of.

BERMAN: We begin with the pandemic, more than 2,100 new deaths reported overnight.

Joining us now, William Haseltine, he is the Chair and President of ACCESS Health International, former Professor at Harvard Medical School.

Professor, I wish the news was better this morning in terms of where we are today. I understand the vaccines are coming, that's good news. But the news today, not good, record hospitalizations for the 15th straight day and a curve that is still rising steeply. 2,100 new deaths were reported overnight, and that number will track the hospitalizations and go up in the next several weeks. What are you seeing? How do you feel this morning?

WILLIAM HASELTINE, CHAIR AND PREISDENT, ACCESS HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: I am feeling, like many of us in the public health area, desperate. Because not only is this terrible numbers that you've just described, but what we see happening this weekend, this long Thanksgiving weekend is going the drive those numbers still higher. We're going to see hospitals that are already stretched to capacity, break under the strain of new patients, we're going to see, as we have seen in New York, refrigerated rubbings that have been parked for months with bodies and not a place to bury them. This is a terrible situation that need not have occurred.

CAMEROTA: Each state is trying its own thing to try to curtail some of the devastating outcome that you're describing. For instance, Pennsylvania is doing something interesting. The bars and restaurants in Pennsylvania have been ordered to stop selling all alcohol by 5:00 P.M. tonight. That's interesting. I mean, how -- how by not drinking after 5:00 P.M. tonight, until tomorrow, do you bring down coronavirus numbers?

HASELTINE: Well, everybody is doing their best to try to keep the economy going, as best they can. You know, there are ways that other countries are beginning to do, excluding China, to try to control this pandemic. One of the things that Britain is beginning to do is rapid universal testing. They've ordered 2 billion of these very rapid tests. These are things that are self-administered tests. And they are accurate enough that allow people to know that they're infectious and have to protect those around them.

I believe if people know that they're infectious, they will change their behavior to those people they love the most.

BERMAN: Governor Tom Wolf in Pennsylvania, one of the reasons they put this measure in place for tonight is they say they found that the night before Thanksgiving is a big drinking night, a big night where people go out. And, you know, I'm not -- I don't know about you, but sometimes, I'm told, people get in each other's business when they drink. They do things like they get too close. Maybe they get too close in conversations, they speak too loudly, I'm told. They're not wearing masks. That's what the governor is trying to do there. Whether it works or not is a different story.

I was struck by what the White House coronavirus task force said yesterday. As we're in November, right, the third week of November, the White House coronavirus task force says, with record hospitalization, says, they need to see a significant behavior change of all Americans.

[07:05:01]

I want to know what you think of, A, the timing of that statement, but, B, what's the behavior that we all should change?

HASELTINE: Well, first of all, the timing is about six months, seven months late for that kind of statement. The behavior change that, of course, people are talking about is wearing masks, staying in small groups, not going inside, like going into bars, because that is where the virus will hang in the air and you can get easily infected.

I was also struck by the fact that the testing czar has said, if you're going to travel, don't bother to get tested. That's a testament to failure. You know, I have friends who are trying to travel within their bubble. And if a kid has a cold, they have to get tested. That can be absolutely ordeal. It can take you six or seven hours standing in line in the cold. If you're lucky, somebody's taking care of your children while you're waiting in line.

But you have to wait in Manhattan hours and hours just for a test. That's a horrible failure of our system in one of the best parts of the country to control this pandemic.

CAMEROTA: How about those home test kits? I've lost the thread on where we are with that. Are they available? Will they soon become more affordable and available to people?

HASELTINE: I like your thought, lost the thread. That's what this country has done. I believe that we should have long ago invested in these rapid test kits. Years ago, I developed one for AIDS and it didn't get approved for over 20 years. Finally, the FDA has approved the first one. But we should have had a program which is as bold, as forceful, as the vaccine program, for rapid tests. They exist. Other countries are using them. We just don't have them in anything like the number we showed.

My private guess is that we should have at least 150 million such tests a day. That can assure that everybody who's contagious has a good chance of knowing it. And along with something I call paid home isolation, we could put a stop to this epidemic very quickly. But we have lost the thread. We have not followed through.

And if you try to get a home test, it is -- you know, I have mentioned this, and my friends are writing to me, tell me, please, where I can get a home test. And I can't tell them, because we don't have them and we should have had them and we should have them right now.

If there's one thing the Biden administration should do right now, they should focus on getting governors, if the administration won't do it, focus on getting governors to get those home tests. Ideally, they are very cheap. They should only be 50 cents a piece. So that's how much it should cost. So it is horrifying that the head of our testing program says, if you travel, don't get tested. That's because they can't get tested.

BERMAN: Professor, stand by for a second, if you will. I want bring Dr. Joseph Varon. He is the chief of staff of the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas.

Doctor, how many straight days have you worked now?

DR. JOSEPH VARON, CHIEF OF STAFF, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: Today is going to be 251 continuous days.

BERMAN: 251 continuous days. And the reason is because there is a need, because with this pandemic, there is so much need for your services. As we see the hospitalization rate in the United States for coronavirus hit new records, 15 straight days in a row, more than 88,000 Americans hospitalized and rising, give us a sense of the situation you are seeing and what your concerns are for the next few weeks.

VARON: For the last few days, we've had a steady increase in the number of cases. There is no question that patients are coming into the hospital. They're coming in sicker. And they're coming in sicker because they are waiting longer to come to the hospital. They're tired of corona. They have what I call the corona fatigue syndrome. Everybody is tired of corona so they wait longer.

My -- unfortunately, my concerns for the next 6 to 12 weeks is that if we don't do things right, America is going to see the darkest days in modern American medical history. We're having the largest number of patients. We have been helping the people from El Paso, so we've been getting a lot of patients flown into our hospital. My hospital is full. I just opened two new wings so that I can accommodate for the next few days, because I know that a lot of people are going to get sick after Thanksgiving.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Varon, I don't understand. How have you worked 251 days straight? What kind of toll is this taking?

VARON: I mean, this is taking a huge toll, not only on me, but on my health care, people that work with me. My nurses in the middle of the day, they would start crying because they are getting so many patients and this is a never-ending story.

[07:10:03]

When they finish finally getting a patient in, they get a phone call from the E.R. that there is another patient that is being admitted.

How have I done it? I don't know. I'm running out of fumes. I mean, we've talked before, you and me, you've said me actually to get a day off, but I can't get a day off, because nobody cares for the patients that I care for.

BERMAN: Dr. Varon, thank you. I mean, all we have to say is thank you for what you're doing. You need help. We need to get you. The country needs to get you the help you need because this isn't going to get better in the next few weeks. It's more likely to get worse.

VARON: There is no question about it. I mean, we are going -- the next, like I said, 6 to 12 weeks are the ones that I'm more concerned about, because people don't listen. Just go outside. I mean, you guys can see it. Right where you are, and right here, I mean, you go outside and it's like nothing has happened. People are out there, restaurants, bars, I mean, just name it, particularly in Texas.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. Take care of yourself, Dr. Varon. And let us know what we can do for you. We have to get through these next 6 to 12 weeks somehow. I hope that people are listening and can help you, even if they feel safe or if they feel themselves are willing to take a risk, think about all of the health care workers. Professor Haseltine, thank you very much, as always.

BERMAN: So, President-elect Joe Biden pledging to bring America back in his administration as outgoing President Donald Trump continues to change the results of the election he lost.

Plus, we have new details about who President Trump is now thinking about pardoning and some new reporting on possible telling home improvements.

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CAMEROTA: President-elect Joe Biden is striking a very different tone than President Trump on how to approach the coronavirus pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: I hope that we're going to be able to have a united voice on the need to mask, socially distance, testing and tracing. They're critical, critical pieces to dealing with bringing down this virus in a more manageable place. The words of a president matter and I think it's critically important, I think it's a patriotic responsibility to wear a mask, to socially distance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right. Meanwhile, President Trump is focused on still challenging the results of the election. He is planning to leave the White House today for the first time since the election to team up with Rudy Giuliani. More on that in a minute.

Joining me, CNN Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny and CNN Political Analyst Maggie Haberman, she's a White House Correspondent for The New York Times.

Okay, so, Jeff, you know, I was talking about this before with John and I'm not kidding, Biden's tone is so measured, it is so seemingly lacking in any sort of resentment or anger about the three weeks of limbo that he's just lived in. And, you know, he's wanted this his whole life to be president, right? He's tried many times to run for president. And now, he can't even celebrate. He's handed a pandemic, an economic, devastating crisis. And yet he just seems like, I don't know, steady eddy. So what's his plan now?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Look, this is exactly who, you know, America elected. He has been confident about his election really ever since a couple of days after Election Day, and this is who Joe Biden is. The country is going to see the person who many in Washington have known for a very long time. He's steady, he's measured, he doesn't always stay on script. We'll see if he does that as president. He has a long history, we used to call them gaffes, now, in this climate, I think it's something different entirely.

Empathy is really what shines through, really, when you're talking about the economic pain people are feeling, the devastation people are feeling with the pandemic. So he is using that bully pulpit to talk about the matter at hand, which is coronavirus. That's why he is giving a Thanksgiving Day address from here in Wilmington as President Trump is apparently going to Gettysburg, not to talk about America's sacrifice, apparently, but to talk about fake voter fraud.

So the stark contrast that we really saw throughout the campaign could not be more different here.

BERMAN: Jeff, just one more question about what we're going to see from the president-elect today, this address, obviously, before Thanksgiving. Also, I imagine, the security briefings will come soon. And I was struck last night to what Alisyn's point, saying that the transition believes that it's getting the sincere and not begrudging cooperation one day in on the official transition.

ZELENY: Look, they are believing that they have the cooperation, at least, you know, from these agency professionals. Are there going to be bumps in the road? Of course. Even in the best of circumstances under transitions, there are patches that are not that smooth, because there are very different philosophies here. Imagine the EPA, for example, going for someone who works for the Trump administration to someone who works for the Biden administration, an entirely different world view. But at least as of now, it sounds like they are working together.

We'll see how long that lasts, of course. I mean, these next 58, 60- odd days are going to be very important here with this. But as of now, the tone sets from the top, and this is what we saw, that Joe Biden I was told was never leading the charge in terms of filing suit, never leading the charge about being too hot about this because he thought, eventually, this will come around. Now it is coming around.

Now, the question of all of this, of course, is what shape is the government. That is something Biden teams are assessing, trying to get their hands around what this government actually looks like on the inside, how hallowed out is it in terms of agencies. So it's not all sunshine and light here, I think, you know, once this is actually the nitty-gritty of doing this work.

But for now, at least, Joe Biden clearly trying to set a unifying tone, which is what he ran on, of course, you know, he'll be facing Republicans who have still not congratulated him on that victory.

[07:20:04]

CAMEROTA: Yes, like Mitch McConnell. Okay, Jeff, thank you very much for all of that reporting on the incoming administration.

Now, let's turn to the outgoing administration and what we can expect for the next -- is it 55 days? What's our day count now?

BERMAN: 50-something, 56, 55.

CAMEROTA: 56. Let's bring in Maggie Haberman.

Maggie, is President Trump really going to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, today, to team up with Rudy for this voter fraud hearing? I mean, why of all of the different court cases that have transpired in the past three weeks, why is he choosing this one?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Alisyn, this is not a real hearing. This is something taking place by Republican state lawmakers at a hotel at Gettysburg. He's doing this in part because he wants to keep fighting, because he likes fighting, he needs to fight. He's doing it in part because he's expected to announce that he's running for president again at some point soon, and this is a way to keep his base engaged.

But, look, there was always going to be some snapback after he said, the closest thing to a concession we're going to get the other night on Twitter, which was basically that he was relenting on the transition, not deciding who the next president is up to him, but that he was not trying to gum up the works on the General Services Administration, allowing an actual transition with Biden's team to start.

However, a lot of aides tried to get him not to do this. There are a number of aides were kept in the dark about the fact that he was doing it at all. So, it remains to be seen what exactly he says, but this is, as you noted, his -- it's not his first appearance at the White House, because he's gone to play golf, but this is his first trip out of D.C.

And he has been sort of morose, kind of glum and stultified since the election. So does he basically just do a thank you and a fist pump, or does he do something that's more dangerous with his words?

BERMAN: Yes, I think it is really important to note, as you have, President Trump tried to overturn the results of the election. And Rudy Giuliani is still trying to overturn the results of the election, throw out the will of the voters in certain states. And now, it does appear, and Jeremy Diamond reported this first last night here on CNN, that President Trump has chosen Rudy Giuliani and chosen the Giuliani pack here.

And it's just remarkable to that the day before Thanksgiving, this is the picture that President Trump has chosen. This is the image, this is the message he continues to send to overturn democracy in a way.

HABERMAN: It's interesting, John. One of the things that his advisers have said over the years, and we talked about this here is, you know, he just feels attacked or the Mueller report, the Mueller investigation, impeachment, these were all unfair to him, these were people trying to get him. He's acting the way he is simply because he's under siege. He's not under siege. This election is over.

And there has been an ascertainment from the General Services Administration, transition is moving forward. So you get to see, in the same way that voters got to see during that first debate against Joe Biden, parts of Donald Trump that his advisers have tried to repeatedly insist aren't really there.

This is about him. This is not about, you know, what is right for the country. He is not talking about the direction that his supporters would like things to go. He's not talk about a second-term agenda. He never has this year, for the most part. He is talking about that he wants another term and he is going to rail against the person who got it. We haven't seen something like this before.

CAMEROTA: So, there are maybe some clues, Maggie, that you're reporting on, about what President Trump will do after he's out of the White House. And so, there are renovations happening to Mar-a-Lago. Can that be his primary residence? Are there some rules or laws against that?

HABERMAN: So, he declared it his primary residence in 2019. The problem with it is that he has an agreement with Palm Beach officials -- it's located in West Palm Beach -- that he can't use the club, which it took him a long time to get approval to make a club in the first time in the '90s, it had been a private residence before that, he can't use it as a residence.

And so you're going to see a lot of objections to it. It's also not clear whether he was supposed to file permits with the town in order to get this construction done. There are a lot of open questions. This is not going to go away. It's not like he's going to be able to go to Mar-a-Lago peacefully and people are not going to continue to ask about whether he is doing this legally. There are all kinds of questions about it, Alisyn.

BERMAN: Renovations going on, increasing the square footage, new views.

CAMEROTA: It sounds beautiful.

BERMAN: Space, fixtures in the toilet, things like that.

CAMEROTA: Fixtures in the toilet, all right.

BERMAN: In the bathroom. I don't know a lot about home improvement, as you can tell.

CAMEROTA: That's obvious. Maggie, thank you very much for all the reporting.

HABERMAN: Thanks, guys.

CAMEROTA: All right, President Trump is considering pardoning Michael Flynn and others in his orbit. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is joining us next.

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[07:25:00]

BERMAN: Developing this morning, sources tell CNN that President Trump is considering a possible pardon for his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, also, ultimately, several others in the orbit as well. Joining me now is Democratic Congressman, Adam Schiff. He is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for being with us.

As you know well, Michael Flynn pleaded guilty and tried to withdraw those guilty pleas. He cooperated with the Mueller investigation, then uncooperated. Now, CNN is reporting that the president is considering pardoning him and soon, what message would that send?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, it would send a message that at least as far as President Trump is concerned, if you lie on his behalf, if you cover up for him, he will reward you, he will protect you, but only if it's in his interest. There are others that lied for him that he's not going to extend that kind of service to.

But it just, frankly, reflects so ill on our democracy, on the United States. Imagine what people around the world think when we have a president who is acting like an organized crime figure.

[07:30:00]

But this is who Donald Trump is. It's who he was on his way into the presidency, it will be and exactly who he is on his last days of the presidency.

BERMAN: You don't dispute that.