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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

CDC Forecast: 2,000+ Will Die of COVID Per Day Through Dec. 19; Biden to Focus on Pandemic, Economy and Racial Inequality; Trump Rants Against Election Results, Pardons Mike Flynn; Europe Deals with Holidays Amid Coronavirus Surge; NFL Postpones Tonight's Ravens- Steelers Game. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired November 26, 2020 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:19]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers until the United States and around the world. This is a special Thanksgiving edition of EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Boris Sanchez, in for Christine Romans. It is Thursday, November 26th, 5:00 a.m. in New York.

Happy Thanksgiving, Laura. I'm glad I get to spend part of it with you.

JARRETT: Thanks for being here, Boris.

On this day of thanks, the pandemic however does not take a holiday, and overnight, the Supreme Court may have laid the ground work to make it much worse. More than 2,000 lives lost in the U.S. for the second straight day. It's the first time that has happened since April, and the CDC suggests the number is here to stay.

A collective forecast suggests up to 321,000 Americans dead by December 19th. That's an average of 2,500 people per day.

SANCHEZ: And the sad reality is many of those folks are already waking up in the hospital. A new record for the 16th straight day, approaching 90,000 patients. Remember, past surges have followed holidays, including Memorial Day and Labor Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, MEMBER, PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN'S COVID ADVISORY BOARD: I worry that the Thanksgiving day surge will then just add into what will become the Christmas surge, which will then make this one seem as if it wasn't so bad. So we have to understand we're in a very dangerous place. People have to stop swapping air. It's just that simple.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Now, despite all the medical advice to avoid indoor crowds, breaking overnight, a divided U.S. Supreme Court siding with religious groups who sued New York Governor Andrew Cuomo over his COVID-19 restrictions. Now, he tried to cap the number of people who can attend services in the state. But the justices found that that violated the U.S. Constitution.

The 5-4 decision also clearly highlights Justice Amy Coney Barrett's impact further cementing the right ward tilt of the court. The justices' ruling completely at odds with earlier decisions that had upheld restrictions in other states when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was on the bench.

So, watch for other states to recognize the shift on the court.

Now, Justice Gorsuch in a concurrence, explaining, quote, it is past time to make plain that while the pandemic poses grave challenges, there is no world in which the Constitution tolerates color-coded executive edicts that reopen liquor stores and bike shops but shutter churches, synagogues and mosques.

The court's decision came hours after President Trump gave his blessing for more indoor gatherings as well. In his Thanksgiving proclamation, Trump encouraged all Americans to gather in homes and places of worship to offer a prayer of thanks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JAMES PHILLIPS, CHIEF OF DISASTER MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHIGNTON UNIVERSITY HOSPIUTAL: It's a slap in the face, how dare him in the same statement give credit and say thanks to the doctors and nurses who have been working tirelessly over last nine months to save lives, and at the very end, to just make a statement that flies in the face of science and medicine, and tell people the exact opposite of what everybody with a qualifying degree of education has been staying to stay home, not gather.

People are going to die because they are choosing to go home for Thanksgiving. And that's insane to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Meantime, another public official facing scrutiny, the mayor of Denver, forced to apologize after he headed to Mississippi to see family leaving Denver for Thanksgiving after asking residents there to stay home.

Mayor Michael Hancock, just one of several Democratic government officials to face criticism for hypocrisy over COVID rules, including the governors of New York and California.

JARRETT: Well, President-elect Biden faces no shortage of daunting challenges once he moves into the White House. Transition officials tell CNN the top priorities are containing the pandemic, economic recovery, and tackling racial inequality -- an ambitious agenda, to be sure.

The president-elect is also considering several executive actions in his first days in office. Mr. Biden's message to the nation is starkly different than his predecessors. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT: There's real hope, tangible hope. So hang on. Don't let yourself surrender to the fatigue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: MJ Lee is with the Biden transition team in Delaware.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MJ LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Laura, and Boris.

President-elect Joe Biden addressing the nation yesterday, the day before Thanksgiving, urging all Americans to act responsibly as we head into the holiday season. He said that everybody has a patriotic duty to be responsible so we can all try to contain the virus, and yes, he knows that this has been a very rough stretch for the country but that if everybody does the right thing, life will return to normal in the United States.

[05:05:04]

Here's what he said.

BIDEN: For those who have lost a loved one, I know that this time of year can be especially difficult. Believe me. I know. I remember that first Thanksgiving, the empty chair, the silence, takes your breath away.

I know the country has grown weary of the fight. We need to remember, we're at war with a virus, not with one another. Not with each other.

LEE: Now, as you know, President Trump still has not conceded this race to Joe Biden, and the two men have not spoken, but Biden transition officials continue to say it is not important for the two to speak in order for their transition efforts to remain successful.

They are also saying that things are moving along here in Delaware as he prepares to form his own government. They said that the first presidential daily briefing, that Biden will receive will take place on Monday, and that they are now having access to classified information that they weren't privy to before as well.

And we also expect that the Biden transition team will be unveiling some members of his economic team come next week. One of those people could be former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen.

Now, as for Thanksgiving and the Biden family, Biden saying yesterday that his family is also impacted as well, that for many years his family has always traveled so they could have a big family gathering but not this year. He says he and his wife are going to stay put here in Delaware, and they are only going to be having a small family gathering this time around.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: The contrast between Trump and Biden is stark. Biden planning his small family gathering. President Trump urging otherwise.

And if yesterday was any indication, the final eight weeks of the Trump era will go a lot like the previous four years, with the president ranting against his rivals, and rewarding his allies, starting off with a full pardon of one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Laura and Boris.

This is something that has been discussed inside the White House for weeks if not months at this point. But the president on Wednesday, finally moving with less than two months left in office to pardon his former national security adviser Mike Flynn.

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators in 2017 about his contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 transition. Those are the same contacts that actually got Flynn fired from his position as national security adviser after just a few weeks because he lied about those contacts to the vice president, Vice President Mike Pence as well.

And this pardon obviously extremely controversial, but the president taking to Twitter to congratulation Flynn and wishing him a happy Thanksgiving.

A number of other Republicans rallying behind this pardon which is, of course, notable. Meanwhile, the president on Wednesday spent most of his day focused where he has been for the last three weeks, and that is on attacking this election, attempting to delegitimize Joe Biden's victory in this last election.

The president cancelled the trip to visit with Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers but he did appear via speakerphone at this event focused on 2020 voting irregularities.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via telephone): This was an election that we won easily. We won it by a lot. This election was rigged and we can't let it happen. We can't let it happen for this country, and this election has to be turned around because we won Pennsylvania by a lot and we won all of these swing states by a lot.

DIAMOND: The president going on a ten-minute rant over speakerphone, making many of his false allegations about voter fraud in the 2020 election, and spreading a range of conspiracy theories and the president also vowing not just once but repeatedly to overturn the results of this election. It was a startling contrast to what Joe Biden was doing on Wednesday, when we heard Biden urge Americans to take precautions on Thanksgiving.

That is somewhere where the president has been nowhere to be found -- Boris, Laura.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: All right. Jeremy, thank you so much for that.

The pardon of Michael Flynn could be just the tip of the iceberg. President Trump shared a tweet from Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida suggesting the president should pardon himself.

Now, CNN has reported that the president often asks about pardons for himself and his family members and whether he could issue them preemptively. The president, however, faces exposure in investigations by the Southern District of New York.

But, Boris, here's the thing, a presidential pardon offers no protection again state prosecutions and this is why you see the President-elect Joe Biden underscoring that and saying, look, I have jurisdiction over what happens with the Justice Department and DOJ. So, that's the Southern District of New York.

But what the district attorney in Manhattan does, what the attorney general does in Manhattan, that's a whole different ball game, he can not pardon that.

[05:10:01]

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it's really strange. You can't imagine that this is what the framers had in mind when they gave the president the power to pardon, and what really strikes me is that as we talk about the final days of the Trump administration, of the Trump era, one of the legacies of it will certainly be just the constant pressure on the norms, the bounds of democracy, and the presidency, and something enlightening about this era is so much is based on precedent, on tradition, and not actually baked into law, right?

JARRETT: That's right. And he has tested those boundaries for sure.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

All right. Getting back to coronavirus now, antibodies could protect you from getting the virus, but the big question is how long do they last? We'll bring new research from front line workers, next.

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SANCHEZ: Across Europe, countries are grappling with how to handle the holidays in the midst of a coronavirus surge.

In Spain, the government is considering a limit on Christmas gatherings to six people.

[05:15:04] The U.K.'s plan for a Christmas bubble is going to allow up to three households to mix indoors. And while Germany is extending a lockdown, it plans to ease restrictions for the Christmas holiday.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is live in Berlin with more.

And, Fred, where you are in Germany, they're actually facing the highest daily death toll since the pandemic began this morning.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, you're certainly -- that's absolutely right, Boris, and you're actually completely right to say what Germany is trying to work towards is somehow actually have a Christmas this year, and some of these new lockdown measures that we saw from the German government last night are specifically aimed to try and bring the numbers down, both those very high death numbers and also those very high new case numbers every day as well to make sure that Christmas can actually happen for people as well.

So, essentially what the German government is doing is saying the light lock down, which is supposed to end in a couple of days is going to go on until at least around Christmas time, and then possibly get picked up again after Christmas until the middle of January. There's also some additional restrictions. There's new mask mandates in areas that are highly frequented like the shopping zones that you have in so many European cities.

Also, larger shops are only allowed to have fewer people inside, which is something that's difficult for stores as they move towards business around Christmas, and then also the German government is restricting the amount of people who are allowed to meet to five and only from two different households.

So, essentially, what the Germans are trying to do, what Angela Merkel is trying to do is make sure people have fewer contacts and, of course, the mask wearing is expanding even more than it has been so far. They say if that works, then they will ease things only around the Christmas holidays, and also for New Year's as well.

One of the things we have been seeing, Boris is the measures that the German government has put in place, and this is the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, those measures aren't working. I was looking at the numbers earlier this morning, 22,500 round about new infections, exactly the same number as a week ago.

So, the Germans wanting definitely to do more there, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it's certainly a difficult balancing act, because as we know, coronavirus does not take a holiday. Fred Pleitgen reporting from Berlin, happy Thanksgiving.

JARRETT: All right. Back here in the U.S., New York is facing a real challenge this morning, how to avoid a repeat of the spring if coronavirus cases start spiking even more this winter.

CNN has the pandemic covered coast to coast. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Athena Jones in New York where Governor Andrew Cuomo says he's developing a winter plan to combat COVID-19.

The goal of the plan based on recommendations from global experts is to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed with COVID cases which the government says is the greatest fear. The state will focus on areas designated yellow, orange and red zones, and the plan will include a way to keep schools open safely, especially grades K-8. The winter plan will include a vaccine distribution plan which the governor warns will take a while to execute.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: I'm Jacqueline Howard in Atlanta.

A new study from the CDC finds COVID-19 antibodies among health care workers can decline over time. The study included more than 3,000 front line health care personnel. It found that 6 percent of them had detectable antibodies to the coronavirus, which means they probably had a past infection. Then about 60 days later, 94 percent of those with antibodies showed a decline in their antibody response, including a few whose were below the threshold needed to test positive.

The findings suggest antibody testing can underestimate true infection numbers, especially if tests are taken after what the study calls an optimal window when antibody levels are highest. That short window could be within 60 days. .

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Richard Quest in New York.

Zoom has announced free accounts will not be limited to 40 minute calls on Thanksgiving. And only those who have got paid accounts can normally speak for longer than 40 minutes. But on Thanksgiving, everybody can now talk for pretty much as long as they want. It's just for one day, and you still have to remember, yes, unmute yourself.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Thanks to our reporters for those updates.

Some bad news for football fans, no primetime NFL this Thanksgiving. A last minute reversal by the league because of the pandemic.

Your "Bleacher Report" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:25:12]

SANCHEZ: Turkey and football are the staples of Thanksgiving. But this year will have to do without one, at least in primetime.

The Ravens and Steelers postponing tonight's game because of COVID-19.

Carolyn Manno has this morning's "Bleacher Report".

Happy Thanksgiving, Carolyn.

The good news is that they're hoping to play later this week or Sunday.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS: That's right, that's exactly right. Happy Thanksgiving to you as well, Boris. Good morning.

Beggars can't be choosers, especially in a pandemic. So, the league just making a decision out of caution here, moving a game to Sunday afternoon, after the worsening of a widespread outbreak of coronavirus in the Ravens organization.

This means the Ravens are going to be on a short week. They're set to host the Cowboys next Thursday. At least seven players have either tested positive or have been identified as close contacts. Several coaches and support staff have also tested positive.

The scheduling change coming after the Ravens actually disciplined a staff member for conduct surrounding the team's recent virus cases. Baltimore's facility is currently closed. All team activities happening virtually.

Shortly after the scheduled announcement, several Pittsburgh players expressing their disappointment on social media. Wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster, first the NFL takes away our bye week because another team can't get the COVID situation together.

Now, they take away our Thanksgiving primetime game for the same reason, shaking my head. This is the second time the Steelers have been affected by the virus. They're week four game against Tennessee was moved after a Titans outbreak.

Alabama coach Nick Saban is going to miss Saturday's Iron Bowl game against Auburn after testing positive for coronavirus in a second time. The top ranked said he's experiencing mild symptoms this time around. He is self-isolating.

The 69-year-old tested positive in back in October but was asymptomatic at that time. That result was considered a false positive as he tested negative for three days afterwards.

Meantime, Saturday's game between November 11 Oklahoma and West Virginia is postponed, after the Sooners called off team activities due to positive tests within the program. That game has been rescheduled for December 12th. So, this is the 10th game called off so far this week, a season high 18 were cancelled or postponed last week.

And "The Match" is something to look forward to after the Thanksgiving holiday. So that's the good news there. Four all time greats teeing off in Arizona. Phil Mickelson and Charles Barkley, facing Steph Curry and Peyton Manning. The event's focus is diversity and inclusion at historically black colleges and universities, with Michaelson donating half a million dollars to Jackson State University.

So you can watch the match tomorrow afternoon beginning at 3:00 p.m. Eastern on our sister station TNT.

And, Laura, with Charles Barkley in the mix, you would have to give the edge to Curry and Manning. I think this is the first time in history that a five-time Major winner is an underdog against two non- pros.

But Barkley always an X-factor. It should be entertaining. Get some leftovers. Watch a little bit of golf and wait for the Sunday games.

JARRETT: It's good to know where you stand on that match. I was going to ask who you had your money on, but that seems clear now.

All right. Carolyn, thanks so much. Have a great Thanksgiving.

MANNO: You too.

JARRETT: All right. More than 262,000 loved ones lost this year. It's too many empty seats at tables across the country this Thanksgiving Day. And overnight, a Supreme Court ruling that could substantially increase the threat, heading into a dangerous winter.

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