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Trump Calls for Overturning Election Results; Biden Calls for Unity; Toronto Begins Lockdown; Rainy Thanksgiving Forecast. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired November 26, 2020 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: More than three weeks ago now. The president, yesterday, he didn't end up going to that voter fraud event with Pennsylvania state Republicans, but he did dial in on speakerphone and listened to some of the conspiracy theories and lies that he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This was an election that we won easily. We won it by a lot.

This election was rigged and we can't let that happen. We can't let it happen for our 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And you heard the president there repeatedly saying during that ten-minute speakerphone rant that he wanted to overturn the results of the election. A striking message and a striking contrast to what we heard from former Vice President Joe Biden yesterday, the President-elect Joe Biden, when he was trying to unify the country.

And one thing that is -- another thing that is striking, Alisyn, is the fact that the president is making these claims, he is doing this in this mock hearing with Pennsylvania state Republicans. But when he tries to do it in court, when his legal team tries to do it in court, they have had their cases, one case after the next, dismissed because they simply do not meet the burden of proof that our legal system requires.

Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Jeremy, unfortunately that camera angle didn't allow us to see the Republican lawmakers' expressions while he was saying that. That -- that would have been helpful.

Thank you very much for that report.

So what should we expect from President Trump's last 55 days and how will President-elect Biden tackle all of the challenges he's being left with? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:36]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The stark contrast between the outgoing and incoming presidents on full display this week. President-elect Joe Biden, on Wednesday, delivering a sober, empathetic speech, urging the nation to keep up the fight against coronavirus as President Trump again called for the election results to be overturned.

Joining us now, CNN political analyst Toluse Olorunnipa, White House reporter for "The Washington Post," and CNN political commentator Errol Louis, who's a political anchor at Spectrum News.

Good to see you both this morning. Happy Thanksgiving in this very strange 2020 Thanksgiving that we're all living.

You know, as we look at the contrast, it's very clear, Toluse, that part of Biden's plan here is to continue to highlight those differences, those stark differences between himself and the current president.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, that has been Biden's strategy throughout the course of his campaign. He wanted to show that this would be an opportunity to turn the page from what he called an aberration, the four-year presidency of President Trump, which has been full of turbulence and, in the view of Biden, full of mistakes that have cost the American people, and especially when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, has cost thousands upon thousands of lives.

Obviously, President Trump has not been spending time telling the American people to make sacrifices, to wear a mask, to socially distance, to avoid large crowds. Instead, he's been encouraging people to gather in large crowds. He's hosted multiple super spreader events. So Biden has been trying to, in a way, sort of subtly come before the American people and say that things are going to be different under a Biden administration. I am going to not only follow the public health guidelines myself by not having a big Thanksgiving dinner, but I'm going to encourage Americans to also make that kind of sacrifice to get this pandemic under control so that in the future things will be back to normal.

So it's been a very different message that we're hearing from the incoming president, you know, compared to what we've heard from President Trump, especially over the past three weeks, as he's spent almost the majority of his time trying to overturn the results of the election that Biden won.

CAMEROTA: Errol, it's so striking, it's so different, the tone that President-elect Biden is taking. I don't have this full screen, but I'm just going to read to you a couple of the things that he said yesterday to the American people. He said, we need to redouble our efforts and recommit to the fight. I mean, rather than, it's going to go away magically. It's -- they're in different stratospheres. And it's like so -- you have to kind of reprogram your brain to get used to being kind of leveled with after, you know, engaging in all of this magical thinking over the past four years and all of the deception. I mean it's almost like Biden is sort of, I guess, trusting Americans to hear the -- hear the harsh news that we're not out of this. It's about to get worse.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's interesting. It's almost as if he's doing a different job, which is, in fact, is what he is doing. With President Trump, you have someone who's obsessed with himself, who talks about himself, his own interests, tries to advance his own political interests and so forth and legal interests, frankly. And then you've got an incoming president who talks not about himself and his needs, but about the American people and their needs. And this is a stark contrast, as you can imagine, and it's a very clear reason why one person won and the other person was kicked out of office. You know, this is not a situation in which people want to hear somebody talk about themselves.

And, look, at a very practical level, we are in the middle of a war against this virus. And we have someone who is issuing no orders, no commands, exercising no leadership when it comes to telling people what it is they need to do. And we're at a real important turning point. And it's going to happen again when we go into the Christmas holidays. And we've heard really nothing as far as a unified structure of command and really important, motivating messages coming from the White House.

Instead, you have someone who's, you know, sort of pardoning his co- conspirators and taking advantage of the time that he has to try and overturn the election. It's really very stark. But they're doing different jobs. They're different people with different objectives. The American people have chosen the one who wants to be president.

HILL: Certainly different objectives.

And it's interesting, you know, as you point out, Errol, and I agree with you, we are not seeing real directive from the White House. And frankly, you know, as we've talked about with our experts for so long, there has not been a national plan.

[06:40:03]

But there is a little bit of a directive in the president's annual Thanksgiving proclamation. He made it very clear what he wants Americans to do. He said, and I'm quoting, I encourage all Americans to gather in homes and places of worship to offer a prayer of thanks to God for our many blessings.

That coupled with continuing to rail against the will of the voters, continuing to call for the election to be overturned, Toluse, I guess we know where his focus is, in addition to the pardons, for the last 55 days. This is what he'll be doing.

OLORUNNIPA: Yes. And this is -- happens to coincide with a period of extreme hardship for the American people when it comes to this pandemic. We're seeing 2,000 Americans dying on a daily basis over the past couple of days. We're seeing almost 200,000 cases on a daily basis. And this pandemic is not getting any better. Even though we know that a vaccine appears to be on the horizon, the president is not using this time of extreme hardship, not only when it comes to the public health, but also the economy. A lot of people, you know, filing for new unemployment benefits and sort of struggling to even put food on the table this Thanksgiving period, the president's not speaking to that at all. He's just sort of saying, everything's going to be fine, we're rounding the turn, everyone should gather and have things back to normal and pretend like we're not in the middle of a pandemic where 2,000 Americans are dying every day. So it is a pretty, you know, stark contrast between the Biden administration, the incoming Biden administration that's trying to tell Americans, listen, we're going to have to get to the vaccine, but between now and then everyone's going to have to hunker down and take these measures seriously and the president who's essentially saying, everyone should just act like this is not happening and ignore this issue and not express any kind of empathy for the fact that more than a quarter million Americans are not around the Thanksgiving table this Thanksgiving and many families are struggling with the fact that they have lost loved ones and are continuing to lose loved ones to this -- to this pandemic.

CAMEROTA: OK, Errol, President Trump's plan for pardons. He retweeted Congressman Matt Gaetz, suggesting that he pardon himself. Should we stop any debate as if this might not happen? I mean, isn't this just the most likely thing in the world that is going to happen? By the way, what's he pardoning himself for?

LOUIS: Yes. Well, you know, this is somebody who often signals what he's going to do, the most outrageous acts, like trying to overturn the election, he tells you weeks in advance and then, you know, sort of tries to pull it out as a trump card at the end, so to speak, saying, well, I warned you that this was coming. Or I've been saying this all along. So, yes, he's been saying all along, he's been asking all along. There's good, solid reporting on this that he wants to figure out if he can break legal precedent and actually pardon himself. I'm sure he's going to try and do it in the most expansive, possible way that would cover crimes known and unknown, or something along those lines.

That may or may not be something that scholars can kick around. I was reading through, if you go down a rabbit hole, it's actually fascinating, Alisyn. You have -- you can -- you can get into all kinds of questions about whether or not granting a pardon and whether it's a transitive verb that's involved if you go through a close contextual reading of the Constitution.

Here's the bottom line, he is not going to be able to pardon himself from state crimes and state criminal prosecution that is looming as a real possibility back here in New York and in other jurisdictions. Even if he were able to pardon himself, it wouldn't cover the things that happened before he became president that involve state offenses, including some of the sexual assault charges that have been filed against him or the cases that are pending against him.

He's going to have a lot of legal problems. This will be, I guess, one last attempt to squeeze as much as he can out of the presidency before he leaves. I'm not sure he's going to get away with it, but even if he does, that's not saying that he will evade justice in all cases.

CAMEROTA: Errol Louis goes down the rabbit hole so we don't have to.

HILL: Which I appreciate.

CAMEROTA: I do too.

Thank you, both. Toluse, Errol, have great Thanksgivings.

LOUIS: Same to you.

OLORUNNIPA: Thank you. Same to you.

HILL: The fourth largest city in North America shutting down for the second time as coronavirus cases surge. Just ahead, Toronto's mayor joins us live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:48:17]

HILL: The United States isn't the only country grappling with a sharp rise in coronavirus cases. Canada also seeing an alarming spike, as you see there. Toronto, the fourth largest city in North America, began a 28-day lockdown this week.

And joining me now is Toronto's mayor, John Tory.

Mr. Mayor, good to have you with us this morning.

So this four-week lockdown, we're now, what, four days in, how's it going so far?

MAYOR JOHN TORY, TORONTO: Well, and, by the way, Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends. We had Thanksgiving a month ago in Canada, but we know it's a big day and it's different, we had the same thing where people only had Thanksgiving with their immediate family they lived with and that certainly changed things for what is a big family holiday. And it's going OK in the sense that, you know, the objective of it, of course, is to reduce contact that people have with one another by reducing the number of places they have to go in effect. And so, in that sense, I think it's probably achieving its objective. You don't really know until a couple of weeks later, when the numbers, you know, may change in terms of the rate of infection. But it does have a terrible effect on business, obviously.

But, you know, the decision was taken and all -- in Canada, here in Toronto, all three levels of government, the province, which is like the state, and the federal government and the local governments have not had any daylight between them. We've worked together and we've decided that this was the best thing to do in order to arrest what you correctly described as an alarming increase in numbers so that we didn't get to a state where our health care system was overwhelmed or where we had more deaths.

We've been -- you know, it's been tragic, but we've been fortunate in terms of keeping the rate of death from COVID-19, you know, to a number that is, I guess, better than it might have been if we hadn't acted.

HILL: Yes, I mean, it's interesting how you mention how the local equivalent of the state, provincial, and the federal governments are all working together, which, as you know, is not happening in this country.

[06:50:02]

You are also, you know, you're not looking to the U.S., I know, for guidance on this, just based on how it's been handled south of your border. Where are you looking? I mean what have you seen that worked that is telling you this four-week lockdown is the best way to move forward, these businesses need to stay closed, but let's keep schools open?

TORY: Well, I think one of the things we've concluded here, and what the other thing we've done throughout is relied on expert advice. And I asked lots of questions of the experts, our medical officer of health, which is what we call the person who is in charge of these matters for this big city, and I rely on her advice very much. And we also rely on global best practices. And we've seen, unfortunately, that while it's a blunt instrument that does cause problems with the economy, that a lockdown of this kind is something that is going to reduce the number of contacts. We've even seen it with regard to some of the limits we've placed on restaurants and bars.

And, again, I was really sorry about that. It's an agonizing thing to do. But we saw the number of contacts that people who tested positive have had when we did the contact tracing was dramatically reduced when the restaurants and bars were closed. And so these are the kinds of things where there are still a lot of unknowns with this virus, as we all know.

And, by the way, when you say, so we look, you know, to the United States, we look to the United States a lot of time, as I think the rest of the world does for leadership on things like this, because there is no more ingenious, you know, kind of determined country on earth. And so we're very much looking forward to, you know, seeing the full force of the United States put behind this because we think that will lead, I'm sure, to some practices we could all follow as we try and come out of this thing.

HILL: You know, as you look at what's going to happen over the next few weeks, you've said, and I'm quoting you here, people who choose to deliberately flout the law should face every consequence that we can possibly muster.

You've already had some businesses, a barbecue restaurant in particular, you know, try to go against these new lockdown measures. So what are those consequences coming their way?

TORY: Well, he's going to face huge fines if he's convicted, which I'm sure he will be because there's all kinds of evidence that he opened against what the law provided. And he won't be opening today, I can assure you of that. And I think that -- you know, it -- look, our society here, very much like the United States, is founded on respect for the law. It is founded on the fact that if you don't like a law, you can go to court or you can seek office and try and change the law by getting yourself elected, but you don't just kind of thumb your nose at the system.

And so, you know, we -- we are -- I don't direct law enforcement, but the law enforcement people are, you know, certainly all over this particular gentlemen. And, look, it's a political statement, too. He had a lot of the anti-mask people there, you know, kind of was all sort of like -- it was almost like a festival they were having to try and celebrate some of their unorthodox views.

But I think the vast majority of people don't accept that. They they're trying hard to make the sacrifices that are terrible in some cases to make sure we can all get healthy, because we understand, they understand, a healthy economy requires healthy people, period.

HILL: We know --

TORY: And so that's why we took the measures that we're taking.

HILL: Really quickly, because we know you saw your spike, Canadian Thanksgiving was October 12th. If it looks like you need to extend this over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, will you?

TORY: Well, with I think we've proven that we're prepared to do that. Anything we have to do to keep public health, to protect the health care system, to keep the schools open, protect the elderly, that's what we're focused on. And I assume, as we've done throughout, that's what we'll do if that's what's required. I hope not.

HILL: Mayor John Tory, appreciate you joining us this morning. Thank you.

TORY: Thank you.

HILL: So when it comes to Thanksgiving, if you're planning on an outdoor celebration today, what does the forecast have in store? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:35]

CAMEROTA: The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will look very different this year. The televised event will take place in a one-block radius in front of the flagship Macy's store in New York City without any spectators. The balloons will fly, but with fewer handlers.

All right, so what's the forecast around the country looking like? Jennifer Gray has the answer.

Hi, Jennifer.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Alisyn. Yes, we do have the Macy's Parade forecast as well, which looks a

little bit wet. But as far as the eastern seaboard, we are all wet this morning. It looks like anywhere from say the southeast through Atlanta. The showers are getting over. But Charlotte, D.C., New York, Boston, all in the rain.

I do think the rain is going to push out, though. It should be out of the big apple by, say, noon today. We are going to get a little bit of a break, but then more showers behind it. But then for you in Boston, could take till about the 3:00 or 4:00 hour to get the rain out. So if you did want to have an outdoor Thanksgiving, there's a little bit of something to work with.

It is going to being soggy for the Macy's Parade. Temperatures are going to be mild. Like you said, the balloons will fly. The wind should only be about 5 to 10 miles per hour.

Slight risk of more severe weather today for portions of Texas and Louisiana. Damaging winds, possibility of hail.

Here's the big picture for Thanksgiving Day. Much of the country is going to be pretty fantastic, especially for much of the south, with temperatures comfortable. We will have some sunshine across many of these areas. Places like Dallas will see temperatures around 72. We could see temperatures around 74 in New Orleans. Of course, we could have some storms roll through there early. Kansas City at 56, Oklahoma City at 66. So some pretty nice temperatures there.

And then as we go through the end of the week into the weekend, temperatures really do stay very mild. D.C. staying around 68 degrees today, 60 tomorrow and then in the mid to upper 50s for the weekend. And if you look at Chicago, at Thanksgiving, with temperatures right around the upper 40s to 50 degrees is pretty nice I'd say.

So we are going to have a pretty wonderful Thanksgiving across much of the country. Just a wet, soggy one to start it for the eastern seaboard.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, but, I mean, as long as we can push those nice temperatures as long as possible and people can get outside, that is great news.

Jennifer, thank you very much.

GRAY: Yes. Right.

CAMEROTA: NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't even know how to express how frustrating it is to see people taking actions that are, frankly, dangerous.

[07:00:04] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With all those people traveling, the virus is going to attend some of those Thanksgiving dinners.