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U.S. Hits New Record for Coronavirus Hospitalizations; Trump Says He'll Leave White House if Electoral College Seats Biden; New York Governor Blasts Supreme Court on Virus Restrictions. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired November 27, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Statements completely untethered from reality.

[07:00:02]

ERICA HILL, CNN NEW DAY: The president in those moments though did insist he will leave the White House in January, but, and this probably does not come as a shock, that he may never actually concede.

The outgoing president actually erupting on a reporter after being pressed about conceding. Mr. Trump also refused to say if he will attend Joe Biden's inauguration.

Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Rosa Flores. She's live in Miami with our top story. Rosa, good morning.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, good morning. The U.S. shattering its COVID-19 hospitalization record with more than 90,000 Americans waking up in a hospital room this morning. That's a 35 percent increase in just the last two weeks.

Look, hospital systems around the country are getting tested right now. This at a time when experts are warning that the Thanksgiving holiday will only make it worse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES (voice over): As many Americans celebrated Thanksgiving, the coronavirus pandemic is reaching record levels of cases and hospitalizations across the United States. The danger of spreading the disease causing some to downsize their celebrations or even spend the day alone this year, but millions of others chose to ignore warnings from health experts not to travel.

With the TSA reporting more than 6.8 million people have flown through U.S. airports in the week before Thanksgiving, this Black Friday, retailers are encouraging shoppers to go online.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This year, it's a lot less people.

FLORES: But some customers are still going inside stores, even waiting outside in lines for big-ticket items. One health expert saying the holiday season could fuel the surge.

DR. LARRY BRILLIANT, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's not just post- Thanksgiving. It's Black Friday and then the run-up to Christmas and then New Year's. This is our holiday season. And every day from now on can add to the toll.

Our hospitals are almost full to capacity. In some communities, they are full to capacity. There's no more rooms in the ICU.

FLORES: 1,232 people in the U.S. were reported dead Thursday from the coronavirus. More than 90,000 people are hospitalized with the disease, a record. With many hospitals already running low on beds and resources, one doctor says she's fearful of what's to come.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Our hospitals are already at a breaking point. Many of us are already talking about opening field hospitals next week. Many of us have colleagues who are out sick.

FLORES: A virus outbreak among the Baltimore Ravens forcing the NFL to postpone their Thanksgiving matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He protects Jackson who launches to Andrews --

FLORES: ESPN and the NFL network citing league sources reporting the team's quarterback, Lamar Jackson, and three other players have tested positive. And the PAC-12 cancelling a game between the University of Southern California and University of Colorado Boulder due to coronavirus, making it the 11th college football game canceled or postponed this week.

Coronavirus-related deaths are on the rise in at least 27 states this morning, and one health expert reminds Americans that it's crucial to keep following safety guidelines, even during the holidays.

DR. ERIK BLUTINGER, EMERGENCY MEDICINE, ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI: It is a real test of maturity and also of safety to see whether or not we are able to keep our distance, continue to wear masks, because we are so close given the vaccine candidates and where things are headed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES (on camera): now, here where I am in Miami-Dade County, Florida, there is mounting frustration by local leaders who say that they want Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to do more to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Why? They're looking at the latest numbers. Here they are. This is according to data released by Miami-Dade County.

In the past two weeks, the number of hospitalizations has increased by 26 percent. The number of ICUs has increased by 37 percent, and ventilators by 48 percent.

John, you and I have talked about the state of Florida a lot throughout this pandemic. And I can tell you that when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis reopened the state in one swoop in late September, the other thing that he did was he clipped the powers of local leaders from being able to impose other mitigating measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

And these leaders, I've been in contact with Cit of Miami Mayor Frances Suarez and Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, they are waiting to hear back from Governor Ron DeSantis, and he hasn't returned either their phone calls or the letter that Mayor Gelber sent him. And I should add that I've been contacting his office to ask him about why he hasn't contacted these mayors and I have not heard back.

BERMAN: Blocking the ability of local leaders to handle the pandemic in the way they think best, that's something. Rosa Flores for us in Miami, Rosa, thanks very much.

So President Trump taking questions from the press for the first time since losing the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: It's going to be a very hard thing to concede, because we know there was massive fraud.

[07:05:01]

REPORTER: And just to be clear, if the Electoral College votes for Joe Biden, will you concede?

TRUMP: Well, if they do, they made a mistake. Because this election --

REPORTER: But will you concede?

TRUMP: -- was a fraud.

So, no, I can't say that at all. I think it's a possibility. Look, between you people -- don't talk to me that way. You're just a lightweight. Don't talk to me that way. I'm the president of the United States. Don't ever talk to the president that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: How small, and I'm not just talking about the desk he was sitting at, but what a small moment for the presidency.

Joining us now, CNN Political Analyst Toluse Olorunnipa, he is a White House Reporter for The Washington Post. Also with us, CNN Global Affairs Analyst, Susan Glasser, she's a Staff Writer at The New Yorker.

He was yelling at Jeff Mason, one of the most mild-mannered reporters you'll find in America. I don't mean mild-mannered in terms of how good he is as a reporter I mean, he's just a calm guy. He doesn't attack anybody. So that was a small.

The president is sitting at that tiny desk is sort of a metaphor for the moment, Susan. It's sort of like the desk you sit at during a parent/teacher conference when you're sitting at a third grader's desk. That's what the president looked like, is a large man at a small desk in a small moment spouting lies that were filled with rancor on Thanksgiving.

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST (voice over): Well, that's right, John. I mean, I have to say, like many people, I was having my Thanksgiving dinner when this was all playing out and it's just so discordant to have a president of the United States who not only is refusing to concede the election, but is so self-obsessed at this moment during the pandemic, when people are separated from their loved ones, probably in many cases, for the first time in their lives, not having the holiday together. Instead, the president continues to be so self-absorbed.

And one thing I think that's been very striking, and yesterday's appearance underscored that, there doesn't seem to be anyone around him who can, you know, give him unvarnished advice about what this looks like. The president has always prided himself on appearing to be strong, to be a tough guy. He's writing a new entry in the dictionary for sore loser. This does not project strength, needless to say. It doesn't project confidence in any way. And, of course, it really seems so divorced from what the role of the president of the United States is in any other context.

It tells you a lot that the main headline news from that press conference was the president saying he will leave the White House if he is voted out by the Electoral College on December 14th. This is not supposed to be a suspenseful outcome, folks. You know, this is just supposed to be how American democracy works.

HILL: And yet, maybe it's another reminder though of what we've been watching for the last four years. We know Donald Trump does things his own way. But to your point, Susan, that we're now at this point where it's, you know, a headline that he will leave the White House.

Toluse, as we look at this too, you know, Susan's point that there's no one there to tell him how weak this looks, there's also no one, apparently, to tell him, and likely he wouldn't listen, to tell him what you should do on Thanksgiving if you're addressing the country. It's not about your sour grapes. And it's not about being concerned. If you're going to talk about the coronavirus, which is ravaging the country, it's not about the concern that maybe Joe Biden would get credit for the vaccine.

And those were the only two things he could bring up, railing on the election and don't let Biden get credit for the vaccine.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, that's exactly right. We talked about how this is a small display of the presidency. This was a big -- this is a big moment in American history. We are having a major holiday in which so many Americans have an empty seat at the table, in which many people cannot be with their families, so many people are being infected at this record rate of infections that we're seeing with this disease. And the president didn't speak to any of that. He didn't actually try to level with the American people, show any kind of empathy about the kind of loss, the immense loss that the country has seen over the past several months, which is really hitting home for a lot of people, as they sit around the table without their family members this holiday period.

And he didn't really speak to that. Instead, he talked about his own personal grievances, he talked about these baseless charges that there was fraud during the election, which happened three weeks ago and that things will be coming to light very soon and he's been promising that for the past several weeks. And we haven't seen anything other than a slew of court cases in which all of these allegations are being tossed out right and left by judges.

So this is sort of a small moment in the presidency, even though the country is going through a very big moment in its own history, with not only the holiday but also the pandemic reaching record highs and so many people suffering and struggling. And to have a president who is really checked out and not really focusing on the major issue facing the country is quite a stark moment in American history. And I think historians will look at this moment with a very questionable eye as they look at why the president decided not to show leadership at a time when so Americans were looking for.

BERMAN: He did go to the golf course yesterday morning. We should give him credit for that. So it wasn't just lashing out at reporters and lying about the election.

[07:10:00]

He also did golf yesterday, so there is that.

Susan Glasser, one of the things he said was that Joe Biden should not be selecting his cabinet, which is obviously ridiculous. Any president-elect has to do that during a transition, so you can begin your administration as quickly as possible. I wonder what challenges you now think that Biden has. He's named part of his cabinet. He's got to name his economic team, we expect this week, and then fill out the rest of the appointments, including -- and the area of health, which is obviously very important now with the pandemic.

Ron Brownstein observed before that he's picked people who have experience, competence, relationships with him, but so far, not as much of the bridge to the future, which is something that he explicitly campaigned on. So how much of a challenge do you think that will be?

GLASSER: Well, I think absolutely, when I look at this cabinet so far in the making, you see people who are Biden loyalists, not only veterans of the Obama administration, but even that subset within it, who worked very closely with the vice president, as he was at the time.

I also think, politically, he seems to be emphasizing picks that will essentially bridge any divide within the Democratic Party. He definitely seems to be wanting to avoid intramural disputes at a time when Trump is insisting on prolonging the election itself and the rift in the country, Biden continues to talk about unity in his messages to the country. And also, I think, he's aiming at unity within the Democratic Party, right? You know, the Janet Yellen pick is a very interesting example. She had been, of course, the first woman head of the Federal Reserve. By picking her for treasury, he avoids any open conflict between the two camps inside the Democratic Party, I think, you know, both of whom seem like they will embrace her. So I'll be looking for that, as you go forward in seeing what additional picks.

I think it's interesting that Biden has not yet announced or settled definitively on the defense secretary. Michele Flournoy had been widely expected to be the first woman secretary of defense under the Hillary Clinton administration if Clinton had won. She's been seen as the frontrunner all along in a Biden administration, so I think that's interesting that that has not been finalized.

I also do think it's really remarkable coming out of four years of the sort of leaking, backstabbing internal intrigue-filled Trump world that we've had so little of that kind of information and rumor and gossip come out from the Biden administration in the making so far.

HILL: It is fascinating about all of the families who, you know, may have been looking forward to less politics at their Thanksgiving dinner, because that didn't have to happen.

What's remarkable, I have to say, that came up a couple of times, Toluse, in the family zooms that we had, about people kept saying, oh, it's so much quieter in what you do now as you're moving into this next administration.

I wonder, Toluse, though, do you think that will last? We know that this is what Biden is going forward. We know that this is what he campaigned on, right? A little bit more normalcy, a little bit more quiet and it's been that way, because you've got the contrast of the president and trying not to give that oxygen.

But what is that feeling moving forward, as we start to see more of these picks, and perhaps people who voted for Joe Biden may not be happy with the direction that he's going in some of those picks?

OLORUNNIPA: Right. Biden has been well-known for making gaffes. But I will say that over the past three weeks in the aftermath of the election, he has really avoid a lot of the mistakes and gaffes and sort of headline-making statements and actions that dogged him during the early part of his campaign. His picks have been largely well- heralded within the party and even Republicans have not slammed these picks, mostly, or said that they would not be able to get confirmed.

But I do think when Biden says that he's considering maybe thinking about adding Republicans to his cabinet or to his top-level officials, that may cause some angst within his own party. There is sort of this bubbling angst on the left wing of the progressive base of the Democratic Party that says that if Biden does not, you know, add more progressives to his cabinet, if he chooses Republicans or people who are seen as not progressive enough, then he may, you know, stir up some of that base that is really raring to go and really upset over the past four years and wants to have progressives in the government after having four years of watching President Trump.

So it has been relatively calm over the past three weeks, especially with Trump creating so much drama, but, you know, events happen to, you know, force themselves on presidents. And I wouldn't be surprised if the drama increases as we get closer to January 20th. And, definitely, as he takes over, he will face a lot of crises and a lot of challenges, which automatically means there's going to be infighting and drama and intrigue within his administration. It comes with every presidency and I don't think this one would be any different.

BERMAN: Toluse, Susan, thank you both for being with us this morning.

[07:15:01]

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

GLASSER: Thank you.

BERMAN: So, coronavirus hospitalizations in the United States have doubled in the last month. Cases continue to skyrocket. What does this mean for the next few weeks? We're going to ask a member of the president-elect's coronavirus advisory board, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: This morning, more than 90,000 Americans hospitalized with coronavirus. This is the 17th day in a row that the United States has set a record for hospitalizations.

Joining us now, Dr. Celine Gounder, she's an infectious disease specialist and a member of the Biden transition team's coronavirus advisory board.

You know, I hate to say it, but I think that we know, it doesn't come as a shock, sadly, that we are now in the 17th day of these record hospitalizations. But we're also seeing deaths rise. We are seeing more cases. We know the concern over the holidays. What is your focus this morning, Dr. Gounder?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, MEMBER, BIDEN TRANSITION CORONAVIRUS ADVISORY BOARD: Well, what concerns me is that hospitals are full already.

[07:20:01]

ICUs are full. In places like El Paso, we've been talking about accessing military hospitals. In other parts of the country, you know, we're standing up field hospitals to increase our capacities. And so we already have this massive surge across the country and it's sort of like pouring gasoline on that with Thanksgiving and then the holidays after that.

I think you also have to remember, health care workers are really, really tired. They've been fighting this for months. They themselves would like some time off for the holidays. And we are functioning often with skeleton crews at the hospital over the holidays. So, all of that combined means this is going to be a very difficult stretch for patient care.

BERMAN: In the breathe of where it's taking place, we've spoken with exhausted health care workers in Texas, in Minnesota, in Wisconsin and Iowa. It makes it so much more challenging.

I wonder if you have been seeing any bright spots as you've been pouring over the data as part of the president-elect's transition team the last week. I haven't seen the data from yesterday, and I know Thanksgiving sometimes messes it up, holidays mess it up a little bit. But as of Wednesday night, Michigan had been reporting fewer new cases that they had the previous week. Of course, things have been terrible there. But I'm wondering if some of the states that have been awful the last few weeks, like Michigan and Wisconsin, you've seen any evidence that they may be a slight reduction?

GOUNDER: Yes. It's a little bit too early to say. I do think the pattern that we've seen is once cases start to surge, people do get scared. People do start to listen to the public health advice. The problem is that that often happens too slowly. So you still have far too many preventable cases and deaths as a result.

HILL: You know, some of the information that came out earlier in the week, there was talk about perhaps shortening the quarantine period. You know, you talk about how a spike in cases could sort of scare people into acting. If we hear about a shortened quarantine period, A, what are your thoughts on that? But, B, what do you think impact that has on people as they're right to navigate the next few weeks?

GOUNDER: Yes, so this has been studied, for example, on oil rigs, to see, could you shorten the quarantine period. And, obviously, that's a really explosive situation, where you have a lot of people working in tight quarters on an oil rig. You don't really want to have a case of coronavirus, an outbreak there, because you would shut down the entire rig.

And what they have found is you could probably shorten your quarantine period to about seven or eight days with a test at the end of that quarantine period --

HILL: oh, we may have lost Dr. Gounder -- are you still there?

GOUNDER: Yes, so, just to reiterate, you know, there is data that would indicate that you probably could shorten your quarantine period to about seven to eight days with a test at the end of that quarantine period so long as it's negative that you would be able to shorten the quarantine.

So, hopefully, you know, that that data bears out, that we can more formally make those recommendations, but science evolves. We learn over time and then that allows us to adjust our recommendations and, hopefully, those recommendations can be less onerous on people as we make those adjustments.

BERMAN: Dr. Celine Gounder, we hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

GOUNDER: Happy Thanksgiving.

HILL: We want to remember some of the more than 263,000 Americans lost to coronavirus.

Lieutenant Don Beauchene was a 25-year veteran of the Warren, Ohio Fire Department, and a man with tremendous love to give. He leaves behind a wife and 11 children. Colleagues say he had a heart of gold. Beauchene was 54 years old.

Army Reserve Sergeant Calvin Ogletree did active duty tours in Iraq, Bosnia and Germany. The Tampa Bay, Florida man worked latter as a robotics expert for Amazon. His mothers tells WTSP he was friendly and courageous and an avid Bucks fan. He was just 45 years old.

Tony Stempeck was the heir or parent (ph) to take over Reno's oldest restaurant, Casale's Halfway Club, after his mother died recently at age 93. The virus, however, killed him just a month later. The New York Times reporting Stempeck was the bar's mischievous social ring leader, he was also a dedicated father, named parent of the year twice at his daughter's school. He was 63 years old.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

HILL: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is blasting the U.S. Supreme Court for striking down coronavirus restrictions on places of worship, calling the ruling more symbolic than of substance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (voice over): Why rule on a case that is moot and come up with a different decision than you did several months ago on the same issue? You have a different court. And I think that was the statement that the court was making.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me now, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Diocese of Brooklyn, who the Supreme Court sided with on Wednesday. Good to have you with us this morning.

I know you were gratified, you said, by the Supreme Court's decision. The governor there saying that he not only, A, thought it was a statement from the court, but also that, really, it was a moot point, as the state's restrictions were no longer in place.

I'm just curious your thoughts on the response from Governor Cuomo.

BISHOP NICHOLAS DIMARZIO, DIOCESE OF BROOKLYN: Well, it's true that the restrictions are no longer in place. They can be put back in next week, but the Supreme Court and its former decision at the beginning of the pandemic, the South Bay decision, didn't know what was happening with the coronavirus. None of us knew that. We didn't know how to deal with it. And in a very cautionary way, they said, no, that the government had the ability, went back to a 1906 decision, as a precedent.

So, yes, I could understand that it is a change, but looking at what's happened, is that it would be restricted to 10 to 25 people and at churches that can seat 500 to 1,000 people.

[07:30:08]