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Federal Appeals Judge Slams Trump's Pennsylvania Lawsuit; VP Pence To Campaign In Georgia For Republican Senators Perdue And Loeffler; U.S. Surpasses 13 Million Coronavirus Cases; Biden: Estimated 50 Million Americans Will Go Hungry In 2020; Trump Signals WH Exit, Then Says Biden Must Prove Votes; Iran Vows Retaliation For Killing Of Top Nuclear Scientist; Police Crack Down On Secret Parties Flouting COVID Restrictions. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired November 28, 2020 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:35]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Jessica Dean in Washington tonight.

We begin this evening with an election that seemingly won't end. The President on a tweet storm today alleging fraud and again insisting against all evidence that he won states like Pennsylvania, even though Pennsylvania, of course, has certified Joe Biden is in fact the winner.

And while the war for the White House may be lost, the battle for Georgia is heating up. We know President Trump will be in Georgia next weekend to campaign for Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. We are now learning Vice President Pence will go there as well.

The stakes for Republicans couldn't be higher. Lose those two Senate seats and they lose control of the Senate and with it, the ability to block the agenda of the new Biden administration. But after claiming the election in Georgia was rigged, can the G.O.P. persuade voters to turn out when they need them the most?

And of course, all of this is happening while the coronavirus pandemic is growing worse and worse. For 26 straight days, nearly all of November, the U.S. has reported more than 100,000 new cases a day -- a day.

We start now at the White House. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is there and Jeremy, President Trump has yet to accept defeat. Today, he continued spreading these false claims about the election. What is the latest you're hearing at the White House?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, the President is doing what he has been doing over the last three plus weeks and that is baselessly alleging voter fraud -- widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Today, he has focused specifically on the states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

But the President's claims now versus what they were three weeks ago, they now come against this backdrop of 30 plus cases that the President's campaign and their allies have now lost or had to withdraw in state and federal courts in key battleground states across the country.

It's a tally, a mounting tally, that is really undermining the President's claims about voter fraud and really bulking up the case for the fact that there wasn't voter fraud because judges, no judge in any of these state and Federal cases so far has backed up any of the President's claim that the 2020 election was rigged; rather, these cases have been thrown out of court, laughed out of court, according to some and the latest blow is coming from a Trump appointed judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, a court based in Pennsylvania.

This is the ruling from Judge Stephanos Bibas, who rejected the Trump campaign's appeal and attempts to try and decertify the results of the election in Pennsylvania. Judge Stephanos Bibas writes, "Calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here. The Campaign's claims have no merits."

And again, this is just the latest such scathing argument that you hear from judges in cases across the country. And these courtroom defeats are now also being compounded by losses that the President and his team are facing as they try and get recounts to change the outcome of the election.

The latest blow coming in the State of Wisconsin where the President again is baselessly alleging fraud today. The President's Campaign actually requested and paid for a $3 million recount in two key counties in the State of Wisconsin. The results came through in one of those counties, Milwaukee County and Joe Biden's lead actually increased by 132 votes after that recount was completed.

The State of Wisconsin now set to certify the results of that election come Tuesday -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Jeremy Diamond for us at the White House. Very interesting to see there that you said that the claims have no merit. That's what that judge said. It really sticks out there. Jeremy Diamond again, thanks so much.

We're going to turn now to the pandemic and new threats on the horizon, thanks to the Holidays. The very things we crave this time of year, like family gatherings, parties with friends, even shopping for presents are exactly the kinds of behaviors that help spread this killer virus, and we want to talk now with CNN Medical Analyst, Dr. Leana Wen, former Baltimore Health Commissioner and Dr. James Phillips, Chief of Disaster Medicine at George Washington University.

Thank you so much for spending Saturday night with us, you guys.

Dr. Phillips, I want to start with you. When would you expect to see this first evidence, if indeed Thanksgiving has become a super spreader event across the country? When do you think we'll start seeing evidence of that?

[18:05:05] DR. JAMES PHILLIPS, CHIEF OF DISASTER MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHINGTON

UNIVERSITY: Well, thanks for having me on. It's a matter of averages. So when we talk about the incubation period of this virus, it's important to think of it in a bell-shaped curve.

We know that the majority of people will be sick, 97 percent of people, if they're going to develop symptoms will develop them around by day 12. But the median, about more than half of people will develop symptoms by day five.

So what that means is that this Monday, this Tuesday, when people return from the airport tomorrow, if they've been at home for a few days, they're going to start to have symptoms. Give that a week, the following Monday is when most people who are going to get sick will feel sick.

And on average, as an emergency physician, what we see is people come to the hospital on about day 10 of their illness. Ten days of symptoms is when their body is going to declare whether or not they're going to recover, or they're going to require hospitalization and care.

And so I anticipate that week before Christmas, sort of the 15th to the 20th is going to be when we start to see that real dramatic rise in hospitalizations. And on average people live anywhere from three days to three weeks in the hospital before they succumb to the disease if they're going to.

So we're going to see a rise in deaths from Thanksgiving continuing to Christmas.

DEAN: That's just awful to think about. And on that note, Dr. Wen, Thanksgiving weekend really kicks off as we're saying weeks of celebrating. We've got Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's. But that may be when we start to see these hospitalizations go up.

Do expectations have to change about how we're spending the Holidays this year? I know, obviously they did for Thanksgiving. What advice are you offering people for the rest of the Holiday Season?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: So you're right, expectations absolutely have to change. We just added four million new cases of COVID-19 in November alone, which is double the number that we added in October.

There is a virus that is running rampant across the U.S., and this is the time for us to really hunker down, not let our guard down and certainly not congregate, gather indoors, even with loved ones who are outside of our extended family.

And I realize, this is the opposite of what we would normally do over Christmas, Hanukkah and the New Year. But we have to remember that it's important for us to get through this year. We have vaccines on the horizon. Things are going to look very different in the spring and summer, but we have to get through the year.

And so my advice is cancel your Holiday travel at this point. Cancel all nonessential travel because things are going to be so much worse in December than it already is in November, and the only way to congregate indoors together with your loved ones is if you quarantine for 14 days and get tested. Well, that's not going to be practical for most people. So cancel your trip now, knowing that we can celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah in July.

DEAN: Yes, we will look ahead to later months, to 2021. Dr. Phillips, let's talk a little bit about that vaccine.

On Monday, a CDC committee is going to hold an emergency meeting to prioritize who is going to get that vaccine first. So how important is it for frontline medical workers to be high on that list? And who else do you anticipate will be high up on that list?

PHILLIPS: Well, it's important that they meet and it's great to see the leadership at the Federal level, make these decisions so that they can then trickle down to the state and local government officials as well so that everybody is not trying to do this ad hoc.

It's unusual and awkward for me as an emergency physician to say that sort of worldwide, it's been accepted for decades of pandemic planning that the frontline healthcare workers will be the first to get vaccinated, because if you remember, when we talk about surges of patients in the hospital, it requires three things.

It requires space, it requires stuff, and it requires staff. You can have all the hospital beds you want, but if you don't have the nurses to take care of those patients, you don't have the healthy doctors to make those plans, then you can't have anybody in those beds. So it is important that healthcare workers get this vaccine early.

Now what we're going to see is an equitable distribution to the most vulnerable populations. And this will be the next story for the next three months of, you know, making sure we're not discriminating against populations, getting it to the places where it's needed the most. Those communities that have been most impacted, people of color; while the same time we're not discriminating against people with disabilities, people of older age, and things of that nature.

So there's been ethicists that have been working on this for decades, more importantly, in the last nine months, and I'm looking forward to seeing what those C.D.C. guidelines are because I think that they're going to be good.

DEAN: Yes, it is. It's such a big conversation, such an important and critical conversation they're going to be having. Dr. Wen, do you have any reservations about getting a vaccine early? It's under this Emergency Use Authorization. It's different than the usual rounds of F.D.A. testing, but still rigorously tested. But do you have any apprehension about that at all?

WEN: Well, we know that the F.D.A. will have an external committee that is meeting to discuss this Emergency Use Authorization on December 10th, and I want to see what the advice coming out of this committee is going to be. Emergency Use Authorization is something that's given only in

emergencies, which absolutely this pandemic is. It means that we are expediting the process because there is a real consequence to waiting. I mean, we have more than a thousand, soon to be more than 2,000 people dying a day because of COVID-19, so we do need to expedite it.

[18:10:26]

WEN: But we also need to make sure that it passes a pretty high barrier when it comes to -- or a high bar when it comes to safety and efficacy, because we are giving this to previously healthy individuals.

So I hope that the F.D.A. will make all the data transparent, available to everyone to see because ultimately, the vaccine does not only need to be safe and effective, it also needs to be trusted.

So. I look forward to seeing the recommendations coming out of that committee.

DEAN: Yes. And Dr. Phillips, before we let you all go, same question to you. Any thoughts on getting that vaccine right away for yourself?

PHILLIPS: If the data pans out like it seems like it will, if the experts that are career professionals and the F.D.A., the C.D.C., N.I.H., if they all come together in that committee, including the independent panel and deem it safe, you can bet that I'll be the first one in line to take it if offered.

DEAN: All right, Dr. Leana Wen and Dr. James Phillips, our thanks to both of you. Have a great night. Thanks so much.

Georgia is now the center of the political universe. President Trump says he is headed to the state to campaign for two Republican senators in runoff elections. But how will his false narrative of widespread fraud impact the race and the balance of power in Washington?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:41]

DEAN: Joe Biden's upset win in Georgia stunned the Republican Party and now, the G.O.P. wants to make sure it maintains control of the Senate by winning the two runoff races in Georgia.

The party's biggest opponent in the double runoff there could be apathy, and there is a worry that after weeks of hearing how the election was rigged, that some Republican voters will believe it and stay home.

Ryan Nobles is in Marietta, Georgia that's just outside of Atlanta and Ryan, the President is headed to Georgia soon as well as the Vice President. But first the Republican Party's point person held what became a bit of an airing of grievances today.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, you know, Republicans here are really downplaying this idea that President Trump's most ardent supporters have lost confidence in the electoral process and that they won't show up on January 5th to vote in this very important runoff election.

But we keep running into instances where we're at Republican events, and you see these supporters voice their concerns about the electoral process. This event today with G.O.P. Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel took an awkward turn about 20 minutes after she began her remarks about this election.

She started fielding questions from people at the event, and they were all about the election in November. The supporters demanding that she and the Republican National Committee do more to help President Trump overturn the results of the election not just across the country, but specifically here in Georgia. Take a listen to what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: How are we going to have the money and work when it is already decided?

RONNA MCDANIEL, CHAIRWOMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: It's not decided. This is the key.

QUESTION: How do you know?

MCDANIEL: It's not decided. If you lose your faith and you don't vote and people walk away, that will decide it. So we have to work hard. Trust us. We're fighting we're looking at every legal avenue.

QUESTION: Well, we have to get that word out, because people are losing here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: So if you heard what that woman said, she said to Ronna McDaniel, why should we even vote if the outcome has already been decided? This is an example of how there are a number of voters here who have lost confidence in the system because President Trump has routinely said over and over again that the election was rigged.

And in fact, they've lost confidence in the Republican leaders of this state who ran this election. Brian Kemp who is the Governor of Georgia. He's a very passionate supporter of President Trump. There was someone in the audience at this event who called him a crook.

So Jessica, it just demonstrates this tightrope that these Republican candidates are walking, they can't alienate these Trump supporters. They're the base of the party, they need them to come out and vote.

But at the same time, they also need to remind them about what's at stake in January, the Republicans need to win at least one of the seats if they hope to retain their majority in Washington, it will be their last bastion of power on Capitol Hill in Washington, but right now, there's just a lot of upset people. And with the Democratic Party having a growing base of support here,

every single vote is going to count and that's the quandary Republicans find themselves in; perhaps, President Trump's visit here a week from today will help demonstrate that he wants people to vote for these candidates. But right now, there seems to be a lot of uncertainty -- Jessica.

DEAN: Yes, it'll be interesting to see if he talks about the election being rigged. And Ryan, I'm curious, we saw Chairwoman McDaniel there talking. Did her message get through to the voters as they were going back and forth? Did she seem to break through at all?

NOBLES: You know, I will say this. She did seem to convince at least this group that we were with about the importance of getting out and voting for David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, at least from a Republican perspective. And so she did do a good job of convincing that group that it was important.

But the question is just how far is this doubt? You know, how far has it seeped into the general Republican votership? That's something that's difficult to quantify right now, you know, Republicans that I talked to believe firmly that at the end of the day, Republicans are going to come around and do what is necessary to get these candidates over the finish line.

And traditionally, Republicans have fared better in these runoff elections. But as I pointed out before, if it is as close as it was in the general election, they are not going to be able to take any vote for granted, and it just shows how difficult and how much more work they're going to have between now and January 5th.

DEAN: Yes, Ryan Nobles in Georgia for us tonight. Thanks so much.

And with me now, Valerie Jarrett, the former senior adviser to President Barack Obama and also the bestselling author of "Finding my Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward."

Valerie, it's wonderful to have you on tonight. It's interesting, Democrats may be eagerly watching the G.O.P. as they try to convince voters they need to take this runoff election seriously after the President's bogus claims of election fraud.

But I'm also curious if you think that the Democrats are at risk of seeing too many of their own voters potentially staying home because the presidential race has already been decided there.

[18:20:27]

VALERIE JARRETT, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, good evening, Jessica. No, I don't think so. There's a lot of energy on the ground in Georgia. People like Stacey Abrams who has been organizing for months now to get people registered to vote and to turn out to vote.

So I think that the Democrats are very focused on Georgia, the national attention is on it, the spotlight is on it and I think the Democrats are going to turn out to vote.

And I will say I think that the Republican strategy is backfiring. And it also, though, more importantly, is trying to undermine the integrity of our elections and what everyone across the country has said who is in an official capacity has said that the election was fair and honest and we've had one lawsuit after another being thrown out.

My focus and I think I hope the American people's focus is, what can we do to support the President-elect? What can we do to contain this coronavirus? Rebuild our economy stronger and make sure America is safe. We have real challenges ahead.

Now, I think it's time to focus on that, and I'm hopeful that the Democrats are going to win both those seats in Georgia and the energy and that the energy that we have already gotten is an indication, we just have to follow strong.

DEAN: And you mentioned Stacey Abrams' efforts there. A lot of people credit her with turning Georgia blue in this cycle. I'm curious, do you think -- how much of an impact you think that that's going to have and how much of an impact do you think President-elect Biden going down there will have?

We know that his incoming Chief of Staff, Ron Klain has said that he expects to see Biden down there before this these runoff elections.

JARRETT: Well, look, the President-elect won Georgia the first time in decades that a Democrat has won the state. I think a lot of that credit goes to people like Stacey, and many of the organizations that have been working since the gubernatorial election a couple of years ago.

And so the foundation is there and now the key is just turnout. And I think there is a lot of energy, as I said earlier, it's going to build towards a high turnout, and I think if that's the case, the President- elect campaigning down there is nothing but a positive.

DEAN: I want to ask you, too, about former President Obama. The Biden campaign sent him into Georgia the day before Election Day. He was their top surrogate down there.

He has tweeted about the Georgia runoffs. Do you anticipate he gets back on the campaign trail for these two Democrats down in Georgia?

JARRETT: I don't have anything to announce here for you tonight about his travel plans, Jessica. But I know he is watching very closely, because he knows what it's like to have a Congress with whom he could work. He knows how important it will be for President-elect Biden to have a strong House and a Senate that's prepared to move forward legislation that benefits the American people.

And he has experienced what it's like with Leader McConnell and his unwillingness to actually work with whoever is in the White House with the Democrats to move the agenda forward.

So it's an important race, not just for the party, but for the country if we're going to tackle the kind of big challenges that lie ahead.

DEAN: Right. And the President-elect has talked a lot about coming together about a bipartisan atmosphere that he hopes to rebuild here in Washington. He wants to work with Republicans.

The former G.O.P. House Speaker Paul Ryan says if Republicans win these two Senate seats, that's going to be good, because it's going to force this bipartisanship. What do you make of that idea? Do you think that's true?

JARRETT: No, I don't actually. It certainly wasn't the case when President Obama was in office. We had hoped that once the Republicans won the House and then the Senate that they would be in a leadership position and consider it their responsibility to look out for the American people and move forward a bipartisan agenda, and that was not the experience.

Now, we're in a different time, a different climate. President-elect Biden has made it clear based on the long relationships that he has developed in the Senate that he is going to call on them to work with him.

I'm hoping that what's different this time is that the American people are sick and tired of this kind of loggerheads in Washington and they really want their elected officials when the country is in a crisis to work with them.

Jessica, we're seeing food lines in our country, people are lined up around the block just trying to provide for their families. And Congress, controlled at the Senate by Republicans has not moved forward to provide the kind of relief package that we know is so necessary, and I know that's something that's really important to President-elect Biden to make sure that we're helping those families that are struggling and that's not happening under the current leadership in the Senate, even though the House passed a bill way back in May.

DEAN: Yes. All right. Well, Valerie Jarrett, our thanks for being with us on this Saturday night. Have a great night.

JARRETT: You're welcome, Jessica. Stay safe.

[18:25:10]

DEAN: The Holidays are already a hard time for families facing economic hardships, but the coronavirus pandemic raging across the country right now is making it so much worse.

Now one estimate says close to 50 million Americans -- 50 million Americans could go hungry by the end of the year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: The devastating economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has millions of Americans relying on food banks this Thanksgiving. By one estimate, 50 million Americans will go hungry this year and as CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich reports, it will take eight billion meals to feed them.

[18:30:10]

DEAN: ... Americans relying on food banks this Thanksgiving. By one estimate, 50 million Americans will go hungry this year and as CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich reports, it will take 8 billion meals to feed them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT(voice-over): The journey to get food, through the cold and COVID-19 has been long and hard for Regina Status.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REGINA STATUS, LIVES IN NEW YORK CITY: Got to take it one day at a time and as long as you have for today, you save for tomorrow. When tomorrow get here, something's going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH (voice-over): And it did just in time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATIS: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Days before Thanksgiving, Agatha House Foundation, a local food pantry in the Bronx, New York made a special Thanksgiving delivery. Filled with everything she needs for her and her two teenage daughters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATUS: It's just a relief that I don't have to purchase all of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Over 50 million Americans like Regina won't have enough to eat in 2020, in part because of the pandemic. Feeding America, the largest hunger relief group in the U.S., projects that 8 billion meals will be needed in the next year to feed food and secure Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAIRE BABINEAUX-FONTENOT, CEO, FEEDING AMERICA: About 40 percent of the people who right now are turning to food banks for help around the country are people who never before relied upon the charitable food system.

STATUS: Onions ... (END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Regina is out of a job. Her car was totaled months ago and she's not receiving unemployment. She now relies on a once a week delivery from the food pantry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH(on-camera): Day to day is your pantry stocked or what does it look like day to day?

REGINA: Just survive it. That's all I can say. You just have to survive it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH (voice-over): The 15th Congressional District here in the Bronx has the highest food insecurity rate among children in the country. At Agatha House, they're hoping to take the stigma out of needing a little extra help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANETTE JOSEPH-GREENAWAY, FOUNDER, AGATHA HOUSE FOUNDATION: We have to look and try to imagine ourselves in the position what we would want for ourselves, not just to give them a cardboard box but to make them feel loved, special.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH (voice-over): This small operation says it's seen a 100 percent increase in need.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREENAWAY: Even with the little that they get, hopefully there's someone in their building or one of their neighbors that they can invite for a plate of food.

STATUS: Yes, I've got to give Ms. Mamie (ph) some stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Despite her struggles to put food on the table ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

STATUS: You're welcome Ms. Mamie (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Regina is sharing what she has with her neighbor and remains grateful for this Thanksgiving. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATUS: Even if we didn't get the Agatha House or we will just have a regular chicken every day, just to say that she was alive to eat it, that's a blessing in itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, Bronx, New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: All right. Vanessa, thanks so much.

We're going to talk more about the new reality that's facing so many Americans with former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang that's coming up in our seven o'clock hour.

Meantime, President Trump is teasing he may not attend President-elect Biden's inauguration. This as there are reports he's privately considering a run for the White House in 2024. We're going to discuss all of that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:37:22]

DEAN: When President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20th, will Donald Trump be there? We're told his advisors will strongly encourage him to attend, but there is speculation Trump may skip that ceremony to launch a rumor 2024 run instead. Here to make sense of all this CNN Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley.

And Doug, we're glad you're here because we need some context around all of this. First of all, how big of a deal would it be if President Trump didn't attend Joe Biden's inauguration?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, it would be the fourth time in U.S. history of President wasn't part of that transition. In 1801, John Adams refused to go with just elected Thomas Jefferson. It was a brutal election in 1800. And you had in 1829, John Quincy Adams refusing. And then Andrew Johnson in 1869, after all, he had been impeached. So Trump would be the fourth U.S. president but the first in 152 years not to do it.

DEAN: And what sort of a message do you think that sends to Americans?

BRINKLEY: It's not a good one. I think that transitition should to be peaceful and show that our democratic process works. I can write a book on some of the beautiful transitions; Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford and they bonded that particular day when Carter took over the White House from Ford, and they became closest of friends.

Look at Bill Clinton and George Herbert Walker Bush, same thing. It's an opportunity to show the Americans symbolically that our democracy and constitution comes first and our egos and political party second. But Donald Trump is in a chaotic and intransigent mode, he's refusing to accept the election results. And I'm afraid I wouldn't be surprised if he just has a no show for Biden's inaugural.

DEAN: And this week, President Trump said he would leave office if the Electoral College confirms Biden's victory, then he backtracked from that. What happens if he doesn't leave the White House? Is that just a crazy thought or is that something that is to be considered and if that does happen, what next?

BRINKLEY: The great novelist, Herman Melville who wrote Moby Dick wrote a short story called Bartleby, the Scrivener which a character refuses to leave a job after he's told to leave and just keep saying I prefer not to, I prefer - that's what Trump said, I prefer not to leave.

Well, it's not up to you and it's up to the American people voters. This is a democracy.

[18:40:01]

So he'll be ousted and if he decides to stay there, you could have people pulling in. I mean, meaning armed guards escorting him out of the White House. It's a people's house. It doesn't belong to President Trump and let's hope there is not going to pilfer things or sabotage documents and hardware and the like making life for Biden more difficult.

DEAN: Yes. And it does make you wonder there's that wonderful tradition of the President's leaving letters for their successors, if that tradition will continue as well.

BRINKLEY: Yes. Maybe Donald Trump believed, one, you're a loser, you didn't win, it's all rigged. He might leave some kind of hate note for Biden, but you're not going to have that tradition carried on, a more recent tradition, incidentally, which is a (inaudible).

But look, Donald Trump is going to calculate what advantage he can get, a springboard for probably running four years from now and he wants to, just like he did the birtherism with Barack Obama, he's going to keep saying Biden is a fake president, CNN were a fake news. And this is his MO and you spread conspiracy theories and try to get people to believe it, I'm afraid, our outgoing president is a charlatan at heart.

DEAN: It is truly a new chapter in American history, that's for sure. Douglas Brinkley, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

BRINKLEY: Thank you.

DEAN: Iran is promising to retaliate after a top nuclear scientist was killed in an apparent assassination plot. What this could mean for the region and also the incoming Biden administration?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:46:09] DEAN: Iran today is vowing revenge after a top scientist seen as the

mastermind behind its nuclear program was killed in an alleged assassination plot. Iran's Defense Ministry says he died Friday when his car was ambushed outside of Tehran.

Top Iranian officials are pointing the finger directly at Israel. The U.S. says it's monitoring developments, but has not publicly commented on the attack. The attack comes weeks after a global watchdog said Iran had 12 times the amount of enriched uranium that's permitted under the 2015 nuclear deal, which the Trump administration withdrew from back in 2018.

Joining me now is CNN National Security Analyst David Sanger. And David, thanks for being with us tonight, just how big of a blow is all of this to Iran's nuclear ambitions?

DAVID SANGER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it's a significant blow because this is a scientist who led the entire operation for about two decades. And he was named by Prime Minister Netanyahu two years ago as the leader of a really vast program and he appears to have been behind much of the work done in the early 2000s on the design of a warhead.

That program was formally abandoned in 2003, but there is some evidence that it continued in his laboratories ever since. The big question is, is this truly a long-term setback or the Iranians going to bounce back the way they bounced back from the Israeli American cyber attack on the Cons (ph) 10 years ago and from the explosion over the summer of another one of their big facilities, also an explosion attributed to Israel.

DEAN: And you write in a new piece that this alleged assassination complicates the incoming Biden administration's plan to reengage with Iran. Walk us through why that is.

SANGER: Well, the Biden ministration has been very clear that it believes that President Trump made a very major mistake when he withdrew in 2018 from the nuclear accord that the Obama administration had reached three years before with Iran. And Vice President - I'm sorry - President-elect Biden has been extremely clear that he's going to go back into the deal, assuming the Iranians are also willing to go back within its limits.

In other words, he would lift sanctions if the Iranians would go back to the production limits, which were quite severe. And then he says he wouldn't negotiate a newer deal that would last longer and solve many of the defects in the original deal, but who knows if the Iranians will go along with that.

But the Iranian temptation now to retaliate, after the United States killed General Soleimani back in January, after continued attacks, as I mentioned, over the summer and now the question is, do they bide their time and say, let's just wait for two months and start negotiating with President Biden once he takes office. Or are they tempted to retaliate for this assassination, which could also blow up the entire process. And that may have been what the Israelis had in mind, assuming that

the intelligence is correct and it was the Israelis who did it.

DEAN: Yes. There's a lot of moving parts there. And as you mentioned, this is the third high profile attack against Iran and its interest this year. Do you think the U.S. or Israel should be worried about what comes next? I know you were talking a little bit about maybe they retaliate, maybe they don't, but do you think the U.S. needs to be concerned about what happens next?

SANGER: Well, certainly they do need to be concerned. It's one of the reasons that we suspect, but don't know that the Israelis gave some advanced warning to the United States.

[18:50:07]

You'll remember the Secretary of State Pompeo was in Israel less than a week ago. The U.S. has not said very much about whether they have gotten any advance notice. What does seem clear is that this is a very risky period we're heading into, that there was concerned about retaliation just because we were getting to the first anniversary of the killing of General Soleimani in early January, Jessica, and now you have this on top of it.

So the United States kills the leading general who was running the Quds (ph) force, the elite military unit. Israel, we believe, was behind the killing now of their top scientists. You got to think that that's going to build in a big movement within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to retaliate in a big way.

And the question is, can they keep that from happening in an effort to get the sanctions lifted and it's not clear how this is going to sort out in Iran?

DEAN: Yes. Well, we'll have to see how it does sort itself out. All right. David Sanger, thank you again for joining us tonight.

SANGER: Great to be with you, Jessica.

DEAN: Well, secret parties and underground bars, some Americans' desire to party is adding to the surge in coronavirus cases all across the country and now police are cracking down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:57:06]

DEAN: Even as cases in hospitalization spike all across the country, police are seeing a spate of crowded underground parties in violation of local COVID guidelines. CNN Stephanie Elam reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT(voice over): From a fight club called the Rumble in the Bronx.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These activities were illegal and sometimes deadly before COVID-19.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM (voice over): To a warehouse shooting in Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It turned out that it was a gathering for a large party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM (voice over): Coast to coast, secret parties busted by cops like this allegedly illegal bottle club with 120 people inside last weekend in New York City, where deputies also shut down a swingers club with 80 people inside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JOSEPH FUCITO, NEW YORK CITY: The best and most pragmatic method for deputy sheriffs to save lives is to maximize enforcement at these types of dangerous gatherings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM (voice over): In Los Angeles, two warehouse parties in recent months led to two different shootings, exposing a reality that even in a pandemic, people are determined to party. LAPD says many of the warehouses are falsely booked as video shoots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. STACY SPELL, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: And then the fact that they're in industrial areas, oftentimes they don't get the same kind of attention that it would get in the residential areas.

ELAM: But would LAPD tell these warehouse owners?

SPELL: We asked them to ask more questions to be more selective and to try to better identify what the purpose of that is going to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM (voice over): The extent of the problem here, unknown. But on the same night of this warehouse shooting two weeks ago ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got a big party going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM (voice over): There were social media posts from this gathering in Downtown L.A. and this one-posted just last weekend. The parties are often organized online with no location given until hours before the event.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands up.

CROWD: Don't Shoot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM (voice over): LAPD says in an era of police reform, the department must think hard about sending armed officers to a gathering where no additional crimes are reported.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPELL: And so in those instances where a response would be more geared towards public health issues or we could direct unarmed response through - we have partners in the fire department, there are other entities that can better respond to those kinds of things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM (voice over): A curfew in Los Angeles County may have had an impact. We found two separate warehouse parties canceled last weekend just hours before the curfew was to take effect. In California, raids were held outside in San Bernardino County, where the local health department says it approves and monitors them.

But in the cold weather of New York ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FUCITO: The Sheriff's office would be concentrating on large-scale gatherings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM (voice over): Authorities have declared the underground party is over.

Stephanie Elam, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Good evening to you. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Jessica Dean in Washington.

[19:00:00]

With every day, Joe Biden moves closer to the Oval Office and President Donald Trump's quest to overturn the election looks a little more ridiculous.