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Task Force Official: Decrease Activity After Thanksgiving Travel; Moderna To Apply For FDA Authorization For COVID-19 Vaccine; Biden Fractures Foot While Playing With Dog; Colorado Lawmakers Meeting In Special Session To Pass Relief Funding; Former DHS Officials Dispute Trump's Election Fraud Claims. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired November 30, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Now the president, the current president is on Twitter and on television telling countless lies about the election, none of which deserve to be repeated here. The latest reality check on the president's fantasies come from Wisconsin where recount produced the same result as on election night, that is a Joe Biden win in Wisconsin.

Trump appointed judges continue to dismiss his election challenges and the fired top Trump election security official put it simply, don't believe a word the president is saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS KREBS, FORMER TOP CYBERSECURITY OFFICIAL AT DHS: There's no foreign power that is flipping votes. There's no domestic actor flipping votes. I did it right. We did it right. This was a secure election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Meanwhile, the conspiracy focused Trump is all, but ignoring the raging pandemic that is still happening on his watch. 27 straight days now with 100,000 plus new infections. Weekend interviews from task force officials warn of a Thanksgiving super spreader. I talked to one of those officials on Sunday who gave this advice to 1.1 million Americans who flew back home after the holiday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, MD, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HHS: Once you get back to your location, just remember, you've had an increased risk of being exposed, so you should decrease unnecessary activities for about a week. And if you can get tested in three or five days, that's also a very good idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now opposed Thanksgiving Coronavirus surge could overwhelm hospitals, even more than they are now. But today there's a really hopeful vaccine bit of news, a big bit, I should say. This time it's from Moderna. I want to get to CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen with all of the information. Elizabeth, one vaccine expert calls this data from Moderna striking and amazing. Walk us through it.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Dana, this efficacy data is so amazing that now Moderna is applying to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for permission to put their vaccine on the market.

They're applying I am told by Moderna executives as we speak. Let's take a look at what their data found. They found that the vaccine is 94.1 percent effective against COVID-19, and it is 100 percent effective against severe cases of the disease.

Now this data sounds familiar, it's because Moderna put out very similar data a couple days ago. But what's particularly exciting about this is that, this is a much larger data set, it's about twice as large a data set as the one that they put out a few weeks ago, so this makes it more of a sure thing.

You can have more confidence when you have a larger data set. Now the way that they came up with this percentage, they didn't just take it out of the clear blue sky. What they did is that they gave a large group of people, some of them got the vaccine and some of them got a shot of saline, a placebo that does nothing.

Nobody knows who got which shot, and they sent those people out into their communities, told them to go back home, some of them just in the course of their lives got infected with COVID and some of them didn't.

And then they looked to see who got the vaccine and who didn't. So let's take a look at these numbers. Because this really spells out what happened. 11 out of the 15,000 people who received the vaccine got COVID-19, just 11 out of 15,000, but 185 out of 15,000 people who received the placebo that shot that did nothing got COVID-19. So you can see those two numbers are so strikingly different. Dana?

BASH: They sure are, Elizabeth. So many questions that people watching you and listening to that are going to want to hear, the first I think is when is it going to be available and how am I going to get it. What is the HHS Secretary saying today about that?

COHEN: Right. Alex Azar, the Secretary of Health and Human Services had a comment today about the time line.

[12:05:00]

COHEN: And before we listen to it, Dana, I want to tell you it is very much in keeping with what Tony Fauci told CNN a few weeks ago. Tony Fauci said, we think shots will start to go into arms in the United States towards the end of December, the second half of December. So let's take a listen to what Secretary Azar had to say today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ALEX AZAR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: General Prune, he said from operation warp speed that we will ship within 24 hours of FDA authorization. So we could be seeing both of these vaccines out and getting into people's arms before Christmas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So again, very similar to the time line that Dr. Fauci gave. Of course, not everyone is going to be able to get it all at once. There simply isn't enough vaccine to go around. The CDC will make a decision about who will get it first. We are told that as of now it's looking like the first group will be front line health care workers as well as nursing home residents. Dana?

BASH: Which makes a whole lot of sense such remarkable news? Elizabeth, thank you so much for bringing it to us always with your incredible sources. And on to politics now and a wave of first today for the president-elect, let's go to CNN's Jeff Zeleny in Wilmington, Delaware. And Jeff, President-Elect Biden announced his economic team, and it includes the first female secretary of treasury, assuming that she is confirmed. Tell us about it.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Dana, it does. And this formalizes something that we've been hearing and reporting for the last several days, but it really also fills in some of the other blanks around what is a critical part of the new Biden administration, that's the economic team. Of course, they're inheriting an economy in - that's suffering and in pain.

So this is what is going to, he believes the leaders to help lead it through that. But Janet Yellen, first and foremost, the first woman to be nominated and of confirmed to serve as Treasury Secretary, of course she is the Former Chair of the Federal Reserve. She will be leading this economic team.

But also some new names over the weekend. Neera Tanden, of course she is a familiar name to many in Washington, a left-leaning leader of the Center for American Progress will be nominated to be the Budget Director essentially the Head of the Office of Management and Budget.

And Cecilia Rouse, she will become the first women of color to be nominated to serve as the Chairperson, Chair Woman of the Council of Economic Advisers. This is essentially an academic position that advises the president and the West Wing on the economy as well as the number two person at a treasury that Deputy Treasury Secretary, the first person of color in that position as well Adewale Adeyemo.

He is currently serving as the president of the Obama Foundation, so that is currently the economic team. But also a series of first on the communications front. For the first time ever in the West Wing in the White House, an all woman team will lead the president's communications efforts. And it's going to be some familiar names to those who follow politics.

White House Press Secretary incoming will be Jen Psaki. Of course, she is a veteran of the Obama Administration as well she was the Press Secretary at the State Department; she was the Communications Director at the Obama White House in the second term as well.

Kate Bedingfield will be the White House Communications Director. That is the person in charge with behind the scenes planning, and strategizing for the message of the White House. She of course was a Deputy Campaign Manager in the Biden Campaign and out front in every respect on that.

And Simone Sanders, another familiar face. She will be Vice President Kamala Harris' Chief Spokesperson as well as the Senior Adviser, and the rest of the team there as well. So a key selection of women advisers who have vast experience serving in the White House and on presidential campaigns.

And Dana, we're also getting word of the three finalists to be defense secretary. Now that is not a position that has been announced yet, it may be announced later this week or next week, certainly in the month of December. But there are three top names that our consideration was told us, Michelle Flournoy; she is a veteran Pentagon official from the Obama Administration.

Jeh Johnson, of course the former Homeland Security Secretary under President Obama as well as a General Counsel at the pentagon in the Obama administration, and Lloyd Austin, a retired four star Army General, he was the Head of Centcom, that central command he retired in 2016.

So those are three, the people and each one of those whoever President-elect Biden decides choose would be history making in their own right. She is the first woman or the first African-American to lead the Pentagon, Dana.

BASH: Sure, a lot of history intentionally so obviously from the Biden transition. Let's talk about the fact that the president-elect had a little spill this weekend, reminds us why there's such a thing as a press pool that is in charge of making sure and standing by to make sure nothing happens to in this case a president-elect or ultimately it's the president. What happened?

ZELENY: Well, he was at his beach home in Newark, Delaware, not far from Wilmington. And we're told at least by his advisers that he tripped, while essentially playing with or being around one of his dogs.

[12:10:00]

ZELENY: So he has a sprained ankle. You can see him there walking out of a clinic last evening here in Wilmington. We're told that he will have a walking boot on for a few weeks perhaps. So this is something that of course happens to many Americans. But he is 78 years old. So any type of health incident is obviously watched a little more carefully.

It's one of the reasons perhaps as well we will not see him in public view today. We will see him tomorrow when he introduces his economic team. But Dana, I am told just a few moments ago that he is doing something very important at home today. He is receiving that first intelligence briefing at his home outside of Wilmington here that classified briefing. So that is a sign according to people familiar with the matter, that his home indeed has been retrofitted as it was when he was vice president to receive this classified briefing.

So that is where he is receiving his classified Intel briefing. And of course the Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, she is also receiving a separate PDB as they call it, the President's Daily Brief, this collection of assessments and threats facing the U.S. Dana?

BASH: A lot of news out of that Biden transition. Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much. I appreciate it. And coming up, the Governor of Colorado tests positive for COVID-19 as his state suffers with record hospitalizations he joins me next.

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[12:15:00]

BASH: Right now, the world is watching and waiting for more good news on the Coronavirus vaccine, and the U.S. is bracing for what experts fear will be a post Thanksgiving COVID surge on top of an ongoing surge. 19 states reported record high hospitalizations over the weekend. Colorado is one of them.

And the Governor, Jared Polis and his husband are now among some 230,000 Coloradoans infected during this pandemic. Governor Polis joins me now. Thank you so much for joining me. First things first, how are you and your family feeling?

GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): Thanks, Dana. So far so good. And this is such a mysterious virus, and it is just almost like a lottery. For folks in our age range, 45, my partner is 39; we have about 4 or 5 percent chance of having to be hospitalized. It's just a matter of playing the odds.

BASH: And let's talk about the latest trends because they're actually tough to track as you mentioned, it's like playing the lottery. But data is tough, especially right now because of some reporting issues that always happen over holidays. But let's look at where your state currently stands.

An average of more than 4,000 new cases reported every day. Hospitalizations are at a peak. More than 1800 reported for two straight days and a test positivity rate near 11 percent according to the COVID tracking project, although the figure is lower than your neighbors, which is a good thing for you.

But Governor, your state has a mask mandate among other restrictions, so what do you think is driving the spread given everything you're doing there?

POLIS: Well, I think it's really COVID fatigue. And that's why we are emphasizing to our residents avoid gatherings outside your household, of course wear a mask in public. There's better compliance in some areas than others. And then we're expecting to see, and really have seen kind of a flattening out, there hasn't been the kind of increase we saw two weeks ago in the last week.

But what we're hoping to see a benefit from in the next week is that, we closed indoor dining in most parts of our state, the more directly affected parts of our state with higher infection rates about a week ago.

BASH: And has your view on what you just described posing or easing restrictions depending on what you are saying, has that changed at all in light of the fact that you're now somebody who has COVID-19?

POLIS: Well, many Coloradoans have it, 1 in 41 are currently contagious with Coronavirus, so I join, damn, and I have been able to stay out of circulation, will stay out of circulation obviously working from my home on zoom and phone in keeping folks safe.

BASH: And you don't know how you got it, right? You obviously followed the restrictions that you, yourself imposed. Do you have any idea how you got it, even given the fact that you've been careful, wear a mask and so forth?

POLIS: There's no way that anybody can know how they got it. I had at least one significant exposure, two others that were lesser, but there are all exposures you don't know about, too. So look, nobody knows for sure how they got it. Maybe within a family, you can assume you got it from others in your family.

But look, everybody is at risk for this thing. And when you have an exposure, it's important to go into quarantine. If you don't develop symptoms, and you test negative, you can come out ten days or two weeks later. If you do as we did, we're going to stay quarantined until we're cleared by doctors to be able to go out again.

BASH: Yes, I'm sure. Let's take a look at what some of the things that your state, the general assembly in your state is actually in session today working to pass to help people who are suffering from the effects, small business aid, sales tax relief to help restaurants, bars and food trucks, more funding to help and keep child care facilities open.

$50 million for emergency housing assistance, 20 million towards broadband capacity in the state, 3 million for food pantry assistance, funding for utilities assistance, 100 million for public health. And as you mentioned also extended some executive orders that you've put in place.

You've done what I just described or you doing it as we speak without federal help. So what can you as a Former Congressman tell your former colleagues here in Washington, what can they learn about the proposals that I just described which apparently have been worked on in a bipartisan way.

POLIS: Yes. It's a bridge, Dana, frankly. Because no state has the capability to help support all the small businesses affected. The federal government really came together around PPP. They came together on aid for Coronavirus. They need to do it again. We are doing what we can over the next few months.

[12:20:00]

POLIS: Winter is going to be a very tough time. For businesses that are directly impacted by capacity restrictions like restaurants and bars, we're doing our piece for them. But frankly, that's just a bridge.

And we need Democrats and Republicans in Washington to come together, whatever the parameters are, don't let the perfect be the ending of your good, but get something done as soon as possible. And if there remains more work, then they could buy all means, continue to have the discussion.

BASH: And real quick, we've been talking a lot today about the vaccine. Do you believe that your state has enough money and funds to distribute the vaccine? How much are you going to rely on the federal government for help there?

POLIS: Well, we are hopeful. Sometimes being hopeful on the outcome of congress is a fool's err. But I'm hopeful, that's informed optimism that is part of the omnibus or the appropriations package in mid December, we're hoping that there will be additional resources for free vaccination. Of course that's not confirmed.

But if somehow they can't put together a bipartisan stimulus bill that has vaccination money, we're hoping that at the very least they include that in the omnibus that's coming in mid December. You're probably in a better position than me to find to know if that's actually going to happen.

BASH: I'll let you know what I find out, Governor. Thank you so much. And glad you're feeling well. I Appreciate it.

POLIS: Thank you.

BASH: And up next, the president-elect announces his economic team. Why one of those picks is facing GOP head winds for confirmation.

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[12:25:00]

BASH: President Trump still want you to believe the election is up for grabs. It is not. But given a television platform Sunday morning that encouraged his lives, the president implicated his own FBI and justice department in a broad election coup, that the vote machines were manipulated and his own former top aide who was in charge of such things until he was fired says that is wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KREBS: There was no manipulation of the vote on the machine count side. There's no evidence that any machine that I'm aware of has been manipulated by a foreign power, period. The recounts are consistent with the initial count. And to me, that's further evidence, that's confirmation that the systems used in the 2020 election performed as expected and the American people should have 100 percent confidence in their vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: CNN's Kaitlan Collins joins me now. And Kaitlan, what Krebs said just now in that interview is so important, especially when so few Republicans are willing to stand up to the president on his lies about the election.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and Chris Krebs is a lifelong Republican who was put into this position, and then confirmed by the Senate by President Trump, of course confirmed by Republicans, and is pushing back on the president.

And clearly, the president was watching that interview on "60 Minutes", he tweeted about it last night, pushing back saying that "60 Minutes" didn't ask them for comment on what he said was a one sided story and then of course, he pushed back on that statement from Krebs directly where he called this the most secure election in U.S. history, and he said he stands by that.

The president says he believes it was our least secure election ever, and of course that is the president's word against the official he put in charge of making sure everything was secure, who had worked on this for several years, who worked on this with agencies on Election Day.

And of course has been in touch with different secretaries of state. So it's the president's word versus Chris Krebs who of course he put in to this position, and you've seen how he was pushing back on the president's characterizations last night?

BASH: Very hard, and with a lot of credibility as you said. And Kaitlan, the president said last week that he knows if he is going to attend Joe Biden's inauguration, he won't say publicly. The Republican who is in charge of the committee that oversees the inauguration, Roy Blunt, said this to me yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ROY BLUNT (R-MO): I hope the president is there on Inaugural Day and continuing to work to see what we can do to have the president there and have Vice President Biden there, likely sworn in on that day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: What are your sources telling you about what the president's advisers are telling him behind the scenes?

COLLINS: They right now do not think it's likely the president is going to go Joe Biden's inauguration. The president says he knows, he would not tell us when I asked him on Thanksgiving when he first took questions for us, for the first time in three weeks. So it's still to be determined. But if you look at everything else the president is doing as what is

tradition after someone has lost an election, he has not followed any of those protocols, he hasn't invited Joe Biden to the White House, he hasn't even called Joe Biden. So this idea that he is going to wake up and go to his inauguration seems pretty unlikely to the people who speak to the president.

Then of course, we have a long ways to go before the end of January, so whether or not that changes remains to be seen. The president often likes to be at the center of the news cycle. But whether or not he plans some counter programming or something of that nature, his advisers really say he could do anything at this point, but they're not currently expecting him to attend.

BASH: Counter programming does sound likely it's going to be up to everybody to not change the channel. Thank you so much, Kaitlan. I appreciate it. And President-Elect Joe Biden announced his economic team today.