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Birx: 'Assume You're Infected' if You Traveled for Thanksgiving; President-Elect Biden to Unveil Economic Team Today; Trump Peddles More Bogus Claims after Election Defeat. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired November 30, 2020 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More than 93,000 Americans are hospitalized right now due to the coronavirus.
[05:59:15]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 20 percent of all people in the hospital have COVID. So this is a really dangerous time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to be straight with the American people. It's going to get worse over the next several weeks.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The Biden transition is on in full swing. The senior White House communications team will be a big break from tradition, all posts filled by women.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via phone): The whole world is watching and nobody can believe what they're seeing.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He continuing to try and convince the American public to take them along with him in his denial of reality.
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ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Monday, November 30. It's 6 a.m. here in New York. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.
If you traveled at all, assume you're infected with coronavirus. That's not my warning. It comes from Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force. Assume you are infected and stay home.
Dr. Birx, Dr. Anthony Fauci and others are warning of a surge upon a surge in cases after families gathered for Thanksgiving.
This morning, more Americans are hospitalized with the virus, more than ever before. Look at that chart. It is flat-out alarming. The cases of hospitalizations, hospitalizations have more than doubled in the last month. One official tells CNN this is like a natural disaster occurring in all 50 states at the same time. More than four million new cases reported in November. That's more than double the month before.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will get their first presidential daily briefing on national security today. And they will also unveil their economic team, including Janet Yellen as treasury secretary and Neera Tanden as head of the Office of Management and Budget.
Tanden's expected appointment already receiving pushback from some Republicans and some progressives. We'll explain that.
Biden also announced an all-female senior communications team last night.
Meanwhile, the president-elect is recovering this morning after fracturing his foot while playing with his dog. We'll also have more on that for you.
But we begin with the pandemic. CNN's Ryan Young live at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. What's the scene there, Ryan?
RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, there are a lot of people traveling here. It looks like people enjoyed their holiday, but now it's time for that long trip home.
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YOUNG (voice-over): Hospitals on the brink, as health experts are predicting a worsening surge after the Thanksgiving holiday.
DR. BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: If your family traveled, you have to assume that you were exposed and you became infected. And you really need to get tested in the next week, and you need to avoid anyone in your family with co-morbidities or over 65.
YOUNG: The United States has reported more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases for each of the last 27 days. Many health officials fear the holiday travel and gatherings will cause even higher spikes.
ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN RESOURCES: We are at a risky time because of the travel. And again, it's not just the travel, but it's exposing people who have not been sort of in their own pods. And remember, you can be asymptomatic and still spread the virus. And that's what's so dangerous.
YOUNG: A record more than 93,000 Americans are hospitalized with the coronavirus, and 16 states across the country treating a record number of coronavirus patients.
DR. MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY: Without a comprehensive national strategy, it is going to be so difficult for us to adequately take care of all the patients that are in the hospital right now, much less the ones that we anticipate seeing come to us over the next two to three weeks after this Thanksgiving surge.
YOUNG: Dr. Anthony Fauci warning the trajectory could require more drastic mitigation measures.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We don't want to lockdown completely, but we might have to if this -- and I'm talking local. I'm not talking about nationally.
YOUNG: And in the NFL, six more Baltimore Ravens pulled because of COVID or exposure to it, putting the now twice-postponed game against Pittsburgh Steelers in jeopardy.
The Denver Broncos played on Sunday, despite all four of their quarterbacks being quarantined after one of them tested positive.
And in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announcing that some schools will begin to reopen on December 7 after shutting them down November 19, when average test positivity rates in the city hit 3 percent.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: We will begin with elementary schools, K-5, and our pre-K, 3K public school centers.
YOUNG: This coming after the New York City sheriff's office shut down a club on Saturday that hosted nearly 400 people.
FAUCI: Close the bars and keep the schools open is what we really say. The default position should be to try as best as possible, within reason, to keep the children in school or to get them back to school. The best way to ensure the safety of the children in school is to get the community level of spread low.
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YOUNG: And if you look through this crowd here, you can still see airport employees passing out masks. I can tell you, as we've been watching people kind of come through the airport, a lot of people are wearing their masks, but we've seen a lot of people who are wearing the mask below their chin or below their nose, so it seems like the message is not all the way out there.
They are handing out masks here for free, and you can sanitize your hands throughout this airport. But of course, airport officials are wondering what this entire weekend will mean to the healthcare system the next two days -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Yes, I don't think the mask below the chin is what doctors and medical experts have in mind. Ryan, you have your work cut out for you there monitoring all of that. Thank you very much for the reporting.
So President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will receive their first national security briefing today, nearly four weeks after the election. The incoming administration will unveil its economic team, as well. Last night, they spelled out their senior communications team.
[06:05:07]
CNN's Jessica Dean is live in Washington with more.
So, it's shaping up, Jessica?
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is, Alisyn. And good morning to you.
Yes, the Biden transition team moving full steam ahead, doing a lot of work over the weekend and making some big announcements today. And as you mentioned, also, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President- elect Kamala Harris getting that president's daily briefing. That is classified intelligence they have not been able -- that Biden specifically had not been able to have, because they had not signed off -- the General Services Administration had not signed off on the official transition process.
But now that that has been done, he will get that first briefing today and get a look at that classified intelligence, giving him details on what is going on in the world of national security.
This is also happening as they made some big announcements over the weekend. Chief among them, announcing an all-female communications team, senior communications team. This is a first, history making. Let's take a look at some of the faces that will be familiar to you if you followed along with the Biden campaign.
Kate Bedingfield there will be the coms director. She, of course, was deputy campaign manager and communications director for the campaign. Jen Psaki, who has been working with the transition, as well, will act as press secretary. Symone Sanders there will be chief spokesperson for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Karine Jean-Pierre will be deputy coms director.
So again, an all-female team there. The first time in White House history to have those senior leadership positions in the communications team filled by all women.
Also, we are expecting the Biden team to name their economic team today. This is also filled with women, let by Janet Yellen. Let's take a look at some of those. She will be nominated to be treasury -- treasury secretary. The first woman, if confirmed, to hold that position, as well as Neera Tanden being nominated to head up the Office of Management and Budget and Cecilia Rouse, the Council of Economic Advisers.
Interestingly, we saw a spokesperson for Senator John Cornyn pushing back on Tanden's nomination, specifically, tweeting out last night that she has no chance of being confirmed. I want to read a little bit of that tweet now.
He said, "Neera Tanden, who has an endless stream of disparaging comments about the Republican senators whose votes she'll need, stands zero chance of being confirmed."
Again, that's Senator John Cornyn's spokesperson, really kind of the largest, most aggressive pushback we've seen from the Senate yet on one of these nominees.
And finally, John and Alisyn, we have to note that over the weekend, President-elect Biden was playing with his dog, Major, and he suffered a hairline or several hairline fractures in his foot, which means he's going to be in a walking boot for a while. So prepare to see that -- John.
BERMAN: I can't believe Major did this to him.
DEAN: Yes, those dogs.
BERMAN: After all the Biden family has done for Major, that's how Major responds.
I will also note, just unironically, we received a whole lot of medical information --
DEAN: Yes.
BERMAN: -- from the transition about the president-elect's foot. This is a lot more than we are used to --
DEAN: Quite a contrast.
BERMAN: -- in the current administration. Very much a contrast, there.
DEAN: Yes.
BERMAN: All right. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.
So President Trump spent this holiday weekend peddling more bogus claims after his election defeat.
CNN's Joe Johns at the White House with the latest. Good morning, Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
Well, there was a lot of denial in this interview; also a lot of disinformation. The president's first interview since the election a feast of false information for his followers on FOX News.
The president claimed bizarrely that the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Department of Justice might have been somehow involved in rigging the election. Bizarre, because the president hand- picked the men who lead both the DOJ and the FBI.
The president once again said dead people voted in the election, thousands of them. He said mailmen were involved in destroying mail-in ballots.
And he also indicated that, in his view, there were glitches in election machines that flipped the election to Joe Biden. This, of course, an allegation that has been around for a while. The head of the Republican National Committee said she just wasn't going to go there. Listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Machines ss switching the votes, and we go there in crazy numbers. And they should have won, but then still --
RONNA MCDANIEL, CHAIR, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Yes, we have to -- we didn't see that in the audit, so we've got to just -- that evidence, I haven't seen, so we'll wait and see on that.
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JOHNS: The president also claimed that judges are not allowing evidence of fraud into court, but the fact of the matter is, the president's lawyers have lost more than 30 cases around the country, in part because of what judges said was a lack of evidence.
Back to you.
BERMAN: All right, Joe, thanks very much. Interesting having Ronna McDaniel run away from the president's ridiculous claims. Thanks so much for being with us.
[06:10:09]
CDC advisers will meet tomorrow to discuss the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine. Who will get it first? That's next.
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DR. JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: I want to be straight with the American people. It's going to get worse over the next several weeks.
FAUCI: As we go for the next couple of weeks into December, that we might see a surge superimposed upon that surge that we're already in.
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BERMAN: That's the surgeon general and Dr. Anthony Fauci warning Americans that the pandemic will get worse. This comes as more Americans are hospitalized with coronavirus, more than ever before.
Look at that graph right there. More than 93,000 Americans now hospital, battling coronavirus.
In November, 4.1 million new cases were recorded. That is double what we saw in October.
[06:15:04]
Joining us now, William Haseltine. He is the chair and president of ACCESS Health International, a former professor at Harvard Medical School.
Professor, always a pleasure to have you with us. Ninety-three thousand Americans in the hospital at the end of November. Where will we be at the end of December?
WILLIAM HASELTINE, CHAIR/PRESIDENT, ACCESS HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: I think we will be a much higher number than that. The -- as you have just heard, this pandemic is surging in the United States. It is not being controlled by public health measures.
I look at numbers around the world, and we saw similar numbers in European countries. They've locked down. They've taken serious measures. And they haven't eliminated, but at least they've plateaued the dramatic rise. And in some countries like France, they've made a major dent in the number of people infected. We could do it too, but, we're not.
CAMEROTA: Professor, Dr. Deborah Birx says that, if you traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday, you should assume that you're infected, because obviously, it can be asymptomatic or the symptoms may have not showed up yet. And so you need to treat yourself as if you are infected and, you know, basically stay away from anyone elderly, stay at home, if possible.
And I'm just wondering, if we take that a few more steps, what can people, people even who are really infected, what can you do at home right now if you are sick? Have we learned things about how to get better at home or what's needed at home, if you actually are sick with coronavirus?
HASELTINE: Well, we've learned a lot, but you can't get better at home. You have to have the virus run its course. But what you can do is be very alert for the symptoms that are likely to tell you that you should go to the hospital right away.
There's some very simple equipment that you should have at home. Certainly, a thermometer. One that is Bluetoothed to your phone is best.
You should have what's called a pulse oximeter. The major determinant of whether or not you need to be hospitalized is how much oxygen you have in your blood. And it's a very simple machine. It's maybe $10 to $15. You put it on your finger, and it tells you your oxygen saturation. Is it 95 percent? If it ever reaches 92 percent, it's time to go to the hospital.
If you want to be a little more careful, there's something called a flow meter that allows you to see how much breath you can exhale. There are a little bit more elaborate instruments called spirometers that allow you to measure your lung capacity.
I also think, because there are clots that happen in the heart, everyone should have an app for their mobile phone that tells them -- basically gives you a Bluetooth EKG that your doctor can see.
I, personally, I'm not so young -- I have -- I have defibrillators in all the places that I live. So I think all of that equipment is really important for people to have access to or at home to monitor their own safety.
There's one other thing I would like to say about travel. Everybody's worried about the breath that -- the air that they breathe and the virus perhaps coming into their eyes. But there's a recent report that says that when it's cold and damp, the virus lives a lot longer on surfaces.
So wash your hands all the time. When you're traveling, wear latex gloves and enough of them so you would change them as frequently as you wash your hands. Wash your hands often, much more than you think you should.
Professor, I was listening to the governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, over the weekend say, quote, "We're in the fight of our lives right now." So New Jersey has seen an alarming rise in new cases and hospitalizations.
And if you look at the positivity rates around the country right now, some of the states we're seeing the highest positivity we've seen for some time: in South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, but Pennsylvania is in there now, as well. And I was just telling you about the news out of New Jersey. Is this a regional issue at this point, Professor, or are we now full-on national calamity?
HASELTINE: It's national calamity. And it's a global calamity. It's not just in the United States. It's in the whole Northern Hemisphere, where people are congregating.
And it's exactly what was predicted. Everybody heard about a second wave, a third wave. We are in it and we're not at the end of it. I think by the end of this wave, we'll have many more Americans die than died in World War II. And they'll come -- like in World War II -- from all over the country.
CAMEROTA: Professor Haseltine, thank you very much for all of the tips and all of the information this morning.
HASELTINE: You're welcome. Thank you.
BERMAN: All right. Overnight, we learned a lot more about who President-elect Joe Biden is going to put in his cabinet and -- and in his administration. At least some of the picks are already generating some friction and not just for Republicans. That's next.
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[06:24:24]
CHRIS KREBS, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY: The proof is in the ballots. 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.
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CAMEROTA: OK, that was the Trump administration's former top cybersecurity official, Chris Krebs, speaking out for the first time since he was fired by President Trump.
Krebs reaffirmed that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in this election and that this election was the most secure in U.S. history.
Joining us now is Natasha Alford. She's a senior correspondent and vice president of digital content for "TheGrio." Also with us, CNN national security commentator Mike Rogers. He's a former Republican congressman and former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Great to see both of you.
Chairman, I don't know if you got to see the whole "60 Minutes" interview, but you could not have found a more sensible, sane-sounding person to walk us through --
BERMAN: With a deeper voice.
CAMEROTA: -- with a -- with a fabulous radio voice. I mean, Scott Pelley was, you know, reading to him things that President Trump has accused him of, the false claims that President Trump is making. And he just stayed sort of cool, calm, and collected and didn't take the bait. And didn't, you know, become kind of emotional.
And just spelled out how much effort he put into making sure that this is the most secure election and how proud he was of it. And all of the evidence supports him.
MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: You mean, exactly what you would want in senior government leadership at a time when there's challenges at both home and around the world? Of course.
And listen, he had a great -- Chris Krebs had a great reputation. And it wasn't just the votes. That was certainly important in making sure that the tally -- all of the things that he laid out in that interview about why those votes were accurate and that you can have confidence in your vote.
But also the international piece, where people were, you know, countries were still trying to get in and muck up things. I think when he says it's the most secure in history, he's also talking about that piece of it.
So, listen, this is exactly the kind of person you want to bring into government to do the kind of job for the American people that you want to do. And he was rewarded, of course, with getting fired, right after he had done a pretty good job of putting this unit together and then implementing its goals and policies.
BERMAN: Yes. Krebs doesn't have time at this point for the president's nonsense. Neither, frankly, do the courts at this point, which is one after the other have just said, these cases are absurd. They're just absurd.
Natasha, we got a greater sense of what President-elect Joe Biden plans to do with his administration, particularly with his economic team and the press team. The press team got a lot of -- generated a lot of excitement last night, all women will be running the communications team in the White House.
The economic team generated what may be the first real controversy. Yes, Janet Yellen as treasury secretary, Cecelia Rouse leading the Council of Economic Advisors, but Neera Tanden, who a lot of people know runs the Center for American Progress; was an official in the Clinton [SIC] administration -- no, in the Obama administration, generated a lot of ire. I mean, there are Republicans who don't like her, and there are progressive who don't like her, because Neera Tanden is not afraid to mix it up at all on Twitter and elsewhere.
This is what John Cornyn, Senator Cornyn's spokesperson said: "Neera Tanden, who has an endless stream of disparaging remarks about the Republican senators whose votes she'll need, stands zero chance of being confirmed."
And then Bernie Sanders's former campaign spokesman says, "Everything toxic about the corporate Democratic Party is embodied in Neera Tanden."
So what's going to happen here?
NATASHA ALFORD, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT OF DIGITAL CONTENT FOR "THEGRIO": Well, you know, that's the thing about Twitter. Screen shots live forever. You know, obviously, we're seeing a lot of folks bringing up past comments or tweets from Neera Tanden, because as you said, John, she's not afraid to mix it up. And to, you know, make clear where she stands in terms of her position.
I think -- I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I think what this points to is that representation alone is not enough, right? We saw President Donald Trump put women in office in significant leadership roles. He put black people in particular roles, but they still gave us alternative facts, right? There were still problematic aspects of those folks being in charge.
So, again, I don't know Neera personally, but I do know that just because you announce, OK, we have an all-women cabinet, it doesn't mean that all of a sudden, you know, folks are going to be onboard.
So I think the real test is how they're going to roll out communication around this, you know, how they're going to explain her record, and then, yes, I think we'll -- we'll see what happens from there.
CAMEROTA: Chairman, today, President-elect Biden and Vice President- elect Kamala Harris get their first presidential daily briefing. So they will be up to speed or being brought up to speed about national security issues, at the same time that President Trump, you know, continues to say, frankly, sort of delusional things about the election and about, you know, the outcome of the election. And "The Washington Post" put it this way. They spoke to dozens of
people in the administration, in and around the president, and they say that they -- he is, described, quote, "sequestered in the White House and brooding out of public view after his election defeat, rageful and at times delirious in a torrent of private conversations, Trump was in the telling of one close adviser, like, quote, 'Mad King George,' muttering, 'I won, I won, I won.'"
