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New Day

Nearly 100,000 Hospitalized with COVID-19; President-elect Biden to Unveil Economic Team; Trump Attacks GOP Governors for Refusing to Back False Election Claims; Trump Campaign Lawyer Threatens Fired Former Cybersecurity Chief. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 01, 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: COVID-19 hospitalizations have never been higher.

[05:59:23]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think the public truly understands what we go through every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pharmacies, gearing up as coronavirus vaccine gets closer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to take a while for all Americans who need it on a priority level to get it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President-elect Joe Biden is going to be attending an event introducing new members of their economic team.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Trump insisted there is no way we lost this election, and trained his anger on Republican officials.

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: There are those who are exploiting the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims, and frankly, they are misleading the president, as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, December 1, 6 a.m. here in New York.

And we begin with new developments on the massive effort to approve and distribute coronavirus vaccines. Two vaccines are now waiting for FDA approval, which could happen within weeks. A CDC panel will meet this morning to decide which Americans will get vaccinated first.

This morning, a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office says states are concerned about not having enough supplies to administer the vaccines, and the federal government must take urgent action to address those shortages.

BERMAN: So the good news is the vaccine is coming, maybe two. The bad news: They won't get here in time to prevent a dark winter, what could be the darkest period of this pandemic to date. As Dr. Fauci puts it, we are not in a good place.

This morning, more than 96,000 people are hospitalized. That's a record. Twenty-three states are seeing record hospitalizations.

The outgoing president hasn't said anything about the hospitalizations. Instead he's trying to overturn the election in public, which is a sentence no one should ever get numb to.

He's lashing out at the Republican governors of Arizona and Georgia for not helping him overturn the election in public, which, again, is a sentence no one should ever get numb to.

And a member of his legal team is now threatening the life of a fired government official who would not help the president overturn the election in public. So add a public death threat to the public battle to overturn democracy.

And overnight, there is new reporting as to why, beyond the now obvious derangement. It's money. A lot of it, that will directly benefit the president. More on that in just a moment.

But we begin with the pandemic. CNN's Stephanie Elam, live in Los Angeles. And the warnings now coming out about California, Stephanie, very concerning.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very much so, John. And you take a look at the fact that the vaccine is on the way, but health officials are saying that does not mean it's time to let off the gas on our preparations of protecting ourselves and our fellow Americans.

This as nearly half the states in the country are seeing record hospitalizations right now.

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ELAM (voice-over): The coronavirus pandemic not abating. At least 43 states are over the crucial 5 percent test positivity threshold. More than 96,000 Americans now hospitalized with the coronavirus, another high for the country.

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): We have to do everything we can during this very serious time, when our hospitals are really being hit, to slow down the transmission.

ELAM: Governor Mike DeWine said more than 5,000 people are hospitalized with the coronavirus in Ohio, the most for the state throughout the entire pandemic.

STACEY MORRIS, COVID UNIT NURSE MANAGER, AKRON GENERAL: Our numbers have just risen so quickly and so drastically. JAMIE GIERE, UPPER VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER NURSE: We're seeing healthy

-- healthy individuals come in, and -- and they just -- they decline so quickly.

ELAM: This field hospital in Rhode Island is starting to receive patients after hospitals in the state surpassed their capacity.

DR. LAURA FOREMAN, MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF THE CRANSTON FIELD HOSPITAL SITE: We're expecting to -- to be taking care of a lot of folks here. We didn't have to be here, knowing that, had we, as a population, come together and all stayed safe and stayed distanced and stayed home and stayed masked, that we could have avoided this.

ELAM: And in California, the recent surge of new cases forcing Los Angeles County last weekend to implement another stay-at-home order for its 10 million residents.

The governor warning new restrictions could be coming as the state predicts some hospitals could be near capacity by Christmas without intervention.

DR. MARK GHALY, SECRETARY, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: People just want to be done with this. But it doesn't take a break just because we're tired of it. We need to recalibrate for a short period of time what we do to keep this transition down.

ELAM: As experts warn Thanksgiving travel and gatherings will likely cause a worsening surge in coming weeks, the CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee expected to make recommendations later today on who will receive the vaccines first when they are available.

DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR, OPERATION WARP SPEED: What's important to note is the number of those, is the amount of vaccine that we have is still limited in comparison to the needs. So it's going to take a while for all Americans who need it on a priority level to get it.

ELAM: Drug makers Pfizer and Moderna have submitted their vaccines to the FDA for emergency use authorization. The FDA will consider Pfizer's vaccine on December 10 and Moderna's one week later on December 17.

Dr. Anthony Fauci urging Americans to get a vaccine.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If you want to be part of the solution, get vaccinated.

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ELAM: And a new development. Dr. Scott Atlas, President Trump's most trusted adviser on the White House coronavirus task force has resigned.

[06:05:03] Now, you may remember, he's a controversial figure who has questioned some of the things that health experts who have spent their careers studying pandemics have really fought for, like wearing masks, things like that.

We do know that, as this has happened, that others were telling CNN, who are close to the task force, that this is welcome news, John.

BERMAN: Yes, Sanjay was reporting last night that Deborah Birx, Dr. Birx, wouldn't go to meetings anymore with Scott Atlas, it got that bad.

Stephanie Elam in Los Angeles, thanks so much for being with us.

In just hours, President-elect Joe Biden and the vice-president elect, Kamala Harris, will introduce their senior economic team. Millions of unemployed Americans are relying on them to get the help they need.

CNN's Jessica Dean, live in Wilmington, Delaware, with a look at the names and the plans -- Jessica.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning to you, John.

This team is going to be absolutely critical to a Biden administration, and they will be formally introduced today. Janet Yellen, of course, will be part of that. She is going to be nominated to be treasury secretary, the former -- former Federal Reserve chairwoman, and would be the first woman, if confirmed, to be treasury secretary.

And look, this group before you has an incredible task before them. Of course, they will be inheriting an economy that is the worst since the Great Depression. And whether or not they can get it back on track will have a large role in determining Biden's success as a president and his presidency.

They're going to be tasked with economic recovery, putting that back together; and also, working with Congress to craft a stimulus bill, to get help to small businesses, to farmers, to families. There's just a lot of work to be done here.

So expect to hear more about what they're going to focus on as they're introduced later this afternoon by President-elect Biden.

We also know that he'll be getting his second president's daily brief today. He's been getting those here at his home near Wilmington. And it's a sign that his home has, once again, been retrofitted to accept this sort of classified information. John, of course, President-elect Biden received these daily briefings as Vice President Biden, so he's certainly no stranger to this -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Jessica, thank you very much for all of that reporting. It will be very interesting to see what it means, what this economic team means, beyond their qualifications and who they are. Thank you very much. All right. Also developing this morning, President Trump lashing out

at two Republican governors for refusing to break the law to overturn the election results.

President Trump is still raising millions of dollars for his legal fights, legal fights that judges keep deciding are frivolous. So where's all that money going?

CNN's Joe Johns is live at the White House with more.

Hi, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn.

Two states now cementing the president's loss, as Wisconsin and Arizona have certified the election in favor of Joe Biden. Still, the president is, if you can say that, airing his grievances against the governors of those two states, because he says they have not done more to help him.

Of course, the governors both say, look, they can't do anything, simply because the election laws in their state don't provide for them to do any more.

Despite that public posture, the president sees and understands that he has lost this race, according to two individuals who have spoken with CNN.

"The New York Times" and "The Washington Post" have front-page stories now on President Trump's political operation, raising more than $150 million since election day using a blizzard -- a blizzard, if you will, of misleading ads.

And if you look on the president's Twitter feed and also look at many of the campaign information that has gone out across the transom since the election, it's very clear the president continues to mislead the country on the outcome of the election.

Back to you.

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CAMEROTA: OK, Joe, thank you very much for that update from the White House.

So the number of Americans hospitalized with coronavirus is up more than 102 percent in just the past month. And President Donald Trump's controversial pandemic adviser called it quits last night. We discuss all of that, next.

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[06:13:26]

CAMEROTA: The push to approve and distribute a coronavirus vaccine kicks into high gear today. A CDC panel meets this morning to decide who get the vaccinated first. And their decision today will affect all of our lives.

But, of course, the decision cannot do anything for the tens of thousands of Americans who are suffering today. Nearly 100,000 Americans are hospitalized with coronavirus, and the healthcare system, of course, is being pushed to the limit.

Joining us now is Dr. Peter Hotez. He's the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and the co- director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

Dr. Hotez, this is an exciting day, but as you point out to us, what they're -- they're meeting with -- advisory board is meeting to figure out, OK, should it be people over 65, should it be people in hospitals? Who of the hospital staff should get it, all of those things. But you're pointing out that these are just suggestions; these are recommendations.

Will it still be up to local governors or officials in terms of actually who will get the vaccine?

DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Yes, that's absolutely right, Alisyn. You know, vaccine policy in the United States is mostly set at the state level. This is one of the reasons it's been so challenging, for instance, to battle the anti-vaccine groups, because any time you want to take this on, you have to do it times 50, dealing with all the state legislatures and -- and state committees and that sort of thing.

So the ACIP will make recommendations. Likely, most states will adopt them and more or less follow their guidelines. But the states have been already talking about this now for a couple of months. So they may have their own ideas. And there may be certain groups that they tailor specifically, so especially industry groups: poultry in Arkansas or, you know, some of the meat-packing plants in the Midwest or in the Panhandle. They may -- states may decide, No, we want to go with those groups, as well.

[06:15:19]

So it will be adjusted accordingly. But most likely, states will try to adhere to those ACIP guidelines, because it's a -- it's an important and substantive committee. So we're looking, of course, at healthcare providers. And it's going to be a balance -- and older individuals.

So it's going to be this balance between one trying to save as many lives as possible but also stabilizing the health system. Because if the health system unravels, then mortality is going to go up there, as well. So I think the recommendations will heavily follow those two -- those two points.

BERMAN: So Dr. Hotez, Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the FDA, is going to the White House for a meeting with the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Axios is reporting that this is because the president is displeased

that it's taken so long for the FDA to grant emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine. This suggestion so bothered the FDA commissioner overnight that he put out a statement. He says to Axios, "Let me be clear. Our career scientists have to make the decision, and they will take the time that's needed to make the right call on this important decision."

What do Americans need to know about this timeline for emergency use authorization?

HOTEZ: What the Americans need to -- America needs to know is the FDA has really rallied behind this vaccine initiative. And it's all hands on deck. I know talking to a lot of the leadership of FDA, how hard everybody is working and trying to move as expeditiously as possible without compromising safety.

And that's really important, because if things go badly in the early days, it could unravel the whole vaccine program.

So I think what the FDA is doing right now is they are reviewing the actual data. Remember, everything we've heard about both vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer, as well as AstraZeneca, Oxford, is only from press releases. And so press releases are not meant for you. They're not meant for me. They're meant for the shareholders.

So the FDA is checking all of the data to make certain that it's accurate and to actually confirm that these vaccines are working and that safe so that they're protecting the American people.

So I'm a huge champion of Dr. Hahn and what he's been doing to rally around getting these vaccines out in an expeditious manner but with maximum levels of safety.

CAMEROTA: So explain to us exactly how the numbers are going to work, what we know about how many doses they'll have. And does that mean that each person who is vaccinated this month, in December, will then get a second dose, or are they going to have to wait for more to be created?

HOTEZ: So it's a good question. We -- we -- my understanding is that there are about 40 million doses of vaccine that we'll have available by the end of this year, roughly half and half Pfizer and Moderna. And then we have -- a decision has to be made, do you vaccinate all 40 million with those doses now, with the expectation of the second doses coming in three or four weeks?

Or do you reserve it and just vaccinate half those groups to make sure you have that you have both doses available?

And again, a lot of the decision may -- may be made at the state level. But that's what we're looking at I think. Mostly trying to maximize the number of healthcare providers and also those at highest risks, especially institutional settings, in some cases nursing homes but also some of the industrial plants. CAMEROTA: But isn't the answer that you have to hold onto that second

dose or the first dose, you've just wasted it, right? I mean, does it work with just one dose?

HOTEZ: No, it doesn't look like you get much in the way of virus neutralizing antibody. So you look at the Phase 1, Phase 2 data, and that maybe have changed a little bit with Phase 3, but the Phase 1/Phase 2 data that I saw is the first dose did not pack much of a punch, in terms of inducing virus neutralizing antibodies. And that's how all these vaccines work, whether it's the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine or the two mRNA (ph) vaccines or our (ph) vaccines. They -- they all work by inducing those virus-neutralizing antibodies, and they don't really get up there until the second dose.

So it depends how confident I think people are that that -- enough vaccine is going to be manufactured for that second dose.

BERMAN: So Dr. Hotez, folks have a lot of questions about the vaccines in general, since they will all be part of our lives very soon. At top of the list is which one do you take? If there are two, maybe three vaccines, how do you know which one you should take?

HOTEZ: Well, the -- the answer for the next few months is you're not going to have much of a choice. You pretty much have to take what's offered to you. And that's OK because all of these vaccines, again, work by same mechanism. They all induce those virus-neutralizing antibodies. That's what's going to keep you out of the hospital in the intensive care unit.

And we -- and remember, one of the issues with the emergency use authorization, rather than a full approval process, in the full approval process, you wait at least a year to see how durable the protection is, how long it lasts, and if there's any other long-term safety issues. We won't have that, right, because the emergency use operation is trying to save lives now. Because if we wait a full year, you do the math. If you're doing -- getting 2,000 to 3,000 deaths per day, the death toll would just be too staggering.

[06:20:21]

So we don't know how durable the protection's going to be. And, you know, our -- for the Pfizer, Moderna vaccine, is the protection going to last three months? Three years? Thirty years? We won't know, but it's OK. Get the vaccine. Get those virus-neutralizing antibodies in your system. And if it later turns out you need a boost later on, that's OK. Or a boost with the same vaccine, or a different vaccine. All that's -- all this is going to have to be worked out in the course of 2021 and into 2022. But get what you can now.

CAMEROTA: OK. Dr. Peter Hotez, thank you very much for the expertise, as always.

HOTEZ: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So President Donald Trump attacking the Republican governors of Arizona and Georgia. Will that depress the turnout for the crucial Senate runoff races? We take that up, next.

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[06:25:19]

BERMAN: Developing this morning, President Trump attacking the Republican governors of Arizona and Georgia, because they will not help him overturn the results of the presidential election.

And now a member of the president's legal team is calling for violence against the Trump administration's fired cyber security chief, who told the truth about Trump's loss.

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JOE DIGENOVA, TRUMP CAMPAIGN ATTORNEY: Anything who thinks that this election went well like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity.

HOWIE CARR, RADIO SHOW HOST: Oh, the guy that was on "60 Minutes" last night.

DIGENOVA: That guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: "Taken out at dawn and shot." That is a member of the president's legal team, Joe DiGenova, with Howie Carr on the radio show, calling for murder right there.

Joining us now, CNN political analyst Toluse Olorunnipa. He's a White House reporter for "The Washington Post." Also with us, CNN political analyst Margaret Talev. She's a politics and White House editor for Axios.

I have to say that's a lot to take, Margaret. Right? You have the president attacking these Republican governors, in public, for not helping him overturn the results of the election, and then you have the president's lawyer calling for violence.

And this is all happening out there in public, and to an extent, Mitch McConnell and all the Republicans are letting it happen and just watching it happen and shrugging their shoulders. How can this be?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. Well, good morning, John.

I mean, obviously, comments like this are completely beyond the pale It's unimaginable that people representing or speaking on any level for a sitting president would make these kind of remarks.

And I think you're right that this is, yet again, another kind of stress test by the president on whether he'll get pushback from Republicans. It's part of his campaign to continue his own post-White House life. And the issue for Republicans, other than actual concern about public

safety and the safety of some of these folks who are deeply, you know, involved in governance efforts, is that these Republicans politically all have to get on with the rest of their lives.

And so you're beginning to see, like, the governor of Arizona, the governor of Georgia say like, Whoa, like OK, they've reached their limit when it comes to questioning the validity of their elections.

You've begun to see Republicans in the Senate talk about what would be an appropriate way for President Trump -- outgoing President Trump to handle the inauguration and the transfer of power.

And yet, you just don't see the president sort of bounded from these kind of activities. He's -- this is who he is, and he's not going to change.

CAMEROTA: yes. It's very interesting to watch Republicans now, after all of these years. When push comes to shove and they have the actual data and they have the actual results, and they have the actual facts on their side, like Secretary of State Raffensperger, have to explain gently to President Donald Trump what's going on.

So here is -- here is Raffensperger explaining that somehow the president has also been misled.

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RAFFENSPERGER: There are those who are exploiting the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims, half-truths, misinformation, and frankly, they are misleading the president, as well, apparently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Isn't that interesting, Toluse? I mean, President Trump said on FOXtastic TV this weekend that six months from now, he'll still believe it. He'll believe that he won. He'll always believe that there were millions of votes somehow not counted or thrown in a river or whatever the latest one is. He'll still believe it.

And you know, I think that that just -- He's telling us something there. He's telling us that he's not rooted in reality. We suspected it, but he's confirming that. And that's just, I don't know, a lot to get your head around.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. It's amazing the president has access to the highest levels of intelligence. He could get any kind of briefing that he wanted about election security, but instead he decides to go to the dark corners of the Internet to look up memes, and to look up information which is often, you know, baseless or false, or misleading about the election. Tweeting about conspiracies, about votes being changed and Venezuela being involved in this international scheme to overturn the results of the election.

It is quite amazing that we have a president who does not follow the -- the guidance of his own intelligence committee, but instead searches for conspiracy theories in the dark corners of the Internet or in the dark corners of the political atmosphere where fewer and fewer Republicans are willing to remain with him.

You see a number of Republicans remaining silent or, you know, distancing themselves from him. And he's having to attack Republicans, because they have to follow the law.

This is a president who talked about law and order. There are Republican governors who have legal.