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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

More U.S. Deaths, Hospitalizations & Cases Than Ever Before; First Joint Interview with President-Elect Biden and VP-Elect Harris; Trump won't Say If He's Lost Confidence in A.G. Barr. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired December 04, 2020 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:18]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans. It's Friday, December 4th. Happy Friday, everybody. It's 47 days now until Joe Biden's inauguration as the 46th president.

With America now at darkest point to date in the coronavirus pandemic, we're hearing exclusive new details from the incoming president and vice president about their plan to tackle this crisis. Now, by just about my measure, it's never been worse -- 2,879 Americans reported dead Thursday. The number of people in the hospital and the number of new cases also new highs.

President-elect Joe Biden says the pandemic and its disastrous economic fallout will be a primary focus when he takes office next month. Biden and VP-elect Kamala Harris sat down with Jake Tapper for an exclusive interview.

Now, Biden acknowledged this pandemic may be raging more intensely by the time he's sworn in. He said he will ask Americans to unite to beat the virus and save the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: There's going to be a couple of things. Number one, it's going to be important we set out national standards. Look, we met with governors, Democrat and Republican as well as 50 Democrat and Republican mayors, they said they need guidance. They need guidance, and they're going to need a fair amount of money.

It's one thing for us to talk about being able to get help out there, but it's not getting there. We're having these hospital stays are overwhelming hospitals right now. There's a need for more financial assistance. There's more financial assistance needed as well when the vaccine comes forward. There's a need for planning.

And so the administration has been cooperating with us of late, letting us know what their plans are for the COVID virus, for how they're going to deliver on the vaccine. But there's not any help getting out there, and look at all the businesses that are being hurt so badly. No money to help them. Come Christmas time, there's going to be millions of people will see their unemployment run out.

So, there's a whole range of things that have to be done, and we have to ante up, I'm hoping, and we've talked about this, I'm hoping the Senate in this lame duck session will come up with some help to keep people moving, even at their jobs, they have to close restaurants and bars, they're able to be able to maintain their business while they're out. And so, there's a whole lot of things that have to be done quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Biden also says that masks will be an important part of urging Americans to unite in the fight against COVID.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The president and the vice president, we set the pattern of wearing masks. Beyond that, where the federal government has authority, I'm going to issue a standing order that in federal buildings you have to be masked and transportation, interstate transportation you must be masked in airplanes and bus, et cetera.

And so, it's a matter of -- and I think my inclination, Jake, is in the first day I'm inaugurated to say I'm going to ask the public for 100 days to mask. Just so 0100 days to mask. Not forever, 100 days, and I think we'll see a significant reduction if we occur that -- that occurs with vaccinations and masking to drive down the numbers considerably, considerably.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Biden and Harris stress their confidence in the safety of the imminent coronavirus vaccine once scientists and regulators sign off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Are you confident that, if and when the FDA does give that approval it will be safe and effective and will you take it?

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: Of course I will. But we also want to make sure that the American people know that we are committed, the president-elect and I talk about this all the time, that the people who need it most are going to be a priority.

TAPPER: Do you plan to get vaccinated before Inauguration Day, and will you do it in public the way that Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton have suggested they're willing to do?

BIDEN: I'd be happy to do that. When Dr. Fauci says we have a vaccine that is safe, that's the moment I will stand before the public and say, look, part of what has to happen, Jake, and you know as well as I do, people have lost faith in the ability of the vaccine to work. Already the numbers are really staggeringly low, and it matters what a president and vice president do, and so I think that my three predecessors have set the model as to what should be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Vice President-elect Harris also addressed an issue on the minds of so many, reopening schools closed by the pandemic. She says returning children to classrooms safely is a priority for the new administration.

[05:05:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Will the Biden/Harris administration defer to the health experts or the teachers unions when it comes to elementary schools.

HARRIS: Look, honestly, Jake, I think it's a false choice. Both. Both. The public health experts of course must be leaders in this conversation because we're having the conversation because of a public health epidemic, a pandemic.

So they must help inform the decisions but our educators are our educators, they are on the front line, they are most knowledgeable about the educational need of our children, so both have to be participating in that conversation. But let's start from this place.

Everyone wants our kids to go back to school. Every parent wants their kids to go back to school. Every teacher wants to educate those children. Every community benefits from those children getting an education.

So, there is wide consensus about the priority and the goal, and we have to bring everyone together on how we achieve that and the way that is smart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: President-elect Biden says he has asked the nation's top in infectious disease expert to take on a new role to help combat the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Look, my chief of staff has worked with him in the last crisis. He has been talking to him all the time, Ron Klain, I talked to him today. We spoke today, 3:00, my COVID team met with him.

I asked him to stay on in the exact same role he has had for the past several presidents and asked him to be a chief medical adviser as well and be part of the COVID team, and so what has to be done is we have to make it clear to the American people that the vaccine is safe when it occurs, when that is determined, and number two, you have to make sure as he points out, you don't have to close down the economy like a lot of folks are talking about now, if, in fact, you have clear guidance. (END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Christine, you know, one take away watching all of this, you really -- you really get the sense of just how normal this incoming administration is and how they really wanted to have a policy discussion. There wasn't, you know, long sort of soliloquies of personal grievances, there was a discussion about what the American people can expect and how they're going to tackle this virus.

ROMANS: And leading by example. I mean, that has been something the presidents have long done, and it is the president and vice president can lead by example, they're going to ask the public of 100 days of mask wearing, they wore a mask. They are going to get the vaccine to show the American people it's good for public health to get the vaccine.

Leading by example, again, I think is notable here.

JARRETT: Yeah, very notable.

Well, CNN has also learned that Jeff Zients is the choice to be the White House coronavirus coordinator. The announcement is expected in the coming days. Zients was a top academic adviser under President Obama and co-chair of Biden's transition team. He was widely expected to get that appointment.

ROMANS: All right. Talks on Capitol Hill are heating up as lawmakers move closer to a new stimulus package to help millions of struggling Americans. The focus, a $908 billion bipartisan deal pushed earlier this week.

Now, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, they spoke Thursday for the first time since the election. McConnell appeared optimistic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: Compromise is within reach. We know where we agree. We can do this.

Let me say it again. We can do this. And we need to do this. So let's be about actually making a law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Compromise, yes, but McConnell hasn't said how high he's willing to go on the price tag, and what elements of the bipartisan proposal he's willing to embrace.

And there are major sticking points, including liability protections for businesses, and funding for state and local governments. President-elect Joe Biden said Thursday the bipartisan deal would be just a start.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BIDEN: That would be a good start. It's not enough. They should focus on the things that are immediately needed. And what's immediately needed is relief for people and their unemployment checks, relief for people that are going to get thrown out of their apartments after Christmas because they can't afford to pay the rent anymore, relief on mortgage payments, relief on all the things that are in the original bill the House passed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The bipartisan group plans to reveal more details of their plan next week. But, Laura, it's very clear. The American public is standing on the edge of a cliff here -- a public health cliff, but a financial cliff here. You have millions of people who are going to lose their jobless benefits if something isn't done. An extension of some of these programs, it's almost an IQ test for Congress. They have got to just get something done quickly.

JARRETT: And the clock is ticking on that, right?

ROMANS: Yeah.

JARRETT: All right. Still ahead for you, incoming President Joe Biden says his Justice Department won't really be his. You'll hear from him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:14:10]

JARRETT: In CNN's exclusive interview with the incoming president and vice president, Jake Tapper raised the issue of pardons in the final weeks of the Trump presidency. CNN is reporting that President Trump has been discussing preemptive pardons for three of his children, his son-in-law, and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Here's how Biden and Harris responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Does this concern you? All these preemptive pardons?

BIDEN: Well, it concerns me in terms of what kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world looks at us as a nation of laws and justice.

But, look, our Justice Department is going to operate independently on those issues that -- how to respond to any of that.

[05:15:01]

I'm not going to be telling them what they have to do and don't have to do. I'm not going to be saying go prosecute A, B or C. I'm not going to be telling them.

That's not the role -- it's not my Justice Department. It's the people's Justice Department.

TAPPER: During the primary last year, Madam Vice President-elect, you told NPR that the Justice Department, quote, would have no choice but to prosecute President Trump and there has to be accountability.

How does that square with what the president-elect has said about not telling the Justice Department to go after individuals?

HARRIS: We will not tell the Justice Department how to do its job, and we are going to assume, and I say this as a former attorney general, elected in California and I ran the second largest Department of Justice in the United States, that any decision coming out of the justice department in particular, the United States Department of Justice, should be based on facts, it should be based on the law. It should not be influenced by politics period.

BIDEN: I guarantee you, that's how it will be run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Well, President Trump is considering preemptively pardoning members of his own family. President-elect Biden made a promise about the standards for his family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Will your brothers, will your son take leave from any business interest, not just foreign, but any business interests, that might crazy any, even appearance of impropriety?

BIDEN: My son, my family, will not be involved in any business, any enterprise, that is in conflict with or appears to be in conflict with an appropriate distance from the presidency and government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: So Vice President-elect Harris mentioned the importance of not telling the Justice Department how to do it job, something the current president does regularly.

A source tells CNN President Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr had a contentious meeting at the White House this week, it came after Barr said in an interview the Justice Department has found no evidence of fraud that would change the election outcome. Sources say Barr's comments caused the president to erupt.

But with reporters on Thursday, the president as he does so often thought it was more helpful to offer a cliffhanger on Barr's status.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Do you still have confidence in Bill Barr?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ask me that in a number of weeks from now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: To be clear, in less than seven weeks from now, both Trump and Barr will be out of a job. The strains on their relationship clear now as CNN has always learned the official serving as Trump's eyes and ears in the Justice Department was banned from the building. A source tells CNN she was trying to push staffers to give up potential information about election fraud.

ROMANS: All right. President Trump's political operation has raised $270 million since Election Day, and his supporters are still being inundated with fundraising appeals while he refuses to concede an election he lost. Now, a lot of the money appears to be flowing into the Trump campaign coffers and the Republican National Committee, but some of the cash is earmarked for a leadership PAC President Trump established after the election that could help fuel his political ambitions in the future.

JARRETT: In another tacit sign the president's days in office are numbered, the White House communications director Alyssa Farah has resigned. Alyssa Farah in a statement says she's leaving to pursue new opportunities. She rejoined the Trump communications team in April heading up public messaging for the coronavirus task force. Farah also served in the administration as press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence and later for the Pentagon.

ROMANS: All right. One NFL coach says he worried about coronavirus taking a toll of a different kind on his players. The "Bleacher Report" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:23:10]

ROMANS: All right. The San Francisco 49ers are calling Arizona home for the next three weeks, and their coach is concerned about their players' mental health.

Coy Wire has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report".

The many ways COVID is affecting us here.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, no doubt.

Good morning to you, Christine.

The 49ers had to relocate to Arizona after Santa Clara County, where the team normally plays its home games, banned contact sports for three weeks due to coronavirus concerns. Many members of the team didn't find out about the decision until they landed in L.A. for Sunday's game against the Rams.

And head coach Kyle Shanahan said it's all the team could talk about before, during and after the game. So, when practices began in Arizona yesterday, Shanahan urged his team to express their feelings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KYLE SHANAHAN, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS HEAD COACH: I just tried to tell everyone no matter what, when someone has a problem, whatever it is, there's no problem too big or too small, and a lot of guys keep that stuff internally. I met with a bunch of the players, grabbed about 20 of them, and told them to look out for that stuff, and make sure whether they come to me, a position coach. We have lots of people here who aren't coaches that can help people.

So, it's just understanding that it's human nature. Some stuff is going to come up over the next three weeks and no one ignore it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: The 9ers will play the next two home games in Arizona Monday night against the Bills. The ban will be lifted on December 21st just before Christmas.

Let's go to college football now, where two more games have been postponed or cancelled, bringing the total to 12 games being impacted this weekend.

Also, two of college football's biggest bowl games announcing they will not be allowing fans when they kick off next month. The rose bowl in Pasadena, California, set to host one of the playoff semifinals, requested an exemption to allow a limited number of fans, but was denied due to state and county guidelines.

And the Fiesta Bowl, in Grande, Arizona, will only allow immediate family members to attend.

[05:25:03]

As of now, the Sugar Bowl, the Orange Bowl, and a national championship game still playing to allow a limited number of fans.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban will be back on the sidelines Saturday night for the tide's match up in Baton Rouge with LSU. He tested positive for COVID-19 last Tuesday, missing his team's win over Auburn in the Iron Bowl. Saban is 69 years old. He says he feels 100 percent and is ready to go.

Some sports books have Alabama favored by as many as 30 points over the defending national champions.

Finally, President Trump awarding legendary name coach and college football Hall of Famer, Lou Holz, the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House yesterday. Holtz led Notre Dame to the national championship in 1988. He's been a vocal supporter of president Trump. At the ceremony, he called Trump the greatest president of his lifetime. The president has given several sports figures the Medal of Freedom, Laura, since taking office, many of them supporters.

Former NFL star and Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Allen Page, former Yankees pitcher, Mariano Rivera, and Tiger Woods have also received the honor today in this field.

JARRETT: All right. Coy, thanks so much. Have a great weekend. Appreciate it.

WIRE: You too.

JARRETT: President-elect Joe Biden just revealed what Republican senators are saying to him in private. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)