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Trump's Baseless Fraud Claims Dominate Georgia Senate Debate; Dems Push To Investigate Trump Won't Stop When He Leaves Office; New York City Reopens Elementary Schools As Pandemic Worsens; New Jersey Sets New Record For Cases As Pandemic Rages. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired December 07, 2020 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And you see it playing out in these two critical races that will determine the majority control of the Senate and have huge implications for the incoming administration's agenda.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, a president who's also, you know, trying to exert that power over the Governor in Georgia, Governor Kemp. And I noticed in your story about how Kemp said he would not be calling a special session. You tweeted, Greg, this is a story I shouldn't have to write, and yet you did.

GREG BLUESTEIN, POLITICAL REPORTER, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Yes, you shouldn't have to write it because it's illegal. It's illegal to call a special session to overturn the will of the Georgia voters. And that's what Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan just said. He said the law does not allow the Republican controlled legislature to impose its own will on this election process.

But if you want to window into why the Senator -- Senator Loeffler didn't answer those questions that I asked and moderator, Russ Spencer asked yesterday is President Trump's twitter feed, he called Geoff Duncan -- after Geoff Duncan went on CNN yesterday to say something similar -- he called Geoff Duncan a puppet and also again, call that Governor Brian Kemp for not demanding the special session. So, these two senators can't afford to alienate President Trump, because that alienates at least a decent chunk of the Republican electorate here in Georgia.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: No, I thought it was really interesting to with Geoff Duncan just told me, Seung Min, is it's not just against the law. The law doesn't provide any avenue for a special session in Georgia right now. But he also said it's just the wrong idea. The sentiment itself is wrong to throw out the will of the people there, to throw out a vote that was counted, audited, recounted now, and it showed the same results every time basically.

KIM: Right. I mean, I think the Lieutenant Governor did an excellent job detailing in a clear fashion, just the rigorous process by Georgia state officials went through to ensure that those votes were correct and to arrive at the result that we're seeing now that Joe Biden won that state by about 12,000 votes, and that this was a five-week process.

Election officials worked hard to make sure those results were accurate. He has a public official who's trying to restore and keep the, you know, the voters, faith and integrity or the voters faith and the integrity of the system. But yet you have the President going out there.

I mean, this was a message that we knew that the President was going to give on Saturday night at his rally in Valdosta, where he continued to make these false claims against the system and continued to cast doubt on what was a fully functioning election process.

And, again, like we mentioned earlier, I mean, this is the same system that now Republican candidates are asking Georgia voters to have faith in. And that's certainly a problem for Republicans and also certainly a problem when you have a leader of the free world, the President of the United States asking for -- in this particular state, in Georgia, to essentially throw out 2.5 million people's votes. I mean, that is not, you know -- that's just wrong on its face.

BERMAN: Seung Min, thanks so much for being with us this morning. Greg, terrific work in the debate last night. The whole country was watching. It was really very interesting. You did a great job. We appreciate it.

BLUESTEIN: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. President Trump leaves the White House in 44 days but congressional investigations into his presidency may continue beyond that. We have brand new CNN reporting next.

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[07:37:18]

HILL: We are just 44 days away now from President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. A new CNN reporting this morning on what Democrats in Congress plan to do when it comes to investigating President Trump after he leaves office. CNN's Lauren Fox is live this morning on Capitol Hill with more for us. Lauren, good morning.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Good morning, Erica. That's right. Democrats have a tough balancing act ahead when it comes to some of these investigations that they started pursuing back in 2019.

Remember, they were looking at every aspect of the President's administration, whether it was his immigration policies, or his personal finances. And in interviews with aides and committee chairman, my colleague Jeremy Herb and I have learned that essentially Democrats are going to continue pursuing some of these investigations.

And I want to look back on a couple of the important ones that they plan to keep pursuing. A lot of them are wrapped up in court, one of them in particular that fight over President Donald Trump's tax returns. Remember, there was a request in 2019 for the President's tax returns, the Treasury Department refused. They went and had a subpoena. They are now tied up in court.

And I talked to a House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, he told me that he continues to pursue that case, and he expects it could go as far as the Supreme Court. There are other areas where Democrats are still fighting in court for some of these documents. And they're not going to drop that, despite the fact that President-elect Joe Biden is making it very clear. He wants some of these committees to be focusing on a robust legislative agenda, everything from COVID relief to infrastructure.

So, that's going to be taking some of the committee's time and it's going to be part of the discussion Democrats are going to be having with their leadership over what other areas that are not wrapped up in court, they may have to continue pursuing. And I've been told from multiple lawmakers on the Democratic side and aides that they're essentially looking at anything that they could make legislative changes to. One example is security clearances.

If you remember the House Oversight Committee was pursuing whether or not the Trump administration followed the correct protocols when it came to some of those security clearances that were administered. There are going to be questions about whether or not they need to keep pursuing that investigation to get answers that they never receive from the Trump administration to ensure that there aren't further or future abuses.

Of course, the biggest question, does President Trump run again in 2024? And does that change the calculus of what House Democrats do on Capitol Hill when it comes to some of these investigations, John?

BERMAN: Really interesting reporting. Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill, thanks so much for that.

Thousands of New York City school elementary students are heading back to the classroom for the first time in weeks today. We have a live update next.

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[07:44:18]

BERMAN: This morning, the largest school system in the U.S. reopens classrooms for elementary school students. This, as the pandemic is getting worse. CNN's Bianna Golodryga live at a school here in New York City with a look at what's going to happen in the next 45 minutes, Bianna.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: And it's starting to look like normal, John. It's a bit early, the school behind me will begin to open in the next hour and you see a school bus just pulled up. But you're right, this is going to impact 190,000 New York students, that's just a fraction of the 1.1 million public school students here in the city of New York. But why is this important? We know that distance learning, online learning has been the most difficult for kindergarten and elementary school students. We also know that the rate of transmission among that age group has been relatively low which is why elementary school is reopening this week and it's going to be here for good.

[07:45:08]

Gone is going to be that 3 percent threshold and arbitrary threshold that the mayor had put into place, as he had worked with the teachers and principals unions to get them on board as well. This new plan will require weekly testing for students continued mitigation, mask wearing, distance as well. But they're going to keep schools open regardless of where that positivity rate is. In the city, it's 4 percent right now.

But keep in mind when schools closed, John, it was just a 2.8 percent. And there was a lot of frustration among parents, why did you close schools, and you open bars, why are restaurants still open and gyms still open and the schools are closed. This is a big struggle for parents, especially those trying to navigate work and online learning.

If you look at the demographics of the students who went to school, before it closed, you had 43 percent of Hispanic, 25 percent white and 17 percent African Americans. So you see a real diverse group of students needing to go back to school. And Erica, I don't know about you, I'm sure you're in the same boat. I will never take school for granted again, as a parent.

HILL: Certainly not. There is a reason that teachers go to school for such a long time to become teachers. It's because it's not an easy job --

GOLODRYGA: Exactly.

HILL: -- at any day and certainly not remotely. Bianna, thank you.

We do want to remember some of the more than 282,000 American lives lost to coronavirus. Brenda Grant drove a school bus in Midwest City, Oklahoma for 22 years. Known for her wit, a feisty personality and a kind heart. Friends also called her an inspiration for continuing to drive even as she was going through earlier cancer treatments and surgeries. CNN Affiliate KFOR reports she survived by three children and her husband of 30 years.

Baltimore math teacher Antwion Ball's dream was to teach in New York City and it was a dream he was just about to achieve. But just as Ball was getting ready to move, he fell ill and ultimately died of coronavirus. He was just 43 years old.

In Georgia, a sad ending to a beautiful, long love story. 70-year-old Gail Bowen die just hours after her husband Willard. A 50-year marriage. They first started dating high school. Their daughter told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution her mother just wasn't going to live without daddy. We'll be right back.

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[07:51:46]

HILL: New Jersey setting another record for new cases in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic that most cases reported in a day. Well, that just happened yesterday on Sunday, more than 6,000 positive tests and 16 new deaths in the state.

Joining me now, New Jersey's Governor Phil Murphy. Governor, good to see you again this morning. Obviously, I know that is not a number that you want to see. Certainly not the highest yet of the pandemic. I guess the one upside here is that your hospitalizations don't seem to be pushing the limits quite as much, but they're still concerning your state.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): No question, Erica. I mean, the number of positive cases, as you suggest over 6,000 yesterday, over 5,300 three days in a row. Those are all records. And you're right, the good news in the midst of this awful pandemic is our hospitalizations are up. But they're not climbing at the same rate as cases, and they're not nearly where they were in the spring.

The only caveat to that is they will -- that typically trails positive cases. So, we're going to be looking very carefully at that number a week or two from now. You know, we're still in the thick of it. There's just no doubt about it. There's light at the end of the tunnel. But the next couple of months are going to be really tough.

HILL: And when you look at the states around you, I know a lot of decisions have been made in concert with the governors of New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania. But with a map, we can put up, if we look at the positivity rate over the past week in Pennsylvania, we're talking 36 percent, you're at 10 percent in New Jersey, a little bit less. Yes, in New York and Connecticut. How concerned are you about that positivity rate in Pennsylvania spilling over into New Jersey?

MURPHY: Listen, I think we should all be concerned about number of cases and positivity rates anywhere. I mean, ours is way too high for our case. We're the densest state in the nation, which most days is a good thing that allows us to do a lot of things with our economy and with our society. But when you get a pandemic, it spreads like wildfire and we're seeing that right now.

Our neighbors have been extraordinarily good to work with from day one. Governor Wolf, Governor Cuomo, Lamont, Carney, the whole team, we've been blessed by a great neighborhood. But we're all up against it right now. There's just no two ways about it.

HILL: You have now -- you're now limiting outdoor gatherings to 25 people. Not too long ago, they were capped at 150 people, which felt like a lot. Bringing that number down. How much do you think that will start to impact the spread?

MURPHY: Erica, we'll help on the margin. We actually had been at 500 a few weeks ago. Here's the problem. And it's this, it's the weather's colder. All the things that we were doing outdoors three months ago, we're now largely doing indoors. And there's a lot of pandemic fatigue. And that combination when you add to that holiday season is lethal.

So we wanted to bring the outdoor number down. We're much more focused I have to say on the inside. Our maximum gathering number on the inside is 10 people. And, by the way, a lot of the transmission is in private settings. So, no matter how much enforcement we have, we can't get into every living room. So we got to plead with people. Keep your guard up.

[07:55:02]

We're only here a few months away from vaccines available to the broad society. We just got to stay strong right now.

HILL: We see the numbers out of California and they are troubling on a number of reasons, but also people looking at these new stay at home orders in certain regions. What's closed, what's open, can be a little confusing to people. Waking up this morning in New Jersey, I'm sure you're watching what's happening in California. Do you envision more strict measures and restrictions coming into place, including some of what we're seeing right now west?

MURPHY: You have to leave every option on the table, Erica. I can't say no to any alternative, but I don't see it at the moment. We also are very different from California in that, we don't have the landmass, we don't have a fraction of the landmass.

As I mentioned a minute ago, we're the densest state in America. We've got communities one on top of each other. So, when we take steps, they are overwhelmingly taken at the state level. And that's where -- that's the way it'll continue to be.

If we see transmission, we will try to surgically strike as best we can. We had restaurants late at night turning into sort of basically clubs. And so we said no more indoor dining after 10:00 p.m. Those are the types of steps we'll take. We'll leave everything on the table. But at the moment, that's where we are.

HILL: I want to take a quickly on two more points before I let you go. Everyone really hoping for some sort of stimulus relief this week. Are you confident that there will be a bill passed?

MURPHY: I sure hope so, Erica. It is well pass to folks who were unemployed, small businesses, restaurants, state and local budgets to keep folks employed and delivering services. I hope we get something we needed.

HILL: They are hoping for it as a lot of Americans are. And lastly, I'd just like to get your take on the Biden-Harris administration, announcing their health team this morning, nominations and appointments. What do you make of this roster, and what do you think will change come January 20th?

MURPHY: Yes. Listen, it's a -- I think it's an incredibly strong team. I spoke to the President-elect on Saturday night as a general matter, not about these names. But that's a first rate team. I'll pick Vivek out as a specific example. He's been there privately giving us advice from day one. He's the real deal.

That whole team exudes professionalism. Exactly the team we need on the field right now.

HILL: Do you anticipate more of a national plan coming from this team?

MURPHY: I do. I do. I think you'll see -- again, I have to say this, the Trump administration in our hour of need, we have consistently been able to find common ground, and we will be forever grateful for that. But at the same time, it's been a patchwork quilt of approaches to this, some of which is warranted, most of which is not. We need national mandates, whether it's face coverings, Defense Production Act, doubling down even further on the vaccine distribution.

The development has been huge. Hats off to everybody associated with that. The complexity of the distribution ahead of us cannot be understated or underestimated. The more national we are on this, I think the faster we'll get out of it.

HILL: And I know you're anticipating those first shipments of vaccine, those doses coming to your state in the coming weeks. Governor Phil Murphy always appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

MURPHY: Thanks for having me, Erica.

HILL: Stay with us. Dr. Anthony Fauci joining us next. "New Day" continues right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is "New Day", with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

BERMAN: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is "New Day" Alisyn is off, Erica hill here this morning. Good morning to you.

HILL: Good morning.

BERMAN: We do have some breaking news this morning. President-elect Joe Biden officially rolling out his health team nominating California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Also, Dr. Vivek Murthy is picked for Surgeon General, a role he held at the end of the Obama administration. And Dr. Rochelle Walensky to be the new Director of the Centers for Disease Control. This, obviously, comes at a critical moment in the pandemic.

More than 30 million Californians waking up to new restrictions this morning, where the 28,000 new cases reported in that state overnight.

HILL: Meantime, nationwide, more Americans are now hospitalized with the virus than ever before. And among them, President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who spent the last several weeks traveling the country pushing false election fraud claims often while unmask. BERMAN: Joining us now, Dr. Anthony Fauci. He is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and he was just officially named to be Chief Medical Advisor on COVID to President- elect Joe Biden. Dr. Fauci, thanks so much for being with us this morning.

The President-elect just rolled out his health team and his COVID response team and your name is part of that list. We knew it was coming.