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New Day

Britain Gives First Doses of Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine; Biden to Nominate Retired General Lloyd Austin as Defense Secretary; Trump Ignores Deadly Pandemic, Still Trying to Overturn Election Results. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 08, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: For the undefeated Miami Dolphins, the '72 Dolphins. Miami has got Miami Vice and the '72 Dolphins. Still, what else? I don't know, but they have that. Andy Scholes, thank you very much.

New Day continues right now.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is New Day.

And breaking just a short time ago, a milestone in the coronavirus pandemic, the first authorized vaccine in arms. Britain began administering the Pfizer vaccine. A 90-year-old woman, Maggie Keenan, there she is, and there that shot goes.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: She's brave.

BERMAN: She really is. She looks like she's enjoying, the first to get the vaccine this morning.

Back here in the United States, the FDA will consider emergency approval of that same vaccine on Thursday. If that approval is granted, Americans could receive the vaccine within days. But states say they are not going to get enough doses to fully vaccinate their top priority recipients.

And The New York Times reports this morning that the Trump administration turned down an offer from Pfizer to buy more doses, a report the administration disputes.

CAMEROTA (voice over): This morning, 102,000 Americans are in the hospital with coronavirus. That is a record high. And an average of 2,200 people are dying every single day. For all that death and suffering, President Trump appears single-mindedly focused on trying to overturn the election and undermine democracy.

CNN has confirmed that over the past week, President Trump made multiple calls to the speaker of the House in Pennsylvania about their election results. No calls reportedly to the thousands of families of coronavirus victims.

And breaking overnight, CNN confirms that President-elect Joe Biden will announce the nomination of retired Army General Lloyd Austin to be his secretary of defense as soon as today.

But let's start with those vaccinations. Max Foster is live in Wales with our top story. Max, what happened there today?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: So far so good, Alisyn, it seems. All the systems appear to be working so far from what we've seen. I was allowed into a vaccination center in Cardiff earlier. I can't see exactly where it was. They're keeping the locations in Wales at least secret because they don't want people turning up ad hoc queuing up to try to get the vaccines.

As I went in there, I saw frontline health workers being vaccinated. They're being prioritized here. Whereas over the border in England, first on the list were over 80s, you mentioned one of them, Maggie, she's, in fact, 90. She's the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer vaccine outside a trial. And she had a resounding message as well for the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGGIE KEENAN, FIRST PERSON TO RECEIVE CORONAVIRUS VACCINATION: I say go for it. Go for it, because it's free and it's the best thing that's ever happened. So do, please, go for it. That's all I can say, you know? If I can do it, so can you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Second to receive the vaccine was a gentleman called William Shakespeare, which you believe. Well, William Shakespeare would have had his name written on a card like that this. It was shown he's been vaccinated. It also shows that he has another one, another dose coming up in three weeks' time.

I'm showing you this because there's a bit of debate about them. Is it actually immunization passport, a slippery slope, some would call it, government is saying it's simply another appointment card.

A few things that we've learned today whilst this hub system of hospitals appears to be working, it's going to be much tougher when they try to take the vaccine out into doctor's offices and to care homes because of the temperature the vaccine has to be held at, because it has to be held in batches of a thousand without being broken up.

But also I learned today, it doesn't come ready-made. It has to be mixed on site. So where I was, they had to have a team of pharmacists on site. A huge operation unfolding here and we're learning a lot of lessons so far.

CAMEROTA: Max, to be vaccinated or not to be, that is the question I feel today.

FOSTER: What's in a name, Alisyn. What's in a name?

CAMEROTA: Yes. Sorry, Max, you have to endure all of this.

BERMAN: Well, William Shakespeare is the second person to get it. Like Sherlock Holmes and James Bond are next in line.

[07:05:00]

CAMEROTA: I know. I can do this all day. We can quote him some relevant quote we can find from Shakespeare all day long.

BERMAN: Joining us now, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, great to see you this morning. Even better great to see these vaccines going in arms in Britain. Just talk about the significance of this, the first authorized vaccine going into an arm in a western nation, ten months, right, after this pandemic broke out. What does it mean and what are you looking for over there?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think that at the beginning when we started hearing about the vaccine development, the idea that it could happen this quickly, I think, I don't think anyone really believed that. I mean, the fastest that had ever happened before this took years, four or five years, versus months like this. So it's extraordinary to actually watch this, obviously, a culmination, and we're celebrating, I think, for people obviously over there.

But we're going to see that this week probably a vaccine get authorized in this country as well. It's looking promising. Obviously, it's already gone through this regulatory process. And I think it's critically important. It's, at the same time, you know, we have this dissidence because that's wonderful, but we also have a real crisis that we're still in the middle of, and that the vaccine, as good as it is, is going to take time to roll out and have an impact.

So that's sort of the idea, you know, I think, that a lot of people are sort of grappling with this morning. And also now at hospitals, states, places all over the country, figuring out if this vaccine does get authorized, and, again, that looks likely, what are the next several days after that going to look like? How is this vaccine going to be distributed and all that?

One thing I want to point out just quickly, if we can show this graphic. Earlier in the summer, actually in the spring even, Operation Warp Speed started making bets on all sorts of different vaccines. The Pfizer one, the one that Max Foster was just talking about, 100 million doses, essentially, they purchased. But they made bets on all these other vaccines. AstraZeneca, 300 million doses, Novavax, those trials are still ongoing, the same with Johnson & Johnson, and the Moderna, we likely will have before the end of the year.

But I just want to give you some idea of how things are likely to play out. We don't know for certain whether any of those other vaccines will get any kind of authorization, but Johnson & Johnson, A.Z., for example, are in phase three clinical trials. I talked to the head of Operation Warp Speed last week and he told that possibly by the end of January you may have emergency use authorization for those two as well.

So just doing a little bit of a math here, looking forward, that's sort of what we're seeing. CAMEROTA: Sanjay, that graph is so helpful because, this morning, The New York Times has reporting that the Trump administration passed when asked by Pfizer, do you want more than 100 million doses, they passed. But your graphic helps us understand that they were hedging their bets, and -- I mean, I assume.

GUPTA: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And they were betting on all of these. They didn't know which one would come through or which one would be safest soonest.

GUPTA: Right.

CAMEROTA: And so that makes more sense than them just saying like, no thanks, we won't need anymore.

GUPTA: Yes, I think that's right. I mean, and, again, I talked to Moncef Slaoui a bit about this last week. One of the things I think that's important to remember is that Moderna, for example, which we've heard a lot about over the years, they never had a vaccine come to possible authorization. So if you sort of back up and you say back in the spring, there was a lot of promise, a lot of hope around this.

Don't get me wrong, but if you had to start placing bets, where would you place those bets? Remember, we were hearing a lot about AstraZeneca initially. They had a few hiccups because they had a safety trial. They had a trial participant that had safety concerns in the U.K. There was another one in Brazil. That slowed things down. They may have been further ahead in the game.

Johnson & Johnson, their subsidiary, they are a well-known, obviously, you know, maker of all sorts of different therapeutics. So there was a lot of bet on them as well. They're proceeding. I've talked to the folks over there, I think, middle or end of January we're likely to start seeing or hearing at least about some phase three trial results.

So, fingers crossed, there will be many vaccine candidates, three or four at least, I think, within the next few months.

BERMAN: And maybe questions about whether or not the administration should have been negotiating with these companies to figure out a way to scale up if and when these vaccines provided success, scale up in a faster way, those are the types of questions, I think, that are legitimate to ask.

Sanjay, speaking of questions that should be asked and should not asked, and things that should be focused on and not, the Senate today -- this is on the eve of the FDA considering emergency use authorization for vaccines. This is days before millions of Americans may get the chance to receive this vaccine, they're holding a hearing today, the Senate is.

And one of the invited guests is a doctor who has really questioned the utility of vaccines and is spending much more time now focused on hydroxychloroquine, of all things, which we have not talked about in months, for good reason, Sanjay, because the studies have shown that it is not effective.

[07:10:13]

So, Ron Johnson, the senior Republican on this committee holding the hearing, making this decision, what's your take?

GUPTA: Well, there's a couple things. I think the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, this is the organization that Dr. Jane Orient, who you're referring to, represents. That sounds like a great name for an organization.

I learned, as I was reporting it years ago that you can really name your organization anything you want. I mean, American Association of Physicians and Surgeons doesn't mean anything at all, really. It's not the American Medical Association or one of these organizations that represents most physicians. I think it's a few thousand, number one.

Number two is I'm not so surprised that that organization exists. I'm surprised, I guess, by what you're surprised by, which is that they're given this sort of platform, especially at this time, especially in the throes of this pandemic, when we talked about hydroxychloroquine, something that people say, hey, look, that's worth exploring several months ago, and it was explored. And the studies were done. And they didn't bare any fruit. I wish they had, like everybody else, but they didn't. In fact, there were some studies showing that it could make people worse off. Why? Because when you have COVID-19 and you give certain substances, in this case, hydroxychloroquine, it could actually worsen their prognosis.

So, it's really disappointed. I wrote an essay over the weekend where I basically said, look, no amount of science can rescue us. We talk about the vaccines and all these therapeutics, and they are wonderful and we're celebrating. But no amount of science can rescue us if we continue to have this sort of backwards-looking anti-science approach to things. And as a result, we also don't engage in good healthy behaviors.

I mean, it still boggles my mind that if you start tracking numbers in the United States and accounting for population differences and stuff like that, we're basically tracking what happened in 1918. It was 100 years ago. And human behavior is such a powerful force on ultimately what happens, how many people get hospitalized, how many people die in the middle of these pandemics, that hasn't changed, it seems, at least in this country. So I thought it was really disappointing that that's where we're spending time, especially given all the work that still needs to be done over the next few months.

BERMAN: John Barry who wrote the book on The Great Influenza found that some of the biggest failings were not in science, they were in leadership and honesty. That's where the biggest failings were in the 1918 flu, and look at where we are today with the same thing. Sanjay, thanks so much for being with us, much more to talk with you about next hour.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Also breaking overnight, sources tell CNN that President-elect Joe Biden will nominate retired Army General Lloyd Austin as his defense secretary. If confirmed, General Austin would be the first black Pentagon chief.

CNN's Jessica Dean is live in Wilmington, Delaware, for us with more. Jessica, what have you learned?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning to you, Alisyn. We are learning that President-elect Joe Biden will tap former Army -- retired Army General Lloyd Austin to be his secretary of defense. Austin was commander of Central Command formerly. And if he is confirmed by the Senate, he would be the first black man to serve in that role.

Now, he is also going to need a congressional waiver to serve in this role. He has been retired for four years, federal law mandates you need to be out for seven years to serve in this role. Those waivers are rare, but they did give one to James Mattis during the Trump administration. So the Senate is going to have to work through that.

But we are told that Biden reached out with this job offer over the weekend, that Austin did accept that offer, and that when it really came down to it, this was about Biden's comfort level with Austin and really knowing him, feeling comfortable with him, having worked with him before. This is something we have seen with a lot of President- elect Biden's picks leading up to now, that it really comes down to his relationship with them and that has been certainly the sense here.

Now, we are expecting Austin to be formerly announced sometime later today. And we're getting indications that things are really picking up. We're also expecting some economic announcements by tomorrow, likely a U.S. trade representative and commerce and some more cabinet -- some more domestic cabinet picks later this week likely on Friday.

We're told the position of attorney general is likely the earliest coming next week, but nothing on that this week as of now. And don't forget, Biden and Kamala Harris announcing key members of their health team here in Wilmington later today. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Thank you. Very much for that preview, Jessica.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus crisis spiraling out of control and President Trump and his Republican allies continue trying to overturn the election.

[07:15:03]

How?

And what's happening with Rudy Giuliani this morning? Maggie Haberman joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I thought we're going to easily win. And then maybe for the first time in a long time, I'd go take a nice little vacation for about two days and then we'd go back. And, instead, I probably worked harder in the last three weeks than I ever worked in my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Telling. President Trump this weekend touting all the work he's doing trying to overturn the election. Overnight, CNN confirmed that Mr. Trump made multiple calls to Pennsylvania's speaker of the House about their election results. Why would he do that?

Joining us now, CNN Political Analyst Maggie Haberman, she's a White House Correspondent for The New York Times. Good morning, Maggie.

Can you hear Maggie?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Can you hear me?

CAMEROTA: Yes, now we can.

So, Maggie, I assume President Trump isn't interested in the internal workings of Pennsylvania politics.

[07:20:00]

He made multiple calls to the speaker of the House. Why? What was he trying to do?

HABERMAN: He's continuing down his path, Alisyn, as you know, of trying to overturn the results of the election. He is to basically get -- not basically. He's trying to get states to overthrow the will of the people, overthrow the vote of the people and appoint electors, find some way through special legislative sessions to appoint electors next week who will be loyal to the president. That is not what any of these states plan to do.

But it is telling that he is keeping this up and there are two reasons why. One is that he has convinced himself he's right and that this really was somehow taken from him. And he sees a benefit in it, which is to continue fundraising off of this, continuing to try to tell people that they are contributing to a huge cause. He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars since the election by saying to people this election was rigged. And, so far, he's paid very negligible of any price with his own voters. So that's why he's doing this. And he's going to continue to do this even after next week when electors are chosen.

BERMAN: It's coming at a cost to the American people though as 2,200 people are dying every day from coronavirus and the president exhibited no focus or no interest in working on that in public. I'm not even talking about the vaccine. I'm talking about there a lot of people dying. Wear a mask. Don't meet in a room without wearing a mask, a small indoor room, as the president did yesterday at the White House.

And as you say, he's not making a secret of the fact he's trying to undermine democracy, the will of the people, in public. I mean, he is saying this stuff out loud and he is getting the support -- I'm sorry, Maggie? HABERMAN: No, I was going to say, John, you're correct. And in addition to not focusing on the hundreds of thousands of people who died, he is eroding confidence in the electoral process broadly with the public when he does this. This is coming at a cost not just to people who are concerned about the pandemic. This is coming at a cost to people who are concerned about seeing Joe Biden as the incoming president and how elections are conducted going forward that it's dangerous what he's doing.

BERMAN: And he's got people like Ted Cruz and Jim Jordan carrying his water. And I don't even know, frankly, Maggie, what to make of what I'm about to show you here, which is Lou Dobbs and Stephen Miller, a White House aide. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOU DOBBS, FOX NEWS HOST: The president warns for months and months and months about mail-in ballots and the potential for fraud, and the Republicans do nothing, Stephen, nothing. What the hell is wrong? What is wrong with the Republican Party?

STEPHEN MILLER, TRUMP WHITE HOUSE SENIOR POLICY ADVISER: Where is the outrage, really? Tens of millions -- tens of millions of ballots --

DOBBS: Where the hell are the Republicans, Stephen? Where the hell are the Republicans?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I mean, I would laugh if democracy wasn't at stake here, Maggie. I mean, this is Lou Dobbs fanning the flames here, saying that the Republicans were largely standing by while the president tries to overturn the election that they're not doing more to help.

HABERMAN: Not doing more to help in his words, and you can see Stephen Miller trying to realign (ph) the question by saying, yes, yes, it's so unfair and not really responding, which actually, John, tells you a good bit about where a number of the president's aides are, which is that they are going to parrot his line in public, and a number of them in private with other people make clear they don't think there's a lot there.

Lou Dobbs, as you observe, is a feedback loop with this president. He repeats what the president says and sometimes the president says things, you know, directed at Lou Dobbs, that he then parrots. This has entered the conservative media ecosystem and it is continuing -- again, I don't expect it to stop. But the one thing that people who -- and I get emails from readers saying how can you say there's no evidence of fraud. And what I say is Rudy Giuliani says he has evidence of fraud and he has not entered that evidence in courtrooms. And that is where there are penalties for lying and that should raise questions for people.

CAMEROTA: Maggie, let's talk about Rudy Giuliani. The reporting that I've read is that he is positive with coronavirus but suffering mild symptoms. So why is he using the precious resources of a hospital? Why would he go to a hospital if he is only suffering mild symptoms?

HABERMAN: My understanding, Alisyn, is that he started feeling sick at least as far back as Friday, possibly before that. And he just wasn't paying attention. He had told people he felt run down. He went to the hospital on Sunday. His symptoms were clearly significant enough that he went into the hospital. And some doctors were telling him that he needed to go to a hospital. My understanding is he's been treated with Remdesivir and that he is better, he is doing better.

And this is not simply that they -- something they are downplaying. But we will see. We'll see if he gets out of the hospital this week. We'll see how long he is there, if he is there much beyond this week. He has said very little about his condition. There have been other people who have been sick with coronavirus around the president who also said very little.

The difference is Rudy Giuliani was flying all over the country potentially exposing a lot of people in different states, as he was engaging in this effort to undo the results of the election, that raises a different level of responsibility about being forthcoming about your treatment and about the severity of your case.

[07:25:15]

CAMEROTA (voice over): Yes. I mean, my question was if he had severe symptoms, then, by all means, he should go to the hospital. I guess I was wondering if he had mild symptoms and because he's a pal of the president, he was able to get Remdesivir, which, you know, hundreds of thousands of Americans don't have access to until they can't really breathe.

HABERMAN: I think that Remdesivir is a little more available than some of the other medicines because it has been in broader use over the last couple months. And I think it received emergency use authorization for this purpose before, say, the antibody cocktails. But you're absolutely right, there's a lot of questions we don't know -- don't have answers to yet about whether Giuliani did have access to something that other people wouldn't. We're going to be asking these questions, Alisyn, about people who are around the president and got sick and got treated for quite some time.

BERMAN: Yes, they're fair questions, right? I mean, we're talking about equity of treatment here. It's absolutely the right question to be asking.

Maggie, thanks so much for being with us this morning. I appreciate it.

HABERMAN: Thanks, guys.

BERMAN: President-elect Joe Biden intends to make history by nominating retired General Lloyd Austin to be defense secretary. We will speak with someone who graduated Westpoint with him and has served with him overseas, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:30:00]