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New Day
President-elect Biden Condemns Trump & GOP Attempts to Overturn Election; Trump Announces Bill Barr's Resignation; First Coronavirus Vaccines Bring Americans Hope. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired December 15, 2020 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Electoral College here in the United States officially voting on Monday to declare Joe Biden the president-elect.
[05:59:19]
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frivolous lawsuits have played out all across this country. The courts have ruled. This election is over.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All across the country, doctors and nurses are rolling up their sleeves to get the first dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like I won a million-dollar lottery getting this vaccine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The development of a COVID-19 vaccine is nothing short of revolutionary.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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 is Tuesday, December 15, 6 a.m. here in New York. And this morning Joe Biden is the president- elect of the United States.
Last week at this time, Joe Biden was president-elect of the United States. Two weeks ago, Joe Biden was president-elect of the United States. I could keep going here. What's different this morning is that the Electoral College met and officially gave its votes to Joe Biden.
What is different this morning is that the president-elect spoke to the American people and said it's time to move on. And after giving the petulant, defeated president space to rant for weeks, Biden had enough and called out Donald Trump by name for his six-week assault on democracy. And what is different this morning is that a number of Republicans are starting to come forward to acknowledge reality and stop lying about the election results.
This morning we're awaiting to see if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joins that list.
Also, we have new reporting this morning about the abrupt resignation of Attorney General William Barr. What drove this loyal soldier who was so willing to bend so many norms and break precedent to finally split from the president? What was the final straw?
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: As for the status of the vaccinations, UPS and FedEx say the bulk of the first batch of Pfizer's vaccines will be delivered today.
Moderna's vaccine will be reviewed later this week by an FDA advisory panel.
But it will still be months before the majority of Americans can get vaccinated, and Dr. Anthony Fauci says Americans will not be able to get rid of their masks until late fall or early winter of next year. Why?
The vaccine rollout, sadly, comes too late for a record 110,000 Americans who are hospitalized with the virus this morning, and, of course, the more than 300,000 Americans now who have died.
But let's start with the president-elect's big night and CNN's Jessica Dean. She's live in Wilmington, Delaware, with our top story.
Good morning, Jessica.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Alisyn.
Well, it feels like President-elect Joe Biden has won this election now multiple times, but with yesterday's meeting of the Electoral College, he is now formally certified as president-elect. And because of that, he took an opportunity to offer his most strongest rebuke yet of President Donald Trump, directly criticizing him and calling him out for his repeated attempts to overturn and delegitimize this election.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BIDEN: The integrity of our elections remains intact. And now it's time to turn the page.
DEAN: President-elect Joe Biden speaking directly to the American people after the Electoral College affirmed his decisive win. Delivering his most direct criticism of President Donald Trump's postelection legal challenges.
BIDEN: In America politicians don't take power. People grant power to them. And we now know nothing, not even a pandemic, or an abuse of power, can extinguish that flame.
DEAN: All states where Trump challenged the vote count casting their electoral votes for Biden, despite unprecedented efforts from the president and his allies.
GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): The people have spoken. It was a safe, fair and secure election.
DEAN: Addressing Trump directly, Biden called the legal tactics extreme, accusing the president and his legal team of trying to subvert the will of the people.
BIDEN: The presidency, to a candidate who lost the Electoral College, lost the popular vote, and lost each and every one of the states whose votes they were trying to reverse. It's a position so extreme we've never seen it before.
DEAN: Still, some Republicans on Capitol Hill refusing to acknowledge Biden's victory. Asked by CNN whether Biden is the president-elect, senator Jim Inhofe responding, quote, "I'm not going to comment on that." Senator John Kennedy also dodging, saying, quote, "I don't have anything for you on that."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have yet to recognize Biden's win, as well. One retiring congressional Republican is changing his party affiliation in the last weeks of his term.
REP. PAUL MITCHELL (R-MI): It became clear to me that I could no longer be associated with the Republican Party that leadership does not stand up and say the process, the election, is over. It's over today.
DEAN: The president-elect also calling out Republican lawmakers and state attorneys general after a failed last-ditch effort last week to get the Supreme Court to overturn the results in four swing states.
BIDEN: This legal maneuver was an effort by elected officials in one group of states to try to get the Supreme Court to wipe out the votes of more than 20 million Americans in other states. The courts sent a clear signal to President Trump that they would be no part of an unprecedented assault on our democracy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[06:05:00]
DEAN: And Biden says he has spoken to a handful of Republican senators who have reached out to him, but as you see, that's a very narrow group. Senator Lindsey Graham, one of President Trump's most ardent supporters, maintains that Trump's path forward is narrow and says he had a very pleasant conversation with Biden.
But again, just a very small group of congressional Republicans who are willing to call Biden president-elect or acknowledge his victory. Alisyn, the thing to watch today and moving forward is, will more of them now come forward and acknowledge what he is, the president-elect -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: We'll see. Jessica, thank you very much.
So moments after the Electoral College reaffirmed President-elect Joe Biden's victory, President Trump announced the resignation of his Attorney General Bill Barr. The timing being called transparent.
CNN's Joe Johns live at the White House with more. So what happened, Joe?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.
Right about the time the president, Joe Biden, I should say, went over the top in the Electoral College, President Trump repeating his habit that we've seen again and again here at the White House, of trying to change the subject by finding another headline to distract.
This time it was the resignation of his attorney general, Bill Barr. He made that announcement on Twitter. Also posting a bizarre letter that sounded like it was written by the president himself, gushing about how great Trump is, even though we all knew that over the last several weeks, the relationship between the two men was on the rocks, especially because Barr had refused to get onboard with the president's attacks on American democracy, especially when he said there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
The legacy of Bill Barr will be as much about what he did to the United States Department of Justice as what he did at DOJ, especially because he was such a staunch defender of the president as the chief executive through thick and thin, almost no matter what.
Back to you, guys.
BERMAN: Yes, we'll talk much more about this, Joe, as the show goes on.
What was the final straw here? Barr willing to do so much but not something, and now he's out.
So the bulk of the first round of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is being delivered today. CNN's Miguel Marquez live outside Rutgers Medical School in Newark, where New Jersey's first vaccines will be administered in just a couple hours, Miguel.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They're going to get 76,000 total doses of the vaccine in New Jersey. They're going to have six different locations like this one across the state.
And this one will be for those frontline workers, those healthcare workers and those in long-term care facilities and their carers, as well.
To give you an idea of how difficult it's going to be to roll this out, this facility can do 600 inoculations a day. And keep in mind, this is the Pfizer vaccine. It will take another 21 days before you have to get the second round of it, before you're fully inoculated. There are 650,000 people in the first phase in New Jersey's roll-out
of this vaccine. There are three different phases. So it is going to take a very long time to get that vaccine to everybody who wants it or needs it.
Speaking of those who want it, the Kaiser Family Foundation has a recent survey out that shows a little good news, that 8 percent more of Americans are willing to get the vaccine. That number goes down for Republicans and younger people and African-Americans. But in general, people are more willing to accept the vaccine.
The other thing that we are waiting for here is the -- the governor will be here when they do those first vaccines, but this, you have to remember, New Jersey has had a very tough time with this -- with COVID-19. Nearly 18,000 people have died in this state alone.
Across the U.S., in December alone, just so far in December, there's some 32,000 people that have died. And so it is a very, very rough time. And it's goings to be a long time before the vaccine is fully rolled out.
Another little bit of good news is Moderna, the FDA will get one step closer in the next day or two to approving a second vaccine in the country. So hopefully, we'll start moving toward full vaccination in the months ahead.
Back to you, guys.
BERMAN: So Miguel, the vaccines certainly are good news. You know what else is good news? You went and got married! Congratulations. We are so -- we are so happy.
MARQUEZ: Thank you very much. I did, indeed.
BERMAN: We are so happy for you. So happy for you.
CAMEROTA: That's your bright spot.
MARQUEZ: 2020 couldn't be just sucky all around. Yes. Thank you.
BERMAN: Single-handedly spreading joy. Thank you so much, Miguel. And congratulations. Congratulations to the both of you.
MARQUEZ: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: When did he have time?
BERMAN: I know, seriously!
CAMEROTA: I've never seen him off the air --
BERMAN: We sent him all over the country.
CAMEROTA: -- in the past 365 days.
BERMAN: Give him a couple hours over the weekend. CAMEROTA: He goes and gets married --
BERMAN: Exactly.
CAMEROTA: -- that time.
[06:10:05]
BERMAN: All right, so we heard a different Joe Biden last night than we have yet. After the Electoral College voted, he gave this speech. Who was the target of the speech that Joe Biden gave last night? And I think more importantly this morning, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader. He will speak, we expect, at some point today before the Senate. What's he going to say? Stand by for that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Joe Biden received 306 electoral votes, and then he addressed the nation using language he really hadn't. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: This legal maneuver was an effort by elected officials in one group of states to try to get the Supreme Court to wipe out the votes of more than 20 million Americans in other states and to hand the presidency to a candidate who lost the Electoral College, lost the popular vote and lost each and every one of the states whose votes they were trying to reverse.
[06:15:08]
It's a position so extreme we have never seen it before. A position that refused to respect the will of the people, refused to respect the rule of law and refused to honor our Constitution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right. Joining us now, CNN political analysts Margaret Talev. She's a politics and White House reporter for "Axios." And Seung Min Kim. She's a White House reporter for "The Washington Post."
And Margaret, you note there were different audiences here all at one time. This was a very short speech, but the president-elect did a lot in it, including using Donald Trump's name all over the place, which he really hadn't done much to date.
MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, and John, that's right. I mean, if you analyze the speech, it was very interesting. He's clearly trying to reach several distinct audiences. Right?
One is the voters who still falsely believe that President Trump won. That's not the majority of Americans but boy, it's a sizable sliver. Right? It's not a sliver. It's a chunk.
Two, the Americans who know that Biden won the election but are not confident he can lead yet. And three -- and this is really important -- the Republicans in
Congress who know that Biden won the election, but they haven't said it yet.
And there is this one last group -- and I think this is important, too. It's the -- it's Democrats who voted for Biden but don't, are not sold on the idea of reaching across the aisle or the idea that his kind of -- you know, ideas about meeting in the middle or trying to find compromise can actually work.
He's trying to show them that this approach can. He's balancing criticisms of President Trump, direct criticisms of President Trump with, overall, if you analyze the words, what was a very positive speech filled with words about America and Americans and voting and the future.
It's a complicated needle to thread. This is what he's trying to do with this speech. To hammer McConnell and these guys saying, Come on, guys, I'm acting in good faith. Time to meet me in the middle. And to message to the progressive wing of the party that's really trying to tug him left, This way can work.
CAMEROTA: Seung Min, I heard something else in his speech, too. And it was like my ear almost couldn't recognize it at first. That was an adult who is in politics who is not afraid of Donald Trump. He wasn't doing the usual verbal gymnastics that we hear, even from Democrats.
I mean, Democratic governors throughout this pandemic have had to also do these verbal gymnastics so as not to alienate President Trump, so as not to wound his fragile ego, so to make sure that the money or the vaccines or the PPE or whatever keeps, you know, flowing to their states.
He was just sort of saying, This is extreme. Here's reality. Let me spell it out for all of you. I mean, it was -- it was just so refreshing. I guess what I take away is that Joe Biden is not afraid of Donald Trump for these next 36 days.
SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, the speech was certainly clear. It was direct; it was methodical. And what I thought interesting, too, you know, adding on to all of Margaret's great points, was that he just really, one by one, took apart all of the ways that the president had to fruitlessly battle the election results, whether it's through secretaries of state, whether it's through pressuring Republican governors, and certainly, all his legal challenges through the courts; and showing the American public how each one of them failed and how the president really has no -- no options left.
And not only showing President Donald Trump that, which we know he is not the type to gracefully concede, and we're not expecting a concession speech from him anytime soon; but to show the Trump supporters and, particularly, to show the Republicans in Congress, who we saw a -- the dampering [SIC] a little last night. I thought it was really interesting how some of these ardent Trump allies such as Mike Braun in Indiana, and to a certain extent, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina acknowledged the Electoral College victory for Joe Biden.
You know, Lindsey Graham had been telling us for several weeks now that he would not weigh in on any of President-elect Biden's cabinet picks until December 14. And once the Electoral College did its job, it was very rapid-fire, Lindsey Graham weighing in on every single cabinet pick that he had so far held his fire on.
But the one person -- you're right -- that is staying quiet so far is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He did not say anything right now. He will address reporters today. I don't expect him to say anything of substance either.
And he may not say anything until January 6, which is not only the day that the Congress meets to certify the results from the Electoral College, but also the day after, coincidentally, the critical Georgia runoffs.
BERMAN: Incidentally, there's a word in Arabic, which has actually be co-opted in Hebrew for what I think Joe Biden was saying last night. It's "halas," which is, enough. It's actually more than enough. It's like that's done, and I'm spiking the football in your face.
CAMEROTA: That's really interesting, because you know what? There's a word in Italian also for what he did last night, which is this. (GESTURES BY FLICKING FINGERS OUTWARD FROM UNDERNEATH CHIN)
BERMAN: Yes. No, and that's what it was. It was -- it was as if to say, that's it. That's it. No more.
But Seung Min, I want you to follow up on the Mitch McConnell thing, because I think that's interesting. Because John Thune, who is in the Republican senator leadership, he's out there saying it's over.
He says, "In the end at some point, you have to face the music. And I think once the Electoral College settles the issue today, it's time for everyone to move on." So John Thune says it's time for everyone to move on.
Mitch McConnell has dropped some hints over the last few weeks that he's working with a transition, but he hasn't officially said it. You still think he's not going to, as it were, show more leg today, Seung Min. Why?
KIM: It's hard to see it. I mean, the closest that we got from Mitch McConnell to hinting that Biden is the president-elect is that he referred to, quote, "a new administration" in kind of offhand remarks about another topic in a news conference a couple of weeks ago, which kind of, you know, made all of our ears perk up.
But McConnell knows that, at a minimum, you need a united Republican Party to win these -- to win these critical Senate races in Georgia. He doesn't want to get crosswise with the president. He sees no political upside for him to confront the president, as he's still kind of, you know, waging these challenges fruitlessly.
So if, you know -- if the -- if President Trump backs down, then maybe McConnell speaks out. But I have a hard time seeing -- right now, you know, maybe I'll eat my words later, but I have a hard time seeing Mitch McConnell saying that later today.
BERMAN: I will note Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, now scheduled to meet with designated secretary of state, Tony Blinken, Biden's nominee. So maybe -- maybe he'll be crosswise with the president, Mike Pompeo will, soon, if what you say is true, Seung Min.
Seung Min, Margaret Talev, thank you so much.
So the pictures we saw were just amazing. What a moment in history. What an achievement as Americans started receiving the coronavirus vaccine. But this morning the question is -- what now? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:26:23]
CAMEROTA: This morning another round of coronavirus vaccinations are about to get on the road. UPS And FedEx say the bulk of the first batch of Pfizer's vaccines will be delivered today, but of course, it will be months before the majority of Americans can get vaccinated.
The long-awaited rollout comes as a record 110,000 Americans are hospitalized this morning with the virus. More than 300,000 Americans have now died.
Joining us now is Dr. Peter Hotez. He's the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Dr. Hotez, what a day yesterday. It was historic. Obviously, each day will be promising as we see -- let me just put up the numbers for you of what we expect in terms of the vaccine rollouts and deliveries.
So yesterday, the vaccine arrived in all 50 states but not much of it. OK? By December 31, 40 million doses, we expect, will be available to be administered by January and February, 50 to 80 million doses. And then by the end of March, the hope is to have immunized 100 million people.
And that's why I didn't quite understand Dr. Fauci's math yesterday. Maybe you can help us understand it, where he was saying that the timeline for healthy adult Americans to be vaccinated is sooner than I thought. So here's what Dr. Fauci said yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I had been saying by my calculation sometime by the end of March, the beginning of April, that the normal, healthy man and woman in the street who has no underlying conditions would likely get it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: End of March John Berman and I might be able to get it? DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Well, you know, a lot of stars are going to have to align, Alisyn, for all of this to happen.
Remember, the Pfizer vaccine's the first one. The Moderna vaccine is second. Those are both mRNA vaccines. The technology is still relatively new. And so how quickly we'll be able to scale that up is still a bit of an unknown.
An important milestone to look for is the introduction of two other vaccines in the early part of next year, maybe in January-February. The two adenovirus-based vaccines from AstraZeneca/Oxford and from J & J, which require simple refrigeration. So when those get up and those come online, that's going to be really important. Also, there's a particle vaccine from Novavax. Maybe r -- recombinant protein vaccines.
So we'll be looking at a portfolio, a pipeline of five, six, maybe seven vaccines. And that's what's really going to help the American people get fully vaccinated. And that's what we look for.
So each -- each passing week, we're going to see improvement in terms of the number of Americans who can get vaccinated.
BERMAN: The Moderna vaccine, which will get a hearing this week, if that is approved, there will be twice as much of that available early on than was available with the Pfizer vaccine. So we have that to look forward to.
Dr. Hotez, I know you're actually -- when do you get the vaccine?
HOTEZ: I -- I'm hoping this evening. That's -- that's what I'm told. So I'm really excited about that. It's been a long, hard road, and -- and I'm looking forward to it, along with my colleagues at Texas Children's and Baylor College of Medicine. So this is an important time for us.
BERMAN: We think it's great. I think it's great that you're getting it.
CAMEROTA: Take pictures.
BERMAN: You need it. Take pictures.
HOTEZ: Yes.
BERMAN: You're an example to all of us.
What are you watching, now that people are starting to receive the vaccine, including you as of tonight, and the pictures were remarkable. And I don't want to take it for granted, because it's really anything but. It's a triumph of science to a miracle.
However, now what? Now what are you looking for, now that people have started receiving these vaccines?
