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Electoral College Votes Joe Biden in as Next United States President; Russia President Vladimir Putin Congratulates President- Elect Joe Biden on Election Victory; Bill Barr Resigns as Attorney General; First Coronavirus Vaccines Administered in New Jersey; Dr. Fauci Recommends Biden & Harris Get Vaccinated ASAP. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 15, 2020 - 08:00   ET

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


[08:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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. And we do have breaking news. Overnight Vladimir Putin congratulated Joe Biden on his election victory. So if you're keeping score at home, Vladimir Putin did it before the U.S. president or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. That is quite an accomplishment for McConnell. The president-elect addressed the American people overnight, marking a significant shift in how he is dealing with Donald Trump's assault on democracy. Biden gave a lot of credit to the American people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT-ELECT: Once again, the American -- in America the rule of law, our Constitution, and the will of the people prevailed. Our democracy pushed, tested, threatened, proved to be resilient, true, and strong. The Electoral College votes which occurred today reflect the fact that even in the face of a public health crisis unlike anything we have experienced in our lifetimes, the people voted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: As for the pandemic, the United States set another record for coronavirus hospitalizations on Monday. More than 110,000 people are waking up in the hospital this morning. Frontline health care workers are among the first who are receiving the new Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. Millions of doses are making their way across the country. Millions more will be on their way this week as the first round of vaccinations begin.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, though, making news this morning with his recommendation for the president-elect and vice president-elect to become vaccinated as soon as possible. And the FDA just released its scientific evaluation on Moderna's coronavirus vaccine, that's the second one, so we will tell you what that says. BERMAN: Let's talk, though, about the fact that Joe Biden is the

president-elect of the United States, just as he was one week ago, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, four weeks ago. Joining us now, Abby Phillip and John Harwood. Abby, Vladimir Putin congratulated Joe Biden overnight. That's a hell of a thing, that Putin got that telegram in before Mitch McConnell.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's a pretty low bar, maybe the lowest of the low bars for congratulatory phone calls or what have you. But yes, but it tells you a lot about where we are as a country that the Senate majority leader won't even say it before Vladimir Putin who I think Joe Biden probably doesn't really care one way or another whether Putin congratulates him.

But the other person I think is kind of notable based on Manu Raju's reporting yesterday is that Lindsey Graham has called Joe Biden, and they have spoken, and they've talked about his Senate -- his cabinet picks, and the Senate confirmation process for those cabinet picks. So while Lindsey Graham is occasionally on FOX News giving oxygen here and there to the lies about this election, he's also talking to Joe Biden behind the scenes.

Now he's saying that President Trump's path to overturning the election is narrow, but I think it's just, again, profiles in courage, I think, on Capitol Hill among congressional Republicans. This is not that. Many of these Republicans like Lindsey Graham know better but are not willing to say so clearly what is obvious to the American people, especially now after the Electoral College voted.

CAMEROTA: John Harwood, what did you hear in President-elect Biden's speech last night?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: What I heard from Joe Biden was twofold. One, a bit of the same message that he had been communicating for several weeks, which is one of unity and trying to calm the passions of the election, but also a bit of impatience creeping in. We are now well over a month after the election. This effort by Republicans to challenge the election has been garbage the entire time. They haven't come up with anything. And I think what Joe Biden was trying to say, now that the electors have voted, this garbage stinks so bad that there is no justification for any of these Republicans to continue holding out.

And yet, as you were just discussing with Abby, so many, including Mitch McConnell, are trying to slip slide their way into this new reality without ever having to take a stand, without ever having to say anything, without any fear of offending Donald Trump. And that's what tells you something about the state of the Republican Party and its connection to reality right now. A lot of Republican voters are having a hard time accepting this, and the Republican elected officials who understand it intellectually are scared of those voters.

One bright sign for President-elect Biden, however, there was a FOX News poll that came out last night that showed him 20 points net favorable among Republicans, 59 to 39 favorable to unfavorable.

[08:05:03]

That suggests that there is at least a glimmer of an opportunity for Joe Biden to get off to some kind of a decent start.

BERMAN: It's interesting, Abby, Joe Biden, the president-elect, was literally laughing off some of the assaults from Donald Trump over the past weeks. He would stand in these press briefings and he would sort of shrug his shoulders and say I'm going to be diplomatic or tactful here. That wasn't the case last night. He called the assault on democracy that we have seen from President Trump and those 18 attorneys general and all those members of Congress, he called it extreme. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT-ELECT: This legal maneuver was an effort by elected officials and 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. It's a position so extreme we've 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: So, Abby, who is the audience here exactly? And how do you think Joe Biden takes that message for the next 36 days until he's sworn in?

PHILLIP: I think the audience in the Biden view is the majority of Americans who are reasonable and know that what has been going on is a complete farce. And I think that this is a message that represents a shift for Biden from where he was several years ago when he was willing to give Republicans, many of whom he intends to work with, some space to figure out the politics around this, to figure out the politics of President Trump.

But now it's shifting into a new gear. And Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States, and he's speaking for the 7 million more Americans who voted for him, but also the many who are watching this situation and they're wondering, what on earth is going on? And since when in this country do we try to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters just because you don't like losing?

I think there is a clear majority of Americans who understands that that's ridiculous. That's who he is speaking to. And he's hoping that what that means is that even though there will be some Republicans who are obviously going to be beholden to the more extreme parts of the base, that the ones who are in districts or in states where there is a moderate middle, that he can work with those people by really emphasizing that the extremes are not going to rule the day here in this country, and this is not normal. I think that's part of the message here. This is, what we're experiencing now, we have come to live with it, but it is not normal. CAMEROTA: John, at the exact moment that the Electoral College was,

again, confirming that Joe Biden will be the next president, President Trump put out an announcement that he had, I guess, accepted the resignation of Bill Barr or that Bill Barr would be leaving soon. And I'm just very curious about the Bill Barr breaking point, because Bill Barr was someone who was so all in on President Trump's narrative, even when it was demonstrably false. From the get-go he misled about the Mueller report, he referred to what the FBI does not as an investigation but as spying. He was using the same rhetoric that President Trump does. And so why didn't he go along with President Trump's false narrative about the election results? Why didn't he release the Hunter Biden investigation publicly during the election? Why did he have a line in the sand for those things when he didn't, it seemed, for other things?

HARWOOD: Alisyn, it's a good question. Bill Barr, as you suggest, was as all-in as a cabinet member can be with Donald Trump. But one of the things that we've seen about Donald Trump is he is so consumed with self, so dedicated exclusively to his own self-interest, that you can't be loyal enough for President Trump. And you can't be as crazy as Donald Trump. He is delusional right now. Some combination of cynicism and delusion is causing him to continue to press these phony election claims. And Bill Barr for whatever his level of sycophancy for the president, he is not as crazy as Donald Trump. And so he knows that in the last month of the administration pretty much only bad things are going to happen with this president given his state of mind, how agitated he is -- bad appointments, bad pardons, bad executive orders.

[08:10:04]

And so if you are Bill Barr, why not get out of Dodge before those things happen and before they attach themselves to your legacy?

BERMAN: John Harwood, Abby Phillip, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

Happening now, New Jersey just administered its first doses of the coronavirus vaccine to frontline health care workers. CNN's Miguel Marquez live in Newark, New Jersey, watching it all happen. Miguel, what are you seeing?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, never before have so many people been so excited about a vaccine, a shot. So just -- look what's happening outside here. This is all media. Pull up. The first people are getting a shot. I don't know if you can hear it, but we can hear the clapping from out here inside. So just inside where we are the first individuals here at Rutgers University Medical Center in Newark are getting the shots. They're going to have about five people get the shots here, and Governor Phil Murphy is here, and many others. So many people have waited so long to start this process to get that shot. And you can see it's going in. She gives a little -- a little yell, a little yelp there. Apparently even some doctors and nurses aren't the happiest with shots.

We do know that some of the individuals getting the shots today are frontline workers. We also know that some of them are deans of the medical school here that are getting shots as well. At this particular event just outside where we are standing there will be five individuals getting a shot. But this facility here at Rutgers University Medical Center is one of six across the that will believe able to administer the shots. The state of New Jersey in this first tranche is getting 76,000 vaccinations that they will be able to hand out.

There's three phases to this. In that first phase there are some 650,000 individuals in that first phase alone, and that's health care workers, those that come in contact with those who have COVID, people in long-term care centers and the staff that cares for them. It is a huge number. It is going to take a long time to get that vaccine to those people and then to the general public. It will be months and months before we get that, but it is a start.

And you can see, I mean, I don't know if you saw it before, but this is the amount of media gathered here today to hear from the governor and the individuals who got those very first shots here in New Jersey. This is a state that has been hit very hard, nearly 18,000 people dead from coronavirus in New Jersey. This month alone, December alone across the country, some 30,000 Americans have died from it. We are in the midst of the worst bit of this pandemic right now just as hope has arrived. Back to you guys.

BERMAN: Miguel Marquez with the play by play of the first vaccines being given in New Jersey. The Howard Cosell of vaccination here, Miguel. We appreciate you being with us. Thanks so much. The shot is going in, rumbling, tumbling. That's Keith Jackson.

The FDA just released its scientific evaluation of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine. What does it reveal? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:03]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Moments ago, Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested that President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris should get vaccinated right away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: For security reasons I really feel strongly that we should get them vaccinated as soon as we possibly can. You want him fully protected as he enters into the presidency in January.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Joining us now CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Well, that makes sense. I mean, I would call them essential workers, and it has been, you know, I think -- I think people have been nervous about Joe Biden. He's been out and about. He meets with people, he's out in front of groups.

You know, that's dangerous. He's obviously wearing a mask, but to have the president-elect vaccinated, it just -- there's no down side.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, I think you could strongly make a national security case for that, he's also 78 years old so he would fall into some of the higher risk categories, maybe not in that first category, but regardless he is the president. These shots whether it's Moderna or Pfizer, also they require two shots three or four weeks apart, so sort of middle of December now. So the second shot would come middle of January. Dr. Fauci said fully protected. I think what he meant by that was that the second shot would be in as well.

So that would mean, you know, possibly the president-elect getting that first shot soon, within the next few days.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, that was the news there. Fauci saying do it now. Do it now because we want you to get both shots before January 20th when you're sworn in. Dr. Fauci also said he thought that President Trump should get the vaccine even though he had coronavirus before, Fauci said that would be a good thing, I think largely for the president's own health but also for the example it would set.

Sanjay, big news.

GUPTA: Yeah.

BERMAN: We just got the FDA's data dump on their look at the Moderna vaccine. The FDA advisory panel meets I think it's on Thursday to discuss this vaccine and answer all those questions. But the bottom line is from this data that they just released, it looks very much like we're going to have a second vaccine approved for emergency use very soon.

GUPTA: Yeah, I'm just making my way through this as well, it's 54 pages. It's kind of -- it's kind of amazing to look at this data because keep in mind, up until now, the only data we've seen or anybody has really seen has been, you know, through these -- from the companies themselves, so to actually have this FDA analysis now of the data is very interesting to look at. A couple highlights, I will just tell you quickly, it's going to seem very similar to what we've been talking about with the Pfizer data.

With the Moderna, they are talking about people 18 and older, you remember Pfizer, they said 16 and older. It is separated, these shots, by four weeks instead of three weeks. Not a huge detail, but important to sort of note.

And you get 94.5 percent efficacy, protection against COVID-19, 14 days after the second shot. So six weeks total, right? You get the first shot, wait four weeks, two weeks after that is when you get your 94.5 percent.

And it's pretty -- it's pretty remarkable just to give you some of the numbers, in the vaccinated group there were 30,000 people in the trial roughly, half got vaccine, half got placebo.

Of the people who got the vaccine, only five people developed symptoms of COVID-19 versus 90 people in the placebo group. People who got serious illness all of them were in the placebo group. So it really seemed to protect very well against serious illness.

Most effective in people under the age of 65, 95.6 percent, but close to 87 percent effective in people over the age of 65. So, it seemed to drop off a little bit with age, we will take a closer look at all those sorts of numbers, similar sort of side effect profile. So, I think you're absolutely right. I mean, you know, we will see what the FDA advisory committee sort of -- they're going to review this data as they did with the Pfizer vaccine for several hours on Thursday, but if it holds up, looks like we're going to be on our way to another authorization.

CAMEROTA: That would be great. And everything you've just spelled out sounds like great news.

So why, then, Sanjay, help us understand, why is Dr. Fauci saying that we all might still have to wear masks for the better part of a year?

GUPTA: This is a really important point. I think when you look at these trials the thing you have to ask yourself is what is it exactly -- the question they were trying to answer here. The way these trials work, so you've got 30,000 people, 15,000 got the placebo, 15,000 got the vaccine and they follow them. Over time, there are people who have put their hands up and say, I have symptoms, and when they have symptoms, they come in and they say, okay, now, people with symptoms they say were you in the placebo group or you in the vaccinated group?

And that's what they're really figuring out. Is it preventing symptoms, is it preventing the disease itself?

What we don't know for certain is whether it also prevents people from still becoming infected with the virus, carrying it and possibly transmitting it.

I hope that makes sense. I mean, it's very possible, Alisyn, that, you know, when they actually do the larger studies on this and start to really look at all these trial participants over the next couple of years, they do find that it's actually either preventing infection or at least lowering the virus count low enough that you don't -- you don't transmit the virus. We just don't know the answer to that question yet.

And, by the way, that's sort of how the flu vaccine works as well. We're not sure, 100 percent sure flu vaccine always prevents infection, but if it prevents you from getting sick or prevents you from getting as sick, that's obviously very, very important. That may be the case here as well.

BERMAN: So, Sanjay, in terms of the difference between the Moderna vaccine and Pfizer vaccine, the length of time between doses is different, right? Pfizer is three weeks, I understand Moderna is four weeks. What about the dosage? What are other differences there? GUPTA: Yeah. So, yeah, that's a good point as well. So it does seem

to be different doses. This is 100 micrograms. I believe the Pfizer dose, double-check me on this, I think is 30 micrograms, I believe, two doses.

So I don't know how much of a difference that will make. We do know that the Moderna vaccine does not need to be kept at the same -- as cold a temperature as the Pfizer vaccine. So, you know, you have these -- basically you have the messenger RNA, the mRNA, and it's encapsulated in this fat essentially, these lipid particles, the lipid particles may be different slightly from Moderna to Pfizer, that may be why it can be sort of more stable at higher temperatures.

I'm not entirely sure. It may be a relevant question, especially when we are talking about allergies, was there a particular component of these lipid particles that people are allergic to for some reason or some people are allergic to? But overall, it's a very similar vaccine. It's very similar in terms of how it's created, how it's actually -- how it's actually delivered to the body and the type of antibody response that it's inducing.

So, you know, we'll see, you know, tens of thousands of people versus hundreds of millions of people, you may see different things start to emerge, differences start to emerge, but overall, you know, just looking at this data, and I've been pouring over this data now for a couple of weeks between the two vaccines, they do seem very similar overall, and Dr. Offit who is on these committees just sort of, you know, he reinforced that as well.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Sanjay, thank you for helping us sort through all of this breaking news. We really appreciate it.

GUPTA: You got it.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, millions of Americans are in dire financial straits because of the pandemic. Will Congress make a deal before the holidays?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:28:38]

BERMAN: President-elect Joe Biden using different language, language we have not heard before from him, in addressing the American people shortly after the Electoral College verified his decisive victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: Seventeen Republican attorneys general and 126 Republican members of the Congress actually -- they actually signed on to a lawsuit.

This legal maneuver was an effort by elected officials and one group of states to try to get the Supreme Court to wipe out the votes of more than 20 million Americans. It's a position so extreme we've 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: Joining us now is Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a close friend of the president-elect.

Senator Coons, thanks so much for being with us.

We haven't heard Joe Biden, the president-elect, use that language before. He's actually laughed off over the last six weeks some of the attacks that President Trump has made on democracy.

So why was it important for the president-elect to use this more direct language last night?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Well, John, thanks for being on again.

It's really a moment here for our president-elect to say, look, this transition period of the last couple of weeks where there's been tireless, relentless campaigning and filing of lawsuits to challenge the will of the people, it's been exhausting.

You're right. He's mostly laughed it off. He's mostly moved forward.