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Trump Discussed Invoking Martial Law; Trump Downplays Massive Hack; Congress Reaches COVID Relief Deal; Bidens to Receive Vaccine Today; Christmas Week Storm Brings Rain and Cold; Pac Money Pours into Georgia; Pandemic Update From around the World.; Chiefs Edge Saints in Late Season Showdown Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired December 21, 2020 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

ANNA PALMER, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": To say the least and the fact that it was pushed back and, you know, kind of vociferously argued against by some of Donald Trump's closest allies. Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, others, pushing back on this idea of martial law, pushing back on the fact that Sidney Powell should be named potentially as a special prosecutor is -- you really start to see this disagreement bubbling up in the White House. And what's -- and the real question is, what's going to happen over the next 30 days? That's a long time for this president to be in the White House and trying to surround himself by really close allies who are potentially, you know, putting this on the brink of where our democracy is going.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This is completely off the hook. I mean let's just call it what it is. This is off the hook. Michael Flynn was on TV advocating for martial law, and then the president invited him to the Oval Office after that, brought him in to talk about what he had been discussing on TV, martial law. So there's that. I understand it was shot down by people inside the White House. But the fact that the president invited a guy in to talk about martial law is off the hook.

Then, Sidney Powell, who was part of that meeting, maybe there was fighting, the reporting is there was shouting inside that meeting, but she's at the White House again last night, Toluse. So this -- this is ongoing. The discussions are ongoing about something, whether it's the martial law, which appears to have been shot down, or the idea of seizing these voting machines, it's serious stuff.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, this is an obsession by this president. He has exhausted so many of his options. He lost in the courts dozens of times. That was his first option of trying to overturn the election. He lost with the state and local lawmakers, trying to go to the legislatures to get them to not certify the results or to overturn the results using some sort of constitutional maneuver, which would be anti-democratic in many ways. He lost on that effort, even as he tried to woo them. And now he does not have very many options with just a month left in his presidency and he's going to the extreme. That means going to some of these conspiracy theorists, some of these people on the fringes of society, the fringes of politics, and trying to bring them in to see if there's a way that he could stay in office. And their ideas include things that are completely antithetical to our constitution, to our rule of law, to our sense of a peaceful transfer of power.

And the fact that he's even entertaining these ideas shows that he is really out of his wits at this moment, at this point. He realizes he does not have much time, he does not have very many options for staying in office and he's going to the extreme lengths to think about what he could do to keep Joe Biden from becoming president. Obviously, we know that he can't do that, but he is entertaining these ideas and the fact that he is, is something to be alarmed about and is something to, even in this moment of having sort of shocking things happen on a daily basis, this is one to add to that list.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: I mean he's increasingly desperate, it's clear, for an election that we know he lost.

But, Anna, I think that that desperation, 30 days, as you say, is a long time. A lot can happen. So the question is, when does that desperation really become dangerous, if it hasn't already?

PALMER: I think that's the question everyone's asking. No one knows what his end game is. No one knows when or if he could make a decision that could have really big ramifications in terms of, you know, people having to step in. You already have started to see that on some of his staff saying, no, this is not what we're going to be doing.

But I do think 30 days is a very long time. The president has a lot of different exit ramps, but he has nothing on his public schedule again today. He's sitting there in the White House ruminating over his loss, the fact that, you know, the people that are closest to him, he's really only talking to those folks who are kind of bolstering his conspiracy theories now. And the question is, how -- what happens next, right? And I just don't think we know what that end game is.

BERMAN: Thirty days is a long time. Listen, so the president calling into radio shows, like Rudy Giuliani's, and praising the one senator right now, senator-elect, Tommy Tuberville from Alabama, who has publicly mused about the possibility of trying to block the election when they count the votes, when they count the electoral votes on January 6th.

Listen to what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I spoke to a great gentlemen, Tommy Tuberville, last night and he is so excited.

RUDY GIULIANI: Yes. Oh, yes.

TRUMP: He said -- he said, you made me the most popular politician in the United States. He said, I can't believe it. He's great. Great senator.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: So, clearly, Toluse, what the president is doing there is trying to encourage Tuberville to object to the electoral count vote. It won't work. Tuberville won't succeed in this, but it could delay the Congress declaring Joe Biden the president-elect on January 6th. And it's just interesting to see the president publicly encouraging him.

OLORUNNIPA: Yes, he's using what's left of his political capital, which is waning rapidly to try to encourage senators to go against the will of the people and try to delay the results of this election. The facts that he is only right now able to get one senator-elect, the freshman senator who's never been in politics before, to even entertain this idea. It's an indication of the fact that his political capital is really going out of the window very quickly.

[06:35:02]

He's not getting mass support in Congress because most members of Congress, including the Senate majority leader, have acknowledged that Joe Biden is the victor. It took them a long time. They had to wait until there was the certification. But, at this point, it's pretty clear that the Republican Party is moving on, at least in acknowledging that Joe Biden has won.

Now, President Trump continues to have a power grip on the party, but the fact that only, you know, Senator-elect Tuberville is the only person whose even thinking about this shows that the president is not going to (INAUDIBLE) here. He may have one senator on his side to try to overturn the will of the people, but that's where it's likely to end. This is going to be delay tactic. You know, martial law and trying to get senators to overturn the will of the people are all just delaying the inevitable and there's no chance for him to remain in office after January 20th.

HILL: You know, we also want to get your take on what we're seeing or not seeing, I should say, when it comes to this cyberattack. The president, not surprisingly, Anna, downplaying the attack, going out and saying, well, you know, right after Mike Pompeo said, you know, pretty clearly this was Russia, the president saying, no, probably not. Stop pointing the finger at Russia. That is, in many ways, not surprising to hear that coming from the president, but what we know about the scope of this attack and the fact that there's still a lot we don't know and that that's been admitted, having it come out now, Anna, I mean really just reinforces the concern that a lot of people have, again, about what can happen in a very long 30 days if this is the message that Russia is continuing to get.

PALMER: The president, once again, is really kind of soft selling any -- any issue that he has with Russia, whereas his aides, certainly on Capitol Hill, the Senate and Republican and Democratic leadership have acknowledged the concern around Russia, around spying. And I think there's going to be a real question going into -- you've started to see Vice President-elect Joe Biden's -- or President-elect Joe Biden's team being very concerned, ready and willing and needing to get in as soon as possible. The -- we're hearing a lot more of that issue in terms of what this transition's going to look like, the fact that, you know, these -- this could have massive ramifications. And the president downplaying it once again on the world stage is really concerning.

BERMAN: Anna, you cover Congress day in and day out. Give us a sense, the leadership has reached an agreement on this $900 billion deal. We're still waiting on the writing. We're still writing -- waiting on the fine details, but they will be voting on this over the next few days.

PALMER: Yes, absolutely. It's pretty stunning, though, actually, that we expect votes to start in the next couple of hours and we still do not have bill text. That is very unusual.

However, it does appear that the deal is going forward. The Senate and House are expected to vote on this. And we are hearing from the White House that President Trump will sign it into law.

This is kind of the end of a months-long debate over how and what form the stimulus relief should happen. But it is, I do think, a victory here and a -- kind of the end of 2020 for them to finally get some relief to Americans that truly do need it.

HILL: Yes, need it is maybe an understatement at this point.

Anna, Toluse, appreciate it. Good to see you both. Thank you.

President-elect Biden trying to build public trust when it comes to the coronavirus vaccine. He's got big plans for that today. We'll fill you in, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:41:51]

BERMAN: President-elect Joe Biden and incoming First Lady Jill Biden set to receive their first doses of the corona vaccine today.

CNN's Jessica Dean live in Wilmington, Delaware.

What are we going to see and when are we going to see it, Jessica?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, John.

President-elect Biden has said time and time again he wants to get this vaccine publicly, so he will be doing that, as you mentioned, with his wife, Jill Biden, here in Delaware. That will be happening later today.

Of course, this is all an effort to make sure that Americans know this vaccine is safe and effective. And, of course, at the age of 78, the president-elect is in that higher-risk category as well. So important for him to get that vaccine.

We also know that Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Imhoff, will be getting their first round of the vaccine next week. The transition is staggering when they get that vaccine. They will say it's because of advice from their health and medical experts. That's really all they said. They didn't really elaborate. But it could be in case one of them gets side effects, they're not -- or both of them get side effects, they're not experiencing those at the same time.

Also today, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is headed down to Georgia to campaign on behalf of the two Democratic candidates in those runoff races. She had originally been scheduled to make two stops there, but is now just making one stop. A source familiar is telling us that those scheduling changes were made so she can be in D.C. to vote on that COVID relief bill.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Jessica Dean for us in Wilmington. Keep us posted, Jessica.

HILL: A storm system heading across the central and eastern states could bring heavy rain, gusty winds, and a sharp temperature drop on Christmas. I want to get straight to meteorologist Chad Myers, who has the latest on that.

Chad, good morning.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Erica.

I can see Minneapolis having windchill factors Christmas Eve somewhere in the ballpark of 40 degrees below zero, all because of a storm system that's coming across the Great Lakes.

This weather is presented by O'Keefe's, guaranteed relief for extremely dry, cracked skin.

So let's get to it. How does it get here? Well, it's not this storm. We are going to see a little bit of storm with the first storm coming by today. Rain along the coast. Snow inland where there's already snow on the ground, maybe just a little bit more to shovel.

But there is the storm that will make its way across the country, make storms across up and down the East Coast for Wednesday and Thursday. Maybe even some severe weather. The chance of some light snow across parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and then pushing in much, much colder air behind it.

Here are the forecasts, low temperatures, windchills. Duluth, 23 degrees below zero. But that's in the morning when the wind isn't blowing. By the afternoon, when the wind is picking up, things could go really wrong for a lot of people. Make sure your pets are taken care of and the livestock as well across the upper Midwest.

John, for you on Thursday, the city is going to make a run at 55. D.C. making a run at 60.

BERMAN: Not sure I want that on Thursday/Friday, Chad. I mean I'm grateful for the warmer weather compared to Minneapolis, but I wouldn't mind some snow on Christmas Day. So work on that.

MYERS: I will. I'll get back to you.

BERMAN: Chad Myers, thank you very much.

Nearly $500 million in special interest money funding a flood of ads ahead of Georgia's Senate runoff elections.

[06:40:06]

Where is that money coming from, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Money pouring into the two Georgia runoff races with the balance of power in the U.S. Senate on the line.

CNN's Kyung Lah has more on who is spending that money and how it's being spent.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Trucking through the streets of Atlanta, two electronic billboards with a blunt Democratic message, voting for Democrats in the Georgia Senate runoffs could lead to stimulus cash.

LAH (on camera): You are a PAC?

JON JONES, RELATIONPAC: I am a super PAC, correct.

LAH: But you don't live in Georgia?

JONES: I don't live in Georgia.

LAH (voice over): Jon Jones is a longtime Democratic strategist, and this is the work of RelationPAC. His pop-up PAC, formed to influence the Georgia Senate races.

JONES: Honestly, we wanted to just (INAUDIBLE) our donors where we could. You just put a corporation in between your donor and the FEC, and you can do that.

LAH (on camera): How easy is it to do that?

JONES: It's very easy. It's a couple of hours of paperwork from your -- your lawyer and you're good to go.

[06:50:01]

LAH (voice over): Jones, with his six-figure PAC, is one small player in a high-priced game. Of the nearly $500 million spent or reserved in Georgia runoff ads, super PAC money makes up about half that amount. Republican outside groups are spending about three times more than Democrats.

LAH (on camera): What do you think about PAC money?

JONES: I mean, personally, I don't think PAC money should exist this way. It's kind of a shame that people can do this and that there can be so much money and dark money in our politics.

LAH: But aren't you doing this exact same thing?

JONES: These are the rules that we were given and this is the playing field that we're on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, POLITICAL AD: Georgia can stop them.

LAH (voice over): One of the biggest spenders, the pop-up PAC behind this ad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, POLITICAL AD: Reject radicals Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Peachtree PAC is responsible for the content of this advertising.

LAH: If you missed it, it's Peachtree PAC, but it's not from the peach state. It's connected to a super PAC affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, POLITICAL AD: He's in bed with defund the police radicals.

LAH: It's all adding to the cacophony of television and digital ads hitting Georgians from the right --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, POLITICAL AD: They can't steal this election if we all show up.

LAH: And to the left.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, POLITICAL AD: Their stockings were stuffed from the stocks that they sold, when they heard COVID was coming before we were told.

LAH (on camera): How often do you see a political ad lately?

DAN TREVELINO, ATLANTA RESIDENT: Oh, my God, it's -- I'm tired of it. I'm tired of it. I tune it out.

BRENDAN FISCHER, CAMPAIGN LEGAL CENTER, FEDERAL REFORM DIRECTOR: Campaign finance is often an arms race.

LAH (voice over): And unlikely to slow without campaign finance reform says Brendan Fischer with the Campaign Legal Center.

FISCHER: Both Democrats and Republicans are playing the super PAC game and both are looking for every possible advantage they can find in order to win elections. And, unfortunately, the Federal Election Commission, the agency charged with enforcing campaign finance law, is very dysfunctional and often asleep at the wheel.

LAH: So Jon Jones keeps his message for his party rolling. JONES: I think what people traditionally call this is guerilla

marketing, it's something different.

LAH: Hoping to break through, saying his PAC will likely do business in more political races down the road.

LAH (on camera): Would you prefer to not exist?

JONES: I would prefer for the super PACs to not exist.

LAH (voice over): Kyung Lah, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Officials in South Korea restricting large gatherings as coronavirus cases spike there.

CNN has the pandemic covered around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Paula Hancocks in Seoul.

The rush is on to build more makeshift hospital beds like these dedicated to coronavirus patients as numbers stay high here in South Korea. Seoul City has just announced that from Wednesday, gatherings of five people or more will be banned until January 3rd in the greater Seoul area.

Meanwhile, in Japan, they have just reported almost two and a half thousand new daily cases. There, as in here, it is the capital city that is taking the brunt.

And in Hong Kong, stringent social distancing measures stay in place.

ANGUS WATSON, CNN PRODUCER: I'm Angus Watson in Sydney, Australia, where authorities are cautiously optimistic that they may be starting to get on top of a new cluster of coronavirus that broke a run of days with no community transmission in the city. Just 15 new cases announced Monday from 38,000 tests conducted on Sunday. But authorities still aren't sure who patient zero is. They believe that this variant of the virus may have come from the United States, but there's still contact trace work to do.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jim Bittermann in France, where a 48-hour travel ban with the United Kingdom has been in place since midnight last night. In announcing the ban, the French prime minister indicated that it would give the Europeans time to come up with a coordinated policy on how to deal with the new COVID-19 variant that appears to spread more easily and has been raging throughout the U.K. The French health minister said this morning that no cases of a new variants have been spotted in France, although it's likely it may already be here.

Meanwhile, all eyes are today on the European Medicines Agency, which is considering authorizing the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine for use across the continent. The agency is expected to make an announcement later today.

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong. The government of Hong Kong has joined a long list of countries banning flights from the U.K. with growing concerns about a highly infectious variant of COVID-19 spreading throughout Britain. Authorities say the ban will come into effect as of midnight Monday and anyone who has been in the U.K. for more than two hours in the past 14 days will not be allowed to board aircraft bound for Hong Kong.

It comes as the city is in the midst of its fourth wave of COVID-19, with authorities enforcing tougher restrictions in a desperate attempt to bring down the numbers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right, our thanks to our reporters all around the world.

So, this coming January, I have more free time than I've had in decades. Like, hours of free time on my hands.

[06:55:01]

Why? Because the New England Patriots aren't even going to the football playoffs.

HILL: Oh, poor Berman.

BERMAN: I'm not sure that's allowed.

HILL: That's so sad.

BERMAN: The "Bleacher Report" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: The Kansas City Chiefs getting a huge win in New Orleans in what could be a Super Bowl preview.

Carolyn Manno has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

Good morning, my friend. So nice to see you.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good to see you, Erica. Good morning.

Do you have Kleenex for John in the studio or maybe some earmuffs? It's not good.

HILL: I -- you know what, I do. I'm ready. I'm ready right here. I don't want him to be sad.

MANNO: It's not good.

HILL: He's so sad.

MANNO: Yes.

All right, let's start with the marquise matchup of the weekend. Drew Brees meeting Patrick Mahomes for the first time. This was a big one. Really a physical contest between the Chiefs and the New Orleans Saints. Drew Brees coming back from battling injury. He's been out for the last couple of weeks. Eleven broken ribs, keeping him off the field for the last four games. Struggled early on here. Missed his first five passes. Got picked off by L'Jarius Sneed.

Patrick Mahomes, meantime, bringing the imagine that we have certainly come to expect. Three touchdown passes, including this off-balance throw in the corner of the end zone to Mecole Hardman. And check this out, perfect throw to a nearly impossible location and Hardman getting both feet down. Play of the game. The Chiefs are in their ninth straight win. They have the league's best record at 13-1.

The Jets won over the weekend, but they still found a way to loose. For the first time in 358 days, New York got a "w," 17-point underdogs against the Rams. Erased (ph) out, though, a 20-3 lead in L.A., held on to win by three. But here's the rub. The win means that the Jets are now behind the Jags in the race for the number one pick in the NFL draft, aka Clemson's Trevor Lawrence.

And the Patriots won't be in the playoffs for the first time since 2008. The Dolphins running wild on New England's defense, 250 yards rushing for Miami in the ten-point win. New England failing to finish above 500 for the first time since 2000.

And lastly for you this morning, Erica, the college playoff football is set. Top-ranked Alabama going to play Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl, which was moved to the Cowboy's stadium in Texas over the weekend. Clemson and Ohio State squaring off in the Sugar Bowl. That is a rematch of last year's epic semifinal. So both of those games on New Year's Day. The Rose Bowl moved out of Pasadena because the state of California had concerns about coronavirus. So now you're going to have 16,000 fans in attendance in Texas, 3,000 in attendance at the Sugar Bowl.

Sorry, John.

Back to you.

HILL: (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: Look, they don't deserve -- the Patriots don't deserve to be in the playoffs. They're not that good this year. But that's OK, we'll be back next year. Bill Belichick's still the coach.

HILL: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Manny, I want you to remember when he said they're not that good, OK? They're always (INAUDIBLE).

MANNO: Fingers crossed.

BERMAN: They were -- they're weren't that good this year. They weren't that good.

MANNO: Writing it down now, you two, writing it down now.

HILL: Thank you.

BERMAN: Thanks.

HILL: NEW DAY continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

[07:00:01]

BERMAN: All right, welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

We have breaking news this morning.

An emergency meeting underway in the United Kingdom.