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Don Lemon Tonight

Trump Signals He May Not Sign Massive COVID Relief Bill; Trump Issues Series Of Pardons; Dr. Fauci Points To Holiday Travel As He Warns Of Another Surge; New U.K. Coronavirus Strain; Next Phase Of COVID-19 Vaccination; Vice President Pence Speaks Maskless to Thousands of People in Indoor Summit; Stacey Abrams On Neck-And-Neck Georgia Runoffs; The Coming Contagion: Congo's Rainforest And Future Pandemics. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired December 22, 2020 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST (on camera): We're following multiple breaking news stories tonight. President Trump suddenly signaling that he may not sign a $900 billion COVID relief bill. He is demanding Congress make changes. But what does it mean for the millions of Americans who are desperately waiting for their stimulus checks?

White House aides are surprised and annoyed at the president's comments on the bill, this coming just minutes after Trump issued multiple controversial pardons and threaten top Republicans. The president is growing increasingly erratic by the day as more and more people close to him worry about what could happened in his final days in office.

I want to start with CNN White House correspondent John Harwood. John, I'm glad that you're here. You know, in the space of just about an hour tonight, we all got whiplash. I mean, Trump issued a wave of controversial pardons. He suggested he may not sign the COVID relief bill and he threatened the number two Republican in the Senate. What is behind all this sort of hysteria and movement?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, overall. Laura, what is behind it, is the president is choking psychologically on his defeat which is a grave injury to his ego and to hi reputation. He is 29 days away from being a private citizen with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and the danger of criminal prosecution.

So, he is thrashing about trying to figure out some way and abetted by aid who encourage is delusion that he can overturn the election, to figure out some ways to remain in office.

At the same time, he is also trying through those pardons to protect himself, by protecting people who had been involved in the Russia probe which he insists is a hoax. Of course it's not a hoax. But the attempt to wipe out what Robert Mueller did by prosecuting people like George Papadopoulos, and Alexander (inaudible) those are attempt by the president to absolve himself.

So we expect more coming from the likes of Paul Manafort. Paul Manafort also knows things about Donald Trump which Donald Trump would like not to be made public in which Paul Manafort withheld from Robert Mueller on the stimulus deal. It's not clear whether the president is just making noise, trying to make himself look good while he thrashes about or whether he actually intends to try to stop the bill.

[23:05:01]

If he vetoes the bill, which he didn't explicitly threaten to do but is suggested by that video tape, it passed in both chambers with more than enough votes to override him. So, that would be a humiliation. On the other hand if he leaned on those Republican members, maybe some of them would vote to sustain his veto. If that happen, we don't know what effect that would have on the Georgia Senate races, on inter Republican dynamics.

We do know that Mitch McConnell and John Thune have both indicated that Joe Biden is going to be next president and they have thrown cold water on this attempt to challenge the certifications of Electoral votes on January 6. The president did not like that. And so he's going after Thune today, explicitly saying he's going to face the primary and now he is called the deal Mitch McConnell made with Nancy Pelosi a disgrace. It's a very chaotic situation.

COATES: I mean, you're punished when you accept or at least discuss reality it seems at the president of United States. What you are also told right now that Trump may be canceling his Christmas plans. What are you hearing about this if anything?

HARWOOD: Not much. We believe the trip is still on the books. And the president's intended to leave tomorrow. But -- as you indicated in the open, he is erratic, he is unpredictable, he is having people come into the Oval Office and trying offer him various schemes to try to overturn the election.

So, maybe he would decide that he would stay in Washington and work on that in some way. But if I were betting in the end, I would say he is going to take off for Mar-a-Lago tomorrow afternoon.

COATES: It's just ironic of course, John. Thank you, because one of real impetus behind why these members of Congress wanted to get this taken care of, because no one wanted to go back to their district for the holiday season, not thinking about the American people and putting them into spotlight. Thank you for your time, John. As always I appreciate it.

And I want to bring in senior law enforcer analyst Andrew McCabe, he is the former FBI Deputy Director and author of the book, The threat, how the FBI protects America in the age of terror and Trump. Also here, senior political analyst Kirsten Powers. I'm glad you're both here tonight. And what a night for you all to come on this show today. Not a lot has happened, don't worry. We haven't had like thousand different breaking news joys. All of the extraordinary importance. I will start with you, Andrew. Because Trump just pardoned admitted

liars, and lawmakers and Blackwater guards convicted of a massacre on civilians. What does this say about how he even views these crimes? Remember those watching at home, the Justice Department, under the umbrella of the executive branch of government which he leads, what does this telling people about how he views these crimes in particular.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR, FORMER ACTING FBI DIRECTOR (on camera): Well, Laura, if you are sitting at home and you haven't gotten this message already with the way this president has conducted himself in four years, today, with these pardons, you are hearing loud and clear that this president does not care about the rule of law. He doesn't care about anything.

He is all about satisfying his personal grievances as with the pardons of George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan. I mean this is -- (inaudible) effort to try to unravel the Mueller report, none of which will (inaudible) that he will go down in history as the only American president to have been elected with the help of the Russian intelligence service. He is pardoning, guilty of white collar (inaudible) politicians, and politicians of course (inaudible) securities, fraud, stealing campaign, money laundering. He does not care about the rule of law, and (inaudible) that is absolute (inaudible).

COATES: And not to mention on your screen right now, you are seeing the Blackwater Guards. I mean, this is the time a few weeks ago, Kirsten, we were all hearing about the idea of when it came to foreign diplomacy and the naming of new cabinet members who are going to be charge with essentially revisiting and possibly restoring the global position of the United States in diplomacy that you have a commander- in-chief essentially pardoning war criminals.

I mean, this does not bode well or speak well to the stature of America. Not the best and most important aspect of the stature, but it doesn't bode well for how the United States will be viewed going forward. That could hurt diplomacy, right?

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST (on camera): Right. Absolutely, and I think -- I mean, I'm sure that there will be plenty of outrage about this, and in Iraq, these were -- you know, more than a dozen people were massacred. These are people who were found guilty you know by a jury and they were sentenced. And these are not what pardons are supposed to be for.

[23:10:02]

And what does it say about Donald Trump? You know, when you think about that, that he thinks that a person should not be held accountable for murdering, massacring a large number of innocent people, that that is what the pardon power is for. That is not what the pardon power is for.

I mean, none of ways that he's using it is actually what it is for. And if you look at the way President Obama used it, that was much more applicable, and you know, looking at situation where people were in prison for nonviolent drug crimes where they -- where they were over sentenced and they shouldn't be there.

That is a great use of the pardon power. He also did it through the Department of Justice and there was a process. With Donald Trump, there -- typically has not been a process. He just treats this (inaudible) little -- like his candy that he can just hand out to whoever he wants.

COATES: Well, perhaps the process and part of this is part of the obsession with trying to discredit the Russian investigation. But I do believe, to be clear, I think this pardon slate does include some I believe nonviolent drug offenders. But you are absolutely right, the idea of the overwhelming trend of what is at issue here, (inaudible) what you have spoken about.

And the Andrew Act, that goes to you, because CNN's Barbara Starr is reporting that there is growing anxiety in the military ranks about what Trump might do in his final days in office. What are your biggest concerns tonight as it relates to what his role is as commander in chief?

MCCABE: Well, you know, it's not a secret that he has spent the last few weeks installing (inaudible) best (inaudible) unqualified (inaudible) positions of (inaudible) that is sending shock waves across (inaudible) work (inaudible) in the Department of Defense. (Technical Difficulty) In the last few days with his comments about wanting to appoint a social council himself for the investigation (inaudible) election fraud.

I mean that is a perfect example of how Trump will stop at nothing to demand what he wants, and the system doesn't comply when people stood up and telling the truth, this sort of unlawful or unconstitutional efforts, they are quickly dispatched and fired. I can tell you this from personal experience. I'm sure those are all the things that the Pentagon greatly concerned about (inaudible) no limit to what he can ask for (inaudible).

COATES (on camera): That has to be the last word, and I know Kirsten, you are probably nodding your head, thinking we get 29 days left. So, a lot can be done. Good to have you back soon. Thank you both for being a part of the show. I appreciate it.

You know, hospitalizations breaking another record as researchers say that a new COVID strain could have arrived in the United States this time from the U.K. a month ago. And Dr. Fauci's warning, don't let your guard down during the holidays.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE: I know everyone wants to get back to the time when Christmas was a situation where you can have many, many guests indoor, congregating having fun together. The situation is different now. We don't want to cancel Christmas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[23:25:00]

COATES: Researchers say hundreds of Americans could already be infected by a new coronavirus variant in the U.K. and that it may have arrived in the U.S. in mid-November. Medical experts in Britain believe it could be around 70 percent more transmissible than other variants of the virus. That amid increasing warnings about the coronavirus spikes we could see from people gathering for the holidays.

Joining me now, CNN Medical Analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. Dr. Rainier, I'm glad that you're here tonight. But this news has a lot of people nervous. I want to ask you about what this researchers have found. I mean, if this variant got here last month, is it possible that hundreds of people or maybe even more may already have it?

JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST (on camera): Sure, that is very possible. The United Kingdom leads the world in sequencing these strains and these variants so they test thousands of (inaudible) and they find these variants in this RNA virus.

We are not so good at that. We haven't been prioritizing that. We've only done that just several dozen times. So we haven't tested enough samples to know really whether that variant is in the United States. But if it's been in the United Kingdom since September, almost certainly it's here in the United States.

COATES: Well, you have the idea of these variants, I mean the notion that it might be a variant is predictable I would think for people to know about mutations and the like, does that mean that in the way you talk about those who have come with a vaccine, would they have been able to anticipate it? Could they have accounted for it in some ways or is this vaccine going to have to start all over again with these new variant? We are already in this bad place?

REINER: Yeah, it's very unlikely that this virus is -- or the variant of the virus is resistant to the two approved vaccines. So, both of these RNA vaccines basically give the recipient the ability to make essentially the virus spike protein. The spike protein consists of about 1200 amino acids and this new variant differs in nine amino acids. So less than 1 percent of the amino acids that make up the spike protein are different.

So it's very unlikely that it is resistant to the vaccines. But the vaccine manufacturers are testing it. And we heard today from the CEO of BioNTech that they actually have the ability to adjust the vaccine going forward as new strains come about. So, I think I would -- we're watching this but no reason for the public right now to be overly concerned.

COATES: That is very encouraging to hear, and you know, talking about the idea of a vaccine, the CDC has accepted the recommendations to prioritize older adults and front line workers to receive the vaccine in the next phase. So which is phase 1b. So, walk us through exactly how these phases work. I mean, how long does each phase take before they move on to the next one and the next one and the next one?

REINER: So, all the phases are going to overlap. So basically the phases say basically bring in different groups and sequence. So phase 1a are front line hospital workers and nursing home and long term residents -- and residents of nursing home facilities.

That's what is going on now. Hospitals are administering vaccine to health care worker. I had my vaccine a week ago, and now nursing homes are starting to administer the vaccine to their residents.

Probably starting in January, phase 1b will include essential workers, firemen, policemen, teachers, as well as folks over the age of 75. That will go through, you know, probably most of January.

The next phase will bring in people 65 and older. And younger people with high risk conditions. So as we go through these groups, more and more vaccines should come online. You know, the goal really is to vaccinate at least 70 percent of this country and the goal really should be to do it by summertime.

COATES: Well, you know, who should be sort of overseeing all this is the head of the coronavirus task force whose name is Vice President Mike Pence and yet today he was delivering remarks indoors at a conservative student action summit and many in the crowds were also, as he is not, wearing a mask, and he is, as I said, the head of the coronavirus task force. And he tried getting the, you know, getting a vaccine, setting that example, but he is undermining all that with appearances like this. Is he not?

[23:20:16]

REINER: Yeah, how is it possible? How is it possible that the coronavirus task force leader can go to a meeting, essentially of unmasked people, at the hottest time in the history of this pandemic? It makes no sense. He is -- what he is doing basically is validating that behavior. It's really shameful. Unacceptable.

COATES: It certainly is, and it's dangerous. Thank you Dr. Reiner, I appreciate it. Happy holidays to you.

REINER: Same to you. Thank you.

COATES (on camera): You know -- thank you. Holiday travel drastically picking up even though the virus is as bad as it's ever been. I want to bring in Erin Bromage, CNN contributor, and associate professor of biology at University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth. You know, it is amazing to see what's happening right now. We are seeing record pandemic air travel, around a million, a million airline passengers for four days in a row, and Dr. Fauci says this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAUCI: This type of travel is risky particularly if people start congregating when they get to their destination in larger crowds in indoor settings. I'm afraid that if in fact we see this happen, we will have a surge that is superimposed upon the difficult situation we are already in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES (on camera): So, Erin, how much could air travel actually contribute to these surge upon a surge and god forbid another surge?

ERIN BROMAGE, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS DARTMOUTH (on camera): We are always seeing that already. We saw the Labor Day, then we built on that with Halloween and we built on that with Thanksgiving and now we've got back-to-back holidays with Christmas and New Year. Where what it does is homogenize the virus right throughout the country as people travel around.

So, the actual process of travelling add risk that the real risk comes from, you know, people moving from a hot zone to a place that is not as hot and they bring the virus with them. Or people from low risk communities that go to high risk communities and bring it back when they come back.

So, what we're going to see if people persist we are doing what -- you know, the done in year's past Christmas is just riding this -- you know, fanning this flame for further and further and hotter and hotter and who knows what January might look like?

COATES: And it makes it harder for those people who are following the regulations to still stay safe if people are bringing it to where they are. And you know, you got dozens of countries as you know that have banned or even took a travel from the U.K. over that COVID variant that is there. But the U.S. hasn't put in place any new federal travel restrictions. You think we should?

BROMAGE: I wouldn't read too much into this variant at the moment. I mean, the variant is interesting. There are, you know, unique epidemiological data that is going with it. It suggested it maybe more transmittable, but we are not sure at these stage and so we should take a cool head approach.

Now for travel, you know, we should be -- well, I'd like to say we should be clamping down more. But we know people are just going to do what they need to do, or what they want to do. So what I hope that happens is if people do choose to travel and do choose to gather, that they actually make smarter decisions with doing that by reducing the risk of those particular gatherings.

The masks, the distance, the duration, outdoors rather than indoors, just make smarter decisions where you can. So that a meeting, a gathering of people together does not lead to you know, whole families or whole groups of people becoming infected.

COATES: And speaking of the idea of making smart decisions, I mean, part of that is going to be the contact tracing and the CDC, and you know the airlines are scrambling to contact passengers who are on a flight last week with a man who died from COVID. And when we checked him, he reported that he had no symptoms but his wife was overheard saying that he was in fact symptomatic. Does the honor system like this who reporting make flying particularly dangerous right now?

BROMAGE: So, flying, yes and no. I mean, the air environment inside a plane is very well controlled and very well regulated. So, we don't see entire aircrafts of people getting infected. And really think with the number of infections that we have a day in the United States and the amount of air travel we just talked about, a million people a day, there is a lot of people in the air with COVID infections right now moving across the country. But yet, it's rare that we actually see these big events on aircraft.

[23:25:00]

So you know, it can happen. It's really going to be the people beside you rather than the people in the entire cabin. I'm more worried about people getting inside other people's homes, sharing a meal across the table, sharing air of that same room, and you know, I can tell you from personal experiences and friends that I'm helping right now, we are looking at a massive surge of cases just even locally, that is happening from just innocuous meetings in your homes with friends and it just rips through the community.

COATES: Erin, thank you so much for being a part of it, especially going in to the holiday season and Christmas travel. I hope people make the smart decisions that you spoke about tonight. Thank you.

BROMAGE: Thank you.

COATES: You know, President Trump is kicking off what will likely be a flurry of pardons and it looks like it's all lining up with his revenge fantasy over the Russia investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: President Trump issuing a flurry of pardons tonight, and there is a good chance we will see many more in his last 28 days in office. Lot to talk about tonight with former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman.

Harry, I'm glad you're here. I bet you have a lot to say about this issue. I'm just guessing here. Because you call President Trump's pardon spree an attack on our country. Tell me why you're specifically outraged about these pardons.

HARRY LITMAN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL (on camera): Yes. So, I am really riled up, Laura, look. The pardons of Papadopoulos, and van der Zwaan are of a piece of what he's done before.

[23:30:00]

LITMAN: At least they are sort of personal and part of his sort of obsession with erasing the Mueller probe from history.

But let's talk about the three corrupt congressmen. Let's talk about the Blackwater probe. These are hallmark prosecutions of the Department of Justice. This is why you have a Department of Justice. And he just waves in and capriciously basically kneecaps them and gets rid in a sort of capricious swipe of the pen all the work and all the sweat and all the sort of institutional capital at plays in doing these kinds of things.

In some ways, this is the worst abuse of public trust. That is the word that Hamilton uses about when we impeach somebody that we have seen. No argument of anything personal. It is just a simple gut punch to the Department of Justice and the whole notion of criminal justice. I think it really, really stinks.

COATES (on camera): And by the way, this is somebody who is the head of the executive branch of government, under which the Department of Justice falls. The role of the executive branch is to faithfully execute the laws and make sure they are enforced.

And so this smacks of the same issues you are speaking about and there still the futile scheme now in the back of all of this to overturn the election results. It's coming from the White House. I mean, here is what Chris Christie is saying about that tonight.

LITMAN: Yeah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: We've had promises from Sidney Powell and other members of the president's legal team for blockbuster evidence and none of it has come forward. And so, you know, I'm as disappointed as anybody that the president was not re- elected in November.

But the fact is Joe Biden won the majority of the electoral votes. He had 306. And I think this is a very, very dangerous thing that we're engaging in right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES (on camera): I was thinking of the Department of Justice. I mean, tomorrow is Attorney General Bill Barr's last day.

He has got a new acting attorney general, Jeff Rosen, who is going to have to navigate this new dangerous attempt to try to undue the election, among other things, including the morale of the career prosecutors there who are looking at what you called these hallmark Justice Department prosecutions, and scratching their heads as if to say, do we have any say? What is next for them?

LITMAN: Yeah, which is low, low, low, and they have been ruled again and again. And I just want to repeat, Laura, on these prosecutions, the department really invested a lot and now they are just wiped out -- as with an eraser.

I think Rosen does not much. I think what is next for them is 28 days of relative calm. He is not going to try to seize voting machines or do anything like that. He hopes to actually be a lawyer in Washington one day. But they're going to be real difficulties and challenges for the new AG. Does he need to appoint a special council for Hunter Biden given all the great cynicism that Trump has bred that will make it difficult for the department to just do its work or their job?

I just think it's not going to be enough to put one foot in front of the other. They're going to be nuance, challenges that are going to take years to actually put everything right that has been kind of just spoiled in the Trump administration.

COATES: Let me bring in former House GOP investigative counsel Sophia Nelson, who, I think, is the right person to talk about this very issue, the idea of what is to come about trying to unpack those nuances.

You get the impression almost that you're going to open a closet door where your kids said they cleaned up and everything is going to fall out of this closet all of a sudden here, Sophia.

I mean, time is ticking. And it seems like we won't know president- elect Biden's official AG pick until after Christmas. You know there are several civil rights leaders, Sophia, who implored Biden to select a person of color. But right now, as far as we are hearing, the top choices seem to be Judge Merrick Garland and outgoing Senator Doug Jones.

How do you feel about those options?

SOPHIA NELSON, FORMER HOUSE GOP INVESTIGATIVE COUNSEL: You know, I am a Sally Yates fan and I was listening to a bit of the earlier broadcast and I apologize for any technical issues we had. But I think that they need someone with experience at DOJ.

I think a new attorney general who has never been in that role as far as maybe the deputy or one of the assistants, secretaries of the civil rights division, et cetera, I think that you need someone who has an experienced hand for all the reasons that your other guest outlined.

I think that all of the mess that Trump and Barr have left, the issue of pardons, whether or not there were quid pro quos, did you give something to get something, do we have to investigate, I think you need an experienced hand.

I'm not so much sold, Laura, on whether or not the person has to be a person of color or a female.

[23:04:56]

NELSON: I am though concerned that it's someone who has a lot experience and can also boost morale in a department that has taken a really hard hit in the last four years because of Trump's antics. DOJ has had a hard time.

COATES (on camera): To say the least, you always leave me wanting to hear more. Thank you, Sophia. I appreciate your time. And of course, you, Harry, as well. There are only two weeks now until Georgia's Senate runoffs, races that will decide which party holds power in the Senate, power that could decide what happens to Joe Biden's agenda.

Stacey Abrams has been getting out the vote for Democrats, and she is here next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STACEY ABRAMS, FORMER GEORGIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: When we came close in 2018, we were told that it was impossibility that we hit the ceiling and there was no more to be done. But in 2020, we proved that the ceiling was just the sky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: The Georgia Senate runoffs are just two weeks away with control of the Senate on the ballot. Both parties are doing everything they can to energize their voters.

Tonight, more than 1.6 million Georgians have already cast their ballots either in person early voting or by mail. The number is already coming close to turnout in November's general election when 1.9 million ballots were cast at the same point before Election Day.

[23:40:00]

COATES: It all comes down to which party can turn out the vote.

Joining me now to discuss is Stacey Abrams, founder of Fair Fight and the author of "Our Time Is Now." Certainly, your time in particular because Stacey, you have gotten a lot of credit for getting Democrats out to vote in the general election. And now, as you know, all eyes are on Georgia because the control of the Senate is coming down to this moment, as well.

Where do you see the race standing right now?

STACEY ABRAMS, AUTHOR, FOUNDER OF FAIR FIGHT, FORMER GEORGIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: We see the race as neck and neck and we believe that we are well positioned to win.

I know there was a Hail Mary from Mitch McConnell trying to cure the lapses and the absence of leadership from David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, but $600 in a relief package with a promise to do no more do nothing for Georgia voters. It does nothing for Georgia's people and does nothing for America. It is too little too late.

And while we are grateful that the Democrats agreed to move something forward, we know we need more. We need real partnership for president- elect Joe Biden starting in January, and the partners he needs are Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. We are going to get them there.

COATES (on camera): You know, of course, the idea of the president- elect Biden. That is a month away at this point, practically. And the president who is right now is Trump -- you know that Trump and his allies have been spreading lies about fraud in the election. The vice president today wouldn't even admit that the election is over, that Joe Biden won. Listen to this, Stacey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will make you a promise. We are going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted.

(APPLAUSE)

PENCE: We are going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out.

(APPLAUSE)

PENCE: We're going to win Georgia, we're going to save America, and we'll never stop fighting to make America great again.

(APPLAUSE)

PENCE: You watch.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES (on camera): You know, it is as if he is in a time warp here because Joe Biden won, he won the state of Georgia already, and he won 306 electoral votes.

So, what is your message right now to voters who are hearing these lies, even from people like the vice president of the United States, not to mention the president?

ABRAMS: Look, the Trump administration has a nearly perfect record of losses. They've lost in the courts. They've lost in the states. I served as one of the presiding electors. We know they lost in the Electoral College. And what we need voters to understand is that proclaiming something to be so does not make it happen.

I certainly recognize the importance of pursuing all of your legal remedies. But when those remedies have failed, it is time to move on. And the moving is going to happen on January 20th when Donald Trump moves out of the White House and Joe Biden moves in.

But we have to make certain that when Joe Biden becomes the president, that the obstructionism that has been a hallmark of the republican leadership in the Senate and republican leadership in the White House, that that does not survive.

That means we have to elect two US senators who are willing to balance the Senate to make sure it is a 50-50 space (ph), where compromise and conversation have to happen, and where Joe Biden has a fighting chance of helping fix the America that we want the Trump administration break.

COATES: You know, of course, Democrat in South Carolina, Congressman James Clyburn, has a new op-ed in The Washington Post, arguing that runoffs supress black representation.

Here is a part of what he said. He says if the candidate who got the most votes in the November 3rd US Senate special election in Georgia had been declared the winner, we would be preparing to swear in the Rev. Raphael Warnock to the upper chambers of Congress. Instead, he is in a runoff with a candidate who finished seven points behind him. And people think the 19th century is ancient history.

Georgia's runoff losses have their roots, as you know, in Jim Crow era. So is it time now to get rid of them?

ABRAMS: Absolutely. We know that Denmark Groover, who was the architect of the current runoff law, did it precisely to undermine the utility of black voters in elections. Sadly for Georgia, this racist system continues.

And I think the Republicans this year went hoist by their own petard because while they were able to use it to block Raphael Warnock from taking his rightful position as the next US senator, they also found David Perdue forced into a runoff that he is danger of losing.

And what we are looking at now is where we do stand today so that we can start to rightsize our democracy. You pointed out that it is a republic. We are a republic that practices representative of democracy. We ask the people to show up, to go to their ballot boxes, and to say who they want to see as their leaders.

We are asking Georgians to use peachvote.com to find out your closest polling place, to find out how you can return your vote, and to make certain you bank your vote and make a plan to vote before January 5th.

[23:45:01]

ABRAMS: Because if we want a stronger democracy, if we want the republic to stand, then we have to stand up for it, and that means showing up. But we are incredibly excited because we are seeing unprecedented turnout. More than 50,000 who voted so far did not vote in the general election.

That means we've got new voices that want to be heard. We know they want to be heard on COVID relief, on access to health care. They want to protect pre-existing conditions. They want access to jobs. They want more than $600 to make up for the eight months of dithering from the republican Senate. And we know they want justice.

These are things that Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff can deliver and that David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler have no interest in.

Kelly Loeffler has posed twice now accidentally with a KKK leader and David Perdue refuses to face the people he represents, did not hold a town hall meeting in six years.

These are two people who need to be retired, and we need new leadership, a new partnership, and a new future for America.

COATES: Stacey Abrams leading the way. Thank you so much for your time.

ABRAMS: Thank you for having me.

COATES: We are still trying to get past the coronavirus, but scientists are already on the hunt for the next big contagion. Where they are looking and when it could come, next.

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COATES (on camera): The COVID pandemic is raging the world, ravaging it with nearly 78 million cases around the world and more than 1.7 million deaths. But scientists fear even deadlier pandemics in the future. An exclusive report tonight from senior international correspondent Sam Kiley, reporting from the Congo.

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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This pristine wilderness is under threat. The environmental disaster here could lead to a human apocalypse. Because locked up in the forest are reservoirs of potentially deadly contagions, some perhaps more dangerous than we have ever seen before.

Ingende, 400 miles up the river from the democratic republic of Congo's capital, has been struck by a recent outbreak of the killer Ebola virus. It has killed three out of 11 patients here. The doctors fear that they have stumbled on a new virus, for which there may be neither treatment nor cure.

CHRISTIAN BOMPALANGA, MEDICAL CHIEF, INGENDE ZONE (through translator): We have to do more examination to figure out what is going on.

KILEY (on camera): So the doctors just told me that one of their immediate concerns is that they are getting cases now that presents symptoms that are similar to Ebola, but when they test them in the laboratory here, they're coming out negative.

(Voice-over): This patient has Ebola symptoms, but she is tested negative. She is one of two victims here who may be fighting a disease never encountered before.

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KILEY (voice-over): I asked the doctor if he was worried about new diseases emerging.

DADIN BONKOLE, PHYSICIAN TREATING EBOLA (through translator): Yes, indeed, we should be afraid. That was how Ebola came. It was unknown, an unknown disease. And then after test, it turned out to be a virus.

KILEY (voice-over): Treatments and a vaccine for Ebola now mean that while it's often deadly, more patients do survive. But medicine will never keep up with new diseases emerging from the wilderness.

The patients here did survive, but tests for known illnesses were all negative. So her disease remains a mystery.

Doctors worry that more zoonotic diseases like Ebola, HIV, AIDS, SARS, MERS and COVID-19 will emerge and make that jump from animals to humans.

Ingende on the river Ruki is deep in the Congo basis. It's accessible only by boat. But that is how a virus can travel to big cities like Mbandaka to the country's capital Kinshasa and into the global blood steam.

Mbandaka has been at the epicenter of this latest fight against Ebola which killed 55 people in the province.

(On camera): Here in Mbandaka, they are battling with the fifth local outbreak of the Ebola virus, which is on its 11th here in the Congo. They are getting a grip on it, they believe. But they are also concerned about finding unknown viruses that emerged from the forest just like Ebola.

(Voice-over): The scientists here have limited funds but they know their work is essential to protect their own country and the rest of humanity.

PETER FONJUNGO, CDC COUNTY DIRECTOR FOR DRC: If we don't have all this in place, you can imagine the nightmare scenario where you will just have a vast epidemic with many cases leading to a huge mortality and morbidity.

KILEY (voice-over): More than 100 new viruses have been discovered in the DRC over a decade, including many coronaviruses in bats. So, it's bats that get tracked. Bats are linked to many zoonotic diseases, notably COVID-19 and Ebola.

GUY MIDINGI, ECOLOGIST, NATIONAL BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INRB (through translator): Now, we want to put it in the (INAUDIBLE). You have to be really careful or they bite.

KILEY (on camera): The virologists have told us that once they haven't found the Ebola virus itself inside them, they have found the antibodies. So these are, in a sense, sentinel specie, an early warning system for humanity.

(Voice-over): And it can prove fatal, start an epidemic or worse. So could a cross infection from an unknown host to bats, to chickens, to children. About 80 bats are swabbed, tested for COVID and Ebola, and then the samples are sent to Kinshasa for more investigation. Most of them survived capture and returned to the wild.

The Congo's population has almost doubled in two decades to around 90 million. This puts the forest under strain and closes the gap between people and the new diseases that could kill them.

(On camera): The scale of the destruction of the rainforest here in Congo is not yet on the scale that we have seen in the Amazon. A great deal of it is the result of local farmers who clear the land and then farm it for a few years.

The problem is it causes fragmentation of the rainforest, increasing the surface area between the forest and humanity.

JEAN-JACQUES MUYEMBE TAMFUM, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INRB: So this is a forest.

KILEY (voice-over): Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe is an expert in emerging diseases. He has been tracking them since he discovered Ebola in 1976. And now he has a warning for us all.

MUYEMBE TAMFUM: So it has become an outbreak.

KILEY (on camera): Are you afraid that there is going to be more emerging diseases coming out of the forest? Something that is perhaps spreads like COVID but kills like Ebola?

MUYEMBE TAMFUM: We are now in a world where new pathogens will come out and will cause a threat for humanity. And, as you know, most of these diseases emerge from Africa.

KILEY (voice-over): And this in the Congo is how viruses mostly travel.

(On camera): The River Congo is the great artery that gives life to the whole nation but it is also the route by which the results of deforestation are exported.

(Voice-over): Like these smoked monkeys being sold for food. I filmed under cover because traders here in protected species fear exposure. Adams Cassinga is my guy. Once subsistence food, now bush meat is an international luxury commodity.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Can you arrange for shipping to Europe and America?

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KILEY (voice-over): I'm told that's no problem. There is an agency for that. The protected species, the monkey's heads and arms, have to be cut off to disguise them with antelope meat.

ADAMS CASSINGA, WILDLIFE CRIME INVESTIGATOR, CONSERV CONGO: We have experienced earning flocks of ex-patriots mainly from southeastern Asia and who demand to eat certain types of meat such as turtles, snakes, primates.

KILEY (voice-over): The UN estimates that some five million tons of wild meat are harvested every year from the Congo basin. But the most potent source of viruses is live animals. They carry the viruses and can infect when they are butchered or petted in private zoos.

Live animals and bush meat are part of a multibillion dollar global trade that is a cause and a symptom of ecological disaster. Combined with logging and industrial pressure, untold numbers of potential infections could be released.

And now, as if nature has found a way to protect itself, that locked up in the armoury of the forests is a weapon against the planet's most deadly threat, humankind. And if so, this abandoned palace of a long dead dictator isn't a relic of the past. It is a vision of what the planet looks like when mother earth fights back.

Sam Kiley, CNN, Kinshasa.

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COATES (on camera): Sam Kiley, thank you. And thank you for watching. Our coverage continues.

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