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Trump Signals He Will Veto Newly-Passed Relief Bill; Trump Issues Wave of Controversial Pardons; Researchers Estimate New Variant Reached U.S. Mid-November; Biden Blasts Trump Over Handling of Massive Russia-Linked Cyberattack. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 23, 2020 - 06:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[05:59:30]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, December 23. It's 6 a.m. here in New York. Alisyn is off. Erica Hill with us for what is major breaking news this morning.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, just when you think it can't get bigger, here we are.

BERMAN: Right. A $900 billion implosion, thanks to one video. That's where we could be since the president shocked Democrats, Republicans, and even his own staff, releasing a video overnight that signals he might veto the huge coronavirus relief package passed by both houses of Congress. So direct aid for millions of Americans is in very real jeopardy this morning.

To be clear, the president himself was not part of these negotiations, at all. He was too busy trying to overturn an election. But he swooped in overnight, blindsiding everyone, and insisted that Congress give Americans $2,000 stimulus checks, instead of the $600 that's in the deal.

Now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this morning is trying to capitalize on this and secure that extra money immediately. We have some new reporting on where this might be headed. But generally speaking, there is mass confusion.

One Republican aide tells CNN President Trump seems to be, quote, "coming unhinged."

HILL: Well, also overnight, President Trump issuing a wave of new pardons. Among them, three corrupt former Republican members of Congress, two men who pleaded guilty as part of the Mueller investigation, and four military contractors who were convicted in connection with the massacre of Iraqi civilians.

Those contractors are part of the firm Blackwater, which of course, is run by Eric Prince, the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. So much for running that swamp. The president, meantime, still largely ignoring the coronavirus, but

it is not going away. Take a look at these numbers. Another 34,001 deaths reported on Tuesday. That is the second highest daily death toll since the start of this pandemic.

And as for that new variant first discovered in the U.K., well, this morning, researchers tell CNN they believe hundreds of people in the U.S. have already been infected with that new variant. We'll have more on that in just a moment.

But we want to begin with CNN's Joe Johns, who is live at the White House this morning with the latest on this confusion, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Eric.

He has been missing in action for weeks, and now just when it looked like it couldn't get any more chaotic at the end of the Trump administration, the president emerged from the sidelines of the stimulus negotiations, throwing a wrench into the process and also throwing into doubt desperately-needed financial relief for millions of Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): An unexpected late-night announcement from President Trump, threatening to stall financial assistance for millions of Americans, as the coronavirus pandemic devastates the nation.

Trump posting this video to Twitter Tuesday, calling for changes to the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill passed by Congress after months of gridlock and negotiations.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple. I'm also asking Congress immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation.

JOHNS: The president's disruption after staying on the sidelines of stimulus negotiations, and sources tell CNN Trump's efforts will not prompt lawmakers to renegotiate a bill.

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): Over six months ago, Democrats placed on the table a $3 trillion package that would have saved lives, would have provided a stopgap to food insecurity, stopped people from being evicted, and the president was MIA. He was nowhere to be found.

JOHNS: His proposal of $2,000 stimulus checks receiving a rare endorsement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, tweeting, "At last, the president has agreed to $2,000. Democrats are ready to bring this to the floor this week by unanimous consent. Let's do it."

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): I don't know what this last-minute gambit is all about, but, look, if he's serious, if he's going to put pressure on McConnell and Senate Republicans to go along with him, I'm all for it. JOHNS: Trump's announcement after issuing a wave of controversial

pardons and commutations. Among them, past associates and allies, like former Trump campaign aid, George Papadopoulos and Dutch lawyer Alex Van der Zwaan, both pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI during their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Also on the list, former Republican congressman Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter, some of the first members of Congress to endorse President Trump's 2016 campaign.

Collins started a federal prison sentence in October after pleading guilty to charges related to insider trading. Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison earlier this year for misusing $200,000 in campaign funds. He will now serve no time.

Others issued pardons include four Blackwater security guards convicted for their role of the massacre of Iraqi civilians in 2007. The president's move outraging some Capitol Hill Democrats.

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): The whole idea of a pardon is that we can inject some mercy into justice. And instead of -- instead of elevating mercy and making us better people, he has pardoned a bunch of murderers and grifters and liars, most of whom have nothing in common, other than the fact that they somehow expressed their loyalty to Donald Trump.

[06:05:13]

JOHNS: And stay tuned. The pardons and commutations may not be over yet. White House aides say there may be more before the president's term ends on January 20.

The president is scheduled to travel down to his Mar-a-Lago resort later today. However, we have been told by multiple people that he's discussed canceling the trip -- Erica.

HILL: In the wise words of John Berman, buckle up. Joe Johns, thank you.

Also developing this morning, researchers telling CNN they believe hundreds of Americans could already be infected with this new variant of coronavirus and that it likely arrived in the U.S. in mid-November.

CNN's senior political correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining us now more. I guess it's not surprising at this point that it's already here.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's not. I mean, Erica, you know how many flights there are from London to various cities in the U.S. Things travel. There's no restriction. People have been getting on planes.

British researchers traced back this variant to September 20, and that's how they calculate that they think it arrived here probably around mid-November, and that there could be hundreds of cases by now. And remember, this is a variant that seems to travel more quickly,

seems to be more transmissible. But -- and this is interesting and important -- it's evaded the U.S. surveillance system. Nobody can point to, there's this case in the U.S. or that case, because they haven't found them out -- found them yet. They're out there, but they haven't found them.

And the reason for that? Well, the U.S. surveillance system just isn't great. Let's take a look. I'll show you the numbers that back up what I am saying.

So if we take a look in the U.S. since November 15, around the time that this variant would have appeared, there have been more than 7 million cases of COVID. Seven million new cases of COVID. How many were actually genetically sequenced so you could see if there were mutations? 292 of them. That's nothing. That is a tiny number.

Now let's take a look at how they do this in the U.K. As I mentioned, they've done genetic sequencing on 292 infected people since November 15th in the U.S. In that same time period, in the U.K., they've sequenced 9,230 people. Viruses from 9,230 people. That is a huge difference.

The system in the U.S. is just not terribly robust. And to catch a mutation, you have to do this genetic sequencing. That is the only way to do it.

The CDC announced that they are going to have a new system. They're working on it. They believe that it will be fully implemented next month -- John.

HILL: Wow, next month. Those numbers are just astounding as we look at that.

Meantime, I know you've been speaking with experts, Elizabeth, who think the vaccine -- there's been a lot of talk about whether the vaccine will work in the same way when it comes to this new variant, and there is some concern this morning.

COHEN: There is some concern. I've been talking to researchers who say, look, this mutation, it's got a lot of different individual mutations, and they're working together in a way that we just haven't seen before.

They say that they are concerned that the vaccine might not work quite as well against this new mutation. They think it will work, but maybe not quite as well.

Now, we all know that the vaccine works in the clinical trials. They found that it worked 95 percent, 95 percent effective. They think maybe against this new variant, it will be more like 80 percent or 85 percent. That's still great. That's still an amazing number. And still a great reason to get the vaccine. But they're afraid there might be a modest, a slight hit here -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much for this reporting, keeping us current on this. There are still so many questions, and we will speak to incoming CDC director Rochelle Walensky about all this in our next hour.

So overnight, the U.S. reported the second deadliest day of the pandemic: 3,401 new deaths reported in one night. President-elect Biden warning, though, that the worst is still to come.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: One thing I promise you about my leadership during this crisis, I'm going to tell it to you straight. I'm going to tell you the truth. And here's the simple truth. Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us, not behind us. So we need to prepare ourselves, to steel our spines, as frustrating as it is to hear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The final time we will hear from the president-elect before Christmas. There was a lot of news there.

CNN's Jessica Dean joins us now -- Jessica.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: There was a lot of news yesterday, John. You heard the president-elect laying out just how dire the coronavirus situation is in our country right now.

He also talked about what he wants to do on day one. He wants masking requirements where he can put them into place. He wants increased testing and increased production of PPE.

He was also talking about this massive cybersecurity hack on the U.S. government and U.S. businesses. He said it -- it poses a grave threat to our nation's national security and that there's no indication it's under control, no indication that we know exactly what's going on here and the scope of this.

And he sharply criticized President Trump and his administration for failing to prioritize cybersecurity. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: This assault happened on Donald Trump's watch, when he wasn't watching. It's still his responsibility as president to defend American interests for the next four weeks. But rest assured that even if he does not take it seriously, I will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And Biden saying that, once he is president and understands exactly what happens here, that the U.S. will respond and will likely respond in kind.

Also interesting, yesterday, the number of times the president-elect talked about bipartisanship, especially as it relates to congressional Republicans. He thanked them for getting through the COVID relief bill yesterday. He talked about them coming forward and doing what they had said they would do, which is able to just pass this COVID relief bill.

And it was interesting to note, he also said that there is a new team in town, John, and that he's not going to be villainizing his opposition. Of course, so much of his legislative agenda and what he wants to do, all of it really hinges on bipartisan support in Congress, John.

BERMAN: It was very interesting. Sort of with a gleam in his eye, he noted that he's been in Washington nearly 40 years, yet people are still calling him naive. A little bit of irony there, to be sure.

Jessica Dean, keep us posted. Thank you so much.

This morning, all of Washington scrambling to figure out what the president is doing. What is the status of the $900 billion relief package? Will you still get your stimulus check? We are digging for answers. We'll bring you the latest, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Breaking news. "Boooom." Right, sound effects. That's what we've come to.

The future of the $900 billion coronavirus relief package passed by both houses of Congress this week is in jeopardy because of a video posted by President Trump overnight. He is now demanding -- after not being part of this for months, he is demanding that lawmakers increase the amount of money in stimulus checks to Americans. He wants to increase it to $600 to $2,000, something that Republicans had rejected.

[06:15:06]

Joining us now, CNN political analysts Toluse Olorunnipa and Margaret Talev. Toluse is a White House reporter for "The Washington Post." Margaret is a politics and White House editor for Axios.

OK, Margaret, what the hell's going on?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Many Republicans asking themselves that this morning, as well. This -- like, this deal with the $600 payment took an excruciating long period of time to do. They finally brought it in for a landing. President Trump surprised everybody with this video last night.

So if you are an American sitting at home who would be eligible for this $600 per person check, trying to figure out whether it's going to happen next week, as you were promised, the answer is, we don't know right now. We will probably know tomorrow after the House takes up this additional vote.

But the bottom line is that, if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen because the president decided not to make it happen.

If -- if there is a will in Congress to give people $2,000 a person or $1,200 a person, that can still happen next year. There's nothing that precludes anything from being added later onto this $600. But -- but if the president vetoes this, it puts everything into flux and pushes everything into next year.

HILL: And to be clear, the president's, you know, desire to be front and center, to have the attention on him, to perhaps somehow say that he made this happen. Because we know this is how he operates, despite never wanting to be involved, as John pointed out.

Toluse, the losers here are the American people, who have been waiting for months and thought that something was coming their way. And now it's the president -- and this includes many of his supporters -- who's throwing it all out the window.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, the president is saying that he's trying to get more money for the American people, but the way that he's involved, the way he is handling this process, could mean that people don't get any money or people could have to wait even longer to get any money at all, because these negotiations have been happening for several months. His own administration was part of these negotiations. They signed onto these $600 checks. It was even the idea of the administration to accept the $600 number.

Other Democrats were pushing for more money. Republicans said they did not want to provide as much money. And then, at the 11th hour, President Trump swoops in and says, I want to go even higher than what the Democrats were offering.

So, one important thing to remember is that not only is this a stimulus bill that would provide funding and checks and small business support for businesses that are struggling, but it's also the bill that keeps the government open. And if the president plays around with this beyond, you know, the short-term deal that they came up with to keep the government funded past next week, then we could also be in a situation where the end of the year also is marked by a government shutdown.

The president realizes that he does not have very many cards to play with his time in office waning, but he's trying to turn the spotlight back on himself, make himself the center of attention, and try to change the narrative from sort of a lame-duck president who's just, you know -- his signature is needed to pass what Congress has come up with, to someone who's at the center of the action, trying to get more money for the American people, in his mind and in his view.

So that's where he is sort of strategizing this, to the extent that there's any strategy here. But he does not have very much leverage, because Congress passed these bills overwhelmingly, and if they want to, they could override his veto and give the money to the American people, even if he decides to object.

BERMAN: Look, it's not at all --

TALEV: I don't think you can --

BERMAN: Bo ahead, Margaret. TALEV: Yes. I was just going to say, I don't think that you can

discount also that President-elect Biden yesterday came out and said about this very deal itself that he's glad something happened, but that it's just a down payment; that he's going to be coming back next year, asking for more. That Biden was going to be asking for more direct relief for people and more assistance for police and law enforcement and so on and so forth.

I do think a big part of this is President Trump messaging to his base, and part of this is President Trump trying to tell Americans, No, I'm the one who wants to give you more, not Biden. And so at the very end of the year, this is what we see happening now.

BERMAN: Let me make one thing clear. It is not at all clear to me that President Trump understands the legislative process, understands that both houses of Congress have now passed this, or understands what happens over the next few days. We are in a legislative twilight zone right now, depending on if the president vetoes it, if he waits several days to veto it, if he waits several days to sign it. There's a whole range of things that might happen now.

It's also not clear to me that he had any idea that these negotiations were going on, because he was so fixated on overturning the election. He hasn't been focused on this.

And as Erica said, the impact of this, the effect, is on the American people. This hurts people who are expecting checks in the next week; who were told yesterday that they were getting extended unemployment benefits, extended stimulus checks or enhanced stimulus checks. That's just the fact.

[06:20:04]

And if the president had wanted to be part of this three days ago, he could have been. Ten days ago, he could have been. Twenty days ago, he could have been. He chose not to. And Margaret, as you said before, we just don't know what's going on now. I mean, it's not often that we sit here and tell you, honest to God, we have no idea which way this will go. We don't even know if the president is going to get on a plane to Mar-a-Lago today.

TALEV: We've begun to see the president lash out at fellow top Republicans, Mitch McConnell, John Thune. And to some extent, that's what this is about. Like, they're the ones who were holding off on the larger cash payments as a matter of fiscal responsibility.

And so the president is kind of arguing both sides of this -- this argument here, and it's all happening before this very important race in Georgia.

The reason why the stimulus relief was attached to keeping the government up and running was precisely to kind of smooth the path to make sure that this could pass, because there was so much riding on it.

I expect that the president will continue with his trip. My sense is that this is optics, trying to show the American people that he would even be willing to put his family vacation on the line to work for them. But who knows? Again, we are in a surprise scenario where even the people inside his own team and the people inside the Republican party leadership don't necessarily know what's coming around the bend at this point.

BERMAN: All right. Margaret, Toluse, stand by. Because while it is a bad morning to be an unemployed worker waiting for an enhanced unemployment check, it's a good morning to be a corrupt politician, a confessed liar, or a convicted murderer. Because the president has pardoned people in all three of those groups. We will talk about these extraordinary pardons and what it means for what might be coming next, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:54]

HILL: Developing overnight, President Trump issuing a wave of new pardons. Among them, three corrupt former Republican members of Congress; two men who pleaded guilty as party of the Mueller investigation; and four military contractors, convicted in connection to the massacre of Iraqi civilians.

Toluse and Margaret are back with us.

You know, as we look at these pardons, the things that stand out, these are not the acts of someone who's really following through on law and order or draining the swamp. They are, though, definitely the act of somebody who would also like to erase the Mueller investigation, Toluse.

OLORUNNIPA: Yes, the president has been obsessed with this investigation for several years. He's been trying to erase the fact that he was under investigation, that Mueller essentially found that he had committed all kinds of acts that potentially could be crimes, although Mueller did not specifically, you know, come down one way or the other on, you know, absolving the president or prosecuting him.

But the president's orbit was definitely heavily prosecuted. Several members of the president's close inner circle were indicted, pled guilty. And now the president is trying to clean up his tracks and pardon some of those officials.

And there are several other people who were pardoned yesterday who did not fit in with the president's idea of law and order. You have several military contractors who were convicted murderers, not sort of the non-violent criminals that normal -- normally get pardons in these kind of situations. These are people who are convicted of murder, convicted of manslaughter, of killing more than a dozen Iraqi civilians who were unarmed.

You have the president also, you know, pardoning people who are, you know, members of Congress, who were convicted of corruption in office. So the whole idea of draining the swamp sort of goes out of the window in these final days of the presidency. So President Trump realizes that he does not have very much time left

in office, and he's going to use the power that he has, which includes the power to pardon, to you know, give gifts to his political allies and sort of abandon his motto of "drain the swamp" and "law and order."

BERMAN: Confessed liars, corrupt politicians, convicted murderers. And the through line here is that all three of these groups either directly or indirectly have personal ties to the president.

Jack Goldsmith did an analysis -- "The New York Times" published it -- that 88 percent of the president's pardons and commutations have some kind of personal tie to him.

Margaret, if this is the beginning, if this is the first bite at the pardon apple, if we've got 28 more days of this, what does this portend for the future?

TALEV: I don't expect this to be the last one, John. We heard last week that the president was preparing to move forward with a wave of pardons. That was last Friday. So these have been in queue for several days. I expect that there are more to come come.

I know that the president has told people around him, has been asking, who should I pardon? Anyone you want me to pardon? Would you like me to pardon you? So he's certainly considered a wide array of people.

And there are people very close to him whose names haven't appeared on this list yet, who may be in some sort of jeopardy for, you know, federal investigation or federal action.

And so I think in the weeks to come -- in the weeks to come, we may see additional.

Sidney Powell, his -- the lawyer who's been pushing some of these conspiracy theories about election fraud and voting machines, represented one of these clients. We may see other people up for pardons whose lawyers have close political ties to the president.

These are bypassing, largely, the review process that the Justice Department has set out, and that is presidential prerogative at this point.

But I would just juxtapose these with another stat, which is federal executions, executions of federal prisoners. The pardon and clemency system is supposed to be about mercy, not just about protecting your political allies and people who can help you. And as the president has moved forward with this batch of pardons, we have also seen record numbers of federal executions this year for -- for prisoners on federal death row.

HILL: You know, it's an excellent point. And Toluse, we could also point out, the presidency is supposed to be about running the country. And it's supposed to be about helping the American people. It's not supposed to be about wielding power in any way that you can, just to prove that.