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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

A New U.S. COVID Death Record Foreshadows Grim New Year; Republicans Planning To Disrupt Biden's Certification By Congress; Trump's Actions Complicate State Of Play For Georgia GOP. Aired 5:30- 6a ET

Aired December 31, 2020 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:30:49]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, this is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It is 30 minutes past the hour on the last day of the year.

At the end of a very challenging year, it is clear some of the hardships that marred 2020 will linger well into 2021. Another sobering record set overnight. More than 3,700 American lives lost to coronavirus for the second day in a row.

Here's a sense of what's ahead. This chart of cases looks bad -- terrible -- but that was the spring. Zoom out for a chilling view of the virus' escalation. Bad now and getting worse as we head into the colder indoor months.

The more contagious British COVID variant has now been confirmed in San Diego, California -- a state that has seen the virus spread rampantly the last few weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATHAN FLETCHER, COUNTY SUPERVISOR, SAN DIEGO: Because there is no travel history, we believe this is not an isolated case in San Diego County and there are probably other strains -- other cases of the same strain in San Diego County.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The U.S. death toll far outpacing other countries. The CDC now projects up to 434,000 deaths by January 23rd. That's 4,000 Americans per day.

The vaccine rollout still far below expectations. Officials now admit it has been too slow and medical experts are concerned about longer- term strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's overpromising in the first place. It's also not having a national strategy but instead, throwing up our hands and basically saying it's now the federal government has done their job, it's just with the production and initially, distribution to the states. Ramping it up from now is going to be very challenging because the infrastructure actually needed to be built months ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Some states are giving the elderly priority for vaccination. Florida's plan, leaving distribution to each county, and that has created a scramble for a limited number of doses. The result, hours- long lines at vaccination sites and overwhelmed county hotlines and Web sites.

A CNN analysis finds the U.S. lags behind other countries in its vaccination efforts. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says more than half of nursing home workers are declining to get vaccinated. Governors in both parties wish their states were receiving more vaccine, and faster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV MIKE DEWINE (R), OHIO: We can't control how fast the vaccine comes into the state of Ohio and we know that there's a scarcity.

GOV. TOM WOLF (D), PENNSYLVANIA: I'm personally disappointed -- that maybe my expectations were too high that the vaccine would have been rolled out faster in a much more efficient manner than it has been.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: President Trump paying close attention to his golf game while largely ignoring the worsening pandemic that has killed more Americans on his watch than World War II and Vietnam combined. But he's all in on the many fruitless attempts to stay in the White House.

The president is returning to Washington today. He's skipping his own New Year's Eve bash at Mar-a-Lago. He's cheerleading Republicans who plan to disrupt next week's congressional certification of Joe Biden's election win.

Now everyone in the GOP is on board. Senator Ben Sasse saying this. "When we talk in private, I haven't heard a single congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent -- not one."

But one senator has put himself front and center in the effort to overturn the will of the people.

CNN's Phil Mattingly is on Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It's been apparent for weeks that several House Republicans who are very close allies of President Trump are going to vote to object to certain slates of electors as they counted President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the United States Congress.

However, the key missing element of that was they needed to pair up with a U.S. senator for anything substantive to actually occur. Well, now they have that U.S. senator. Senator Josh Hawley, Republican from Missouri, says he will join in the objections -- at least one objection and possibly more objections and he cited specifically, the state of Pennsylvania.

His rationale being that he believes certain state rules were changed late in the game. Those changes -- well, they were made because of the pandemic and it wasn't just in states that Joe Biden won, they were states that Donald Trump won as well. He also raised concerns about how tech companies treated Joe Biden and the Biden campaign as well.

[05:35:00]

He said he's willing to object because he wants to raise those issues to the public consciousness.

Now, what does it actually mean if both a member of the House and a member of the Senate objects? It means that both chambers will have to split -- basically, recess and then have a two-hour debate, and then vote. Now those votes are not going to change anything in the outcome. It's not going to change the specific slate of electors and it's certainly not going to change Joe Biden's victory.

Keep in mind, Democrats control the House and even though Republicans control the U.S. Senate, most of the Republicans have made clear they know that Joe Biden is the President-elect of the United States.

It will make the process a little bit longer.

It will also upset or at least ruffle the feathers of Hawley's Republican leader, and that's Mitch McConnell who made very clear earlier in the month he did not want Republicans joining with House Republicans in those objections. Making clear it was a losing battle and also one that would put several of his members in a precarious position of having to choose whether to vote for something Donald Trump has made very clear he wants or vote with reality, which is that Joe Biden won the election.

Now, that's almost certainly going to happen. Josh Hawley making that clear.

The big question now -- one, how many states will he and House Republicans object to; and two, will any other Republican senators join him? Right now, it seems like the answer is likely yes. We'll have to wait and see.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Phil. Thank you for that.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all but killing the chance for $2,000 stimulus checks for American families. You know, there's been a growing push after President Trump finally decided to demand those payments. He even found unlikely allies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): We have a very unlikely ally in President Trump. There ain't nobody here who has disagreed with Trump more times than I have and yet, here is what the leader of the Republican Party says. He says $2,000 ASAP. So even on this issue, amazingly enough, the President of the United States is right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: But, Sen. McConnell remains unmoved, blaming it on Democrats who won't agree to link those checks to the president's demands for an election fraud probe and less liability protection for big tech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The Senate is not going to split apart the three issues that President Trump linked together just because Democrats are afraid to address two of them. The Senate's not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrats' rich friends who don't need the help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: And, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer fuming, asking the question, "After all the insanity that Senate Republicans have tolerated from President Trump, $2,000 checks to Americans in a pandemic? Is this where Senate Republicans are going to draw the line?"

There is concerning new intelligence about a threat to U.S. troops overseas -- mercenaries offering money to attack American service members in Afghanistan. You might have heard of this before but this time the offer came from China.

International security editor Nick Paton Walsh has reported extensively from Afghanistan. He joins us from London. Nick, what do we know about this threat?

NICK PATON WALSH, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Well, just wind back a little bit to the first time we heard this kind of plot, which were suggestions from U.S. and European intelligence officials they had evidence that Russian military intelligence (the GRU) were paying the Taliban to attack American forces in Afghanistan. Over a period of years and on some occasions that had, in fact, resulted in casualties. Now, the Russians dismissed that at the time.

What we're hearing now though is from one senior administration official talking to my colleagues in Washington saying that on December the 17th, President Donald Trump was briefed in his presidential daily briefing that the Chinese had paid what they referred to in that briefing as non-state actors also to attack Americans in Afghanistan.

Now it's not clear precisely who they paid, if the payments were made, or if they resulted in casualties. And the information is referred to as uncorroborated.

And at the same time, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has hit back quickly on Thursday, saying that these allegations were quote "nonsense" -- denying any part in it at all. But also said by these same senior administration officials that the intelligence will be declassified in the weeks or days ahead. If this were the case, then it would mark an extraordinary escalation by China against the United States.

So, an interesting departure here certainly for the Trump administration. The president has yet to publicly call out Russia for what his officials have said were their plot against Americans in Afghanistan. And now, muddying the waters will be this information potentially about a similar Chinese plot.

Deeply troubling, I'm sure, for those still on the ground in Afghanistan. It's important not to talk about it as an abstract concept.

There is extreme violence raging in Afghanistan now, a lot of that fomented because of the feeling that the U.S. is leaving. It will be down to 2,500 troops by the middle of January. And it's unclear quite what President-elect Joe Biden wants to do next.

But continually hanging over that American presence there are these plots. Now the Chinese implicated by what I should say is uncorroborated information at this point, but I suspect we'll see more in the days ahead, Christine.

[05:40:09]

ROMANS: All right, Nick Paton Walsh for us in London. And you're right. What is clear is that it is a challenge for the incoming administration, no question.

All eyes are on Iran also this morning. A senior U.S. Defense official telling CNN the threat level is the most concerning since the U.S. assassination of a top Iranian general nearly a year ago. Still, the Pentagon divided over the specific risk from the regime and from the militias it supports in that region.

Let's go to CNN's Arwa Damon. She joins us live with more. Mixed on what the risks are and the threats are, but deeply concerned about them.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Most certainly because even though there are all sorts of mixed messages, all sorts of confusing reports as to what the intelligence actually indicates, just this uncertainty is something that is greatly concerning for the region.

You do have some senior officials who are saying, as you mentioned there, that the risks being posed by Iran against U.S. interests in the region, especially in Iraq, is at the highest level that it has been since the killing of Qasem Soleimani, saying that they have new intelligence that seems to indicate that Iran has been moving short- range ballistic missiles into Iraq.

But at the same time, you have other senior officials who are saying that there is no actual concrete intelligence to corroborate these claims of a heightened threat.

And then you have the messages that are coming out from the U.S. administration and its military maneuvers. The U.S. flew nuclear- capable B-52 bombers over the Middle East in a military muscle-flexing show of force seeming to send a clear message to Iran.

But at the same time, the acting Sec. of Defense Christopher Miller decided against a push to extend the deployment of one of the U.S. aircraft carriers in the region, instead pulling it out. And that seems to be giving a signal of de-escalation to Iran.

But we will all also remember that it was about 10 days ago where there was a number of rockets that were fired at the Green Zone in Baghdad, a couple of them landing inside the U.S. Embassy grounds. No casualties caused there, just some physical damage.

But that then prompted, a few days later, President Trump to call a meeting with senior military officials to discuss the threat being posed by Iran. And then he, himself warning Iran that if one American were to be killed he would be holding Iran responsible.

So suffice it to say as we go into 2021, great concerns over what President Trump may do in his last days in office.

ROMANS: Yes. All right, Arwa Damon in Istanbul. Thank you so much for that.

The Secret Service is bringing back a number of senior agents who previously guarded Joe Biden and his family. Staffing changes are typical with a new administration. But the new moves come after allies of the president-elect expressed concern that some current agents are politically aligned with President Trump, including some who reportedly urged other agents not to wear masks on presidential trips this year.

All right, on Friday, tomorrow, many low-wage workers across the country -- you're going to get a pay raise. Twenty states raising their minimum wages, some by just pennies; others by a dollar or more.

In New Mexico, for example, the minimum wage will rise $1.50. The gain is just eight cents in Minnesota.

The federal minimum wage of $7.25 hasn't budged since 2009. This boost is welcome news for many low-wage workers who have been hit especially hard by the pandemic.

But some states will have to wait. In Michigan, state law prohibits scheduled minimum wage increases when the state's annual unemployment rate is above 8 1/2 percent. Even though the jobless rate has improved in that state, it averaged 10.2 percent -- wow -- from January through October. For the 20 states that will raise their minimum wages, one economist at the Economic Policy Institute said redistributing money toward the lowest-paid workers is smart policy because they are the workers who will spend it. That will ultimately help the economy.

We'll be right back.

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[05:48:05]

ROMANS: These days, Georgia is on everyone's mind. It's the home stretch, of course, for two Senate runoffs that will decide the balance of power in the divided chamber.

President Trump says he wants the GOP to win but, you know, his own actions are putting Georgia Republicans on defense.

CNN's Kyung Lah is on the ground for us in Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, Christine, with the window closing on early voting here for the Georgia Senate runoffs, President Trump is still causing some headaches for GOP leadership in the state of Georgia.

The president called on the governor of this state, a Republican, to step down. President Trump still angry about losing the state of Georgia to Joe Biden, so he wants the governor to resign. The governor then called reporters to the State Capitol to respond on camera. And the governor spoke to Republicans in the state, saying look, ignore the tweets. And he called them, quote, "a distraction."

GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R), GEORGIA: I've supported the president and I've said that many times. I've worked as hard as anybody in the state on his reelection up through November the third. I've supported the legal process that him or any other campaign can go through in this state. But at the end of the day, I also have to follow the laws and the Constitution.

LAH (on camera): President Trump is scheduled to be in the state of Georgia on Monday, the day before the election, to rally Republicans. Also scheduled to be in the state, President-elect Joe Biden doing that on the Democratic side.

But it was another president, President Barack Obama, who delivered the closing message for the Democrats.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (Political Ad): Now America is counting on you again. You can send Jon Ossoff to the Senate to beat this virus and rebuild our economy. To make sure everybody can afford health care. And to carry the torch John Lewis passed to us with a new voting rights act that secures equal justice for all.

[05:50:00]

LAH (on camera): So, President Obama delivering that tentpole message that the Democrats have been saying here, of healthcare, economy, and justice as the closing message.

The question though is, Christine, is if people are going to hear it with more than $500 million in ads being spent here in the state of Georgia -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Yes. All right, Kyung Lah, thank you so much for that.

To Nashville now where the mayor says the city must take a deep look at what law enforcement could have done better to prevent a bombing on Christmas Day.

CNN has learned the bomber's girlfriend told police in August 2019 he was making bombs in his R.V. CNN has learned police tried several times, unsuccessfully, to get Warner to open the door.

Nashville police are defending their response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF JOHN DRAKE, NASHVILLE POLICE: You have to have probable cause that a crime is --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.

DRAKE: -- being committed or about to be committed. Right then, there was nothing other than a statement from someone.

Officers didn't take this lightly. They went back, they knocked on the door. They went several times. They followed up with the hazardous devices team unit.

I believe our officers did everything they could legally. Maybe we could have followed up more. Hindsight is 20-20.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The police chief says Warner's lawyer wouldn't allow a search of Warner's home. That attorney denies preventing police from searching the property.

Coronavirus is not the only reason to stay home for New Year's Eve. The weather will be ugly for much of the country. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam has the forecast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST (on camera): Good morning, Christine.

In classic 2020 fashion, the year is ending with multiple weather hazards across the country, from a severe weather threat across the Gulf Coast states to a full-fledged winter storm throughout the mid- Mississippi River Valley, as well as the Southern Plains.

This storm system is large, it's very complex, and in fact, it extends along the east coast where some lingering precipitation this morning will gradually come to an end. I think we'll have a dry New Year's Eve forecast for New York City.

But then we start to focus on what's brewing across the Gulf Coast states because there's a lot of moisture involved in this system. And the severe weather threat is enhanced today, especially across some of those hardest-hit areas from the Atlantic hurricane season throughout central Louisiana.

We have over 10 million Americans under some sort of winter weather advisory. You can see the precipitation accumulating over the next 48 hours. Some hefty snowfall totals and even the potential for up to a half an inch of ice in some locations, including Missouri.

Here's a look at your New Year's Eve forecast for New York City. It looks to stay dry with temperatures around 40 degrees.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Derek. Thank you so much for that.

All right, let's check on markets around the world. Markets in Tokyo were closed for the holiday. Frankfurt closed as well. On Wall Street, for the last trading day of the year, it looks like a mixed -- very mixed performance right now.

Despite a rise in coronavirus cases, stocks closed higher Wednesday. Stocks have soared in the middle of a pandemic. The S&P is up 15 1/2 percent this year. The Nasdaq up an unbelievable 43 percent.

Meanwhile, weekly unemployment claims are still stubbornly high. This morning's jobless claims report is expected to show another 833,000 Americans filed for the first time for unemployment benefits last week. That split-screen continues of investors really doing well this year, but the real economy still in trouble.

You probably listened to a lot of podcasts this year. Amazon betting you'll keep it up. Amazon will buy startup Wondery.

Amazon already has a subscription music business and audiobook business. It owns a big chunk of the smart speaker market with the Echo. Podcasts, therefore, a natural fit here.

The deal is the latest in an audio acquisition frenzy. Spotify, iHeartMedia, Sirius XM, and Apple have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in podcast acquisitions this year, a recognition that the world is changing in how we -- how we consume music and how we behave is changing because of the coronavirus. All right, we have a tradition here -- everybody at EARLY START -- on the last day of the year. We take a moment and we recognize the hard work of our talented team. We're like a family.

And this year, it feels especially important. Our team here at CNN stayed focused. People worked really hard overnight hours -- at home, in many cases, juggling homeschool. A lot of us are parents. It's been a difficult year.

And together, we are really proud to deliver you the news every day -- every morning you need. We are so happy to be here and that is because of this amazing team.

Tim Curran, Mark Friedman, Brian Seligson, Chloe Scretchings, Kwegyirba Croffie, Bruce Williams, Joanna Preston, Michael Manduley, Allison Hedges, Ryan Miller, Mallory Leonard, Elizabeth Yang, Emily McNulty, Andrew Seger, Alessandra Freitas, Sabrina Shulman, Dominic Torres, Claudia Pedala.

Laura Gattini who is home with her brand-new beautiful baby right now, Fred Uebele, Adam Gabel, Dante Olivia Smith, Dean Baxter -- wish you and your family and your beautiful wife well. James Marsek, Mike Stein, Rob Brenna, Doug Maines, Shimon Baum.

[05:55:00]

Joe Chojnacki, Don Mulvaney, Ben Gelb, Charlie Chester, John Rappa, Alix Steinfeld, Caitlin Weston, Amanda Torppey, Robert Melendez, Emily Wilson, Jill Davis-Wrate, Roseanne Jennings, Christine Bulger, Judy Hunter -- we miss you.

Ben Meyer, James Pertz, Paul Cutting, Paul Bernius, Michael Berman, Gina Fellows, Phil Loccisano, Jamie Vogt. And, L.J., your name is not on this list but without you, man, we would never get this off the ground every day.

Love you -- miss you, guys. Can't wait until 2021 when we can all be in a room together, shake hands, and hug. But for now, we're staying apart, staying safe, and celebrating wisely.

Thanks for joining us, everybody. And to our viewers, thank you so much. I hope you have a safe, peaceful, quiet weekend. Stay safe, stay healthy.

I'm Christine Romans. "NEW DAY" is next.

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GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: This new variant from the United Kingdom has been identified here in the state of California.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: It is very likely the vaccine-induced response will protect you. ADM. BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Of course, we need to be doing a better job, but all vaccine programs start somewhat slow.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The president is going to be leaving his Florida club earlier than expected and going back to Washington.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe that families struggling in America should get up to $2,000, as the Democrats do?

MCCONNELL: The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money, which has no realistic path to pass the Senate.

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is New Year's Eve and it's 6:00 here in New York, counting down the final hours of 2020.

John Berman is off. Jim Sciutto joins me. Happy New Year's Eve.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: We made it to December 31st.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Only -- well, how many more hours? A few more hours.