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U.S. Again Shatters Records for Coronavirus Deaths & Hospitalizations; Trump to Return to White House to Pursue Baseless Election Fraud Claims; NYC Officials Asking People to Stay Home on New Year's Eve. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 31, 2020 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This new variant from the United Kingdom has been identified here in the state of California.

[05:59:17]

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It is very likely the vaccine induced response will protect you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course, we need to be doing a better job, but all vaccine programs start somewhat slow.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president is going to be leaving his Florida club earlier than expected and going book to Washington.

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

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (D-KY): I don't want to be bullied into rushing out more money which has no realistic path to pass the Senate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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 a.m. 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 31.

CAMEROTA: Yes!

SCIUTTO: Only how many more hours? Eighteen more hours.

CAMEROTA: You'll be on the air a lot today. But in the meantime, we do start with breaking news for you. Because the U.S. again breaks its record for coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations. Three thousand seven hundred and forty-four American deaths reported just yesterday.

And the outlook for the start of this New Year is even more grim. The CDC now projects another 81,000 Americans will die in just the next three weeks.

More than 125,000 Americans are hospitalized with coronavirus this morning. That is a new all-time high.

And officials in Southern California say they have identified a new case of that highly contagious strain of coronavirus. San Diego health officials confirmed the strain in a 30-year-old man who has not recently traveled.

California already dealing with a crushing number of coronavirus patients. In Los Angeles County, morgues are filling up. And the National Guard is being called in to help the coroner's office and hospitals.

At the same time, the White House coronavirus task force is admitting that the pace of vaccinations is nowhere near what they hoped it would be.

Two point seven million Americans have now been vaccinated. That is only about 20 percent of the doses delivered. One in five and well below the 20 million people the Trump administration said would be vaccinated by today.

Also breaking overnight, President Trump is returning to Washington this morning ahead of schedule, skipping his annual New Year's Eve bash at Mar-a-Lago to continue his baseless pursuit of election fraud claims.

Some Republican lawmakers plan to challenge next week's Electoral College certification of Joe Biden's victory.

We begin with the breaking pandemic news. CNN's Paul Vercammen, he's live in Los Angeles with our top story. So this new, more transmissible variant, it's in California and other states?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Jim. And as we get ready to ring in the New Year, the COVID-19 numbers are just horrifying.

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VERCAMMEN (voice-over): The United States sees its deadliest day since the pandemic began. More than 3,700 Americans were reported dead on Wednesday from the coronavirus. And more than 125,000 Americans are currently hospitalized, the highest since the start of the pandemic.

The CDC now projects as many as 424,000 Americans will die from the virus by January 23. In California, the state identified its first case of the coronavirus

variant after Colorado reported one confirmed case and one suspected case on Tuesday. The case involves a 30-year-old man in San Diego, who had no recent travel history and had very few social interactions in the days before becoming symptomatic.

NATHAN FLETCHER, SUPERVISOR, SAN DIEGO COUNTY: We believe this is not an isolated case in San Diego County and there are probably other strains, other cases of this same strain in San Diego County.

VERCAMMEN: Dr. Anthony Fauci is not surprised that this variant has been found in the United States and believes the vaccine will likely protect against this new strain.

FAUCI: The transmissibility of this mutant is more efficient than the transmissibility of the standard virus.

VERCAMMEN: This new COVID variant comes as California is still struggling to get the pandemic under control.

In L.A. County, one person is dying every ten minutes from coronavirus. The county just surpassed 10,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Hospitals are still overwhelmed in the state. and ICU capacity is at zero percent in much of the state. Meanwhile, some of the nation's top health officials are now admitting the pace of the vaccine rollout is lagging behind expectations.

DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, LEADER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: We agreed that that number is lower than what we hoped for. We know that it should be better.

VERCAMMEN: The United States has distributed 12.4 million doses and administered only 2.7 million vaccines. The administration had promised 20 million vaccinations by the end of the year.

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.

VERCAMMEN: In Florida, this is what demand for the vaccine looks like. Senior citizens lining up for hours, many arriving in the middle of the night and sitting in lawn chairs. Florida's first-come, first- serve policy for elderly residents leading to a scramble for a limited number of doses.

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VERCAMMEN: And 7,500 people hospitalized here in Los Angeles County. Doctors and nurses telling me, Jim, that they are petrified that people could make things worse over the New Year's weekend.

[06:05:08] SCIUTTO: Listen, making senior citizens wait in line for hours to get vaccinated, it just doesn't sound like a plan. Paul Vercammen, thanks very much.

Well, developing right now, President Trump is heading back to the White House this morning, leaving his vacation in Florida early. Why? To peddle more baseless election fraud claims. Remember, rejected by his own Justice Department.

This ahead of Congress counting and certifying the Electoral College victory for Joe Biden next week, normally a ceremonial role.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is live in West Palm Beach, Florida, with more.

Boris, I wonder, as the president focuses on this, fights, pushes, pressures his own vice president to reject the outcome of the election, does he truly believe he can do this successfully or is this performance art? What are you hearing?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's hard to say, Jim. Certainly, we've been told that advisers close to the president have made clear to him that an objection to the Electoral College results in Congress are likely not going to overturn the outcome of the election.

We understand that the president has had a difficult time processing the idea that Vice President Mike Pence is simply there, as part of a ceremonial role, that he's not actually going to have a role in decertifying the results from specific states.

Nevertheless, the president still embroiled in this election to overturn the election, and he got news that he wanted. He's been campaigning Republicans for weeks to object to the Electoral College results.

Yesterday, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri confirming that he intends to do that, despite the fact that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been privately pressing lawmakers to avoid this scenario, because it puts Republicans in a very difficult position. They're now going to have to go on the record and either vote with

reality and the fact that there is no evidence of widespread electoral fraud, or play into this fantasy of President Trump's and ultimately undermine democracy and potentially hurt the party long-term.

It appears the president doesn't care. He sees this as a loyalty test. And you're right, the president is set to leave his Mar-a-Lago estate shortly before noon today. There is some reporting out there that the president is unhappy with renovations at the club, at what will be his home post-White House.

But this is his focus now: January 6 and drumming up as much support as possible to try to stage some drama on Capitol Hill that day, Jim.

CAMEROTA: I'll take it, Boris. Thank you very much for all of that reporting.

SANCHEZ: Of course. CAMEROTA: So it's a New Year's Eve like none other. We're less than 18

hours until the ball drops in Times Square. And celebrations this year will look very different. Officials are asking people to stay home.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is live in Times Square with more. It's just so strange to think, Brynn, of Times Square being virtually empty.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's -- you know, it's felt like that the entire pandemic, right, Alisyn? I've covered this New Year's Eve story so many times in my career.

And usually at this hour, we're seeing people on the outlying streets of Times Square, you know, wearing diapers and stuff, waiting to get inside those pens. Well, that is certainly not going to happen this year. There's going to be no crowds, no fireworks. The ball drop celebration is all going to be livestreamed on air.

So it's definitely going to have a different feel, but that doesn't mean you can't celebrate. The show is still going to go on. That's the point. There's still going to be some big-name celebrities giving performances. And everyone who is allowed in Times Square is going to have to undergo or has already undergone a COVID test.

Now, I can tell you, there are still pens set up that I actually just saw. They're much smaller in size this year. They're socially- distanced apart. And those are reserved only, only for some heroes of 2020, the frontline workers and their families.

And then of course, we have the NYPD. Listen, they, every year, every celebration, have been protecting, securing this entire operation. It's going to be no different this year.

But listen, they're actually doing that with 80 percent less of their force. And a lot of their job is going to be making sure crowds do not gather around Times Square or get into Times Square. Take a listen.

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TERENCE A. MONAHAN, NYPD CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT: We don't like an empty Times Square, either. But this year has been nothing short of unprecedented. So we're asking for everyone's help this year.

Stay at home with your family. Let's put 2020 in the rearview mirror and welcome 2021 with the hope that we can soon start celebrating together in a COVID-free New York City.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Man, isn't that everyone's wish for the New Year. So certainly, I think it's safe to say, Alisyn, that a lot of people can't wait for midnight tonight and ringing in that New Year. But do it at home. Be safe. You're not going to be allowed in Times Square if you even try to get here -- Alisyn.

[06:10:04]

CAMEROTA: It's such a great point, Brynn. And if you stay at home, you don't have to wear a diaper. So it's a win-win.

GINGRAS: Right.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much for all of your reporting. CNN's New Year's Eve live special with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen kicks off from Times Square at 8 p.m. Eastern.

So there will still be two revelers at least, those two. And some of the special guests, Mariah Carey, Patti LaBelle, and Dionne Warwick.

OK. So the U.S. again is shattering its daily death toll as a new strain of the coronavirus pops up in yet another state. So we discuss all of the latest pandemic news for you, next.

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CAMEROTA: Breaking news. The U.S. again shattering records for coronavirus deaths. Officials report 3,744 Americans died yesterday. Hospitalizations also at an all-time high. Overnight, we learned that the new highly-contagious coronavirus variant has been found in Southern California. The first confirmed case coming a day earlier in Colorado.

Joining us now, CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He's a professor of medicine at George Washington University.

So Dr. Reiner, I'm sure it comes as no surprise to you that now a second state has this more contagious variant. Now. one confirmed case in Colorado. A second suspected one in Colorado. One confirmed case in Southern California. How soon before we see this everywhere?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, it's probably everywhere now. Well, we're just now looking for it. The British authorities identified this variant in September.

So if it's been in the United Kingdom for that long, it's probably been in the United States for that long. So the difference is that our genomic surveillance is just not as vigorous as the British system for doing that.

And it's one of the lessons we're going to learn going forward, is that we need to be better at that. So it's here in the United States. It's still the coronavirus. It is more transmittable. And although on a per-person base, it doesn't appear to be more lethal. If it infects more people, it will kill more people.

So, again, we need to double down on everything that we know that is effective in preventing the transmission of this virus. Wear a mask, social distance, stay out of crowds.

[06:15:03]

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you, Dr. Reiner, because it is more transmissible, and we know that, does that mean that those mitigation steps like mask wearing, social distancing to six feet, are therefore potentially less effective? Does it mean that masks will protect you less? REINER: No, I don't think so. What I do think it means is that if you

are unprotected in the presence of someone with this virus, you are more likely to acquire it. But -- but masking will prevent this virus. This virus cannot magically, you know, penetrate these layers of protection. But if you are unprotected, you are more likely to acquire it.

So if you need -- if you needed any kind of motivation to protect yourself, use this.

CAMEROTA: In terms of where we are with vaccinations, I think 2.8 million Americans reportedly have been vaccinated. As you know, as of today, we were supposed to be at 20 million, I mean, according to the early predictions from the administration. So that's a fraction. That's really disheartening.

And also, we're just falling behind other countries. Other countries are doing this better in terms of getting people vaccinated. So, for instance, Bahrain, doing better. Israel, doing better. The U.K., doing marginally better. We're doing a little bit better than Canada. But still, what do we need to do here to make this better?

REINER: We need a sense of urgency. We've been waiting, you know, for a vaccine. And magically, like a gift from God, we actually get two vaccines that are spectacularly effective.

And we're just sort of leisurely administering them in the United States. So we have literally 10 million doses sitting on the shelf around the country, waiting to go into arms. We need mass events. We need to vaccinate on a large scale. And when I heard Admiral Giroir saying, Well, they'll be in CVS and Walgreens pretty soon, and people will be able to go there and get them, no, no. That's not the way to do it. You know, we've seen, sadly, in large parts of the country, you know, thousands of cars lined up for food giveaways. We know how to do that. We can give vaccines the same way.

We need large events at football stadiums and racetracks. We need to go to -- into mass vaccination mode, and we need to do it now. So think about it. We need to give with a two-dose vaccine about half a billion shots in the next year. We need to be vaccinating about 2 million people a day to do that. Two million people a day, as opposed to 150,000 people a day. And I just don't see the urgency.

SCIUTTO: It's not happening under this president. Clearly. I mean, he's checked out on the pandemic, and he's said explicitly, it's up to the states. It's not my problem. And he's golfing. And he's challenging the election, based on nothing.

So that's still three weeks before a new administration takes over. Can the Biden administration and his team correct exactly the problems you're talking about, right? Which is leaning entirely on states, on private pharmacy chains rather than the national mass event plan you're talking about. How quickly can the new administration correct this?

REINER: Well, I'm sure they're already working on this. You know, many of us have thought, you know, over the last several months that we were only going to get this pandemic under control with regime change. Because the outgoing administration just didn't have what it -- what it takes to do that.

And when I -- when I listened to Admiral Giroir, I have these really uncomfortable deja vu moments about testing in the United States, where it just took forever to ramp up testing in the United States, while the virus replicated in our big cities.

And I'm starting to see the same way about vaccinations. Let's get on with it.

Israel, as you mentioned, is leading the world. They are vaccinating on a per capita basis, 15 times faster than the United States. They've already vaccinated 20 percent of their population over the age of 60. That would be as if we had already vaccinated about 15 million Americans over the age of 60. Obviously, we're nowhere close to that.

SCIUTTO: Admiral Giroir yesterday, too, said, you know, the holidays are getting in the way. That's not a surprise. The holidays come this time of year every year.

CAMEROTA: Right, and by the way, that should be -- we shouldn't let the holidays be getting in the way. But here he is, in case people missed it. Here's Admiral Giroir yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF HEALTH, HHS: Of course, we need to be doing a better job, but all vaccine programs start somewhat slow.

I think it's more of just you starting a program; and that starts relatively slowly and ramps up very quickly. I know we will be distributing about 30 million more in January and, potentially, up to 50 million more in February.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: What do you hear there, Doctor?

REINER: I hear a lack of urgency. A lack of urgency. Every city in the United States has a convention center. A big venue. And we need to start having events at these places.

[06:20:07]

You know, every -- every four years in the United States, we bring a ton of people together at the same time to vote. Right? Why don't we just mobilize polling places. And every week in polling places, have mass events? We know -- we know how to do this. We can do this. We just need to think differently. This administration is thinking small. We need to think big.

SCIUTTO: We didn't do it for testing, right? I mean, for months. Remains to be seen whether we can do it for vaccination. I mean, it's remarkable.

Dr. Reiner, always good to have you on. Thanks very much.

REINER: My pleasure. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, President Trump is heading back to Washington early. What, to tackle the pandemic? Get on the vaccination distribution? No. To continue to challenge baselessly Joe Biden's election victory. How Republicans and the president are trying to disrupt that process next week.

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SCIUTTO: Developing now, President Trump is returning to Washington this morning ahead of schedule, skipping his annual New Year's Eve bash at Mar-a-Lago to continue his baseless pursuit of election fraud claims.

Some Republican lawmakers plan to challenge next week's Electoral College certification of Joe Biden's victory. It's a ceremonial event.

Joining us now, CNN political analyst, Toluse Olorunnipa. He's the White House reporter at "The Washington Post." Also with us, CNN political analyst Jackie Kucinich. She's the Washington bureau chief at "The Daily Beast."

Good morning to both of you.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Toluse, Ben Sasse had a long post on Facebook about this challenge, the politics behind it, the pressure being put on Republican lawmakers and the fear, as he described it, among Republican lawmakers. Even though they don't believe this election was fraudulent, their fear in challenging the president publicly on that.

I wonder, so you have Josh Hawley, who's agreed to be the one senator necessary to join House members to challenge this on January 6. Are there more senators who might line up out of that fear?

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I wouldn't be surprised, especially now that one senator has broken through and tripped the wire, and that may make it easier for other senators to join onboard and say they're not the only ones that are making this -- this play. I wouldn't be surprised.

[06:25:12]

I mean, Senator Sasse has put it out there stark terms. It's pretty clear a lot of this is theatrical. A lot of these Republican senators know the election was free and fair, and they know that President Trump lost. They know that it was not even particularly close. Seven million votes separate Joe Biden from President Trump.

And it was a pretty commanding victory by the president-elect, but these Republicans need to be able to show their fealty and their loyalty to Trump by engaging in these theatrics, essentially trying to show that they are onboard with Trumpism, that they can do what's necessary to keep President Trump's voters onboard.

It's not even so much President Trump himself at this point. They all realize that he is, you know, someone who's losing power, who's going out of office soon.

But they want the president's voters, so they have to show that they are loyal to the president, loyal to this idea of voter fraud, even if it means subverting and undermining the American democratic experience. That seems to be what's happening. And I wouldn't be surprised if Josh Hawley was able to recruit a couple of other Republicans, especially with President Trump coming back from Mar-a- Lago to exert more pressure on his colleagues and his party.

SCIUTTO: And by the way, undermining an election in which many of them were themselves were elected. That's just the amazing thing. Every member -- every member of the House of Representatives, elected in the same election.

CAMEROTA: Don't bother me with details like that.

KUCINICH: Haven't squared that.

CAMEROTA: Yes. And the inconsistencies are not something that trouble these folks.

Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Jackie, tweeted about what he thinks the motivation is. He writes, "Internal monologue," quote, "'I want to be president, so I decided to try to get POTUS tweet saying I'm great, even though I know this isn't going anywhere. But hey, I'll blame somewhere else when it fails.'"

That's what he thinks that Josh Hawley's motivation is.

And so what will -- by President Trump returning unexpectedly from Mar-a-Lago, what does that mean? How is he going to exert pressure? What's going to happen on January 6?

KUCINICH: Well, I mean, you've already seen the president trying to exert pressure through his favorite mode, Twitter, when any Republican, including someone like John Thune, speaks out against the effort that they're trying to orchestrate in the House and the Senate. And some of these Republicans, threatening primary challenges and whatnot.

His presence in Washington probably means more phone calls, maybe people being invited down, you know? That - that is how he has wielded his influence in the past and how he will continue to his, I guess, last days in office.

But I mean, we shouldn't -- this isn't going to go anywhere. This is ceremonial, as you all noted. But this is a last gasp of a president who hasn't been able to come to terms with the fact that he is on his way out. And to Adam Kinzinger's point, I mean, Josh Hawley is someone that we

expect to run in 2020. He's the next -- just like Ted Cruz volunteered to argue the case that -- and the attorney general of Texas brought up that all of these Republicans signed on, trying to overturn the election. He offered to argue that in the Supreme Court, fully knowing that it was never going to go there.

This is an audition to be the heir apparent to the MAGA movement. You know, but democracy be damned, I guess.

SCIUTTO: Yes. "Wall Street Journal" is laying into the GOP. Just want to quote from it. The headline being the GOP should be embarrassed. "Republicans should be embarrassed by Mr. Trump's Electoral College hustle. Mr. Trump is putting his loyal V.P. in a terrible spot. Mr. Pence is too much of a patriot to go along, but the scramble to overturn the will of the voters tarnishes Mr. Trump's legacy and undermines any designs he has on running in 2024."

I want to ask you, Toluse, Vice President Pence has not, shall we say, challenged this president in the last four years. He's loyally, quietly stood by on a whole host of things. Are we confident that he does the same here? I mean, he doesn't have the power to overturn the election.

But he's very conscious of his own political ambitions going forward. He's very conscious, like other Republican lawmakers, of not turning off the GOP base.

Does he find a way to kind of split the middle somehow? Walk the fence? What does he do?

OLORUNNIPA: Yes, I said earlier that this is -- a lot of this was theatrics. I would not be surprised if Vice President Pence finds some kind of theatrical way to protest -- you know, and call to mind a couple of years ago when he went to a National Football League game and when some of the players knelt during the national anthem, he walked out and protested and made a big show out of it and got a big pat on the back on social media from President Trump.

We know it did not have any impact and we know that whatever he's going to do to protest the results of this election on January 6 will not have any impact. But I would not be surprised if he finds some way to show his displeasure, to express that he does not have confidence in the results of the election. And it's important to say if this were happening in any other country.