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New Day

U.S. will Start New Year with 20 Million Cases. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 01, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: So welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world to a very special new year's edition of New Day. Happy New Year, everyone.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: Happy New Year.

BERMAN: Yes. I mean, it can only be better, right?

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. The bar is very low. But I have high hopes for 2021.

BERMAN: The bar, very low in 2020. And we are moving on this morning to be sure.

Let me tell you what you have to look forward to in the next half hour. Ahead, we have the latest on the critical Georgia runoff races that will determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, those contests now just days away.

And Fareed Zakaria joins us for a deep dive into foreign policy, what that will mean after the Trump presidency. How will U.S. relationships around the world change under a President Biden?

CAMEROTA: Also, a number of major court cases are on deck this year, including the George Floyd trial and a Supreme Court decision on the fate of the Affordable Care Act, the biggest cases to watch, ahead.

BERMAN: Also ahead, a very special guest. Legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma will speak to us about the power of healing through music in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, that and much more on this special edition of New Day.

First, let's get a check of your headlines at the news desk.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning and Happy New Year. I'm Alison Kosik in New York.

The world said goodbye and, in most cases, good riddance, to 2020, the ball dropping in Times Square amid scant crowds. Coronavirus is hitting grim levels to start the New Year. Today, the U.S. will mark 20 million cases. 3,419 Americans died overnight, the fourth highest day ever. And the number of people hospitalized in the U.S. also hitting a record for the fourth day in a row.

Army and air force medical workers have arrived in California, where the state is dealing with a crippling number of patients. The Los Angeles public health director says the surge is pushing hospitals to the brink of catastrophe.

CNN's Nick Valencia is live in Atlanta, where a field hospital has been set up to handle a record number of patients. Nick, it sounds like hospitals are just overwhelmed.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Alison, and Happy New Year. 2020 is behind us, but here on the first day of 2021, that coronavirus is still raging, the United States continuing to set records, not just in terms of deaths, but also hospitalizations. For a third straight day in a row, more than 3,000 Americans died as a result of the coronavirus, and this morning, more than 125,000 Americans waking up in the hospital as a result.

The center of this pandemic right now as it stands appears to be California, specifically in Los Angeles County, where the mayor there, Eric Garcetti, says dark days are ahead this winter, as there continues to be a surge there. This week, we heard multiple hospitals reporting limited oxygen supplies, also scores of frontline workers who are treating the surges there are now contracting the virus. Garcetti really emphasizing that the dark days of winter are ahead of us.

Here in Georgia, not faring much better, where the governor, Brian Kemp, is warning residents that they should prepare for the worst. You mentioned, the Georgia World Congress Center is opening up as a field hospital. At least 60 beds will be made available from overflow patients who are suffering from the coronavirus. Hospitalizations are very high here too, Alison, more than 5,000 people waking up in the hospital in Georgia. The virus still very much so ravaging the United States. Alison?

KOSIK: Okay. CNN's Nick Valencia, thank you.

President Trump waking up at the White House this morning. The president returned from Mar-a-Lago Thursday ahead of schedule. He is beginning the New Year right where he left off, spreading lies about the election.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is live for us at the White House. Boris, good morning. It looks like the president is laser-focused on upending Congress' certification of Joe Biden's win.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Alison. So much so, the president ditched a New Year's Eve gala that was planned at Mar-a-Lago last night that he was supposed to intend. He headed back to Washington early and he has been fixated on the idea of overturning the 2020 election on January 6th, when lawmakers gather to certify the results of the Electoral College.

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Now, the president celebrating not just New Year's Eve, but also the fact that he has persuaded at least one senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, into objecting from those Electoral College results. Here is a tweet from the president thanking Hawley. He writes, quote, America is proud of Josh and the many others who are joining him. The USA cannot have fraudulent elections.

Point of fact, there is no evidence of widespread election fraud, but this objection from Hawley sets up a vote on Capitol Hill, putting lawmakers essentially on the record, voting either with the president and his fantasies about election rigging or with the truth and, again, the fact that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud.

Nevertheless, CNN has learned that some 140 House Republicans are set to object to these results, including Texas Republican Louie Gohmert, who actually filed a lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence trying to force him to not certify the results from certain states that went for Joe Biden. The vice president's legal team responding to this lawsuit, and they write, in part, a suit to establish that the vice president has discretion over the count filed against the vice president is a walking legal contradiction. The vice president's legal team essentially saying here that Gohmert is barking up the wrong tree and that he should focus on the Senate and House and not the vice president.

Alison, we should note that we've learned that President Trump recently had a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence here at the White House about the future. Unclear if this specific instance came up, but what we're hearing from sources inside the White House that the president has had a very difficult time with the idea that in this process on January 6th, the vice president is really just observing. It's a ceremony role, and he doesn't actually have the power to overturn the election. Alison?

KOSIK: Joining me now, Margaret Talev, CNN Political Analyst and Politics and White House Editor at Axios. Good morning and Happy New Year.

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks, Alison, Happy New Year.

KOSIK: So, CNN -- we are learning here at CNN that two GOP lawmakers say that at least 140 House Republicans will vote to challenge Joe Biden's win. Talk to me about what this says about the Republican Party, about what it does for its future and, you know, firstly, of course, will this challenge go anywhere?

TALEV: Yes. Look, this is just a sign of the huge internal pull that lawmakers, Republican lawmakers are facing about how much they need to show an allegiance to President Trump in his final days. And I think part of the reasons you're seeing anywhere, upwards of 140 votes, is for two reasons, number one, concern that they'll be primaried by Trump supporters, or, you know, at Trump's direction in their next cycle, these are two-year cycles, and also, knowledge that it's not going to succeed, that it's not going to go anywhere.

I think if these were poised to actually work and the public's will was on the cusp of actually being overturned, I think this would -- for some of these lawmakers, this decision would take on much more weight. I'm not trying to normalize this. This is not normal behavior. And a lot of these folks are going to have to answer questions in the future if they want anything beyond a congressional seat.

But there's a ton of politics at play here. You can really see these tension play out, and you can see it in these House seats, you can see this with Hawley, who, of course, has been in the Senate. He's been a state attorney general before. He knows what the law is. He knows how elections work. And he knows that this can't go anywhere. But he's pursuing the objection, nevertheless.

And I think you have to see that in the context of someone who is 41 years old, came into office on the Trump wave in 2016, 2017, and feels that this is the right move for his future. He's taken an enormous amount of backlash inside the Senate from leader Mitch McConnell and other veteran senators, who never wanted to have this debate, never wanted to have to go on the record with how they feel and never wanted to have to incur the president's wrath. And now, all of that's going to happen.

And you see it with this case with Vice President Pence too. This is not just Pence -- these are not just lawyers for Pence arguing that Gohmert's lawsuit is inappropriate. This is the Justice Department. Trump's own Justice Department, the U.S. Justice Department, making this argument on behalf of Mike Pence. And not only doing that but asking the judge, judge, would you please clarify that Mike Pence doesn't have the ability to do this?

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And that clarification, if it does come from a judge, perhaps could give Pence some cover with Trump.

But President Trump is expecting everyone and asking everyone, senators, his own vice president, the courts, legislatures, other lawmakers, governors, to help him do this. And he is not going to stop putting that pressure on them until after the certification happens on January the 6th.

KOSIK: So it's essentially turning out to be a spectacle here of loyalty towards President Trump. What is this actually doing to the Republican Party though for its future?

TALEV: I mean, it asks a real question, which is that if you're not a Trump Republican, if you're not a populist, if you didn't come in on the Trump wave, if you just want to be like a low-taxes, pro-business Republican, whether you're in politics or whether you're a voter, where do you go? Where are those people represented by the party?

And, look, what happens in those two races in Georgia that are going to determine control of the Senate, whether the Senate is marginally controlled, still by Republicans, or barely, just barely by Democrats with the tiebreaking vote from the new vice president, Kamala Harris, that control in the Senate question may help nudge this question about the future of the Republican Party.

But either way, even after President Trump leaves office, he is certainly going to try to exert influence to try to continue to be the leader of the Republican Party. And these are not questions that are going to get answered between now and January 6th. They're going to continue well into the race for 2024.

It's hard to kick off a New Year that way, but I think we're looking towards 2024 as a defining moment for who's the Republican Party going to nominate? How are they going to galvanize votes? These are all questions that are contained inside this tension between President Trump and the leadership of the Senate.

KOSIK: Yes, some of this stuff just won't go away.

Back to what you mentioned about this crucial Senate runoff we saw happening next week, talk to me about how high the stakes are right here.

TALEV: Well, they're enormous, because, again, if Joe Biden -- if President-elect Biden has at his disposal when he takes office not just a Democratic-controlled House, but just barely a Democratic- controlled Senate, it makes it much easier for him to move forward with nominations, obviously, for his cabinet, but also with getting votes, even into committee, out of committee, on to the floor about legislation that he wants to move forward.

If Republicans retain control of the Senate, it gives Mitch McConnell an enormous amount of leverage, crucial leverage for Republicans, as the opposition party to Joe Biden to want legislation he's trying to move to bottle up nominees that they may disagree with or that they may want to use as leverage in negotiating power.

So what the legislation has heard, how much Biden has to try to do by executive power versus through Congress, and his outreach efforts, what leverage he has as he does what he's going to say he's going to do, which is, reaches across the aisle and tries to find some bipartisanship. All of that is going to be deeply influenced.

And you can look at the record number of votes already, 2.5 million in this runoff, surpassing the top record before. There's an enormous amount of votes already cast, one out of three Georgia voters. And this is going to be one for the record books because the stakes are so enormous.

KOSIK: Okay. Margaret Talev, great discussion. Happy New Year.

TALEV: Happy New Year to you.

KOSIK: After four years to have America first, Joe Biden faces a big challenge, restoring America's relationships with our allies. How will he do it?

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BERMAN: It is dizzying to think about how much has happened during the past four years, not just dizzying because of everything we did last night.

CAMEROTA: No, that's just last night. so it's a --

BERMAN: The last four years left us dizzy. And, truly, President Trump's legacy will be a source of debate in our politics for years to come. What does the end of the Trump presidency and the beginning of the Biden administration mean for the rest of the world?

Here to discuss, Fareed Zakaria, Host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS and author of the new book, Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World. Happy New Year to you, Fareed, it's great to have you here with us this morning.

What are you hearing from U.S. allies around the world? What do they hope when Joe Biden takes office? What do they expect? And I wonder if there's a difference.

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST: Happy New Year, John, a pleasure to see you, bright and early in this year.

What I am hearing more than anything else is a sense of hope about the United States being back in the game, being back as an engaged power, as an agenda-setter, some country that wants to try to help organize cooperative solutions around the world, get engaged with problem- solving, everything from climate change to regional issues.

But I think, you know, underneath that, what I detect is a hope that the Biden administration understands this is not just a kind of restoration. You can't go back to 2008 or '09 or 2012. The world has changed a lot. One of the things I've tried to describe in my book is just how profoundly the world has changed.

So you have -- just think about, where you have with China. China is now clearly the second-most important country in the world. It is -- you know, the United States and China are in a league of their own. China has come out of this pandemic, in many ways, stronger. Yes, its reputation got battered a bit because of its early handling, but it has essentially vanquished the virus without a vaccine. It also has vaccines onboard. It is moving forward with much greater confidence in the world.

And a lot of countries, allies in Europe and in Asia are wondering, what is the Biden administration going to do about this? How can it find a way to both cooperate and compete with China?

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That's really the big question.

CAMEROTA: And, Fareed, what about the dynamic with our perceived enemies, like Iran or Russia? ZAKARIA: I think, in general, there isn't going to be as much difference as people imagine. The Biden folks are pretty tough on Russia, Iran, North Korea.

You know, the dirty little secret about the Trump administration was that while Donald Trump had clearly had a sort of soft spot for Putin, the Trump administration was pretty tough on the Russians. They armed Ukraine, they armed the Poles. They extended NATO operations and exercises in ways that even the Obama administration had not done. They maintained the sanctions. So I don't think it will be that different.

The big question will be Iran. Biden clearly wants to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal. The Israelis and the Gulf Arabs are protesting. And, in fact, the Israeli assassination of that Iranian scientist you recall last month was clearly designed to complicate matters for the Biden administration, raise the tensions, maybe provoke Iran into some kind of a response. So far, neither the Iranians have taken the bait, nor, interestingly, have the incoming Biden team. They essentially have said very little about it.

So I think everyone is trying to, you know, kind of preserve their options. And with Iran, I think the whole idea would be, try to stabilize that relationship. This is not a question of making friends with Iran. This is a question of trying to stabilize the relationship so that Iran is back under inspections, under surveillance, so you know for sure that they are not trying to develop nuclear weapons.

BERMAN: This is connected a little bit to Iran, more than a little bit. But you talked about Israel and the Gulf States, and there has been progress over the last four years in the public relationship, the official relationship between Israel and some of these nations.

I'm wondering what you expect to see in the Biden administration, whether there will be a direct furtherance of this or whether it will be a shift, perhaps, in Mideast policy.

FAREED: I actually expect that there will be continuity here, and this is why. The big story in the Middle East is a kind of -- and, again, I talk about this in my book, it's a post-American Middle East. In other words, both under the Obama administration and under the Trump administration, the United States has been withdrawing its active presence in the Middle East, withdrawing troops, withdrawing its energies, ambitions, why? Because we no longer import any oil from the Middle East or virtually no oil from the Middle East.

We worry about stability there, but it's all of a sudden become a much lesser concern, and we've been burned, frankly. We tried to intervene in Libya. That didn't work. We didn't intervene in Syria, that didn't work. We tried regime change in Iraq. That didn't quite work.

As a result of that, the Middle Eastern countries were trying to ask themselves, how do we get on in a post-American world. And as it turns out, the Israelis and the Gulf Arabs, the Saudis, the Emiratis and such are saying, look, we've got to band together because we face a common enemy, that is Iran. The United States is not going to solve this problem for us. They're withdrawing. So we need to ban together.

So I expect you will continue to see this fundamental dynamic, which is a rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, in which, ironically, Israel is on Saudi Arabia's side.

CAMEROTA: Fareed, what about U.S. democracy? I mean, some people feel that particularly, this presidential election, and maybe the past four years, has really exposed the vulnerabilities of democracy. And it's been sort of a stress test, they've said. And so we've seen President Trump, successfully in some cases, try to consolidate power.

And so do you sense that the Biden administration will do anything differently to change things that, you know, any weaknesses that have been revealed or what would you like to see?

FAREED: Well, let's first think about just the magnitude of the setback for the United States because of what Donald Trump has done partly in the four years in office, but most importantly after he lost the election.

If we were to have reported on this, Alisyn, and another country, how would we report this? We would report that there was a leader who lost an election, refusing to concede, contesting the election, rallying his supporters, inciting and even encouraging them to engage in acts of violence, raising ethnic tensions and prospects of tribal warfare. That's how we would report this if it were happening in Africa.

The reality is that what Donald Trump has done is attacked the cardinal principle of a democracy, which is the peaceful transfer of power.

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So I think this is a much bigger hit than all the slower degradation of norms and things like that.

Now, what can Biden do? Look, if you had a situation where the Democrats had hefty majorities in both the House and the Senate, I would say, put together a package of post-Trump democratic reforms. In other words, there are a lot of things that American democracy has run on, which were not rules, laws, institutions, but really norms, expression of values, good behavior, good manners. Anyone running for president should release their tax returns. If you have a business, it should be put in real blind trust. Those kind of things are not codified in law anywhere. They are just customs. Maybe we need to start codifying into law a lot of things that were just norms.

Unless and until we do that, and it's probably not going to happen anytime soon, there is a cloud over the American democracy, there is a cloud over American soft power. You can see it if you watch state media in Russia, in China, in Iran, and I've obviously tried to do that through translations and things like that, gotten a good sense of it. It's all directed at this idea, that American democracy has collapsed, is corrupt, is gamed, is riddled with flaws. So they recognize a lot of the power of the United States is not just what we do but who we are. And that power has been substantially weakened by what Trump did after the election.

BERMAN: Look, you are so right. I have to tell you, I have been shocked. People who have covered this country in Washington for decades have been shocked when they really learn how much of what happens here is governed by law. It's really just been based on tradition, and when someone comes along who is willing to break those traditions, things come crumbling down really quickly.

Fareed Zakaria, thank you so much for being with us this morning, Happy New Year to you.

FAREED: Thank you so much, guys.

BERMAN: So, big year for the Supreme Court with big cases on the docket, including the fate of Obamacare. What to watch for, next.

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