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New Day

Coronavirus Cases, Hospitalizations, and Deaths Continue Rising in States Across U.S.; Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert Files Lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence to Overturn Swing State Election Results; Republican Senator Josh Hawley Announces He Will Contest the Electoral College Certification of President-Elect Joe Biden; Dr. Fauci Says Average Americans Can Expect To Begin Receiving Vaccinations This Spring; A Critical Week Ahead For The Biden Administration. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 01, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a special edition of NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to a special holiday edition of NEW DAY, and happy New Year. Happy New Year.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happy New Year to you. First day of the year, already not sleeping.

CAMEROTA: That's right, you've just rolled in from last night's party, and we will pop the champagne very soon, because everybody is that happy that 2020 is over.

BERMAN: Indeed.

CAMEROTA: OK, so it was a year that many of us would like to forget, all of our lives were upended and so many lives were devastated by the pandemic. So this morning Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to break down the hopeful signs for 2021 as the vaccinations kick into high gear.

BERMAN: The New Year also brings a seismic shift -- seismic shift in Washington. In just 19 days President-elect Joe Biden, he will be inaugurated in less than a week. We'll know which party will control the U.S. Senate, and what will be President Trump's influence on the Republican Party, on the nation after he leaves office?

CAMEROTA: Also ahead, we have a very special guest, legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma will speak to us about the healing power of music during this pandemic and beyond. So we have that and much more ahead on this special edition of NEW DAY. But first, let's get a check of your headlines at the news desk.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, and happy New Year. I'm Alison Kosik in New York. The world is saying goodbye and good riddance to 2020. The ball dropped in Times Square, looking very different than in years

past. Normally a million people would pack into the crossroads of the world. Instead, it was an invite only affair for frontline health care workers and first responders. An estimated billion people watched the celebration around the world.

Sadly, we start the year where we left off, grappling with the worsening coronavirus pandemic. In a matter of hours, the U.S. will hit 20 million cases. That's more than any other nation by far, and more people than the entire population of New York state -- 3,419 Americans died overnight. And the number of people hospitalized in the U.S. also hitting a record for the fourth day in a row. CNN's Nick Valencia is live in Atlanta with the latest. Nick, good morning to you. The governor saying that the state is at a critical point.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It seems to be all across the United States we're reaching that critical point. Just new information in from Johns Hopkins university, Alison. The last three days of 2020, more than 10,000 Americans died as a result of the coronavirus, that's at least 3,400 Americans that died in the last three days. On Thursday that was about 3,400, on 12/29, 3,732 Americans died, and as you mentioned, later today we're expecting to reach 20 million cases overall here in the United States.

And these are records that we don't want to be setting. Hospitalizations also up, more than 125,000 Americans wake up in the hospital today infected by COVID. And the center of the pandemic right now for all intents and purposes appears to be California, specifically L.A. County, where the mayor there, Eric Garcetti, is warning residents that there are going to be dark days ahead. This week we heard multiple hospitals in L.A. County report that they had limited supplies of oxygen, scores of frontline workers as well coming down with the virus as the cases there continue to surge. And here in Georgia things aren't faring much better. The governor here, Brian Kemp, so concerned by this surge in the winter that he's opening up behind me the Georgia World Congress Center for the third time since the start of the pandemic. This is going to act as an overflow field hospital of sorts. Sixty beds will be available there for anyone suffering from the coronavirus. Hospitalizations also bad here, Alison, 5,000 people waking up in the hospital here in Georgia. This pandemic continuing to rage. Even though 2020 is behind us, this is something we are going to have to deal with in the year ahead. Alison.

KOSIK: CNN's Nick Valencia, thank you.

President Trump rang in the New Year at the White House. The president and first lady returned from Mar-a-Lago yesterday ahead of schedule to continue his pursuit to overturn the election he lost. CNN's Boris Sanchez is live for us at the White House. And, good morning, Boris. It looks like the president is laser focused on this.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Alison, the president skipping out on a New Year's Eve gala at Mar-a-Lago to return to the White House early. The president still fixated on this idea of overturning the results of the 2020 election.

[08:05:8]

And right now the Republican Party is at a fork in the road. The president getting news that he wanted this week with Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri announcing that he would contest the Electoral College certification on Capitol Hill January 6th. It's something that the Republican leadership did not want to happen, including Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader. He had privately been lobbying lawmakers to avoid this scenario. Now CNN is learning that some 140 House Republicans will likely go along with Josh Hawley in this effort to contest the results of the election in Congress. It sets up a battle within the party, one that could have enormous ramifications for the future.

Meantime, one congressman that is expected to object to the results, Congressman Louie Gohmert of Texas, filing a lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence, trying to force Pence who oversees that certification on January 6th to throw out the results from states that were given to Biden. Pence's legal team responding yesterday, here is part of what they write, quote, "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 team essentially saying that Gohmert is barking up the wrong tree, that he should take this up with the House and Senate and not sue the vice president.

Of course, we should point out, the vice president's role in all of this is largely ceremonial. He simply is an observer. He doesn't actually have the power to overturn the results of the election, something that we're hearing that the president has been recently discussing with aides and having a hard time wrapping his head around. Alison?

KOSIK: CNN's Boris Sanchez, thank you.

SANCHEZ: Thanks.

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 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 reason you're seeing anywhere upwards of 140 votes is for two reasons. Number one, concern that they will be primaried by Trump supporters or 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 this 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 tensions play out. 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 is taking 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, 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.

[08:10:11]

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

TALEV: It asks a real question, which is if you are not a Trump Republican, if you are 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 Georgia -- 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 a tie-breaking vote from the new Vice President Kamala Harris, that control of 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. Sorry to kick off the New Year that way, but I think we're looking towards 2024 as the defining moment for who is the Republican Party going to nominate? How are they going to galvanize votes? These are all questions contained inside this tension between President Trump and the leadership of the Senate.

KOSIK: Some of this stuff just won't go away. Back to what you mentioned about this crucial Senate runoff happening next week, talk to me about how high the stakes are here.

TALEV: Well, they are enormous because, again, if Joe Biden -- 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 into committee, out of committee, onto 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 blunt 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 do by executive power versus through Congress, and his outreach efforts, what leverage he has as he does what he says 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 already in this runoff, surpassing the top record before. There is an enormous amount of votes already cast, one out of three Georgia voters. This is going to be one for the record books because the stakes are so enormous.

KOSIK: OK, Margaret Talev, great discussion, happy New Year.

TALEV: Happy New Year to you.

KOSIK: And we are entering the New Year in the midst of the devastating coronavirus pandemic, but help is on the way as coronavirus vaccines are here. Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains when we should expect life to start returning to normal next.

[08:15:00]

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I don't know a single person who is not happy to turn the page on 2020.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good riddance.

CAMEROTA: Hopefully vaccines will make a major dent on the global coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci says average Americans can expect to begin receiving vaccinations this spring. So joining us now is CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, great to see you, Happy New Year.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Happy New Year.

CAMEROTA: It's - everybody's so hopeful that we'll be able to turn a page. But of course coronavirus has followed us into this New Year. So how different do you think 2021 will be?

GUPTA: I think it's going to look a lot different. I mean I guess it's hard not too; 2020 was such a - such a unique and tragic year. I mean we've all lived through this physically, psychologically. These vaccines, I think, are - they're here, they're going to be more widely distributed and it is - it is incredibly hopeful; not just because of the vaccines but I think also because of what they represent. I mean you know we were able to respond so quickly to this pandemic by creating something that typically takes years if not decades to make; a vaccine.

And they're going to make a significant impact but it takes - it takes a while still. So by this time next year, I think we're going to be in a very different position. The vaccines, the testing, things like that that'll happen over these next few months here in 2021 will certainly change things a lot. But we've got to still - just hunker down for a few months more as you see that light it should make you want to redouble your efforts I think.

BERMAN: So, Sanjay, one of the few good things about 2020, is frankly, you and the impact you had on educating all - Sanjay, you, were one of the few good things about 2020. In the impact you had on us and how you made us think about the pandemic. One of the impactful things you did was write these essays treating the country as if it were your patient. So what did you learn about your patient in 2020? And what's your prognosis for your patient, the country, in 2021?

GUPTA: I think one of the biggest things I learned and I say this as a neurosurgeon, someone who operates on people who are in the worst of situations often. Is that - is that science cannot rescue us from ourselves. We can have these incredible breakthroughs and we will in vaccines and therapeutics and new forms of testing. I mean it is really just remarkable to see and I think we will be a different world as a result of the medical innovation that we have seen this year.

But if we don't lean into the basic health practices; they make such a big difference. Even now, 100 years after the Great Pandemic of 1918, the same things made the biggest difference; wearing masks, keeping distance, washing hands. We can talk about mRNA vaccines and all those things but washing hands and wearing a mask makes as big a difference. It doesn't sound as neat or as fancy but it can makes such a huge impact and it's something I will - I will now always remind my patients of.

BERMAN: All right, Sanjay, besides Alisyn Camerota, who are your healthcare heroes?

GUPTA: Well Alisyn's way up there on the list for sure. The -

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CAMEROTA: Not sure what I've done (inaudible).

GUPTA: You know, I think - these - there's so many people that I - that I interact with at the hospital all the time who are taking care of these COVID patients and I mean we know now, after a year of reporting on this, that you go take care of COVID patients, you worry. As good as you are about personal protective equipment, you still worry that maybe you were exposed and that maybe you would take that virus home to your family and that would be just the greatest tragedy. And in trying to the right thing you potentially put your family at risk.

It's just a very hard psychology still for people to sort of think about. So I really have thoughts a lot about the people working in COVID units; not just the doctors but the nurses, the people who are cleaning these units, the people who just have lived for this past year with that psychological thing in the back of their minds.

[08:20:00]

GUPTA: I also - as doctors and nurses you're giving care; it's objective care. You know you give this medicine, you monitor these vital signs. But because of the pandemic you also had to be this bridge of comfort because family members couldn't visit. So the real heroes for me were the people who then, at the end of a shift, took the extra time to wrap their phone or their iPad in plastic, walk into the room in full personal protective equipment and show someone who was in the hospital, very sick their family members and allow them to have a conversation and sometimes those were last conversations.

That really stuck with me. And it's obviously psychologically just so challenging. But the idea that people who just stepped up and over the line so many times to make sure that those last conversations could happen are I think some of the truest heroes of this. And showed us what real empathy and real compassion looks like in the middle of a pandemic.

CAMEROTA: That is beautiful, Sanjay. I mean they're angels on earth. That is beautiful.

GUPTA: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Thank you for helping us think of them today and for all you did for us that past year. And I'm sure this coming year.

GUPTA: Thank you, guys. Thanks for having me this year. I think the conversations - I'd like to believe that the conversations we have had with the audience over this past year made a difference. You got to believe that if you're a journalist.

BERMAN: We're going to try to book you come for 2021. So hang in there.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: How's tomorrow?

BERMAN: Keep the phone close by, Sanjay.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, so much, Sanjay. A critical week ahead for the incoming Biden administration. Two runoff elections in Georgia will decide the balance of power in the Senate and the fate of Joe Biden's agenda. We discuss that next.

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[08:25:00]

BERMAN: Welcome back to this special New Year's edition of "New Day" we have a lot to get to this half hour including will the U.S. economy recover in this New Year. Christine Romans tells us what to watch for as the pandemic continues to grip the United States.

CAMEROTA: And President Elect Joe Biden, preparing to confront several massive crises when he takes office in just 19 days. But first, let's get a check of your headlines at the News Desk.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and Happy New Year, I'm Alison Kosik in New York. Developing this morning the first case of a highly contagious coronavirus variant has been found in Florida. That makes three states currently seeing case of this new strain. Three more cases were discovered yesterday in San Diego.

Meantime, video shows hundreds of people attending a Christian singer's concert last night in Southern California to protest face coverings and limits on indoor church services. A number of those in attendance were from out-of-state with many saying they had been following the concerts across the country. Some even said they travelled by plane to attend.

For the first time since Christmas the number of air travelers in the U.S. has dropped below 1 million. The TSA screened just 874,000 people Thursday. Most of last week - most of the last two weeks, around the holidays, have seen more than 1 million screenings every day raising concerns about surging coronavirus spread.

Now let's head back to John Berman and Alisyn Camerota.

BERMAN: So in just 19 days Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as President and Vice President of the United States. How will they change things when they take office? Which party will control the U.S. Senate? Just some of the questions that they will face. Joining us now, CNN Chief Political Correspondent, Dana Bash and CNN's Senior Political Report, Nia-Malika Henderson.

Dana, let's start with you with which really is just like the biggest question that we barely have had a chance to focus on over the last several weeks. What changes January 20? It's always such a big deal when there's a shift of power, a shift of party in the White House. What do you think is the first biggest difference that we'll see? DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's funny; generally we're talking about issues and policy prescriptions and things that matter a lot to the American people and those will be big. From economic prescriptions that the Biden administration will push forward to try to help the economy to obviously trying to keep pushing the vaccine and doing away with this pandemic.

But I actually think the biggest thing is going to be tone because you cannot and we saw this for the past year or so, maybe a little less during the campaign between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. You can't think of two different human beings and that's a big part of why Joe Biden won. Because people don't want to pay attention to their president as much as they felt like they had to with Donald Trump. And they're likely going to get that with the silence of Joe Biden's Twitter feed with the likely mundane situation going on in the White House.

And that will likely be very welcomed for people in 2021.

CAMEROTA: Mundane has never sounded so good.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: I know exactly what you're talking about, Dana. So, Nia- Malika, if the Democrats don't win these Georgia Senate runoffs; then will Biden's agenda just be sort of blocked at every turn?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's the big question. Will this be essentially another Obama term with Mitch McConnell being the master of doom and the master of no? That it was his posture during most of those eight years when it came to President Obama. Joe Biden, he campaigned on saying that he had a good relationship with Republicans that he could work across the aisle. Some Democrats didn't like that he campaigned in that way.

But obviously the vast majority of Americans who voted in that election, 7 million, thought that was a good idea. So we're going to see - we're going to put that the test whether or not Joe Biden's friendship with Mitch McConnell makes a difference if in fact he goes into the White House without a Senate majority. Either way, even if Democrats do win those two Senate seats in Georgia and that's a race that's coming up in the next couple of days we'll know.

Even if they win, it's still going to be a slim majority.

[08:30:00]