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New Day

Half-Doses of Moderna Vaccine; Georgia Senate Races; Trump Demands Georgia Official Overturn Results; Storm Impacts East Coast. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 04, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:30]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, more than 125,000 Americans are hospitalized with coronavirus. That is a record. And it comes as the vaccine rollout is falling short. This morning, 4.2 million Americans have been vaccinated. That is well short of the 20 million the Trump administration repeatedly promised by the end of December. There haven't even been 20 million doses shipped at this point, let alone administered.

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

And, Dr. Reiner, Moncef Slaoui, who is in charge of Operation Warp Speed, clearly is concerned about the shortfall right now. So concerned that he has suggested giving people half doses of the Moderna vaccine, people age 18 to 55, half a dose so they can spread it out and get more people vaccinated.

What do you think of this idea and what does it tell you?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I don't agree. Yes, I don't agree with that idea.

Look, we have about 13 million doses that have been shipped out to the states and only barely 4 million doses that have gone into arms. So the bottle neck is not the lack of availability of vaccine, the bottleneck is actually the logistics of vaccinating people in this country.

If we were at the point where we just did not have drug to give to people, then we could discuss that. But, look, when I see people in clinic, I talk about the vaccine every single day. I'm trying to, you know, reduce vaccine hesitancy. And the strongest weapon I have is the data. I can tell people that these two vaccines have been studied in 70,000 people, more than 70,000 people, in this two-dose strategy. And when given that way, they're both over 95 percent effective and basically no one gets critically ill if you get -- if you get this vaccine. You will not -- even if you get the virus, you will not be critically ill. Once you break from the data, I can no longer say that. You know,

there are some suggestions that one dose might be at least moderately effective. We don't know how long that will last.

Look, if we think going forward vaccine available is going to be a problem, then we should do the study now using one dose. But we don't have the data and right now that's not the problem. We need to work on logistics. We need to develop a fierce urgency to vaccinate people and then come back and we'll talk about that if -- if now vaccine availability becomes a problem.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: You make such a good point. So why do you think Moncef Slaoui is floating this idea?

REINER: You know, I think he's looking forward and understanding now what the logistics are going to be to develop enough product in the pipeline to vaccinate a lot of people. But -- but let's look at -- let's look at the numbers.

We've been told that there would be enough vaccine to vaccinate 100 million Americans by March, 100 million Americans. So that's 90 days. That would take, what President-elect Biden wants to do, which is to vaccinate 1 million people a day. How many people are we vaccinating right now? We're vaccinating barely a million people a week. About, you know, 1.2, 1.3 million people a week. So we'd have to do seven times the number of vaccinations per day, you know, to exceed the projected amount of vaccine available to give.

So I agree, it would -- it would vastly expand the amount of vaccine we have. That doesn't seem to be the problem in this country.

[06:35:06]

BERMAN: How does this get fixed, Dr. Reiner? I mean, look, this administration, the outgoing administration has put so much emphasis on the vaccine, and it's terrific that there is a vaccine, but they seem to have been overconfident that they could get it administered.

So how do you get it into people's arms more quickly?

REINER: Well, so, you know, if I ask you, who's in charge of getting vaccinations into arms? I don't think you can come up with a name. So we know that General Perna is responsible for distributing vaccines out to the states. We know that Dr. Slaoui is responsible for vaccine development. We know that Admiral Giroir is responsible for testing. But who's the person to talk to about the last-mile logistics, about actually getting the vaccines into arms? There is not one person. And that's because, like everything else in this pandemic, really the -- almost the original sin is farming everything out to the states.

So the president can say, look, no one could have gotten you this vaccine faster. The problem is that unless it gets into your arm, you haven't gotten it. And there does not appear to be a central person in charge for getting the vaccine into people's arms.

CAMEROTA: Moncef Slaoui is coming up on the program. We will ask him that very specific question.

Dr. Reiner, thank you very much.

REINER: My pleasure.

BERMAN: And you know what's interesting is, the president could be laser-focused on this. He could be focused exclusively on how to get more people vaccinated and more people vaccinated more quickly. Instead, he's trying to undermine democracy and overturn the election, still. So how is this stunning new tape where the president tries to find votes that don't exist in Georgia, how is that being received in this state that has crucial Senate runoff elections tomorrow. We have a live report, next.

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[06:40:48]

CAMEROTA: So will President Trump's jaw-dropping phone call with Georgia's secretary of state throw a wrench in tomorrow's critical runoff elections there? Three million votes have already been cast. President Trump and President-elect Joe Biden will campaign in Georgia today.

And CNN's Ryan Young is there. He's live in Atlanta for us with more on what to expect.

Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot of attention, obviously, being paid to the state of Georgia with all the money that's been fundraised here. You can't -- you can't even turn the television on in this state without seeing a constant barrage of television ads. We know that not only is the president, but the vice president-elect has been in town for the last few days. But there's a lot of talk, of course, about the call yesterday to the secretary of state. In fact, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON OSSOFF (D), GEORGIA U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: That is a direct attack on our democracy. And if David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler had one piece of steel in their spines, one shred of integrity, they would be out here defending Georgia voters from that kind of assault.

SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R-GA): I don't think it's really going to affect our election. I'm still shocked that a member of the Republican Party would tape a sitting president and then leak that. That's disgusting, in my view.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Now, over $300 million has been raised in this election alone. Look, there's been a lot of conversation in the state of Georgia about the stakes here. When you hear some of the political ads, some people believe they cross the line. But a lot of this conversation, of course, will change in the next few days when you have over 3 million people who have already voted.

Look, all eyes on this state. The next 48 hours are going to be big for the rest of the country.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes, we will come back to you to -- just take the pulse of these next 48 hours. Thank you very much, Ryan.

So election night in America continues with special coverage of the U.S. Senate runoffs. That starts tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. on CNN.

All right, we'll play you more audio of President Trump's rambling and confused phone call to Georgia's secretary of state. What does this say about his mental fitness, his mental health? Someone who knows the president well, next.

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[06:46:48]

BERMAN: This stunning, new audio captures President Trump demanding that Georgia's secretary of state find votes to overturn his election defeat. All of what you are about to hear is a lie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The other thing, dead people. So dead people voted. And I think the -- the number is in the -- close to 5,000 people. And they went to obituaries. They went to all sorts of methods to come up with an accurate number.

It doesn't pass the smell test, though, because we hear they're shredding thousands and thousands of ballots. And now what they're saying, oh, we're just cleaning up the office. You know, I don't think they're cleaning.

The ballots are corrupt. And you're going to find that they are, which is totally illegal. It's -- it's -- it's more illegal for you than it is for them because you know what they did and you're not reporting it. That's the -- you know, that's a criminal -- that's a criminal offense. And -- and, you know, you can't let that happen.

Flipping the state is a great testament to our country because, you know, there's -- there's -- there's just -- it's a testament that they can admit to a mistake, or whatever you want to call it, if it was a mistake, I don't know. A lot of people think it wasn't a mistake. It was much more criminal than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, again, that was a lie. It was confused. And you will hear people say during this broadcast it might even be criminal.

But joining us now, Tony Schwartz, he's the co-author of Donald Trump's book, "The Art of the Deal," and also the author of "Dealing with the Devil: My Mother, Trump, and Me."

Tony, great to see you.

Look, you say that that hour-long conversation that we've all now listened to repeatedly overnight, what you hear is a measure of dementedness and desperation.

How would you assess the president's grip on reality this morning?

TONY SCHWARTZ, CO-AUTHOR, "THE ART OF THE DEAL": Well, even more tenuous than usual. He has 100 percent grip on his own reality, meaning, he believes at this point everything that he said in that call. Confused and weird and upsetting as it is, he believes every bit of it.

BERMAN: He believes every bit of it. So what does it tell you that he believes this litany of things that are clearly lies?

SCHWARTZ: Well, it tells you again about his sociopathy, about his absence of conscience, about his inability or lack of any desire to tell the truth. Trump's always acted exactly the same in the face of a crisis, deny, deceive, cajole, attack, manipulate, and then rinse and repeat. And in this case, through a one-hour long monologue.

BERMAN: You say he's always acted this way, which makes it so interesting, what people like Senator Susan Collins said after the president made a phone call to the president of Ukraine, which included a lot of the same language here, leaning on him to do something. The president was impeached. He was not convicted. This is how Susan Collins justified that then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): I believe that the president has learned from this case.

[06:50:04]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, CBS NEWS: What do you believe the president has learned?

COLLINS: The president has been impeached. That's a pretty big lesson.

There has been criticism by both Republican and Democratic senators of his call.

I believe that he will be much more cautious in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: What do you think Susan Collins has learned this morning, Tony?

SCHWARTZ: Well, that's called -- that's call complicity and -- and rationalization, which she did throughout the -- throughout his presidency -- has done throughout his presidency. His modus operandi has never changed. It was exactly what he did in the Mueller investigation, to deny and to deceive, and it will be now and forever he is incapable of change, incapable of change and certainly not now.

BERMAN: His chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was on that phone call, at times cheering the president on, frankly, we should say, certainly not standing in the way of it. There are these 12 U.S. senators who, as far as we know this morning, still plan to help foster the lunacy that we heard from the president in this tape.

What do you think their responsibility is this morning?

SCHWARTZ: Well, it doesn't matter really, John, what we think their responsibility is because they're -- they consider their loyalty to be to Trump and to this fantasy that he's concocted.

Having said that, I think that it's terrifying for democracy. I'm sure others have said and will be saying that, because to have 12 senators and 100 Congress people completely 100 percent willing to thwart the will of the people is -- is not just problematic in this moment, even though it will be defeated this time, it is unequivocally setting a precedent for the future, which puts democracy at serious, serious risk. You have to understand, Trump will do whatever he believes he can get away with. He will stop at nothing.

BERMAN: What does that mean?

SCHWARTZ: And that's true here.

BERMAN: Well, I guess, Tony, I look at --

SCHWARTZ: Well --

BERMAN: I keep looking at my calendar and it's January 4th. There are 16 more days. I know that's fairly soon, but that's a fair amount of time, too. So what could happen? What is he capable of in the next 16 days?

SCHWARTZ: Well, 16 days as president, you know, I think the overwhelming odds are Biden will take over the White House in 16 days, but we've got -- he's got a platform of, you know, 75 million people who voted for him. And his Twitter to continue to push these authoritarian lies for the next four years. So unless people like you and, quite honestly, and me stop talking about Trump after he leaves the presidency, you have to now, but after he leaves the presidency, that's his oxygen. And he will continue to breathe in a way that we feel that hot breath on the backs of our neck.

BERMAN: That's an interesting point.

Tony, listen, we appreciate you getting up this morning, having this conversation with us. Thank you so much for your insight, as always.

SCHWARTZ: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: A lot of the responsibility, as Tony was talking about right now, is with the Republicans in Congress. What will they do? Will they stand up now and say, enough, or will they continue to be complicit in the president's ravings? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:58:05]

CAMEROTA: A cross-country storm is moving east as the northwest gets soaked with heavy rain.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has our forecast.

What are you seeing, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Alisyn, the East Coast calming down, the West really getting hot up here. Cold in the mountains where there's going to be an awful lot of snow. But for the next couple of days, I think the East really calms down. Any travel there will be very, very easy.

This weather is brought to you by O'Keefe's, guaranteed relief for extremely dry, cracked skin.

So the snow and the rain that was in the northeast has finally now moved away. Still raining along the cape. Still a little bit of snow in Rhode Island this morning. But the next storm system is coming onshore. A lot of drought relief out here, a lot of snow in the mountains. Areas around Whistler in British Columbia may pick up 7 feet of new snow. So they'll take that. There goes the storm my Wednesday into the plains, but not really affecting the northeast whatsoever.

This is a Pacific Northwest storm and a mountain snowmaker for the U.S.

A little bit of rain across the southeast at the same time from a completely different storm and maybe some snow in the Smokies and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

D.C., though, above normal for the next couple of days. New York City, the same thing, in the 40s. Your normal should be 39.

Back to you.

CAMEROTA: Chad, thank you very much.

And NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's pretty clear that we won. We won very substantially in Georgia.

I just want to find 11,780 votes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe it's time for a new party, faithful to the people of this country who vote to elect him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The irony is, if it tilts at all, very close races for two Georgia Senate seats, Democrats will control the Senate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think I should be in this runoff if everything had happened the way it should have in November.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is a direct attack on our democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

[07:00:01]

CAMEROTA: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

And if you've ever wondered how President Trump gets weak-willed people.