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Congress To Count Electoral Votes Confirming Biden Win; Ossoff Widens Lead Over Perdue, CNN Projects Warnock Wins; U.S. Shatters Records For Coronavirus Deaths And Hospitalizations. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 06, 2021 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Obviously, the breaking news is the big night in Georgia from Democrats already picking up one Senate seat there -- poised, perhaps, to pick up another and control the U.S. Senate.

While that's going on, in just hours, Congress will meet to count the electoral votes. Joe Biden will once again be declared the president- elect of the United States.

Still, President Trump is pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to intervene even though he's got no constitutional role to do so. Sources tell CNN that Pence told the president he doesn't have the power to overturn their loss.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux live on Capitol Hill with the very latest here. What are we going to see?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, you know, what's normally a ceremonial kind of mundane process is going to be high drama here today on Capitol Hill. At about 1:00 in the afternoon, the joint session of Congress will gavel into session. Vice President Mike Pence will preside, and that is when he will start to open up the certificates for each of the states' Electoral College votes.

And normally, this would go along without incident, but we expect that there will be dozens of Republicans on the House side as well as a group on the Senate side that will object to some of those states that the president incorrectly alleges were rigged or stolen.

It goes in alphabetical order, so Sen. Ted Cruz will bring up Arizona as the first example. Well, then you'll have the House and the Senate -- they'll separate. They will debate for about two hours. We expect this will play out to other states as well -- objections -- Georgia, Pennsylvania, potentially Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin -- so this will take some time.

But we don't expect that any objections will survive because the Democratic-controlled House will have to sign on, as well as the Senate. That is not going to happen.

But lots of pressure, as you mentioned, on the vice president. Trump tweeting here, pressure, saying "If Vice President Mike Pence comes through for us, we will win the presidency. Many states want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect and even fraudulent numbers in a process not approved by their state legislatures."

Clearly, many misstatements -- all of that untrue -- from the president.

At the same time John, what you have overnight -- and some fear that it may occur again today -- are clashes between pro-Trump supporters and D.C. police in the city as they prepare for this certification process and a rally to follow -- John.

BERMAN: Things will be different on the streets if President Trump had acknowledged weeks, if not months ago, yes -- boy, did I want to win. It didn't happen. Maybe I'll run again one day but I lost this election. Time to move on.

Scared to say that. Unwilling to say that. And now, we have this dangerous situation on the streets.

Suzanne Malveaux, thank you very much.

Joining us now is CNN senior political analyst John Avlon. And CNN political commentator Errol Louis, once again, with us.

John, the efforts of these Republicans -- and we put their pictures up on the screen -- they will fail. Their efforts to undermine democracy and to overthrow an election -- they will fail today. However, the fact that they're trying is a stain. It is a stain on them, it is a stain on their legacy.

What are you watching for today?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I want to see how many senators follow through --exactly how many Republicans in the House do this. Because we're looking at, you know, upwards of two-thirds -- 70 percent-75 percent of House Republicans doing this based on absolutely nothing other than Donald Trump's lies. There is no evidence to back up any sense of moral outrage other than the pain of losing and Donald Trump's refusal to admit it.

And what he's asking Mike Pence to do, let's be clear about what it is. He's asking the vice president to try to steal the election. The good news is that he doesn't have the ability to do that. The good news is that Republicans don't have unified control over Congress which they might, therefore, get away with.

But this is a dangerous precedent. It is an assault on democracy. And these folks should be forever known as members of the autocrat caucus. It is a scarlet "A" that should follow them throughout their career because this is an absolute assault on our democracy.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Errol, you know, John suggested in the last segment that what's happening in Georgia this morning where the votes are still being counted but Raphael Warnock is being projected as the winner by CNN, and it looks like Jon Ossoff, at the moment, is going to win. He has, I think, a 16,000-vote lead -- that that might take some of the wind out of the sails of the Republicans in Congress today who are staging this stunt.

But couldn't it also just stir up the tempest? I'm running with a metaphor. Couldn't it stir it up --

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, POLITICAL ANCHOR, SPECTRUM NEWS (via Cisco Webex): Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- by making them realize the stakes and dig in and want to hold onto power more?

LOUIS: No, this is not connected, I think, to any rational analysis of what is likely to happen in the next two weeks. The folks who are going to be pushing this outrage today are -- it's really the ringleaders are apparently some young, ambitious politicians -- younger ambitious politicians who want to run for president themselves someday.

[05:35:05]

I don't think they've thought this through, Alisyn. I mean, if your idea is to get up and try and disenfranchise all of the voters -- every single voter -- Republican, and Democrat, and Independent -- in six key swing states and then make that the basis of a successful run for president, I don't see how that's supposed to work out, you know.

I mean, when you come to Arizona to campaign in four years, Josh Hawley, what are they going to be thinking about you. When you try and disenfranchise every single voter in Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and Michigan, how's that going to be a path to the presidency? I don't think they've thought it through.

It may dawn on them as they look at these results in Georgia -- wow, as much as we tried to whip and stir up the Republican base, it still wasn't enough. Maybe politics is changing a little bit of this country and maybe the wiser thing to do would be to fall back and not try and violate the Constitution and steal this election in plain view of the whole public.

BERMAN: It may have very well have backfired on them in Georgia. It's not just that it didn't work, it may have actually helped cost them two Senate seats in that state and lose control of the Senate. And now, they're sitting there today John -- and, you know, it's quite a thing when you manage to look silly and seditious all at the same time.

AVLON: Yes. No, that's -- you never want to be silly and seditious. That's a bad combination. It's the opposite of, you know, anything you want to be near except, apparently, in today's Republican Party.

Errol makes such a good point though because the calculus has changed. A lot of these folks hadn't thought this out.

And take a look at Sen. Kelly Loeffler trying to make the case in the closing hours of the campaign that just to suck up to Donald Trump that she would try to disenfranchise all the voters of her state when she got to the Senate. How's that looking now? How's it looking when people are pointing out that this creates a dangerous precedent that assaults the Constitution and that really, history is going to treat these folks who tried to do this as villains.

Arnold Schwarzenegger made this point about his fellow Republicans the other day. This is bad politics, it's terrible public service, it's hideous precedent, and it's really villainy.

CAMEROTA: He knows a thing or two about villains -- I mean, from the movies, if you know what I mean.

AVLON: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Gentlemen, thank you very much.

BERMAN: All right.

Democrats do appear poised, perhaps, to take control of the U.S. Senate. If that man on the left, Jon Ossoff, wins his race, Democrats will control the upper chamber. And right now, Jon Ossoff is leading. We'll give you the very latest and tell you where the votes are that are still left to be counted.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:41:40]

BERMAN: All right, it's about 5:41 on the east coast.

Do you know where your Senate is? On the verge, perhaps, of being in Democratic hands. Why? Jon Ossoff, right now, in the Georgia Senate runoff race, leads by 16,000 votes. This race has not been called.

But the other Senate race -- the special election -- CNN projects that Rev. Raphael Warnock will win that race, defeating the incumbent, Kelly Loeffler.

What does that mean? That means that Democrats are just one pickup away from controlling the U.S. Senate. If Jon Ossoff is able to win his race it means that the Democrats will control it.

And it's a good morning, frankly, to be Jon Ossoff with that 16,000- vote lead. Why? Well, first of all, I'll point out number one, it's more than Joe Biden won the state of Georgia by in the November election. Sixteen thousand is more than the 11,000-vote lead that Joe Biden had.

Right now, he's leading by .4 percent. If he wins by .5 percent or more, it's actually outside the range where David Perdue can request a recount.

Other reasons why it's good to be Jon Ossoff this morning, where we believe the remaining vote to be -- Democratic strongholds -- Fulton County. We think there's about 4,000 votes left to count in Fulton County. You can see Jon Ossoff leads there with 71 percent of the vote.

Gwinnett County, another Democratic stronghold. Jon Ossoff leads there. He's got nearly 60 percent of the vote. There's some vote remaining in Cobb County, as well. You can see all places where Jon Ossoff currently holds a lead.

You might be wondering how do the Democrats do this. How is it that Raphael Warnock won in Georgia? Well, if you take Joe Biden's victory in November as the democratic baseline, the bare minimum of what a Democrat needs to do to win in Georgia -- he won by 11,000 votes -- Raphael Warnock basically outperformed Joe Biden everywhere -- everywhere where there's a color on this map.

Every red area and blue area is somewhere where Raphael Warnock outperformed Joe Biden. Biden got less than 50 percent of the vote. Warnock is at 50.6.

You can see, particularly around Atlanta, which is that area which has seen so much population growth, Raphael Warnock did very well. His church, the Ebenezer Baptist Church -- Martin Luther King, Jr.'s church -- is in Atlanta in Fulton County.

And also, this area here -- this swath of the state right here -- that's known as the Black Belt. I just way too close to it, obviously, and I touched South Carolina there. But this area here is where Raphael Warnock was able to pick up votes as well.

Jon Ossoff in a very similar situation. We are expecting more votes to be counted throughout the day.

There were some hold-ups overnight in some counties, particularly DeKalb County. That is where we saw the most votes come in for Jon Ossoff as the night went on. We'll go to the Jon Ossoff race right there. The last batch of votes that we saw from DeKalb County had Jon Ossoff winning that batch by 98 percent of the vote.

So you can see with the votes remaining right now, Ossoff could expand his lead throughout the next few hours, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: John, that helps so much. Thank you very much for walking us through all of the numbers, and we know you'll do it throughout the morning.

Now to coronavirus. Tuesday was the deadliest day of the pandemic in the U.S. Why are we not vaccinating more people? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:49:05]

CAMEROTA: Developing this morning, the United States again shattering records for deaths and hospitalizations from COVID. Three thousand seven hundred seventy-five American deaths reported yesterday. This morning, more than 131,000 Americans are hospitalized.

How about those vaccines? The Trump administration promised more than 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by now. We are very far away from their projection.

Joining us now is William Haseltine. He's the chair of Access Health International and a former professor at Harvard School of Public Health. Professor, great to see you this morning.

Can we just start there --

WILLIAM HASELTINE, CHAIR AND PRESIDENT, ACCESS HEALTH INTERNATIONAL, FORMER PROFESSOR, HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH (via Skype): Good morning.

CAMEROTA: -- that something has gone wrong with the vaccinations? The projects from all of our top health officials was that at least 20 million Americans would be vaccinated. That was supposed to be at the end of December. We're now in the first week of January and we are at 4.8 million Americans.

[05:50:00]

We talked to Moncef Slaoui, the chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, earlier this week and he basically admitted there's no one spearheading this. Every state, every CVS, every local public health department has to figure this out on their own, and they're not.

HASELTINE: You know, thanks for bringing that up. That is a systemic problem we've had since the beginning of the pandemic. You cited some pretty horrifying numbers at the beginning of your comments. Those are the direct result of the lack of coordination from our highest administration officials -- the president, on down.

It has been a terrible situation where essentially, they made a political decision to punt the hard stuff to the states and keep what they thought would be the good stuff for themselves. Well, it turns out to be the good stuff for them is not good and what is the bad stuff is really bad for us. That means the hard work and organization that was needed from the very beginning has not been done even to this very day. It was totally predictable.

When I saw and read those plans in August and October and November of what they were planning for the vaccine rollout, it looked a lot like what they did for the testing. Let the states do it. Let the communities do it. Let the local townships do it. That is a recipe for disaster.

They don't have the resources to do it. They have all the will to do it but they don't have the organization and the resources to do it. That has been the problem from the beginning and it's going to continue to be the problem until we get new leadership that puts the power of the federal government at the service of the people.

BERMAN: Professor, as you noted, we read you those hospitalization figures and the U.S. now at record hospitalizations, yet again, and more than 130,000 people hospitalized. A big jump overnight -- 3,000 more people in the hospital after a big jump the day before that.

Why? I mean, what's the proximate cause? Why are we seeing more and more people getting so sick they need to go to the hospital now?

HASELTINE: Well, one of the reasons is more people are infected -- a lot more people are infected. That's the proximate cause. The second question is why are they infected? They're infected because they're not observing the control measures that everyone has recommended.

And there's a second possibility in some areas where there are control measures being at least partially implemented is that there are new virus strains that are more transmissible. What does that mean? It means lower numbers of virus and shorter exposures can infect you.

And it also has a very serious implication for children and for our schools because the virus can latch on to the small amount of receptors that are in children. And we're seeing an increased ratio of children to adults being infected and I'm afraid that may translate to increased numbers of disease in children as well. That is what seems to be happening in some parts of the world and possibly in California now.

CAMEROTA: Obviously, there's a lot of fatigue with the virus. And then there are the people who never thought that any of the protective measures were worth doing, to begin with.

And just yesterday, there was this big Washington, D.C. event -- pro- Trump supporters -- and one of the speakers encouraged the crowd to engage in a life-threatening event. I mean, you don't often see leaders asking people to do something publicly really risky, but this one did. And so, let's watch this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAY CLARK, PODCAST HOST: Turn to the person next to you and give them a hug -- someone you don't know. Go hug somebody. Go ahead and spread it out -- mass-spreader.

It's a mass-spreader event. It's a mass-spreader event. It's a mass- spreader event. There you go, hug it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: It's so chilling when you hear a leader asking people to take their lives in their hands.

HASELTINE: Well, it's not just their lives in their hand, it's their neighbors' lives, it's their children's lives, it's their community's lives, it's the nation's lives, it's the world life they're taking in their hand. The more people get it, the more dangerous this virus becomes.

This virus is, as we now know, changing much faster than people had anticipated. It's adapting to what we are doing. It's learning to get around better. And it may be getting to learn how to get around some of our immune defenses -- our natural immune defenses.

And so this is really, really dangerous. It's exactly equivalent to shouting fire in a crowded room. That's what we learned in our civics class you can't do. Well, you just heard someone do it.

BERMAN: Unbelievable to see it right now in light of where we are with record hospitalizations and record deaths, and it's spiraling out of control.

Professor, thanks so much for being with us this morning. Appreciate it.

HASELTINE: You're welcome. Thank you.

[05:55:00]

CAMEROTA: All eyes on one Senate race in Georgia as Democrats are poised to take the majority in the U.S. Senate. So we'll bring you the latest results and all of the analysis, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, January sixth, 6:00 here in New York.

And we begin with breaking news.

It's been a historic night in Georgia. Democrat Jon Ossoff is leading Republican David Perdue at this hour and expanding that lead. Ossoff, at this moment, has 16,370 more votes than David Perdue. That total is more than the margin Joe Biden won the state by in November.

Votes are still being counted.