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Congress to Count Electoral Votes Today; Over 150 Republicans Plan to Challenge Electoral Vote-Count; Democratic Candidate Raphael Warnock Wins Georgia Runoff Race Against Incumbent Kelly Loeffler. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired January 06, 2021 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking news. CNN projects that Democrat Raphael Warnock will win his runoff election, defeating the incumbent Senator Kelly Loeffler, becoming the first black senator ever from Georgia. Democrat Jon Ossoff leads in the other runoff race. He's ahead by 16,000 votes, still too early to call there, but it does seem like most of the votes remaining do come from Democratic strongholds.

If he wins, it means that Democrats will control the U.S. Senate. Obviously, that will have a big effect on the Biden presidency. But what does it mean for today, literally, today? Will it have an effect on the Republicans' stunt to try to undermine democracy and throw out the U.S. election, toss out the electoral votes? CNN's Sunlen Serfaty live on Capitol Hill where both houses of Congress will gather to count the electoral votes.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. And this will certainly be a very dramatic day up here on Capitol Hill, that will stretch out over many hours. But in the end, will do absolutely nothing to change Joe Biden's victory.

Now, this all will get underway at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and that is where we'll see Vice President Mike Pence in his ceremonial role as president of the Senate presiding over this joint session. Now, this sets up an incredibly awkward moment for him. President Trump has been putting an intense amount of pressure on him to attempt, in some way, to overturn the election, to defy that ceremonial role today.

President Trump tweeting in part, quote, "if Vice President Pence comes through for us, we will win the presidency." Now, that, of course, is an untrue statement. And sources have told CNN that Vice President Pence has told President Trump that he does not have the power to overturn their election loss.

Now, what we will see today is Republicans in the house and Senate standing up, they're going to be objecting to at least three states, Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania. And that's where this process slows down significantly. Now, for every one state that is objected to, each chamber has to break apart, recess, then they have to debate it on their own for at least -- for up to two hours today.

Then they have to go through another series of votes, potentially to reject or uphold that objection. Of course, none of those votes will go through, given that the house is democratically-controlled. So, this is just point-blank going to take a while to get through all this today, and that's not to say there could be more states that Republicans could be objecting to. It is also worth mentioning, John, that this is a very ceremonial, routine act that Congress does to certify the next president, but today is certainly steeped in a lot of political theatrics. John?

BERMAN: Yes, it's steeped in theatrics and steeped in shame, frankly, won't change the outcome, but it is shameful in so many ways. Sunlen Serfaty, thanks very much. Joining us now, CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley and CNN political analyst David Gregory. Doug, I want to start with you, Sunlen said it creates an uncomfortable moment for Mike Pence.

Well, it's something that Richard Nixon had to deal with. It's something that Walter Mondale had to deal with. Something that Al Gore, for God sakes, had to deal with in the most uncomfortable way possible. But they all managed to stomach it. And Mike Pence is going to be in that situation today. Can you just put it in perspective for us, and talk about what an aberration it is, what we will see today with these Republicans trying to throw out a democratic election.

[07:35:00]

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Yes, Republicans trying to sabotage free and fair elections. The great thing that the United States is most proud of. The whole world has been watching and the truth of the matter is, we ran an ideal election in 2020. COVID-19 pandemic was here, people did what they had to do, states got correct election results.

There are very few errors anywhere. So we should be celebrating that triumph, but instead, we're watching the petulance of Donald Trump, the arrogance of wanting to be king, of not a U.S. president. And to his -- a group of whacky senators thinking that they might get, you know, a pat on the back by Donald Trump, perhaps in 2024, are willing to go through an ugly charade on Capitol Hill.

So it's a -- it's -- remember what we're watching. It's a pseudo event, but it gives you a stark warning of how -- you know, the tens of millions of Americans are believing Donald Trump's conspiracy theories. We haven't seen something like that in history.

And there is the possibility in the end that Donald Trump could resign a week early and appoint Mike Pence president, and then have Pence forgive him, pardon him, for anything he may have done while in government. So, this show isn't over yet. Donald Trump's going to make people miserable all the way until January 20th.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: David, do you think what's unfolding this morning in terms of Reverend Warnock's win in Georgia, he's heading to the U.S. Senate, and Jon Ossoff's possible win, since he's ahead by 16,370 votes, I think, at the moment. Do you think that, that changes the calculus for any of these Republicans in Congress? Why make their political bed with the man who lost the White House, lost the house, and is on the cusp of possibly losing the Senate.

BERMAN: And the man who wet the bed.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my goodness.

BERMAN: Sorry.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Was that helpful? You know, I don't -- I just don't expect with this crowd that it's going to change the calculation, whether it should or not, because I think the calculation is evolving.

I'm with you, I mean, I think that the -- in effect, the voter suppression that Trump is responsible for in his own party is significant as events are unfolding in Georgia. Particularly significant because Republicans on their own were having some level of success beyond Trump, raising red flags about the excess in their mind of the Democrats and the democratic agenda.

And we saw that play out beyond the presidential contest in house and Senate seats. But the calculation, I think, with this crowd today, it might be changing, but I still think it's an unknown. I mean, Pence is a perfect example.

I think he's been nothing but an enabler of an anti-democratic president, and certainly, the notion that he needs to study until the very end, whether he can do something that's so clear he cannot, which is to overturn the election as part of this ceremonial, ministerial role today of certifying the electoral college.

Is evidence that whether you're Mike Pence or Josh Hawley or Ted Cruz, somebody who thinks they want to run in 2024, they're thinking, you know, Trump's going to have some hopes in the grassroots of this party. And I'm willing to sacrifice my integrity and do something that's clearly anti-democratic and would undermine our system in order to keep my political viability.

BERMAN: What about Mike Pence, Doug? What happens, we're told he doesn't think he has the power to overturn the election, but he's not going to be a wall flower, either. What do you think that means? How far do you think he will go? And what guardrails are in place to maybe prevent him from veering too far?

BRINKLEY: I don't think he's going to veer very far. I think he's going to try to be rather quiet and staid in the middle of this feud fight that's going on within the Republican Party. He's got a very delicate balancing act of not enflaming Donald Trump too much, where Trump throws, you know, Pence into the proverbial, you know, Twitter, under the bus, calling him all sorts of names.

I think Pence has the powers -- I suggest to pardoning, most constitutional scholars don't think you can self-pardon if Trump wanted to do that. So, on his way out, Mike Pence might be a very useful collaborator for Trump. I mean, after all, what you mentioned to me earlier about Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Nixon left the White House knowing that Ford was going to pardon him.

You might have a scenario where Donald Trump leaves a couple of days early and gets pardoned by Pence, and that way Pence would be a hero to the Trump base, a possible, you know, Pence candidacy in 2024. And Donald Trump would only have to deal with the New York Southern District, and maybe other states, legal problems, but not the majority of ones that might come his way from the federal government.

[07:40:00]

BERMAN: What a world. Doug Brinkley, thank you so much. David, thank you, sorry, for dragging you into our cesspool here. I appreciate -- I appreciate your forbearance as always.

GREGORY: I'm happy, happy to be here always.

BERMAN: All right, up next, we're going to speak live with Georgia's new Senator-elect, the Reverend Raphael Warnock on his historic victory. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, this morning, we are standing at the precipice of a political earthquake. Democrats at this moment, one Senate pick-up away from controlling the U.S. Senate. Why? Because overnight -- there we go.

Overnight, CNN projected that Raphael Warnock has defeated incumbent Senator Kelly Loeffler in a special election Senate runoff in Georgia. Raphael Warnock will be a U.S. senator from the state of Georgia, and in the other race right now, Jon Ossoff leads David Perdue by some 16,000 votes. That was 98 percent reporting. And the remaining votes, we believe largely in Democratic strongholds, places like Fulton County where Jon Ossoff has 71 percent of the vote.

[07:45:00]

There are 4,000 votes remaining there, Gwinnett County where Jon Ossoff has nearly 60 percent of the vote, 4,800 votes remaining there, down in Savannah, coincidentally, the birthplace of Raphael Warnock, there are about 3,000 votes remaining, and you could see Jon Ossoff getting 59 percent of the vote there. I want to talk about why the Democrats were able to do this.

Why Raphael Warnock was able to win in this state. Let's compare his result to how Joe Biden did in the election in November. Every county here that's in red or blue is a county where Raphael Warnock over- performed Joe Biden there. Remember, Joe Biden barely won in Georgia with 11,000 votes. Raphael Warnock over-performed him, almost everywhere.

And one area I want to show you in particular is this stretch right here. This is known in Georgia as the black belt from Columbus, roughly to Augusta, a lot of these counties have very large African- American populations, and even in the counties that went red, they do have significant African-American populations, and they were able to turn out to vote there.

I want to talk about Jon Ossoff. Here we go, let's talk about Jon Ossoff. Let me clear this out one more time. Again, you can see, he is leading by 16,000 votes at this point. Donald Trump made a last-minute visit to Georgia, to this county right here, to Whitfield County. You can see Jon Ossoff didn't do well there. He got crushed, 70 percent to 21 percent.

But there's no real sign that Trump's visit did much to gin up the Republican vote. You can see roughly the same percentage in the presidential election there. I am told we are now joined by the Senator-elect from the state of Georgia, Raphael Warnock. Reverend Warnock, thank you so much for being with us. Congratulations. We heard you overnight, noting the fact that your 82-year-old mother, whose hands picked someone else's cotton, you said, got to cast her vote for her son to be senator from the state of Georgia. What was that moment like when the state was called for you?

RAPHAEL WARNOCK, DEMOCRATIC GEORGIA SENATE-ELECT: Good morning -- listen, this is a wonderful day here in Georgia and I believe in America. I am an iteration and an example of the American dream. I spoke to my mom last night. And when I think about the arc of our history, what Georgia did last night is its own message in the midst of the moment in which so many people are trying to divide our country.

At a time we can least afford to be divided. We've got big problems, and I'm deeply honored that the people of Georgia have placed their trust in someone who grew up in public housing, one of twelve children, I'm number eleven, the first college graduate in my family, and I hope to bring the concerns of ordinary people to the United States Senate.

BERMAN: You talk about the division in this country, given that the race has been called for you, you are projected to be the next senator. What do you think about whether or not it's appropriate for Senator Kelly Loeffler, who still holds the seat, to travel to Washington today to vote, as she has promised to do, to block the election of Joe Biden? Do you think it's appropriate, given the outcome of your election for her to go?

WARNOCK: Well, I think that Kelly Loeffler has been consistent. She has consistently put what she perceives to be her own short-term political interests over the concerns of ordinary people. And the people of Georgia rose up, and they rebuked that last night. What is unfolding in the Senate today or in the house, what's unfolding in this moment is a distraction.

It's a distraction. These senators know better, and the people that I'm talking to all across Georgia are concerned about their lives. They're concerned about the fact that they've waited for months and haven't received the kind of COVID relief that they need. We need to be passing the 2,000 stimulus relief checks. Instead, the politicians are focused on their concerns, who's winning and who's losing.

Meanwhile, too many ordinary working people are losing. And I'm deeply honored that they've given me a chance to go to the Senate and represent their concerns.

BERMAN: You talk about distractions, perhaps the distracter-in-chief is President Donald Trump, who did a lot in your state. He campaigned there, yes, but he also called to try to get the presidential results overturned in your state. What impact do you think he personally had on the election results?

WARNOCK: Oh, I'm sure others will, you know, look over that and talk about that. I'm really focused on the people of Georgia. And I think that's why they stood up and sent the message that they sent last night. I mean, what happened last night is stunning. We flipped the state. And it took a lot of hands to do that. It's the result of giving people their voice, quite frankly. Over the last ten years, I've worked with many others to register hundreds of thousands of new voters in this state.

[07:50:00]

Those voters alongside others stood up last night, and they sent a clear message to Washington, that this is the people's democracy. You don't own it. If you have power, it's because we've extended it to you for a period of time. It is -- it is a kind of stewardship. It is a sacred trust, and it's one that I take very seriously, and I hope to honor that promise in the work that we will do in the days ahead.

BERMAN: I understand you have some interesting Sunday plans for the foreseeable future, even though you will be a U.S. Senator. What are they?

WARNOCK: Oh, I intend to return to my pulpit and preach on Sunday mornings, and to talk to the people. Listen, one of the things that I've learned from being a pastor is that it's really the people who teach you how to be a good pastor and an effective pastor. And I think it's the people who teach you how to be an effective senator. And so, the last thing I want to do is become disconnected from the community and just spend all of my time talking to the politicians. I might accidentally become one. And I have no intentions of becoming a politician, I intend to be a public servant.

BERMAN: It might be too late for that. A little bit, at least technically, right? You are the senator-elect from the state of Georgia, so by definition as of this moment, you are a politician. Have you had a chance to talk to Jon Ossoff overnight?

WARNOCK: Yes, I've talked to my brother, Jon Ossoff, and what an honor it's been to run alongside him. When his race is certified, and we are colleagues together in the Senate, we will work together to get the work that we need to get done for the people of Georgia. And let me just say, I'm very proud of Georgia right now.

When you think about the arc of our history, what we did last night, that we are sending an African-American man, the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. served and John Lewis worshipped. And Jon Ossoff, a young Jewish man, the son of an immigrant, mentored by John Lewis to the United States Senate in this moment in which for years now, we've seen an emergence of those forces that will seek to divide us, we now represent the state of Georgia.

I think Abraham Joshua Heschel; the rabbi who said when he marched with Dr. King, he felt like his legs were praying, I think he and Dr. King are smiling in this moment, and we hope to make them proud.

BERMAN: Level with me. If I told you five years ago, ten years ago, that this morning, you would be a senator-elect from the state of Georgia, and that a Jewish-American, a 33-year-old Jewish American might also very soon be a U.S. senator, would you really have believed it was possible five years ago?

WARNOCK: Well, it's stunning, but I think in America, everything is -- anything is possible. And that's why I love this country so much, and I refuse to give in to the forces of cynicism. It takes hard work. Change is slow, often it comes in fits and starts. Our democracy tends to expand, and then there are moments when it contracts. We've been going through one big contraction, but it's time to extend that American promise to more of our people.

BERMAN: Have you heard from President-elect Joe Biden or the Vice President-elect Kamala Harris since the race was called for you?

WARNOCK: I haven't spoken to them, but I'm sure that, that will come and I look forward to working alongside them to get the work done that we need to get done for the people.

BERMAN: I have to let you go, but can I ask, if it were up to you, what would be the very first thing that you took on in Washington when you get to the U.S. Senate?

WARNOCK: Listen, we've got to respond in an intelligent and thoughtful way to this pandemic. We've got to get the vaccine safely and efficiently distributed, and we need to get people the relief that they need. We ought to pass a $2,000 stimulus relief and give ordinary struggling people who are literally just trying to keep their head above water, what they need so that we can begin to get the economy going again.

BERMAN: Reverend Rafael Warnock, senator-elect, we can say from the state of Georgia, congratulations, I should say. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

WARNOCK: Thank you.

BERMAN: Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Seems like he likes that title, John. Great conversation. Great to hear what he has planned for this weekend. Meanwhile, to coronavirus. The United States shattering records again for deaths and hospitalizations overnight, 3,775 American deaths reported yesterday, and more than 131,000 Americans are hospitalized with coronavirus. That's also a record. Vaccinations are not going well. Nowhere near what the Trump administration promised, only 28 percent of available vaccine doses have been administered into the arms of Americans.

[07:55:00]

Joining us now is CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, you know, we knew January was going to be bleak, we talked about it a lot. But the thing that we held out hope for, the thing that gave us the light at the end of the tunnel was the vaccinations, and by now today, more than 20 million Americans were projected to be vaccinated by the Trump administration.

We're nowhere near that. We are at 4.8 million Americans have been vaccinated, 17 million doses have been distributed. Is it time to change our outlook for what this Spring and Summer are going to look like? Sanjay, hold on a second, we're having a hard time with your audio. Just one second.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, can you hear me?

CAMEROTA: Yes, now I can. Thanks, Sanjay, keep going.

GUPTA: I don't know how much this is all going to change the overall sort of timetable for, you know, return to normalcy or you know, to changing of the overall trajectory, all those things that we're looking for. We'll see. You know, but obviously, this has been a disappointing rollout. And what has sort of struck me now reporting on this, just since the beginning of the year is that we're not hearing the changes in plans that should accompany this disappointing rollout, OK?

Didn't go as we thought it would, so what are you going to do about it? Still don't know. I mean, Alisyn, it kind of feels like senioritis a little bit with the administration. Like there's so much focus on the inauguration, politics, whatever that I feel like there's not been this attention given to what remains the biggest public health emergency of our life time.

So, that's a problem. I've been trying to talk to some of the incoming taskforce members to basically ask this question, what would you do differently, given all that we know now? And you know, you're starting to get a picture.

We'll see if these things take place, but I made some notes, you know, this idea of establishing federally-run and federally-supported community vaccination centers, think high school gyms, think NFL football stadiums and then having those types of locations become vaccination centers.

You brought this up, I believe, the other day with Moncef Slaoui, but also think about employing FEMA, the National Guard, the CDC, and even the U.S. military to basically come in and see the significant federal presence in the states to just basically really accelerate the vaccine rollout.

We thought the availability of vaccines was going to be the rate- limiting step, and what we're seeing, you know, is that it's the logistics, it's the distribution that has really been the problem. This should be a fixable problem, but it's a little baffling to me now, you know, a week into this new year roughly, that we're still not seeing a clear-cut change in plan here.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Sanjay, I mean, it's not just you. You along with some of our other medical experts have said we need to have these mass vaccination events. We know how to do it, we can do it, we're not doing it. And at the same time, we're seeing of course every single day records being broken in terms of American deaths, in terms of hospitalizations. Is this spike that we're seeing that doesn't look like it's abating yet, is this spike, do you think, from Thanksgiving, get-togethers, is this from Christmas or is this the new variant? What do you think is behind this spike?

GUPTA: I do think it's probably a combination of those things. I don't think we're seeing these significant spike yet from the Christmas -- you know, the end of the year sort of holidays. You know, it's typically a couple of weeks, so I think over the next week, we will see even, you know, increasing numbers. And Alisyn, you know, I look at these IHME models pretty closely, and we've always tried to report on your program the sort of mid-level scenario.

The scenario that sort of anticipates that states will react to increasing numbers and put in mitigation strategies to bring those numbers down. We're not seeing that in many places. So, the worst-case scenario when you look at some of these projections are that, you could see, you know, a million people becoming infected every day, Alisyn, a million people.

So, it's hard to believe, but the variant is certainly adding to that and it's going to be a question of not only how high does the peak go, but what I'm starting to look for is how likely are we going to stay at that peak? How long are we going to sort of plateau at that peak? That overall peak still looks like the end of January, but maybe for a couple of weeks after that, we may stay at those numbers for some time.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, Sanjay, it's horrible to think about. Let's hope that scenario doesn't play out. But thank you very much for helping us understand --

GUPTA: Yes, thank you --

CAMEROTA: Everything that we're seeing. OK, so moments from now, we will hear from Democrat Jon Ossoff as his lead grows in his Senate race. So our breaking news coverage continues right now.

OK, it's quite a morning. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY and we do begin with breaking morning -- breaking news.

BERMAN: It's all breaking. Everything is breaking.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: We've broken it.