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PA GOP Refuses to Seat Democratic Lawmaker; Protesters Gather Ahead of Electoral Vote Count; U.S. Shatters Coronavirus Records; Congress to Count Votes. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired January 06, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suggest that you're breaking those rules. Do not threaten anyone in this building because trust me, my friend, you don't want to walk up there with me up there.

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now is Pennsylvania's Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman.

Lieutenant Governor, thank you very much for being here.

Can you just explain that chaos that we're hearing?

LT. GOV. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Sure.

CAMEROTA: Whose -- whose voice is that and what was happening in the room?

FETTERMAN: Absolutely.

Well, it was -- it was very simple. Today was like -- excuse me, yesterday was like picture day in the senate, all the new elected senators or re-elected senators are joined. It's really a ceremonial kind of function.

And, unfortunately, our colleagues on the Republican side decided that one of the state senators, who happens to coincidentally be my own state senator, they refused to seat him despite being certified, despite presenting the identical credentialing that any other senator of either party that was sworn in yesterday, and that decision was affirmed by the supreme court, they refused to seat him.

And, ultimately, I refused to entertain the motion to table his nomination. And then that's when chaos erupted. The voice you hear loudly is actually my colleague, Senator Anthony Williams of Philadelphia.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but what the Republicans say is that there are -- were, I suppose, some balloting issues with this re-election win of this Democrat and that those are making their way through federal court.

So is that fair to let it wait until that's resolved? FETTERMAN: Absolutely not. These are all baseless allegations and

lies, much like the ones you're going to hear in the nation's capital by people that know that they're lying. It's part of this toxic culture that has seeped into our political discourse where you have a party willing to subvert basic core democracy. You know, Senator Brewster was elected democratically by his constituents. The results were certified by the secretary of state. And our supreme court was democratically elected by the people of Pennsylvania. You know, at some point you have to call it what it is, and that's subverting the democratic will of the citizens of Pennsylvania.

CAMEROTA: And so why were you removed from the proceedings and should you have done something differently? I mean I understand that you didn't recognize the president pro tem. Should you have done something different?

FETTERMAN: No. I did exactly what I needed to do, and that was I refused to entertain the motion. And their only procedural move was to vote to have my removed. And -- and I -- I could have played that out longer and longer and that would have created more and more chaos. But the core that we needed to achieve was drawing out Senator Brewster to the front with all the other senators and giving him the opportunity to be sworn in because, again, he's presenting the same identical credentials.

And it just forced the Republicans to create this spectacle in which they are, again, subverting the democratic will of Pennsylvanians. And there was no justification for what happened yesterday. It didn't have to happen. Every exertion was made from the highest levels on down to avoid that. Senator Brewster, if those court cases would have gone against his favor, would have happily stepped down. This was simply a bizarre flex by the majority in order to create an environment that is compatible and is similar to the one that the president is trying to create in Washington all across the country.

CAMEROTA: Well, let me ask you about that because we just had former congressman, Pennsylvania congressman, Charlie Dent on our program earlier. He was in the Pennsylvania State Senate for six years. And he said that he had seen a situation like this before, somebody was seated but then the federal court unseated them. And so is this something that comes up from time to time in Pennsylvania or are you saying that there's something contagious happening from Washington, D.C., and the obstruction there?

FETTERMAN: (INAUDIBLE) -- what I'm saying is, is that, as Mr. Dent noted, the senator was seated and then when the court case came through, he ultimately was switched. And that is -- illustrates what -- what -- is the way it's supposed to work.

What happened -- let me be clear, what happened yesterday is unprecedented in the Pennsylvania State Senate history without a doubt. And, you know, I certainly didn't want it to come to that. It just was because the majority refused to adhere to the Democratic will of not only Senator Brewster's constituents, but also the will of Pennsylvania. You simply can't ignore democracy and an outcome simply because you don't like it or you don't agree with it. CAMEROTA: Well --

FETTERMAN: That's not your role.

CAMEROTA: I mean --

FETTERMAN: Your role is --

CAMEROTA: You know, tell that to what's happening in Congress today. I mean, very quickly, what do you think is about --

FETTERMAN: I agree and I think (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: We're about to see today in Washington, D.C.?

FETTERMAN: Yes, we -- we're going to have eight out of our nine congressional Republican delegates -- delegation down in Washington lying and (INAUDIBLE) for the president when they know better than anybody that there was no fraud.

[08:35:12]

And you want to know how I know? Because they accepted the results in their race. They want you to believe, and they're going to stand up in public and say, my race didn't have any fraud, but, oh, that -- that Joe Biden -- Scott Perry -- Scott Perry had a highly contested race. Scott Perry is going to allege that there was no fraud in his race, but there was all the fraud in the world for Joe Biden. It's logically, ethically and morally repugnant.

CAMEROTA: Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, thank you very much. We appreciate you explaining everything that happened yesterday and what we'll be seeing today.

FETTERMAN: Thank you for having me.

CAMEROTA: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we do have a developing story.

Pro-Trump protesters are gathering near the White House as we speak as Congress is getting ready to count the electoral votes, which will, of course, confirm Joe Biden's victory.

President Trump, he's on Twitter and he is expected to address this gathering soon.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is live in Washington with the very latest.

Boris, what are you seeing?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, John.

Yes, this has all the makings of a Trump rally. There's the lame play list, there's an enormous crowd of people, very little social distancing, very few people wearing masks. All of the same folks that worked on the White House team organizing these events also here today in their post-White House capacity.

Of course, the big difference here is that the president isn't trying to curry favor with the voters, he's actually trying to pursue an overturn of the 2020 election by pressuring Vice President Mike Pence and other lawmakers in Congress essentially to negate the results of the election.

There is an enormous crowd here. It's hard to really get a grasp of it from what you can see behind me. There is an overflow crowd over by the Washington Monument. There is an enormous crowd here. The organizers got a permit for some 30,000 folks. And what I've heard from them this morning, a lot of energy and excitement to hear what the president has to say, but also a lot of anger.

And that anger, at least last night, flowed out into the streets. A number of confrontations across Washington, D.C., including with police officers at Black Lives Matter Plaza, just outside Lafayette Square, steps from the front door of the White House. Protesters there getting into it with police. Ultimately an irritant was dispersed at one point to try to push them back. Remember, that was the site of so much drama in the summertime when social justice protesters confronted law enforcement and they went back and forth.

At that point we heard President Trump demand law and order. We're not really hearing that from the president this time around. He seems fixated on trying to undo the 2020 election. We'll wait and see what he has to say at 11:00 when he's set to speak. After that, all these supporters are expected to march over to the U.S. Capitol as proceedings start to get underway there, John.

BERMAN: Let's hope things stay calm.

Boris Sanchez, thank you so much for being there. Please stay safe.

BERMAN: Coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations hitting new records this morning. And the number of Americans receiving the vaccine painfully slow. Why? Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us next.

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[08:42:18]

BERMAN: Developing this morning, the U.S. shattered records for deaths in hospitalizations from coronavirus and 3,775 new deaths reported. This morning, more than 131,000 Americans are hospitalized. That is a record.

Joining us now, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. His new book out this week is called "Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age."

Sanjay, I keep waiting for these hospitalizations to plateau. I keep waiting for things at least to flatten if not get better, yet we keep breaking records every day by a lot.

What are we doing wrong? SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I mean, John, as much promise as there was with the vaccines, and even leaving the disappointing rollout aside, that was never going to sort of, you know, have an immediate impact on these, you know, these trajectories of these numbers. We knew that going in.

The problem is I think what has happened is that because there's been, I think, good and expected celebration around the vaccines, I mean it has been a worthy thing that has really been done here scientifically, but I think in some ways it's also led to this whiplash where, OK, the vaccines are here, we can sort of put this thing in the rearview mirror. And instead of going into some of the mitigation measures that should be done in some of these states as -- in responding to these numbers, people are just sort of saying, maybe we can just sort of power through this and see what happens. And we're moving now from what were sort of moderate case scenarios to worst case scenarios.

As bad as the numbers are now in terms of newly infected people every day, you know, John, I know you've seen these trends, but a million people potentially plus a day could potentially be getting infected. And if you start to do the math on that, that's 5,000 plus people dying a day as a result of that.

So what we're doing wrong is the same thing that we've been doing wrong. We're not doing the basics. We like the home runs. We like the touchdowns, but we're not leaning into the basic things that would make such a big impact on this pandemic much more quickly.

CAMEROTA: Here's where the numbers are right now in terms of the vaccines. Doses distributed to the states, 17 million. Doses administered to Americans, 4.8 million.

Sanjay, as you know, as we've discussed, we were promised it would be more than 20 million Americans who would be vaccinated by now. Now that we know there was no national plan, now that we know this was outsourced all to the states and everybody had to fend for themselves and the usual kind of survival of the fittest way that we've become accustomed to with this, where did they ever come up with the 20 million number? Was that just like out of a hat? I mean why did we believe that 20 million Americans were going to be vaccinated by now?

[08:45:03]

GUPTA: Well, it all came because that was -- that was all based on what they thought they would have available in terms of the vaccine. I mean that was it, Alisyn. The idea that they would create this much vaccine was critical and important, but the fact that it would then equate to that number of people becoming vaccinated, there was a lot of missteps there, pretty clearly.

The biggest one is the one you mentioned, the handoff from the feds to the states seems to be the biggest one. And even, you know, in the couple of weeks before these authorizations came about, you remember from the FDA and then from the CDC, we kept sort of waiting for the plan. OK, we know who should get it first, we know what the availability is going to be like, but how is it actually going to work? And what we're seeing is a very sort of scatter shot approach across the country. Even within states, one county may be distributing very differently than another county. And that's a real problem. You know, it's been a very uneven process.

What has struck me is that, OK, now that we've seen this disappointing rollout, what are we going to do about it? It's, obviously, not working the way we want it. Do we just say we hope that it gets better or do we start to be more proactive? And I don't -- I don't really see, you know, these new plans being laid out by the -- by the current sort of administration.

This is the biggest public health emergency of our lifetime. What you are hearing maybe, possibly, from the incoming administration, we will see, is things like, you know, football stadiums and high school gyms being turned into these vaccination centers, incorporating the military, the National Guard, FEMA. That's the federal response that we probably need to be seeing to this public health emergency.

BERMAN: People need to get these shots soon.

GUPTA: They do.

BERMAN: Sanjay, thanks so much for being with us.

GUPTA: Thank you.

BERMAN: So what is the administration, the current administration, focused on? Overturning the election. Today on Capitol Hill, a number of Republican members of Congress are going to try the undemocratic move of overturning the U.S. election. It will all begin with an objection to Arizona's electoral votes. The person who helped run the election in that state joins us next.

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[08:51:14]

BERMAN: Just hours from now, Republican Senator Ted Cruz is expected to be the first of dozens of Republican lawmakers that will try to object when electoral votes from each state are counted in a joint session of Congress. Senator Cruz is expected to try to block Joe Biden's win in Arizona.

Joining me now is Arizona's Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

You know an awful lot about the election in Arizona. You helped run it. So Ted Cruz is going to stand up in front of the Congress today and say, hey, I object, I object to these electoral votes.

What's your message to the senator?

KATIE HOBBS (D-AZ), SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, at the end of the day, Joe Biden is still going to be the president-elect of the United States. And so Ted Cruz can object all he wants to. It is not going to change the outcome. And there is literally no legal avenue that allows any member of Congress to change the outcome of the Electoral College vote that happened on December 14th.

BERMAN: Doesn't change the outcome. What message does it send?

HOBBS: Well, I mean, I have been dealing with leaders here in the state of Arizona that are sending the same message, they've been doing that for the last two months over and over again to voters that our election was not fair, that it was filled in fraud. And that's just absolutely not true. And I think that this is doing long-term damage to our democracy and the public's trust in our democratic institutions, like elections. And we have a lot of work to do to rebuild that.

BERMAN: I don't know if you've seen the pictures, we just showed some, there's a big rally happening in Washington, D.C., right now. The president expected to speak at it. Some of the people who were planning on attending this rally engaged in some levels of violence overnight, confrontations with law enforcement.

What impact do you think this message has had on the possibility of violence?

HOBBS: Well, I personally have been affected by that. I've received threats. I'm currently under a security detail which is not normally affiliated with my position. And so, you know, I think that there is a lot that's been done that has great potential to incite violence, either against individuals or as we saw at the rally and it's very, very concerning. This is not how elections work in our country. We do this every four years. You have a chance at the ballot again in four years.

BERMAN: I do have to say this, I mean, when -- when the votes are counted today and when Mike Pence no matter how much he hates doing it, is forced to read out loud that Joe Biden got 306 electoral votes, you need 270, he will get the majority of electoral votes, when Mike Pence reads that out loud, what impact do you think it will have on these dead enders, these lost cause supporters that we're seeing in Washington and you were just talking about that exist in your state as well?

HOBBS: Yes, I mean I -- just seeing what I've seen here in Arizona, when the governor signed off on the election certification, which he's statutorily required to do, those people turned on him. They're going to do the same thing with Mike Pence.

BERMAN: It's interesting because you talk about Arizona. The Arizona GOP -- and you're a Democrat, so I think, obviously, people need to take that into account when I ask you your opinions on the Arizona Republican Party, but there is a statement that they put out on New Year's Day that said, as the sun sets on 2020, remember that we're never going back to the party of Romney, Flake and McCain. I mean they are proudly saying that the Republican Party is now and forever will be one for the working man and woman. God bless. And they frequently put up pictures that, you know, suggest that they're willing to fight violently for Donald Trump.

HOBBS: Yes. Again, very concerning. You know, as a partisan Democrat, I say, go for it. But in my role as secretary of state, I think their actions are continuing to be very dangerous to our democracy.

[08:55:04]

BERMAN: You talk about as a partisan Democrat. What role do you think that the president had in Georgia where one Democrat has already been declared the winner in the Senate races there and another Democrat is on the precipice of perhaps taking a second Senate seat?

HOBBS: Well, I think perhaps it's a bad idea to tell your voters that the election's rigged. I don't think that worked out very well for him. But, bottom line, I think, from my vantage point, Democrats out- organized on the ground and all of this election -- post-election sort of things that we've been seeing I think played into how voters voted yesterday and leading up to yesterday.

BERMAN: Yes, look, Joe Biden won in November. He won when they recounted the votes. Democrats, it looks like, both -- won both seats in the Georgia races yesterday. And that's just the fact. And people are going to have to live with it.

Madam Secretary, thanks so much for being with us. Please stay safe. We appreciate you being here.

HOBBS: Thank you.

BERMAN: So, a busy morning as they continue to count votes in Georgia and we are expecting to see a lot of action on Capitol Hill today. Our breaking news coverage continues with Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett next.

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