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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Georgia Recount; New York City Schools Close Amid Coronavirus Spike; Georgia To Announce Election Audit Results Tomorrow; Interview With Georgia Secretary Of State About The Election Audit. Aired 4:30- 5p ET

Aired November 18, 2020 - 16:30   ET

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

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[16:33:41]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Breaking news in our health lead: Schools in New York City, the largest school district in the entire United States, are closing until further notice, as the city's coronavirus positivity rate rises.

It's a reality seen across the United States, where yesterday 100,707 -- I'm sorry -- 1,707 Americans reported to have died of the virus, 1,707. That's the highest number of COVID-related deaths we have seen in six months.

And, as CNN's Nick Watt reports, the fact that there's no coherent national response is certainly not helping.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pneumonia, but I want to make sure you don't have a blood clot in your lung.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 76,000 Americans now hospitalized with COVID-19, that's an all-time high.

GOV. STEVE BULLOCK (D-MT): In some places, we're already out of beds and room to put even new beds.

WATT: So, Montana's mask mandate goes statewide Friday. New York City schools will close again tomorrow. Positivity rates in the city are now too high. In Michigan, a three-week pause kicks in today, no more indoor dining, bars, movie theaters.

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): Inherently dangerous situations are when you are inside with people from a different household or many different households for a prolonged period of time with masks off.

[16:35:07]

WATT: In South Dakota, the governor still won't mandate masks.

GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R-SD): People that want to wear masks should wear masks and people who don't shouldn't be shamed because they choose not to.

WATT: In Oregon, there can be no more than six at the Thanksgiving table this year.

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's Orwellian in a place like Oregon to say, if you gather in numbers more than six, we might come to your house and arrest you and you get 30 days of jail time?

WATT: Orwellian or just lifesaving?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: We're all in this together as a nation. If one element of the country or multiple elements of the country don't cooperate with an infectious disease, we are going to continue to be in trouble.

WATT: Seventeen hundred and seven lives reported last Tuesday, COVID's deadliest day in America for six months. The average daily death toll is now rising in 33 states.

DR. TOM INGLESBY, DIRECTOR, JOHNS HOPKINS CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY: I'm the most concerned I have been since this pandemic started. States across the country are having the most rapid rise they have seen since the start of this.

WATT: Pfizer now says its vaccine is 95 percent effective, and they will file for FDA authorization within days. Moderna won't be far behind.

ALEX AZAR, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: By the end of December, we expect to have about 40 million doses of these two vaccines available for distribution, pending FDA authorization, enough to vaccinate about 20 million of our most vulnerable Americans.

WATT: But likely early summer before it's widespread.

BULLOCK: There is light at the end of the tunnel. However, that tunnel is long.

WATT: And, some places, panic buying is now back also, long lines at food banks and COVID-19 testing sites. The pain of this fall now resembles the spring, and it's getting worse.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: Now, those schools that were open in New York City, that was a real symbol of hope and progress, kids inside classrooms in a city that was once the epicenter of the entire world.

But they hit that 3 percent positivity, which they had agreed would trigger the closing of those schools. But the situation you have got now is that kids in New York aren't allowed to go into a classroom, but adults are allowed to go out to grab a bite to eat.

It's complicated -- Jake.

TAPPER: Yes, it's confusing, to say the least.

Nick Watt, thanks so much.

WATT: Yes.

TAPPER: Let's bring in CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, I want to start with playing a tense moment today with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. He was asked about New York City closing its public schools after the city's COVID testing positivity rate reached 3 percent.

And there was confusion, parents not understanding what was going on. Obviously, restaurants and bars are still allowed to be open. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): That's the law, an orange zone and a red zone. Follow the facts.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: I'm just still confused.

CUOMO: Well, then you're confused.

QUESTION: I'm confused.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Then I'll tell you what, Jimmy.

QUESTION: Parents are still confused as well. The schools in New York City tomorrow...

CUOMO: They're not confused. You're confused.

QUESTION: No, I think parents are...

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... confused as well.

CUOMO: Read the law. Read the law, and you won't be confused.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Wow, that's something else.

But what is confusing for a lot of people, Sanjay, is New York City closing the public schools for this 3 percent positivity rate, but not closing bars, gyms, restaurants.

Does that make any sense to you?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It doesn't make a lot of sense.

It sounds like they created these guidelines, maybe didn't sort of play it all the way through, and now they end up in this situation where schools -- I can understand the idea of sort of trying to figure out, are the numbers going in the wrong direction? Do we need to put the brakes on things quickly? I mean, that makes sense.

We have been talking about that sort of strategy since March. But the idea that would affect schools, where, according to their surveillance testing, have a really low positivity rate, below 0.2 percent, whereas the city is obviously around 3 percent, then close down the schools, it doesn't make sense.

What I think is going to happen, Jake, is that you're going to hear the same about restaurants and other types of establishments like that for a while too. So that's probably where they're headed. I think they just sort of got it out of sequence a bit.

TAPPER: The U.S. is nearing a quarter-million COVID-related deaths. We lost 1,700 people to coronavirus just yesterday, 1,700. That's the highest daily total of deaths due to COVID since May.

More than 76,000 people are in American hospitals with COVID. That's a new record. Sanjay, is there anything at this point that can stop these kinds of alarming trends?

GUPTA: Yes, absolutely, Jake, there are things, because we have been in situations in this country, not obviously at this level, but been in local situations, communities where they had significant exponential growth.

They got into red-line situations, and they basically had to turn it around, even up in the Northeast a bit, where we were just talking about.

[16:40:04]

So, there's basic things. We talk about a mask mandate. We talk about no public gatherings, large public gatherings, and certain establishments, like restaurants and bars. Indoors, without masks on, those probably would have to be closed or at least limited for a period of time.

That works, Jake. We have seen that work in other places. So, with these five locations, restaurants, gyms, cafes, hotels and religious gatherings, we know about 80 percent of the viral spread is happening in this country.

What the people who were studying this also learned is that, if you just limit capacity to 20 percent in those places, you could actually get nearly all the benefit of curtailing the viral spread.

So there are things we can do. We're still not doing it, though, Jake, in too many places.

TAPPER: Yes. And we should note that those restaurants, bars, gyms, et cetera,

cafes, they need help from the federal government. They need money, they need stimulus, they need relief that they're not getting from the Congress.

Sanjay, we have been talking a lot about the examples being set by leaders starting at the top with outgoing President Trump, but governors and mayors also.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is now apologizing. He and his wife went to a restaurant for a dinner earlier this month. They sat closely with about a dozen other guests. I'm told it's kind of like a hybrid indoor/outdoor restaurant, but it's still not the example that he wants to set, one would think.

And Governor Newsom said he made a big mistake. But it's not leading by example. And it undermines the message. I mean, if you're in California, and you're -- you can't go out, and then you see your governor is, what are you supposed to thank?

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, I think he really wishes he could walk that back. I mean, he says he showed up at the thing. I think he thought it was going to be a different type of event. This is just what I read. I haven't spoken to him. And he should have just left at that point, when he realized it wasn't going to be an event that actually followed public health guidelines.

Jake, I have been in that situation. I have been invited to something, told it was going to be a physically distanced, outdoor sort of thing. I show up there, it's not. It just isn't. People say they're going to do it. Then they don't abide by it. And I leave in those situations.

But it's tough. And you're absolutely right. And that was a wrong thing for him to do. And it sets a really poor example because it normalizes or condones it for people.

TAPPER: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

We have breaking news on the Georgia recount. The results are just hours away. The state official in charge of that recount joins me next.

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[16:46:53]

TAPPER: We have some breaking news for you now in our 2020 lead. Georgia election officials just announced that they will release the election audit results around noon tomorrow, after recounting all five million plus ballots in the state.

Let's get right to Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger.

Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for joining us.

Let's start with this audit. Can you tell us right now if you have seen any evidence of widespread or significant fraud as the president keeps claiming and whether or not in your view President-elect Joe Biden will end up winning your state's electoral votes?

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Good evening, Jake.

No, we have not seen any widespread voter fraud. The president has picked up some votes in a few of the counties that made some clerical errors, it wasn't the machines. But at the end of the day, he started with 14,000. He's about 12,000 now. But we're finishing up, waiting for a few more counties to get back to us, large counties, but I don't believe at the end of the day it will change the total results.

TAPPER: So, you still think that Joe Biden, President-elect Biden will be the winner of Georgia?

RAFFENSPERGER: Yes, I believe that's the way it will turn out.

TAPPER: Now, as you mentioned, officials did find two batches of early in-person votes that were not originally included in the initial results for the presidential election. A total of more than 5,000 ballots between Floyd and Fayette County.

How did this happen? Have you figured out whether or not there was malfeasance or an accident? Whether these individuals are aligned with a political party? I think those -- are those Republican counties? Tell us more.

RAFFENSPERGER: Those are Republican counties. In the case of Floyd County, the county election director had stepped out -- I believe it was due to health issues. Let a junior person that didn't have the skill set and the experience to do something. And what happened is they didn't update the memory card. And so, it just didn't get counted.

So we counted all the ballots, we had more ballots than what was reported on election night.

So, we quickly found out what the issue was and was corrected. So, that was a clerical error. Nothing, you know, untoward, nothing that anyone planned. It was just incompetence.

Fayette County, similar but different, but it goes back to an election official making a mistake.

But that's why we're going through the audit. We did a 100 percent (INAUDIBLE). We're counting every single ballot. And not just running it through the scanner again, we're doing a hand count because some people were questioning the accuracy of our election machines, this Dominion voting systems. And what we're seeing in over 50 counties already, there's not one single vote difference. Another 30 counties it was one vote plus or minus, and the other 25 counties, it was plus or minus less than ten vote difference.

So, it's very, very close, and then we actually have done an audit of the machines in six different counties, randomized audit by an outside forensic investigator, Pro V&V, to substantiate that these machines are accurately counting everything.

TAPPER: One of the other things we keep hearing from the president, outgoing President Trump, is this thing about Dominion software. Obviously, there's no evidence to it. It's really crazy just -- it's frankly crazy stuff, tin foil hat stuff.

But the idea is that because of the software, somebody is able to go in and change the results.

If somebody even wanted to do that, could they do that? I mean, isn't there just a huge paper trail and dozens if not hundreds and thousands -- or hundreds or thousands of people watching?

RAFFENSPERGER: Well, to your point, we have a verifiable paper ballot. The first thing I did when I became secretary of state was work with the general assembly to pass House Bill 316 which allowed us to get new machines.

These machines have a verifiable paper ballot trail. You look at your choice, do you want President Biden, Vice President Biden or Jo Jorgensen, your selection. And then you put it on the scanner and that's when it will scan. And that's where the tabulation happens.

So nothing -- the ballot marking device is just marking their ballot so there's no question about what your choices were. And so, we did an audit to make sure we weren't hacked (ph), but when you count the paper ballots and then take it back to what was reported on the machines and they line up, it's pretty clear and conclusive proof that the votes were accurately counted.

TAPPER: Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, who's up for re-election in a runoff in January, once again today called on you to resign. Take a listen.

(BEGIIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you standing by your call for the Georgia secretary of state to resign?

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): Yes, I am, because we have to hold our top election official accountable. Thousands of votes were not counted in Georgia, just on November 3rd, after a pretty disastrous primary in June.

So, look, we have to make sure that Georgians trust the system because we need every Georgian to vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I don't think you need to respond to her crazy charges, but I just wonder what it feels like as a Republican official -- and you're not the only one. You have Chris Krebs who was just fired by Trump. You have the Philadelphia commissioner, Al Schmidt.

A Republican official who has been a loyal Republican and worked his hardest to do the best job possible, what is it like to be attacked by Republicans, not even for something you did, but for just deranged conspiracy theories?

RAFFENSPERGER: I've been a lifelong Republican. I'm a conservative Christian Republican. And you look at my voting record. I have been endorsed by pro-life business, pro-business groups, National Federation of Independent Businesses. I'm a business owner.

And so, people say that I'm not Republican, it's crazy talk. At the end of the day, when people want to create dissension among the Republican Party in the runoff race, it's not helpful to the person, the candidate. So I'm not going to comment further.

But I know at the end of the day, election matters, and it matters in this office. I'm going to make sure to count every legal lawful vote and we're not going to count any illegal votes.

Everything I have done in this office, we outlaw ballot harvesting. We understand it's a bad deal to do ballot harvesting. We outlawed it. That was me, that was my team.

We now have an online absentee ballot portal which has photo ID. And that was our team that stood that up in less than two weeks when we had this huge expansion of absentee ballots. So, my record will stand on itself. We've done a great job. We've defeated the issue of having long lines in Georgia. Election Day, there was a two-minute average wait time.

The race is a lot closer than we thought, but that goes back to the candidate for president told people not to vote absentee. So, 24,000 Republicans that actually voted absentee in the June primary did not come out in the fall and vote. They did not vote absentee nor in early voting or the day of the election, 24,000, and that's the winning margin to make there.

TAPPER: That's the margin right there.

You've also discussed the pressure you thought you faced from Senator Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. You say that he indirectly, indirectly, asked you to try to throw away legally cast votes. Now, Senator Graham denies this claim. He calls it ridiculous.

Is it possible you interpreted him incorrectly?

RAFFENSPERGER: Well, I had two other staff members on it, and one of them has already talked to the press and pretty much says the same thing I have said. So, we saw it one way, he sees it another. But we're moving on. We have an audit and we have a race that we have to certify.

TAPPER: All right. Secretary Raffensperger, thank you so much for what you do. I'm sorry you're going through this. It's really quite disgusting.

RAFFENSPERGER: Yeah, good evening, Jake. Take care.

TAPPER: All right. Bottles, rock, and water cannons, clashes over stricter coronavirus rules as deaths surge overseas as well.

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[16:59:06]

TAPPER: In our world lead today, the world health organization says cases are down in Europe for first time in months but deaths are ticking up. In Berlin, police used water cannons on protesters who were frustrated with coronavirus restrictions after police say protesters threw bottles, stones, and fire crackers at them. About 100 protesters were arrested.

In southern Australia, a six-day shutdown begins tomorrow as health officials point to a pizza joint and a hotel as hot spots there, after 22 people got infected.

Almost a quarter of a million Americans have died from coronavirus just here in the U.S. We would like to take a moment right now at the end of the show just to remember one of them.

Judy Ann Taylor (ph), she was 68. She was a gospel singer, a great grandmother, and a mentor. In the '80s and '90s, Taylor recorded with gospel stars like Edwin Hawkins. She was also the soprano lead for many Philadelphia gospel groups.

May her memory and that of all those we have lost in this horrific pandemic be a blessing.

You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @JakeTapper. Tweet the show @TheLeadCNN.

Our coverage continues right now.

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