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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Georgia Senate Election Races Heating Up; Record COVID-19 Numbers in U.S. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired December 07, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:01]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Bianna, thank you, Bianna Golodryga covering the big reopening of elementary school in New York City.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Sure.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

And thank you for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin,.

"THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD.

I'm Jake Tapper. And we begin this hour with the health lead, coronavirus spreading at levels never seen before in the United States. In five days, the U.S. has added one million new cases of coronavirus, just five days.

To put that in context, it took 99 days for the U.S. to reach the first one million cases. Now more people are in the hospital with coronavirus than ever before, 101,487, according to the COVID Tracking Project. And this past weekend was the deadliest since April, with the U.S. reporting more than 3,300 lives lost on Saturday and Sunday.

The average daily death toll in the U.S. is now 2,204 every day.

The head of Operation Warp Speed, Moncef Slaoui, told me yesterday he expects a vaccine for Americans to be approved this week. But Slaoui also warned scientists are six to eight weeks behind schedule on getting 100 million doses ready because of some manufacturing issues.

Either way, health officials are now warning that the upcoming holidays will make this already devastating pandemic even worse.

And, as CNN's Lucy Kafanov reports for us now, today, Dr. Anthony Fauci got specific, warning that the middle of January could be a really dark time in the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Across America, the coronavirus is spreading faster than ever, a whopping one million new cases of COVID-19 reported in just the first five days of December.

DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is a four-alarm fire. And we can't pretend that it's not blazing, simply because it's been blazing for the past eight months.

KAFANOV: Sunday capping off the deadliest weekend since mid-April, with more than 3,300 new deaths reported, many hospitals stretched to capacity, yesterday hitting another record high.

DR. JEROME ADAMS, SURGEON GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: This surge is different than earlier surges, because it's not about PPE. It's not about testing. It's really about health care capacity. And certain places are just being overwhelmed.

KAFANOV: Ten thousand COVID patients are in hospital beds in California alone, where severe new restrictions are now back in place. Restaurants in many California counties are limited to takeout and delivery services only, some pushing back, one restaurant owner frustrated her outdoor dining patio has been forced to close, even though she says a video production company set up an outdoor eating area for its employees right next to her own parking lot.

ANGELA MARSDEN, OWNER, PINEAPPLE HILL SALOON & GRILL: Tell me that this is dangerous, but right next to me, as a slap in my face, that's safe.

KAFANOV: New York also considering closing indoor dining in five days if hospitalization rates don't stabilize.

BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: All options have to be on the table.

KAFANOV: As for schools in the Big Apple, some of those reopened today for elementary and special needs students.

DE BLASIO: The parents were so happy and so relieved.

KAFANOV: Colorado Governor Jared Polis recovering from COVID, his husband also sick and rushed to the hospital. Posting on Facebook: "I experienced a worsening cough and shortness of breath. My doctor suggested as a precaution I go to the hospital," this as experts warn it's about to get worse.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: And the situation is that, as we enter now from the Thanksgiving holiday season into the Christmas holiday season, it's going to be challenging.

KAFANOV: Some hope seemingly around the corner, Pfizer's vaccine expected to get emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which meets Thursday. But, according to a CNN analysis, the first shipments will fall short of what 27 states need to vaccinate their priority group, front-line health care workers and the elderly. According to the surgeon general, nearly half of all COVID deaths are

among those in long-term care facilities or are older.

ADAMS: We want to make sure we're giving it to the people who are most likely to die from this virus.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAFANOV: Now, another worrying factor, Dr. Anthony Fauci today warned that people could still spread the virus even once they are vaccinated. He also says there won't be an immediate improvement in the mortality spread once vaccines start getting administered.

And that means things could get a lot worse before they get better -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Lucy Kafanov, thank you for that report.

Today, president-elect Joe Biden named key members of his health team in charge of getting the coronavirus pandemic under control and distributing the vaccine.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is live for us in Wilmington, Delaware.

Arlette, tell us who the members of Biden's health team are and what experience they bring to this incredibly daunting challenge.

[15:05:00]

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Jake, president-elect Joe Biden is assembling this team that will really act as a guiding force as he makes his plans to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

This is a team with various areas of background and expertise that will be leading the COVID-19 response. I want to give you a look at some members of that team, starting with Biden's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

Biden is expected to nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for that post. Now, he is also, the president-elect is asking Dr. Vivek Murthy to come back and serve as surgeon general after he did so during the Obama administration. Murthy has also been a longtime adviser throughout the campaign to Biden when it comes to issues regarding the pandemic.

Now, to lead the CDC as its director Biden has tapped Dr. Rochelle Walensky. She's an infectious disease expert. Biden has also asked Dr. Anthony Fauci to come on board as a chief medical adviser. He is someone who is very well known to the American public. And there are also other members of that team, including Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith. She will be leading a COVID-19 Equity Task Force.

This is a newly created position that will really hone in on trying to address some of those inequities that we have seen during the pandemic, as many black and Latino Americans have been disproportionately affected by this virus. Now, to zero in a little bit on Xavier Becerra, he is currently the

attorney general of California. He has served in Congress for quite some time in the past and has really been leading the legal efforts to protect the Affordable Care Act.

But now, as HHS secretary, if he is confirmed, he would be responsible for managing all of those health care plans. He is also, if -- if confirmed, would be the first Latino to lead HHS, another barrier- breaking pick for the president-elect.

TAPPER: All right, Arlette Saenz in Wilmington, Delaware, for us, thank you so much.

Outgoing President Trump says that his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is doing very well, despite now being hospitalized after having tested positive for coronavirus in recent days. Giuliani has been making frequent maskless appearances across the country since the election, raising alarm in a lot of places.

The Arizona State legislature has now announced it is closing for the next week out of an abundance of caution after Giuliani stopped by last week. President Trump says Giuliani was doing important work trying to overturn the results of the election, somehow, the president still insisting that he won the election, despite having lost or withdrawn more than two dozen, if not almost three dozen legal check cases challenging the results.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins joins me now live at the White House.

And, Kaitlan, you're hearing today that the Trump campaign is actually going to start winding down some of these ill-fated legal efforts.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, when we went to the campaign with this reporting, they denied it and said their legal efforts aren't coming to an end.

But if you look at what's happening, and you're talking to sources, as I have done, with -- that are around the campaign and around the president's legal team, they see that this is coming to an end, that they are reaching the end of the road here, because, if you look at what's happened over the last several days and several weeks, they have had a string of court losses.

Despite what the president has said, they have had about 40 or more cases lost or withdrawn by the president and his allies. Also, now Rudy Giuliani, the president's top attorney leading this, has been hospitalized with coronavirus.

And they have got a few deadlines coming up that they don't believe are going to work in their favor, doesn't appear that are going to work in their favor. So, putting all that together, they get this sense that their legal efforts, their attempts to maybe not over even -- even overturn the results of this election, just to delay Joe Biden's win, are coming to an end.

And the president was asked about some of those deadlines that are coming up when he had reporters in the Oval Office today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, this was like from a Third World nation. And I think the case has been made. And now we find out what we can do about it.

But you will see a lot of big things happening over the next couple of days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: So, he appeared to acknowledge, though, that their efforts to return these results have not been working. He said the case has been made, though, of course, Jake, as we noted, 40 or more losses doesn't exactly equate to a success for the president's efforts here.

TAPPER: And, Kaitlan, a source telling CNN that Attorney General Bill Barr is considering leaving his post before Inauguration Day.

What are you learning about that? And, frankly, what's the point, with less than seven weeks remaining for the Trump administration?

COLLINS: Well, I think that thinking from Bill Barr comes as, we were reporting last week, the president was considering firing Bill Barr with just seven weeks left to go in his administration.

Their relationship was once one of the best that the president had with a member of his Cabinet, and now it has deteriorated. It's probably one of the worst relationships that the president has, where he and Bill Barr had this contentious meeting. Bill Barr's been undercutting his claims about election fraud.

And so there are sources saying there's a chance Bill Barr could leave. It's unclear if that's actually going to come to fruition. You have often seen the way that Bill Barr has sent message messages to the president publicly. I think this is one of those, basically saying, if the president tried to fire him, it wouldn't matter that much to him.

[15:10:00]

But it is amazing to see this relationship has gone from such a high high to the point where it is now, where we're talking about the president considering firing him and Bill Barr considering quitting with just a few weeks left on the job.

TAPPER: The tipping point being that Attorney General Barr said that he saw no evidence of widespread fraud that would change the results of the election. And, of course, President Trump keeps lying that there.

Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much.

Even if the FDA approves a coronavirus vaccine this week, there are a lot of obstacles ahead. We're going to talk to a doctor in charge of vaccine distribution at one of the busiest hospitals in the nation. That's next.

Then: We're just a few hours away from people receiving their first Pfizer vaccines in the U.K. How are they making sure you know who has been vaccinated?

Coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back.

Sticking in our health lead, 33 million Californians are under stay- at-home orders right now, as COVID cases and hospitalizations continue to break records. Those same hospitals are gearing up to distribute the vaccines to health care workers in the coming weeks. The FDA is expected to give emergency use authorization to Pfizer's new COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday.

[15:15:07]

Dr. Jeffrey Smith is chief operating officer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He's the coordinator of vaccine storage, distribution and logistics for the hospital. And he joins me now.

Dr. Smith, thanks for joining us.

You're coordinating everything from cold storage to distribution. You already have the freezers ready. When do you anticipate your hospital will get the vaccine itself?

DR. JEFFREY SMITH, COO, CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER: We anticipate that we will get the vaccine within days of the emergency use authorization, so as early as next week.

TAPPER: If the Pfizer vaccine receives FDA emergency use authorization Thursday, how soon will us be able to start putting it in people's arms?

SMITH: Well, we have spent the past several weeks preparing. So we will be able to begin shortly thereafter.

Once we receive the vaccine, we already have a process in place to prioritize our health care workers as to who should receive it first and have processes in place to begin administration almost immediately.

TAPPER: Monday, Tuesday? When do you think?

SMITH: Yes, likely early next week, as you have said.

TAPPER: The COVID-19 vaccine distribution has been described as one of the biggest logistical challenges in American history. What are your concerns?

SMITH: Well, this is new for us, and particularly with the Pfizer vaccine. The company needed to not only invent the vaccine, but they also needed to develop a unique logistical and shipping process in order to deliver the vaccine to us and maintain it at those ultra-cold temperatures. So that does add a little bit of complexity.

But Pfizer has been pretty ingenious in how they have managed to do that. So, we have been ready. We do vaccinate all of our staff against influenza. So we're kind of leveraging the platform and experiencing of doing that each year in order to do the this vaccine.

TAPPER: As with any vaccine, there are possible side effects for this one.

Right now, we're told that there are possible flu-like symptoms, that they do go away, but it can cause fatigue, muscle aches, fever. Are you worried about those side effects causing staff members to have to call out sick? Are you are you preparing for that?

SMITH: Yes.

Well, the good news is that, in the early trials, it's only been about 10 to 15 percent of the people who have received the vaccine who have experienced those relatively mild symptoms. One of the things that we're doing is staggering the staff on each unit as to when they get the vaccine, so that, if they do need a day off to recover from the vaccine, we won't be short-staffed on any of those units.

TAPPER: Tell me what you're seeing right now at Cedars-Sinai as the pandemic gets worse and worse. How are you doing? How is the capacity?

SMITH: Well, like in Los Angeles County and in California, and really across the country, we are see seeing our numbers rise pretty dramatically.

We now have more COVID patients in our hospital than we have had at any other time in the pandemic.

TAPPER: Dr. Jane Orient, who is a doctor who is skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccine, she's a promoter of the debunked anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as the COVID-19 treatment.

She has been asked to testify before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee tomorrow. What do you think of the U.S. Senate giving a vaccine skeptic a public platform right at this moment?

SMITH: Well, I think it's important that we have all of the concerns addressed.

And so while people have the right to express their opinion, it really comes back to the science. And I am a little bit concerned. We have shown that in many other pandemics or infectious diseases, that vaccines are really the true answer.

And we have seen the benefit from these time after time. Although these vaccines were developed in record time, none of the steps were skipped. And it was really because process -- vaccine process development was done in parallel.

And so we do believe, based on the early data, that suggests that this is safe and effective, and could have a very significant role in bringing this pandemic to an end.

TAPPER: But you yourself have complete confidence in this vaccine?

SMITH: Based on what we have seen so far, there has been low incidence of side effects, and they have been very mild. So, based on all the evidence that we have seen so far, we do believe that it will be safe and effective and are awaiting the final approval from the experts at the FDA.

TAPPER: There's a viral video making the rounds of a Los Angeles County restaurant owner, Angela Marsden, extremely frustrated about what she says are inconsistent COVID restrictions for her restaurant vs. what a movie set catering allowed to set up literally next door.

I don't know if you have seen the video or not, but take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARSDEN: They have not given us money and they have shut us down. We cannot survive. My staff could not survive.

[15:20:03]

Look at this. Tell me that this is dangerous, but right next to me, as a slap in my face, that's safe.

This is safe, 50 feet away?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now, Dr. Smith, you don't make COVID restrictions in Los Angeles. So you're not responsible for this.

But what do you think of the perception that some of the COVID restrictions in California have been either heavy-handed or uneven and inconsistent?

SMITH: Well, you're right, Jake, I'm really not in position to comment on how the specific restrictions are applied.

But I can speak a bit to the science and what our experience has been so far. If we look at other countries who have been effective in bringing down their COVID rates, we have seen that stay-at-home orders and restrictions have been a significant part of that.

In fact, we even have experience here in California. When we saw our initial surge back in April and in March, what was effective in helping to bring those (AUDIO GAP) they do work.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: All right, thank you, Dr. Smith. We're having some trouble with your -- with the connection right now.

Dr. Jeffrey Smith, thank you so much for your time.

Coming up: Deny reality or tell the truth and possibly lose the election? The bizarre state of the race to control the Senate -- that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:29]

TAPPER: In our 2020 lead: The outgoing president of the United States continues to attack the Republican governor of Georgia, and he continues to insist -- erroneously -- that he won the election.

At the same time, Mr. Trump is trying to convince Republicans to go back to the polls in Georgia and vote in two crucial Senate races. The January 5 run-offs will determine if Republicans stay in control of the U.S. Senate.

Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler would not say that president-elect Joe Biden won the presidency as she and Democrat Reverend Raphael Warnock attacked each other during a contentious debate last night.

But in the state's other race, Republican Senator David Perdue refused to even show up to debate his opponent, Democrat Jon Ossoff, leaving behind an empty podium.

CNN's Ryan Nobles joins me now live from Atlanta.

And, Ryan, this is an impossible line for Georgia Republicans to walk. Either state the reality, that Trump lost and get attacked by Trump, or reject reality.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right, Jake.

And, strangely enough, Georgia Republicans think that they can pull it off. We're seeing this really play out in real time, particularly on Saturday night, when President Trump came here, and he did deliver the message that Republicans wanted him to deliver. And that is that he wants his supporters to get out and vote for Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue on January 5.

But he coupled that message with -- filled with all of these lies that he continues to peddle about the way the election was conducted not just across the country, but specifically here in Georgia.

And then there was even one moment during the president's speech where he brought Loeffler and Perdue on stage to promote them, to tell folks to vote for them. And his crowd ended up just yelling, "Stop the steal" and "Fight for Trump."

So you can see that their focus isn't necessarily on the election to come, but the election that already took place. Still, Georgia Republicans tell me that they believe that, at the end of the day, these Trump supporters will come home and vote for their candidates, but they acknowledge that they are walking a very fine line, that they're essentially on the edge here because they're telling their supporters to come out and participate in a process that the person they trust the most, President Trump is telling them just doesn't work -- Jake.

TAPPER: And Senator Loeffler still refusing to say the Trump lost even in the debate.

NOBLES: Yes, it was a pretty shocking set of circumstances last night in this debate, Senator Loeffler asked several times whether or not she thought Donald Trump won or lost.

This is just one example of how that played out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Senator, do you believe the election was rigged?

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): Look, Greg, it's very clear that there were issues in this election. There are 250 investigations open, including an investigation into one of my opponent's organizations, for voter fraud, and we have to make sure that Georgians trust this process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: And the way that Senator Loeffler conducted herself last night, staying on that very specific message, really crystallizes this tightrope that these Georgia Republicans are walking on.

They do need to lean into the president's conspiracy theories on at least some level to keep his supporters in their fold. But if they go too far, they risk alienating independents, certainly Democrats, and even some Republicans that just don't believe the president's claims -- Jake.

TAPPER: So bizarre.

Thanks so much, Ryan.

Let's discuss right now with our team.

Ayesha, let me start with you.

You just heard Senator Kelly Loeffler. She will not acknowledge the reality that President Trump lost.