Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

Sen. Loeffler Refuses to Accept Biden Victory on Debate Stage; Georgia Republican Lt. Governor Says Trump's "Mountains of Misinformation" Hurting Republicans in Runoff; Control of Senate Hinges on Two Georgia Races; Rare Access to Assassination Site in Iran; U.K. Reveals COVID Vaccination Cards; Trailblazing NFL Player Fred Sasakamoose Dies of Coronavirus. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 07, 2020 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: A "Washington Post" survey found that only 27 of all 249 Congressional Republicans responded to their question and publicly acknowledged that Joe Biden is the president-elect. What's going on with the Republican Party?

AYESHA RASCOE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, NPR: Well, and those Republicans who acknowledged that Joe Biden was the president-elect, President Trump said he wanted their names so he could call them out. And so I think that's what's going on, is that you have Republicans who are still concerned and still scared of what Donald Trump can do.

And that rally on Saturday when Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue were called up on the stage, you could tell that the enthusiasm was not for them. It was not -- it just wasn't there. And so if there is a concern, now, obviously, this is Georgia. You know, even though it went blue for the presidency, it's still a conservative state. This is a runoff. So Republicans still have a good chance.

There has to be some concern about this argument everything is rigged, all of the machines, they don't work, you know, they can switch the votes, but go out and vote, anyway. It does take some type of cognitive dissonance to really pull that off.

TAPPER: Sure does. Gloria, I spoke with Georgia's Republican Lieutenant Governor Jeff Duncan. He's a conservative. He endorsed Trump. I asked him about President Trump's false claims that he won the state of Georgia and that the election was rigged. Take a listen to what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF DUNCAN (R-GA) LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: I worry that this continuous fanning of the flames around misinformation puts us in a negative position with regards to the January 5th runoff. You know, the mountains of misinformation are not helping the process, they're only hurting it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Do you think, Gloria, that it will actually end up hurting Republicans' efforts to win those runoff elections?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: It's hard to say at this point. There are a lot of our fellow journalists on the ground who are interviewing people, for example, at the rally on Saturday night who said, yes, they'd probably still turn out, but they expect it to be rigged. So again, that's difficult, but they just might do it.

I think the thing we ought to be thinking about is the public service of people like Mr. Duncan and Brad Raffensperger in the state who are counting as accurately as possible, who are not cheating, there is no fraud here. What, have they done it, three times? And they are getting death threats because they are public servants trying to do their jobs. And instead, what they're getting is the President of the United States accusing them of somehow these Republicans trying to rig the election against him.

TAPPER: It's just childish.

BORGER: It is.

TAPPER: Ayesha, President Trump is also continuing to focus on attacking the conservative Republican Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, over the loss. And then there are these pro-Trump figures that Trump and his team have empowered, Lin Wood, Sidney Powell out there saying crazy things. They've even been telling people don't vote.

At what point do you think Congressional Republicans, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, et cetera, are going to step in? Or are they not? Are they just going to continue to be silent and let these deranged conspiracy theories fill the air?

RASCOE: It doesn't seem like they're stepping in right now. Obviously, their eye is on January 5th, so they don't want to upset the President's supporters. And you kind of see this pushing back of the goalpost. You know, first it was we'll let the state certify their results, and then, you know, once they're certified, then maybe, you know, we can accept that Joe Biden is the President-elect.

Now it's we'll look at when the electoral college votes. When they meet, you know, in December, maybe that will be the time. Maybe we have to go back to, you know, wait until January. It will be January 20th at noon, and then I guess they'll have to accept it, that the reality is here.

And you know, at some point you do have to call the moving vans, like President Trump is going to have to leave, you know, whether he accepts it or not. But I don't see Mitch McConnell or any of them stepping in ahead of January 5th, because they're going to be worried about those Trump supporters.

TAPPER: And Gloria, the Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger of Georgia, this afternoon recertified the results of the presidential election. I don't know how many times Trump's going to lose Georgia. I mean just like it keeps -- he just keeps losing the presidency over and over. This is the third time they've counted ballots in Georgia.

BORGER: So much losing, so much losing.

TAPPER: Wouldn't it benefit the Republican Party to move on from November 3rd and focus on the runoffs instead of continuing to coddle the President's brittle spirit?

[15:35:00]

BORGER: Yes, it would, but no, they're not going to do it. I mean you even have word today that some of the President's loyalists in the House want to go to the floor in January, challenge the electoral college and on and on and on.

I think they're doing that for an audience of one because they understand that that audience of one has 74 million supporters, and they want to keep those supporters in line. And the question, I think, that's out there, is whether once Trump leaves center stage, and he will leave center stage, how long that lasts?

And we don't know the answer to it, we don't know what he's going to do post-presidency. Will he announce that he's going to run again the day Biden gets inaugurated as some have said? Will he try and monetize the election into Trump Inc.? We just don't know.

TAPPER: All right, Ayesha Rascoe and Gloria Borger, thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

Coming up next. CNN gets rare access inside Iran. We're going take you to the scene of an assassination that has stirred global controversy and the huge diplomatic hurdle for the incoming Biden-Harris administration. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:40:00]

TAPPER: In our WORLD LEAD today, Iranian leaders are a vowing the assassination of its top nuclear scientist will not go unanswered. The question now is when and how will Iran respond. The government wants revenge after Iran state media reports that remote-controlled guns guided by a satellite device assassinated Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

CNN's Nick Payton Walsh was inside Iran for us. He got rare access to the scene of the killing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PAYTON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): Amid Tehran's holiday homes by the snowy roadside is where the man who's work Iran says must go on was fatally shot reportedly in front of his wife.

Nuclear scientist Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was Iran's repository of nuclear bomb knowledge Israel has claimed while not saying they were behind the assassination.

(on camera): A lot of the debris has been cleared away here, but you can still see the soot from the explosion on the curb and the damage done to the road below me.

There are still so many different versions of the events of what happened here but one witness we've spoken to says, at first, they heard an explosion, a wood truck they say that detonated here, and then there was an exchange of gunfire that lasted about 8 to 10 minutes. You can see over here the damage still done to the site by the bullets.

(voice-over): From the orchard nearby, possible vantage points for a low-tech ambush even though Iranian security officials are telling state media this was a high-tech plot involving a AI facial recognition satellite-controlled robot machine gun into whose bullets Fakhrizadeh stepped when he got out of his bullet-proof car.

One of the many reasons offered for a lapse in security in this neat backwater. Fakhrizadeh's son told state media his father ignored warnings from the security detail the day before.

My father said he had a class, the son says, one he could not teach virtually and an important meeting, so they could not persuade him to turn back.

Deep inside the Defense Ministry Sunday they remembered him again at the highest levels. Among Iran's critics louder and louder the question, does this, another lapse in security, make a race toward a possible nuclear weapon a good idea or a worse one?

Officially Iran says it does not want the bomb, but its Parliament last week demanded Iran enrich uranium to 20 percent in the first weeks of the Biden administration. That could make a weapon a lot closer. Yet there remain two versions of Iran, both a bit visible here. It's hard-hit by sanctions and wants to talk or has resisted and will hit back.

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: We know our campaign is working because now the Iranians are desperately signaling their willingness to return to the negotiating table to get sanctions relief.

SAYEED MOHAMMED MARANDI, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF TEHRAN: The Israeli regime, if it feels that it can continue carrying out acts of terror, the Iranians will continue pay an unnecessary price. The only way to stop these acts of terror is for them to pay a price that makes it not worthy. I have no doubt that the Iranians are going to respond.

WALSH: Iran has been here before a lot as this museum of blown-up cars attests, all Porsche models going back in the ages. All nuclear scientists assassinated in Iran's pursuit of what it says is peaceful nuclear technology that it needs alongside its huge oil reserves.

(on camera): We may never know what knowledge perished with Dr. Fakhrizadeh, or what impact that may have on Iran's critics, the hawks, who claim that it could be as little as four months away from a possible nuclear weapon.

(voice-over): Deals, scientists, assassins, all but come and gone, but the mounting tension which Joe Biden has a huge diplomatic task to ease in a matter of months, has about forty days left to build.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:45:00]

WALSH (on camera): Jake, if you'd like another wrinkle in the quilt of diplomacy today where the three European powers signatory to the nuclear deal of 2015, France, Germany and the U.K. said that they are deeply concerned, reports Iran is putting more centrifuges into its Natanz facility. These kinds of problems are going to keep coming in the weeks and months ahead.

TAPPER: Nick, do you think diplomacy can work here?

WALSH: There are two real questions here. What kind of deal could possibly be signed? And Joe Biden and the Foreign Minister of Germany have talked about a possible nuclear plus agreement, in your interview, Jake, Joe Biden mentioning the missiles issue, and Iran saying, well no, we'll either sign the JCP away, the nuclear deal again and honor that. And the Americans will honor that or nothing. We're not going to renegotiate all over again.

So there's that hurdle, all of that could be bluster, frankly, and then there's the other issue, of the spoilers. Other hawks in the region possibly who may seek to force retaliation, to escalate violence here and then therefore derail nation diplomacy.

But frankly from being here, seeing the impact of sanctions and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Iran, it's pretty clear Iran wants sanctions relief as fast as it can, that's even what the hardliners in Parliament are pushing forward, a fast timetable they set just in the last week or so. The real issue is, can Joe Biden's administration navigate and deliver fast enough it seems for Iran to feel their getting what they feel they need out of that -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Nick Paton Walsh live for us in Tehran, Iran, thank you so much, sir, appreciate it.

The world is watching in just hours. The U.K. will begin giving people the first Pfizer COVID vaccine. What can the U.S. learn? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:00]

TAPPER: Also in our WORLD LEAD today, the United Kingdom preparing to offer the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine tomorrow. Less than a week after the U.K. became the first Western nation to approve the vaccine.

CNN's Max Foster joins us now live from Cardiff, Wales. And Max, this first round is really by invitation only. What are you learning about who is going to get the first round this vaccine?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is invitation-only and that's why the locations here in Wales are being kept secret as to where you can get this vaccination.

Because it is only invitation-only for the people, the frontline workers, the health workers but also care home workers here in Wales. The concern being that if people find out where these locations are, they might start cueing up to get the vaccination. They do not want that to happen.

Also some level of concern about security as well. That people might try to raid these vaccinations stores as well. So it's going to be interesting to see how things play out tomorrow, Jake. But certainly all the plans seem to be working so far. They're ahead of schedule. The bigger challenge probably in the next phase where they're not doing from hospitals but in small locations, doctor surgeries and care homes themselves which don't have the refrigeration required to keep the vaccine for more than a few days.

TAPPER: And Max, tell us more about these vaccination cards.

FOSTER: Interesting. So everyone that receives a vaccine will be given a card. The government says it's a reminder really that you have to come back in three weeks to get the second dose.

But there is a big debate here about whether or not vaccines should be mandated. A bit of a conspiracy theory that that's what the government wants. So there's a bit of debate about whether the cards are really a precursor to an immunization passport which will give you access to locations and jobs potentially by you being able to say, you know, I've been vaccinated and that's part of this debate about whether or not it should be mandated and there's as real, you know, fight back against that in Parliament. And I think in the wider country as well.

TAPPER: All right, Max Foster in Wales, thank you so much for your reporting. We'll check back with you later this week.

There have been more than 282,000 -- 282,000 COVID deaths in America this year. And more than 1.53 million worldwide. We're going to take the time now to remember just one of those lives. A trail blazer who lost his life to the coronavirus pandemic.

Fred Sasakmoose, he was one of the first Indigenous Canadians to play in the National Hockey League. Despite only playing 11 games with the Chicago Blackhawks during the '53 and '54 season, he was seen as a hero for our First Nations. And he inspired future generations of Indigenous hockey players.

After playing in the NHL he worked to develop hockey and other sports programs across Saskatchewan, Canada. Fred died a week after finishing his memoir, "Call Me Indian," set to be published in April.

In the memoir, he wrote, showed them, showed everyone, that we could make it the white world, that's more important than any award. It's worth noting, of course, that the virus is taking a disproportionate toll on Indigenous, black and brown communities. May his memory and the memory of all those we have lost way to early to this pandemic, may it be a blessing.

Coming up, a Pearl Harbor every day. The United States setting new heartbreaking records as this pandemic gets more severe by the minute. Plus president-elect Joe Biden announcing his picks for some crucial posts dealing with the pandemic. Stay with us.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. In our HEALTH LEAD today the coronavirus pandemic continuing to reach new frightening heights in the United States. There has never been a more rapid spread of the deadly virus in this nation than now.

There are more people hospitalized with coronavirus than ever before. 101,487 according to the COVID Tracking Project. And deaths too are also sharply rising. This past weekend was the deadliest weekend since April and the average daily death toll in the U.S. is now 2,204 a day.

For some context on that, today is Pearl Harbor today. On this day in 1941 the Japanese attacked the U.S. Navy in Hawaii. A day that will live in infamy FDR called it. 2,403 Americans were killed on that day, 2403. That is roughly the same number of Americans we are losing every day -- every day to this malicious virus.