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The Lead with Jake Tapper

GOP Rep Asks Are We the Party of List-Making Now; Senator Johnson Says I Won't Challenge Election Results; COVID-19 Vaccine Supplies to Begin Shipping Out Today; Florida Judge Who Signed Search Warrant on COVID Data Scientist Was Picked by DeSantis; FDA to Consider Emergency Use Authorization for Vaccine Tomorrow. Aired 3:30- 4p ET

Aired December 09, 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]

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: No, I don't think there's going to be any division. The choice that Republicans have had to make is either be fully on board with Donald Trump or essentially leave the Party, leave Congress, become an independent. We've seen some do that. But yes, I mean his group on the Republican Party has been very, very tight in office and it will be very, very tight even as he's out of office.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: We should note there are a handful of expectations to what you're saying, Congressman Kinzinger, Congressman Mitchell --

HENDERSON: A few, yes.

TAPPER: Congressman Riggleman, Romney, but they're the minority, much to the Party's embarrassment. Gloria, there is a threat if you go against the President and it's not just the President issuing the threats. "The New York Times" asked Kim Ward, the Republican Majority Leader of the Pennsylvania Senate, if she would have signed a letter supporting Trump's claim that there was fraud in the election process. And she said told them, If I would say to you, I don't want to do it, I'd get my house bombed tonight.

I mean Gloria this is where the Republican Party is now. If you cross the President, you actually fear for your life.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's disgraceful. It's outrageous. And what you're seeing is a litmus test that is being established by the President. It is the Trump -- I call it the Trump "rigged election caucus," and these are the people who are going to sign on to that because -- not because they believe it was a rigged election, but because they believe that their political careers would be over, as Nia is saying.

And so if you take a step back and you look at this, the President is clearly losing legally. He's trying to undermine the Constitution. But politically what he's doing -- and he may win at it, Jake -- what he's doing is trying to gather his troops to fight the next war. And whether that is in undermining every other Republican who doesn't agree with him, keeping his base so maybe he can run in 2024, or if he can't be the king, then let him be the king maker.

Because he has to be the center of attention. He has to be all powerful. So right now he's making a list. He's taking names and he's checking it twice.

TAPPER: And Nia-Malika, Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, he said he's not ruling out challenging the election results in January when Congress meets to accept the Electoral College vote. This is crazy. But it wouldn't change the results of the election, so why do it? Is it just performative, is it just -- I don't know what the opposite of virtue signaling is -- vice signaling? But is that what he's doing?

HENDERSON: Yes, I think that's right, kissing Donald Trump's ring in a very public way. It's the same as what's going on with this lawsuit out of Texas. They want to be on Fox News. They want to be on Rush Limbaugh. And listen, they want to win re-election. They want to be in good standing with this President, get a phone call from this President, anything like that.

That is what they have been doing for these last many years as Donald Trump has been in office. I think they initially thought that if they show loyalty to this President, he would, you know, at some point leave the scene and maybe they could run for President. That base would then come to them. That doesn't look like it's happening.

It looks like Donald Trump wants to maintain his power, possibly run for re-election and keep that base for himself or maybe for one of his children. So you know the calculus here doesn't necessarily seem like it's going to work out long term for these folks who feel like they want to inherit Donald Trump's base and maybe ride it to the White House.

BORGER: Can I just say that what Donald Trump is doing by calling these lawmakers, by trying to influence these lawmakers to change the outcome of a free and fair election in their state is illegal. It's election tampering. I don't care if you're doing it on a phone from the Oval Office, or you're doing it on a phone from your basement.

What the President is doing is wrong, and he should be held accountable for it. Making challenges in court is one thing. Of course, he is completely allowed to do that if he wants to. I mean he doesn't have a case anywhere, obviously, but at a certain point, what he is doing is telling elected officials to say the election that got you elected was illegal because it didn't elect me too.

TAPPER: It is a clownish, and it will be a failed attempt at a coup --

BORGER: Absolutely.

TAPPER: -- a non-violent coup, but it is absolutely disgraceful. And that there's really no other word for it other than that. Nia-Malika, Gloria, thank you so much.

A key part of the coronavirus vaccine rollout in the U.S. is starting today. What is being shipped to states as we speak? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:00]

TAPPER: We are learning that Operation Warp Speed, which is overseeing the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, will begin shipping supplies to states starting today. This is ahead of the anticipated FDA approval of Pfizer's vaccine tomorrow. CNN's Sara Murray has been following all the updates for us. And Sara, tell us more about what you're learning about the preparations.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Jake, we know the FDA Advisory Committee is meeting tomorrow, and that after that we wait for this FDA authorization, and as soon as we get that clearance from the FDA, these vaccines are going to be going out. So we learned from Operation Warp Speed today that they are already starting to preposition some of these supplies.

[15:40:00]

They have more than 600 locations where the vaccines are going to be going to, and ahead of that they're sending out these needles, syringes, alcohol swabs, face masks, all the kinds of things that you would need to actually make sure that everyone is able to get these vaccines once the actual drug arrives.

I think that gives you an idea. We are getting closer. We are not there yet. We don't know exactly what the day is going to be that the actual vaccine gets shipped out, but the supplies are already on their way. They're going to continue to go out to these various location throughout the end of the week -- Jake.

TAPPER: So Sara, Operation Warp Speed says 2.9 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine will go out in the first shipment. What do we know about how that's being distributed?

MURRAY: That's right, 2.9 million doses, we know that's going across a couple of different federal agencies, 50 states, a number of U.S. territories. The other thing we know is it's just not going to be enough. You know, it goes first to some of these front line health care workers, to people who are in these long term care facilities.

But even the hospitals we talked to are figuring out how to tier the people who work for them, figure out who should be at the front of the line when it comes to health care providers.

And Jake, this is going to be the story for the next few months, at least. We are just going to have more people who want to get vaccinated than we do supply of the vaccine. And this is before we hit the general population, this is just an issue right now when it comes to health care workers and these long term care folks. The hope is we'll get more vaccines that are authorized, and we'll get

more supply as this goes on but for the short term, it's going to be tight -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Sara Murray, thank you so much.

Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician at Brown University and CNN medical analyst joins us now to discuss. Dr. Ranney, you've said nobody should be surprised with any issues that we see having to do with vaccine manufacturing and distribution.

Obviously, as a member of the general public, we're not used to watching this process. Why shouldn't we be surprised?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Listen, public health problems, Jake, don't get fixed through magical thinking, nor do they get fixed through photo ops.

We've seen the Trump administration time and time invest in the flashy stuff. The big picture things. They've appropriately invested in creating a vaccine but they continually fail to invest in that last mile.

We still lack adequate PPE. We still lack adequate testing. We still lack adequate data. And ideally, at the same time that we started investing in creating a vaccine, we would have invested in creating the strategy to distribute this vaccine, not just to health care workers but also to all the rest of the Americans that need to get vaccinated, and we didn't.

Trump cared about getting a vaccine out there. He didn't care about doing all the work that was needed in order to get vaccines in the arms of Americans.

TAPPER: Most states say that they are getting fewer vaccines in this first round than they were anticipating. Do these apparent shortages already posing a problem this early on worry you when you think about when the general public will get access to vaccines?

RANNEY: You know, very much so. As the reporter just mentioned, health care facilities across the country are already trying to ration and tier which health care workers get to go first. Ideally, anyone in who's in a patient facing role should get vaccinated before the end of the year.

Remember there are two different vaccines, two different doses that are needed in order to fully protect you. We should be getting a first shot in the arm of every health care worker by January first, that is not going to happen because Operation Warp Speed did not invest in buying those extra Pfizer doses.

And if we can't get enough to health care workers, we sure as heck are not going to get enough to the general public. State and county health departments across the country have been calling out for funding and for strategy for months, and we continue to let them down. TAPPER: What do you make of the U.K. today advising that those who

suffer from severe allergic reactions should not take this vaccine? There were two individuals that suffered side effects.

RANNEY: Though that's not a particularly surprising recommendation. You know, first of all, this vaccine is being released, if at all, under an Emergency Use Authorization. Pfizer and Moderna have both done a great job of following the orderly sequence of trials. They've administered this vaccine to about 15-, 20,000 people in both the Pfizer and Moderna trials.

We have great data showing that for the vast majority of people, this is safe. But it's surprising that people that have severe allergic reactions would be more likely to have a severe allergic reaction to a vaccine.

Luckily, they'll show up very quickly in those first 15 to 30 minutes after you get a vaccine. Which is why most of us we'll be watching people for 15 to 30

minutes after vaccine administration.

I think that as this vaccine gets rolled out, we have to expect that there are going to be some minor side effects. Muscle aches, fevers, we shouldn't be surprised at those happen. But the good news is, is that there are very few, if any, reports of those types of life- threatening side effects that we were also worried about early on.

TAPPER: Yes, our reporter, Phil Black, in the U.K. said that the two individuals are now doing OK. They got treated for the results so that's good news.

[15:45:00]

Los Angeles is enforcing full-blown stay-at-home orders right now, but other places in the country aren't. Massachusetts, for example, is limiting indoor capacity at places such as gyms, or libraries, retail stores, movie theaters. They're reducing it to 40 percent. What do you think is the right amount of restrictions right now, given the current state of the pandemic?

RANNEY: So I'm going to take us back. If we had gone back three, four weeks, even two months ago maybe decreasing things from 50 percent to 40 percent would have made a difference. But right now we're at the point where this virus is spreading exponentially across the northeast.

My home state of Rhode Island has supposedly the highest rate of COVID-19 infections of any other state in the United States. And Massachusetts is right next to us. Going from 50 percent to 40 percent feels like moving deck chairs around on the Titanic. That is not going to significantly change transmission of this virus.

And at a moment like right now where Charlie Baker is calling on hospitals to stop elective surgeries which, P.S., are not really elective, they're just not emergent. To do that but not to shut gyms just feels misguided. TAPPER: All right, Dr. Megan Ranney, thank you so much, appreciate

your time today.

Coming up new details putting more heat on the Governor of Florida after police raid the home of former state COVID data scientist. That's next.

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[15:50:00]

TAPPER: In our NATIONAL LEAD. New information today on what led to this police raid with guns drawn on the home of Rebekah Jones a former COVID data scientist who was fired by the state of Florida for, quote, insubordination.

Today we're learning that the judge who signed the search warrant for that raid was appointed by Florida Governor DeSantis and sworn in, in November.

According to Jones, it was his first major act as a judge. Jones says that the raid was retaliation because she called out DeSantis for in her view, covering up the health care catastrophe that he is ignoring in the state of Florida.

Let's bring in CNN's Drew Griffin who's been following and covering this story. Drew, you have some new reporting about the judge.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he's very long on political connections in Tallahassee but short on legal and judicial experience. Joshua Hawkes is his name. His father is a big- time lobbyist in Tallahassee and a former judge himself. He, himself, has been an attorney just about six years, as you said, he was appointed just this fall by Governor DeSantis to be a judge and has been sitting as a judge now since November 5th.

Our attempts to reach the judge to try to ask him about this warrant, why he signed a warrant for a police raid in this case have gone unanswered. His clerk saying that he won't talk about it. But the judge apparently does have strong Republican political connections at least in the Tallahassee area.

TAPPER: And Drew, what's this about one of Governor DeSantis' Republican appointees resigning in protest over this raid?

GRIFFIN: Yes, this is, I mean there's been a lot of pushback from Democrat lawmakers who of course are calling foul, but this is the first pushback we have seen from Republicans.

This is an appointee by the Governor for a judicial commission down in the Sarasota area. That guy, he says he's resigning in protest of this raid, specifically. But, in general, also of Ron DeSantis' handling of the COVID crisis in Florida. That's the first fallout like I've said we've seen from a Republican in Florida who have held ranks so far behind DeSantis. But this raid is drawing new scrutiny to the Governor there. TAPPER: And Drew, Rebekah Jones is raising money online. What's that

about?

GRIFFIN: Yes, we'd like to know what that's about. She thinks it's for her defense and for her children and family, if indeed she has to go to prison. But she's raising a fair amount of money so far. By our total, it's nearly $200,000 as she, of course, is making herself very accessible to media who want to talk about her theory that this is all political retaliation, a feud between her and the Governor of Florida -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Drew, thank you so much. Appreciate the reporting.

The first vaccine doses in America could happen in a matter of days. Should the 78-year-old President-elect be one of the first in line to get it? Stay with us.

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[15:55:00]

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We begin this hour with the HEALTH LEAD.

Today Canada authorized the use of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine. And here in the United States FDA authorization could happen as soon as tomorrow with the first shots possible in a matter of days. We have just learned 2.9 million doses of the vaccine will go out in the shipment according to the heads of Operation Warp Speed.

And vaccine supplies are also shipping out today. As that process plays out the U.S. is losing on average more than 2,000 lives every single day in the U.S. The U.S. is averaging more than 121,000 new cases every day. And hospitalizations are also hitting daily records.

In California, at least three counties today reported zero ICU beds available -- not one. A reminder that the U.S. has 4 percent of the world's population and according to official numbers, 20 percent of the world's cases and deaths due to COVID.

This has been empirically a historic policy failure by the U.S. government which has failed its citizens in so many ways during this pandemic. CNN's Nick Watt joins me now. And Nick, you're getting some specifics on how this vote could work tomorrow?

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, a member of that FDA Vaccine Advisory Panel spoke to CNN. He says tomorrow, they're going to have a nine-hour meeting. At the end of that meeting, they will all take a vote, and presuming they -- the majority votes in favor, the commissioner could then make a final determination either Thursday or Friday.