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The Lead with Jake Tapper

U.S. Officials Investigate Massive Cyberattack; Where Is President Trump?; Congress Nearing COVID Relief Deal? U.S. Sets New Record For Daily COVID-19 Deaths; FDA Set to Vote on Moderna Vaccine. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired December 17, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:32]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

And we begin today with breaking news in our health lead.

The coronavirus pandemic is by every measure the worst it has ever been in the United States. An unimaginable number of lives have been destroyed. Deaths, cases and hospitalizations all shattered records yesterday; 3,656 deaths were reported just yesterday in one day.

There are more than 247,000 new infections as of yesterday, that day, and 113,000 people are currently in the hospital battling COVID-19.

In total, more than 309,000 people in the U.S. have died from this devastating virus. And now the CDC projects up to 391,000 could be dead by January 9, a little more than three weeks from now.

Soon, we could have yet another tool to fight the virus. Right now, a key FDA panel is meeting and a second coronavirus vaccine could potentially get the green light. Moderna's vaccines could be in American arms as of Monday. And if that vaccine is authorized, officials say the U.S. will ship almost eight million total doses to states in the next week.

It is a promising development. It is light at the end of the tunnel. But, right now, right now, the virus is killing, on average, two people every single minute in the United States, meaning two people have lost their lives just in the time I have been on air.

And where is the president of the United States? Where is Donald Trump? He's AWOL. He's focusing on pushing false information about the election.

It is a tragedy compounded by a shameful dereliction of duty.

As CNN's Alexandra Field reports, it is hard to celebrate the hope of a new vaccine, when so many people, so many Americans are suffering right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One of the darkest days in American history, the very worst of the pandemic to date, 3,656 American lives reported loss to COVID on Wednesday. That's more than 300 more than the deadliest day before.

DANIEL TREVINO, SIBLING OF COVID-19 VICTIMS: One minute, they are OK, you're talking to them FaceTime. Then, all of a sudden, you have to FaceTime them again, and they talk to you and they're hooked up to like six different machines with tubes going down their bodies. And then that's the last image you're going to have of your loved one.

FIELD: The amount of suffering is staggering, a record 113,000 COVID patients in hospital beds, and, in just a day, nearly a quarter million new COVID cases confirmed, all records of all that's gone wrong.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL HEALTH, EMORY UNIVERSITY: We're just not seeing people doing the implementation necessary to stem the tide of this virus right now.

FIELD: A new CDC forecast adds tens of thousands more deaths to predictions for the next few weeks, as many as 391,000 by January 9.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, these patients, when they are dying, they are alone.

FIELD: Nevada and five other states hitting a record high for deaths reported in a single day. The White House COVID Task Force says the fall surge is merging with the post-Thanksgiving surge to create a winter surge, with the most rapid increase in cases yet.

Tennessee now among states with the fastest spread of the virus.

GOV. BILL LEE (R-TN): One thing that this vaccine will not solve, one thing that it will not cure is selfishness or indifference to what's happening to our neighbors around us.

FIELD: The arrival of another vaccine is likely just days away. An FDA advisory panel is reviewing Moderna's vaccine today, which is proven to be 94.5 percent effective, the panel hearing accounts from scientists, doctors and people who had COVID and survived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of long-term effects of COVID. After I was at home for a few months, I developed some severe atrial arrhythmias. When they subsided, I have developed severe hypertension, which I'm still battling.

FIELD: The rollout of Pfizer's vaccine continues across the country, with 900 more deliveries scheduled today. A shipping error forced New Mexico to throw out 75 doses that shipped at the wrong temperature.

But pharmacists also say they're finding some vials of the Pfizer vaccines have extra doses. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had to get ready for the vaccine.

FIELD: A bit of a boost, as certain states learn they're getting less for now than what they expected. Iowa says it's working with federal partners to figure out why they're receiving as much as 30 percent less than what they planned for.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[16:05:03]

FIELD: So, Jake, every week, states will learn how many doses of the vaccine they should get in the following week. They may have to then adjust their plans accordingly.

At this point, if the Moderna vaccine is approved, we're expecting to see nearly eight million doses of vaccine shipped out to states across the nation next week. The assistant health and human services secretary says he believes all Americans should have the opportunity to be vaccinated by June.

But, again, Jake, it is on this week-by-week basis that we will start to see whether the expectation and the reality are really lining up.

TAPPER: All right, Alexandra Field, thank you so much.

And CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joins me now.

Sanjay, you heard the Republican governor of Tennessee in that piece, Bill Lee, saying one thing that this vaccine will not solve or cure is selfishness or indifference to what's happening to our neighbors around us, a very provocative and important message, I thought.

What did you think?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think, in some ways, we have been talking about this for almost a year now, Jake.

I mean, we celebrate the science, and it is remarkable, but the science can't rescue us from ourselves. I mean, that has become abundantly clear to me and, frankly, illuminating for me this year.

Just as a doctor and a specialist, at that, you really lean into the amazing things that science can do, in terms of helping people when they're in real dire straits. But basic public health behaviors, basically doing things to not only protect yourself, protect those around you, make a huge difference.

Jake, you go back and look at 1918, and you track the cases. Obviously, it's three times the population now, but if you population- control it, it's almost exactly the same--

TAPPER: Yes.

GUPTA: -- despite the fact that we have ICUs and therapeutics and all these things now.

So, the basics applied then. They apply now. And if we don't do them, we're at a significant loss.

TAPPER: If only President Trump acted more like the governor of Tennessee, who knows if we'd be better off. I suspect we would.

We're expecting the authorization of Moderna's vaccine to go a little quicker than the Pfizer authorization last week. How is the Moderna vaccine different from Pfizer's?

GUPTA: There's a couple things. They are very similar. We can put up the screen and show you some of the key characteristics of these vaccines.

They are both these mRNA vaccines. They are both two doses. And they're both around 94, 95 percent effective at preventing the symptoms of COVID-19. There's slight differences in terms of age. For example, as you remember, Jake, last week, there was a big discussion about Pfizer's vaccine, 16 and older. Moderna's is going to be 18 and older.

Moderna can be shipped a little bit warmer. So, that means that the cold storage is not as cumbersome, and it can be distributed maybe a little bit more widely. Also, when you get it at the hospital or the pharmacy, it doesn't need to then be taken out and diluted.

It's basically that -- you get the dose that way. The Pfizer vaccine, you take out a small amount, and you dilute it with saline, and then you inject it. It shouldn't make a difference for the people who are actually receiving the vaccine. But those are basically some of the differences.

We will hear if the advisory committee says anything else that sort of jumps out at us, but very much the same in platform and in overall effectiveness.

TAPPER: The FDA commissioner, Stephen Hahn, has promised transparency, which I think is an excellent idea, if we're going to be injecting this stuff in our arms.

In today's FDA meeting, we learned that for volunteers in Moderna's clinical vaccine trials developed the neuromuscular disease Bell's palsy. Three cases were in the vaccine group. One was in the placebo group. How alarmed should we be, if at all?

GUPTA: You know, I think, with all these things, including the allergies and now Bell's palsy, we have to pay attention to these things.

I mean, one thing I immediately do, and I say, well, just in general, across a large population, what is the frequency of Bell's palsy? And Bell's palsy occurs 15 to 20 people roughly per 100,000. Most times, it goes away. Sometimes, it can last a lot longer in other people. In certain people, it never goes away. In these -- in these particular participants in the trial, my understanding is, it was temporary. But you got three in the vaccinated group, one in the placebo group. It's not enough. It's small numbers. So it's not enough to say that there's some sort of cause and effect here.

And it is -- it's a little bit higher than the typical background incidents. We have got to pay attention to this. And what they -- the way that they do that is that they have this adverse event reporting system.

So, if -- as you go from tens of thousands of people in the clinical trial to hundreds of millions of people, we have to see. Is there a higher-than-normal incidence of things like these allergies, like Bell's palsy?

Right now, we don't know for sure. But that's why you continue to follow these patients.

TAPPER: And, Sanjay, this comes along with reporting that Pfizer is reporting that there are two isolated cases of people having an allergic reaction to their vaccine in Alaska.

[16:10:04]

Now, Michael Osterholm, who's one of president-elect Biden's coronavirus advisers -- he's been on the show a lot -- he says this is a small price to pay for the vaccine. What's your take on it? Tell us more about this adverse reaction to the Pfizer vaccine.

GUPTA: Yes, let me show you specifically what happened to these two patients.

And, as we're putting that up, I will tell you as well, again, what is the likelihood of having an allergic reaction of vaccines overall? Significant allergic reactions, about one in a million. So, if you have 300 million people in the country that get infected, you're going to likely have hundreds of these allergic reactions.

The first patient, the first one on the left, within a few minutes, started feeling flushed, had some shortness of breath, elevated heart rate, needed to receive epinephrine and then received an epinephrine drip overnight. So it was a pretty significant allergic reaction.

Second patient, again, within minutes, 10 minutes, I believe, had these symptoms of eye puffiness, lightheadedness, scratchy throat, ended up needing epinephrine as well, got Benadryl and I believe Pepcid. And in both cases, they resolved.

Again, we want to make sure that these resolve, which they have, both here in the United States in the U.K. It is interesting. In the U.K., they're in one location. Here in the United States, tens of thousands of doses have been given, the two allergic reactions in one location.

That's something investigators are going to focus on as well. Got to make sure epinephrine, Benadryl, things like that are available wherever people are getting these vaccines.

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

The pandemic is only getting worse. The country was just attacked by hackers in Russia. Millions of Americans are teetering on the edge, about to fall off a financial cliff. And President Trump has not said a word about any of that. That's next.

Speaking of that attack, new information just coming in about the hackers' never-before-seen tactics and how bad this could really be. A former White House cybersecurity czar joins me coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:16:27]

TAPPER: Turning to our politics lead now.

With coronavirus hospitalizations, cases and deaths higher than ever in the U.S., President Trump has not said a word about the worsening pandemic, the climbing cases, hospitalizations, death rates, not a moment of public reflection, not a moment of silence, not a moment to memorialize, not even a retweet on any of those subjects.

As Vice President Pence is expected to get a vaccine on camera tomorrow, the president is, however, digging in on his election lies.

As CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports, he's even still fighting election results that have been crystal clear for more than a month now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUESTION: Where is President Trump?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: President Trump's been hard at work on COVID behind the scenes.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a question many in Washington are asking: Where is President Trump?

With only five weeks left in office, he stayed behind closed doors again today and hasn't made a public appearance since Saturday, when he took no questions from the White House press corps.

In the middle of a devastating public health crisis, where 3,000 Americans are dying per day, with a presidential transition under way, and national security officials still scrambling to understand the magnitude of a Russian cyberattack, Trump is nowhere to be found, and the few events he does hold are often closed to the press.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, hello, Georgia!

COLLINS: While Vice President Mike Pence, who campaigned in Georgia today, is scheduled to get the coronavirus vaccine on camera tomorrow, the White House hasn't said when Trump will, and neither has he. Trump's also said little about the coronavirus relief negotiations

happening on Capitol Hill, as hundreds of thousands of Americans filed for unemployment again this week.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): We have a responsibility to get this right. People's lives depend upon it.

COLLINS: And as the scope of a hack by a Russian-linked group on the U.S. government and corporations becomes clearer, the president hasn't said a word or posted a single tweet.

The White House declined to say whether Trump's been briefed by his top intelligence officials, who were all absent from his Cabinet meeting yesterday.

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL): This is virtually a declaration of war by Russia on the United States, and we should take it that seriously.

COLLINS: Trump's own former officials are calling for his attention.

In an op-ed published in "The New York Times," his first homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, wrote that Trump is -- quote -- "on the verge of leaving behind a federal government compromised by the Russian government. President Trump must get past his grievances about the election and govern for the remainder of his term."

The president doesn't appear to be listening. Instead, his Twitter feed today was filled with disinformation about the election, threats to vetoed the defense spending bill, and denials of his involvement in the investigation into Hunter Biden.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Now, Jake, another company the president has tweeted about is Dominion, claiming that their voting machines changed votes from him to Joe Biden, of course, baseless accusations that also the pro- Trump attorney who briefly represented the president, Sidney Powell, has made.

And, today, Dominion sent a blistering letter to Sidney Powell, demanding that she publicly retract those claims, saying that they are baseless, and they want a public apology from her.

And, of course, one of those claims that she made at a Trump press conference at the Republican National Committee was basically saying that the machines were and their software was developed in Venezuela to benefit Hugo Chavez, who, of course, passed away several years ago.

And in this letter, they say they have no ties to Venezuela or Mr. Chavez, for that matter, just as they say in this letter, Jake, they do not have ties to Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster.

[16:20:06]

(LAUGHTER)

TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much.

In our money lead today: a new reminder of just how hard this pandemic is hitting the U.S. economy; 885,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week.

That number has, sadly, ticked up four of the last five weeks now. This week, in San Antonio, Texas, a food bank converted a parking lot and gave away food to some 11,000 families in need.

Both Republicans and Democrats say help is on the way, but key elements of a $900 billion stimulus package are holding up a final agreement.

Let's go to CNN's Manu Raju on Capitol Hill.

And, Manu, 24 hours ago, a deal, it looked imminent. This would be more than an embarrassment if lawmakers can't figure this out.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it absolutely would be, especially after months of stalemate and, as you mentioned, so many people waiting for relief and millions more facing the prospect of seeing their unemployment benefits expire if Congress does not get its act together.

Now, there is still expectation that a deal ultimately will be reached and a deal will eventually pass both houses of Congress and become law. But it's still a question of when, whether it will be done this week. The initial goal was it for it to happen by the end of the day tomorrow.

That looks increasingly unlikely, as key issues remain outstanding and as they have got to move through both chambers of Congress, and any senator can hold it up in the Senate if they don't like the proposal. And we haven't even seen any details yet.

And there are some key issues outstanding, including how to deal with whether or not the Federal Reserve should continue with this emergency lending program. Republicans are trying to restrict that. Democrats are pushing for more money for FEMA that would go to cities and states.

Republicans have some concerns about that. There are questions about exactly how those stimulus checks work, those direct payments that are capped at $600 for individuals. That is still an issue of debate.

But, overall, there's an agreement exactly about how much will be spent, roughly $900 billion. We do expect $300 a week to go to the jobless, as well as about $330 billion for small business loans. But, Jake, they still need to finalize the language. The leadership does on both sides, get it out, get people briefed on both sides of the aisle, get it through both chambers of Congress, which makes it uncertain they can get it done by tomorrow, potentially dragging it into next week.

TAPPER: A lot of Americans in desperate need of help right now.

Manu Raju, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

A -- quote -- "grave risk" to the U.S. government, a massive cyberattack blamed on a Russian group that could be much worse than first reported.

A former White House cybersecurity czar joins me next to discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:27:10]

TAPPER: Turning now to our world lead: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security agency, known as CISA, is warning that the recent hacks allegedly carried out by a Russian-linked group pose a grave risk to federal, local and state governments.

The hackers reportedly used previously unknown tactics to gain access to multiple U.S. agencies since as far back as March.

Now, CNN has reported that systems belonging to the Department of Homeland Security, Agriculture and Commerce were compromised. The U.S. Postal Service and departments of Treasury and Defense may also have been hacked, making this one of, if not the biggest cyberattack on the United States in years, an attack outgoing President Trump has publicly ignored, not tweeting about it, not commenting about it, nothing.

Meanwhile, president-elect Joe Biden this afternoon issued a statement that said in part -- quote -- "My administration will make cybersecurity a top priority at every level of government and we will make dealing with this breach a top priority from the moment we take office. Our adversaries should know that, as president, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber-assaults on our nation" -- unquote.

CNN's Alex Marquardt joins me now for more on this.

And, Alex, we still don't know exactly how or what these hackers were able to get access to, according to this update from CISA, right?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this new alert from CISA is not comforting, Jake. In fact, if anything, it's more alarming. And it really speaks to the sophistication of this attack.

What they say broadly in the statement is that government agencies, critical infrastructure and private sector organizations were compromised. This company, this private company, SolarWinds, that the hackers used to get into these -- into these networks, there were 18,000 customers.

So, there's a potential for many of them to be compromised. You read that list of the agencies that we know about right now, Agriculture, Commerce, the Department of Homeland Security, including CISA. Those were all compromised, the Treasury Department, according to "The Washington Post." One of the things that the CISA alert also said was that there are ways that these hackers got in that they're still investigating that they have not yet revealed. There are tactics that have not yet been discovered.

And so there's a lot that remains to be seen. But CISA did confirm that these Russian hackers have been in these U.S. governments since March and remain there. This is an ongoing, widespread espionage operation.

TAPPER: Will we ever know -- and if so, when -- exactly how much hackers were able to access, to get to?

MARQUARDT: It's going to take a lot of time. Every expert, every official says that, months at the least.

You have to -- they have to carry out in-depth forensic analysis. It could take more than a year. We may never know. And that, again, speaks to the sophistication of the attack.

This was not your ordinary breach. The Russians managed to slip in through trusted software, through this software that was put out by this company called SolarWinds.