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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Bill Barr Rebukes Trump Over Election Claims; President-Elect Biden Gets Vaccinated For COVID-19; Congress Set to Finally Pass COVID-19 Relief Package; Moderna Vaccinations Begin. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired December 21, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Virginia Governor Ralph Northam revealing on Twitter that the statue of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee has been removed because of its -- quote -- "racist and divisive history."

It was one of 13 representing the original colonies and will be replaced by one of Barbara Rose Johns, who at 16 years of age led a walkout to protest inferior conditions at her all-black school in 1951.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me.

"THE LEAD" starts now.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: And welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Pamela Brown, in for Jake Tapper today.

And we begin with the health lead, a major milestone in the fight against coronavirus, a second coronavirus vaccine now in Americans' arms. Right now, some of the first modern vaccinations are happening and the United States.

Just minutes ago, president-elect Joe Biden received his first dose of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, and soon-to-be-first lady Jill Biden received hers just before the president-elect.

In total, at least half-a-million doses have been administered, though top officials are warning the rollout may take longer than previously promised. Plus, health experts figure the holidays will only make this pandemic more dire.

The TSA says it screened more than one million passengers each of the last three days in a row. That is a pandemic first.

And, as CNN's Martin Savidge reports for us now, one in every 217 Americans was infected with COVID-19 just last week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The battle against coronavirus gets another shot in the arm, as patients begin receiving the first doses of the new Moderna vaccine. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a really great milestone.

SAVIDGE: Now with two COVID-19 vaccines green-lighted, health officials plan to accelerate distribution over the coming holiday week.

GEN. GUSTAVE PERNA, U.S. ARMY MATERIEL COMMAND: By the end of next week, we will be 11 million doses distributed to the American people. But we have a long way to go. And we want to be better and better and better.

SAVIDGE: Meanwhile, vaccine advisers for the CDC recommending who should get the injections next, following health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities.

Phase 1-B prioritizes adults 75 and older and front-line essential workers, phase 1-C adults 65 to 75, people ages 16 to 64 with high- risk medical conditions, and other essential workers.

The vaccine help so desperately needed, with the U.S. on the brink of surpassing 18 million COVID-19 cases. In just one week, the country added over 1.5 million new infections. That's one in every 217 Americans testing positive.

Another symptom of the pandemic? Hunger. In Florida, cars began lining up before dawn for a food giveaway, some waiting up to five hours.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are in need, just like everybody else out there.

SAVIDGE: In Tennessee, warnings of what's to come.

GOV. BILL LEE (R-TN): Thousands of our neighbors are in the hospital tonight. More than 100 people are dying each day. We are in a war.

SAVIDGE: Officials there pleading with residents to limit holiday gatherings to their immediate household, in Texas too.

Instead of holiday cheer, it's holiday fear.

DR. JOSEPH VARON, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: So, the next six to eight weeks, as we discussed before, I continue to think that are going to be the darkest weeks in modern American medical history, because people are not listening.

SAVIDGE: The latest indication many are not listening coming from the TSA, reporting they screened more than three million passengers from Friday through Sunday, the largest numbers since March.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: At Emory University Hospital here in Atlanta, like hospitals all across the country, Pamela, they are working to vaccinate as many of their front-line health care workers as they possibly can, knowing that they face a very grim holiday season -- Pamela.

BROWN: Grim is right.

Just hearing the doctor say six to eight weeks, the next six to eight weeks will be the worst in American medical history, in this person's opinion, is stunning.

Thank you so much. We appreciate it, Martin.

And the U.S. today is still allowing travel with the United Kingdom, even though dozens of countries have shut it down.

As CNN's Max Foster reports, it's an attempt to block a new variant of coronavirus in the U.K., one that appears to be much more contagious.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Air passengers stranded, truck drivers too, after cargo was banned from crossing into France. Some Brits reacted by lining up outside shops to stock up, the government forced to reassure them that food will not run out.

All this because of a new highly contagious variant of coronavirus spreading rapidly throughout the country, especially in and around London.

PATRICK VALLANCE, U.K. CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER: The transmission is increasing. We can't say exactly by how much, but it's clearly substantially increased.

[16:05:05]

FOSTER: Dozens of countries have now banned U.K. visitors. Prime Minister Boris Johnson following crisis meetings, including with his French counterpart, was unable to say how long it would last.

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I have just spoken to President Macron. We had a very good call. And we both understand each other's positions and want to resolve these problems as fast as possible.

FOSTER: So, will the U.S. join the growing list of countries banning British travelers? Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN he's not advising that to the White House.

"The U.S. must, without a doubt, keep an eye on it found," Fauci said. But he warned that we don't want to overreact.

The U.S. is nevertheless monitoring for outbreaks.

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: It could be in the United States and we might not have yet detected it.

FOSTER: The U.K. has effectively been put into quarantine by the rest of the world, as governments try to protect their citizens before they can be vaccinated.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Some developments on the U.S. side, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo saying that Delta and British Airways have agreed to require passengers on U.K. flights to test negative before they board a flight to New York, so some restrictions starting to come.

We will see how that develops over your side of the water, Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Max Foster, I know you will be keeping an eye on this. Thank you so much.

And joining me now is William Haseltine, former Harvard Medical School professor.

Thank you for coming on.

Let's talk about this new variant that we're learning about that Max just laid out for us. The head of Operation Warp Speed said today there's no evidence to suggest this variant in the U.K. is more deadly. You heard Dr. Anthony Fauci there say that he is not recommending the U.S. shut down travel to the U.K. right now.

What do you think about that?

DR. WILLIAM HASELTINE, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: Well, I respectfully disagree with both men.

I have looked carefully now at the data. And there's a lot of data that's come up. And there's three things that strike me about this new strain. First of all, there are a lot of changes that happened in one strain that makes it more transmissible. And we can look at mutations that make it more transmissible.

Two, it's evolved to escape immune suppression. It's evolved to escape people's immune reactions. And there are three or four different mutations that we can point to. And, finally, there's at least three mutations that look to me to make it more dangerous.

So, I would recommend that we stop flights from Great Britain. And I would not be sanguine that this is not more dangerous, in the fact that it can escape our immune systems, and not more sanguine that it won't be more deadly.

And when you look at what this virus does to cells and culture, it's different from the standard strains. So, from a virologist's point of view, this looks really different. And I think we know how it came to be too.

BROWN: OK, so I just want to take a step back and break down a little bit more of what you just laid out there.

First of all, you said, from what you have studied, it can escape immune responses. The question that might raise is, what about the vaccine that's being administered right now from Pfizer and now Moderna in the U.S.? Could this could those vaccines not be effective with this new variant? HASELTINE: I think that remains to be seen. It's not known yet.

What you do know is, this virus adapted itself to grow in people that were given convalescent serum, which would normally clear the infection. The sera that was given to the people in which this virus most likely arose, this virus learned to escape it.

Whether that means it will escape a vaccine which is slightly different from what happens in convalescent serum is not known. But I would say what it does say, what happens in one person can happen in a whole population.

This is looking more and more like the flu than it is like other kinds of viruses. It looks like it's more of an escape artist than we had thought.

BROWN: So, why do you think it's more dangerous than in particular? Because you have heard others say, other health officials say that there's not evidence right now to support the idea that it's more deadly.

Why do you think it's more dangerous?

HASELTINE: If you look at some of the mutations, particularly one near what's called a cleavage site between the two pieces of the outside of the virus, that is what makes this virus in much -- in good part more dangerous than others.

And there's a mutation at that site, in what it looks like an evolution of this virus to keep growing, despite constant immune pressure from convalescent antisera, which is probably how this arose. It had to do several things. It had to escape the immune system, and it had to learn to grow in a difficult environment.

When you put this virus on to cells in culture, it eats them up in a different way from the standard virus. And those are hallmarks of a more dangerous disease. Now, we don't know that yet because we haven't seen -- have seen some younger people get sicker than they might ordinarily expected to be.

BROWN: OK, just -- and just to drill down on this, and then we will move on, but when you say more dangerous, can you just be more specific on what you mean by that?

[16:10:03]

This is -- people, we're all learning about this together, right, this new variant.

HASELTINE: Right.

BROWN: And I think it's really important to be specific on what you mean by more dangerous, besides the mechanism where -- besides the mechanism.

(CROSSTALK) HASELTINE: Right, more specific, more transmissible, easier to catch with lower numbers of virus.

BROWN: OK.

HASELTINE: More easily able to escape an immune system already built in some ways to escape our immune suppression, and, number three, capable of more destruction once you are infected.

BROWN: Gotcha.

So you have this highly contagious strain that could be in the U.S., for all we know. The TSA says it has screened more than a million people every day for the last three days in a row, a record number during the pandemic.

How concerned are you about the spread of coronavirus during the holidays?

HASELTINE: I'm extremely concerned.

We have seen -- it's really hard to tease out what the Thanksgiving bump was. But, certainly, we're worse off than we were before Thanksgiving. And this -- we all know Christmas is a time where more people travel than they do through Thanksgiving.

They're away longer. They meet with larger numbers of people. And, as you have reported just now, it doesn't look like Americans are getting the message that they're putting their lives at risk, their families' lives at risks, and their whole communities lives at risk.

This is not a time to travel. This is not a time to gather with friends, however much we would like. I join them in urging people not to do what they want to do, not even to do what they plan to do.

With regard to the question, is this already in the United States, it would be shocking to find this was not already here. This virus started to circulate in September. We have had millions and millions of people come in from England and Europe in that time.

And so it would be very, very surprising if it weren't already here.

BROWN: OK, so let's talk about the timeline for the vaccine, because that, of course, gives people some hope, right, that there are ways to suppress what's going on right now with this pandemic.

You have Biden's pick for surgeon general suggesting that it may be until midsummer or fall for the general population to get a vaccine. Do you think that that's a more realistic timeline for folks to look forward to? And what about the group of the 75 and older?

HASELTINE: Well, first of all, I do think that the late spring, early summer is probably the right time. It takes time to manufacture this in bulk. It takes time to line people up.

So I think it's probably late spring, early summer before most people can get it. In terms of the decision of the FDA to say that they would prefer people 75 and older to be one of the next groups of people after front-line health care workers, I think that makes sense, because those are the people who are most likely to die if infected. So, that (AUDIO GAP)

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Do you have a sense, though, when they might get the vaccine? Do you have any sense? And it's fine if you don't, but just want to be clear on that.

HASELTINE: I think that's going to probably start late this week, early next week. I don't see why it shouldn't.

BROWN: OK.

HASELTINE: But there's another group we all are concerned about, which is what are called essential health workers.

Those are largely the minority underrepresented classes of people that have to go to work, that have to take public transportation. We know that that's the population that gets infected more heavily. I would hope that, after the over 75, that's the next group that gets it.

BROWN: Absolutely.

All right, William Haseltine, thank you so much.

HASELTINE: You're welcome. Thank you.

BROWN: And I want to bring in CNN's Alexandra Field. She is at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream Hospital.

Alexandra, one of the very first Moderna vaccinations just happened there. Tell us about it.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just moments ago in a place where they know the consequences of COVID all too well. This is a hospital that was hit so hard in the early part of the pandemic.

They have started giving the Moderna vaccine to their front-line workers. The first volunteer was Arlene Ramirez. She is a registered nurse who works in the emergency department. She watched her own father suffer from COVID in the ICU of this hospital for more than a month before he lost his life.

And she caught COVID herself. Before getting that shot, she says wondering whether or not she was going to make it was a horrible thing, something she couldn't imagine putting her family through again.

We heard from her again just after she had that shot moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARLENE RAMIREZ, NURSE, ISLAND JEWISH VALLEY STREAM HOSPITAL: This vaccine is very meaningful to me. It's very important to me, as a nurse working in the emergency department here at Valley Stream, as a health care worker, seeing what we saw, people clinging on to life, death after death, having endured all at the same time illness of my father-in-law, being severely ill myself, 36 days of my father being in the intensive care unit here.

This vaccine is hope. It's hope that we will cease this pandemic. It's hope that we will live a better life. We should not be afraid of obtaining a vaccine. We need to be afraid of COVID, because it definitely changes people's lives. And it takes and destroys life.

[16:15:13]

Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: Powerfully put there, so powerfully put there.

Ramirez now one of more than 6,600 front-line workers in the Northwell Health system to have received the first dose of a vaccine, both Pfizer and Moderna now. There are some 54,000 front-line workers within this hospital system, so still a long way to go here, Pamela.

BROWN: Absolutely.

But just hearing that nurse talk and to hear her emotion, it really puts into perspective why this is so significant, and not just for her, but for everyone else waiting in line for this and those who have received it.

Thanks so much, Alexandra.

And much needed COVID relief expected to be approved by Congress sometime soon. When they will vote and, more importantly, when you will see those $600 checks -- up next.

Plus: poison and underwear -- one of Vladimir Putin's biggest enemies tricking one of Russia's secret agents in a story you will only see on CNN. And we have the audiotape. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:25]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROWN: And breaking news in our 2020 lead.

Moments ago, president-elect Joe Biden got his COVID vaccine right in front of the cameras there. His wife, incoming first lady Jill Biden, got hers earlier today.

Joining me now is CNN's Jessica Dean.

So, Jessica, why did the president-elect want to do this publicly, get this first round publicly?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pam, he wants to instill confidence for the American people in this vaccine, that it's safe, that it's effective.

And he even said so just after getting that vaccine. He said he's doing this to show people there's nothing to worry about, that you should be prepared to get the vaccine whenever it's your turn.

He also gave some credit to the Trump administration for Operation Warp Speed and getting the vaccine to this point, and thanked health care workers and scientists. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: We owe these folks an awful lot. The scientists and the people who put this together, the front-line workers, the people who were the ones who actually did the clinical work, it's just amazing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And he will get that follow-up vaccine, because he got the Pfizer vaccine, in several weeks. He should be fully inoculated before he takes office on January 20.

And, Pam, we also know that vice president-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will be getting their first round of the vaccine next week.

BROWN: All right, Jessica, thank you so much for that.

And, meantime, lawmakers will soon vote on one of the largest relief packages in U.S. history, with barely a glance at the fine print. Congressional leaders reached a stimulus deal late last night and spent the day putting the final touches on this $900 billion bill.

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

So, any chance the bill will not get to the president's desk tonight, Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's actually unlikely, Pam, to get to the president's desk tonight because of how big this proposal is, 5,593 pages.

They just introduced it this afternoon. And the process will go like this. The House will vote to approve the bill later this afternoon, into the evening, into the night. Then the Senate will likely pass it as well sometime late tonight.

But they still need to get all the paperwork together to send it over to the president's desk. And that's going to take a little bit of time. So, Congress, in the meantime, will pass a seven-day stopgap resolution to keep the government open for another week to give them some time to get the paperwork over and send it to the president's desk.

So, Pam, it will take a little bit of time for it to eventually be signed into law,. The president is indicating that he will sign it. We will see when that will actually happen, though.

BROWN: So, what exactly is offered in this bill for many Americans?

RAJU: Well, this is a significant proposal. The $900 billion plan will be attached to a $1.4 trillion spending package.

And in the COVID relief plan includes a number of key provisions that could help Americans who are struggling right now. There will be a $600 direct payment given to individuals who make less than $75,000 a year. Each person in that family could get $600. So, a family of four could get up to $2,400, for instance, and depending on the income level that they're at, but also $300 a week in jobless benefits.

There will be money for schools and colleges to the tune of $82 billion, $25 billion for rental assistance. It would extend an eviction moratorium up until the end of January. Also, $20 billion for the purchase of vaccines, more money for food stamps.

So, Pam, this affects virtually all sectors of the American economy, which is why it's so significant that Congress is finally getting here, getting a deal after months of bickering, months of stalemate, even as people are hurting right now and seeing the unemployment benefits dry up in a matter of days.

Now Congress has got a deal. They expect to pass it soon. The president will sign as soon as well -- Pam.

BROWN: All right, Manu Raju, thanks so much. I know you're tracking all of this for us. Thanks so much.

And Attorney General Bill Barr, meantime, with several stinging rebukes of President Trump, as he prepares to leave his job.

That's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:28:45]

BROWN: And turning to our politics lead now.

In a major rebuke of the president, his attorney general today says he sees no reason to appoint a special counsel to investigate voter fraud or seize election machines.

But, as CNN's Joe Johns reports, the president is still unleashing on Twitter today, refusing to accept he lost the election.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As President Trump intensified his efforts today on Twitter to convince Americans the election should be overturned, his outgoing attorney general was once again rebuking the president's false claims of mass election fraud.

WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good morning, everyone.

Barr took questions from reporters today, two days before he is set to leave the Justice Department, answering whether a special counsel should be named to investigate voter fraud in the November election.

WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, I would do -- I would name one. But I haven't and I'm not going to.

JOHNS: Sunday, Trump attorney Sidney Powell, who's been pushing Trump to name her the special counsel on election fraud, was seen leaving the White House. She, along with recently pardoned former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, pushing outlandish ideas, including invoking martial law and seizing voting machines, another idea Barr today rebuked.

BARR: I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government.

[16:30:00]