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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Countries Restrict Travel From U.K. Over New Virus Strain; Biden Promises Response to Cyberattack. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired December 22, 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]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

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

And we begin with breaking news in the politics lead.

Just minutes ago, president-elect Joe Biden delivered remarks as we approach the end of what he calls one of the toughest years the nation has faced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: One thing I promise you about my leadership during this crisis, I'm going to tell it to you straight. I'm going to tell you the truth.

And here's the simple truth. Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Darkest days are ahead of us, that coming from president-elect Biden, who is zeroing in on President Trump, slamming the Trump administration's response to the Russian cyberattack, saying it happened on President Trump's watch while he wasn't watching.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I know of nothing that suggests it's under control. This president hasn't even identified who's responsible yet.

They can be assured that we will respond in kind, and probably respond in kind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Let's bring in CNN's Jessica Dean in Wilmington, Delaware.

So, Jessica, the president-elect was asked directly if this cyberattack was an act of war. What did he say?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, he said that it's a grave risk. And you heard him there. He believes it's nowhere under control, that the threat and the risk continues across the United States government, that nobody's gotten to the bottom of just how deep this goes, how invasive it has been.

And he called on President Trump for official attribution for who did this, acknowledging that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General Bill Barr had indicated that the Russians did this, but Biden really drilling down, saying that he intends to respond and likely respond in kind once he knows for sure who has done this and the depths of what has been done.

But he also, interestingly, Pam, said that the Department of Defense has not briefed his team on it, which was something interesting to hear as well.

BROWN: Right.

DEAN: But he also promised to take this very seriously. And you could really hear it in his voice his frustration with President Trump, in his belief, not doing so.

BROWN: Yes, he made clear that, during this transition time, during this time of learning about this critical attack, his team is not getting information from DOD. Really stunning to hear the president- elect talk about that.

And he also drew this contrast with President Trump on the pandemic. What did he say about that?

DEAN: Well, you heard him there in the clip you played just a little bit ago, saying, I'm going to shoot you straight, I'm going to tell you the truth, the darkest days are ahead in all of this, again, really contrasting President Trump's approach to all of this, but also drilling down into the steps he wants to take as soon as he assumes office.

He talked about the masking requirement, increased production of PPE, a new testing requirement, and planning for more testing all across the country. And we did hear him also begin to talk about what he might put into the next COVID relief bill that he wants. We heard him applaud the bipartisan act from Congress, getting this latest relief bill through, but he said it's just a down payment. He wants more.

He wants things like unemployment, payments to small businesses, again, PPE, vaccine distribution, things like that, Pamela, that we saw him laying out kind of the road map, also infrastructure in there. They know they have got a lot of work ahead. And he certainly knows it as well, COVID, of course, getting that under control, their top priority -- Pam.

BROWN: Yes, we will see if he gets what he's asking for in that regard. Thanks so much, Jessica Dean.

DEAN: Yes.

BROWN: And let's talk about that. We have Ron Brownstein joining us, Seung Min Kim as well.

Ron, let's start with you on president-elect Biden saying minutes ago that President Trump's failure will -- quote -- "land on my doorstep" when it comes to the Russian cyberattack. What did you make of what we heard from Biden?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I was interested that he went back to a theme that he often struck during the campaign of separating Republicans from President Trump.

I mean, he praised Republicans in Congress for participating in the COVID deal, and also for calling out the security breach in the U.S. and kind of set Trump off on a side, continuing his effort to basically say, I can work with the other side.

But the fact is, Pamela, that, as we have seen, there's been extraordinarily little public criticism or pressure on the president from his fellow Republicans over either of those issues, over either his walking -- in effect, walking away from the pandemic and leaving Americans on their own to face a death toll that rivals 9/11 or Pearl Harbor a day, or even on accusing him of failing to come to the table sufficiently on what has exactly happened and whether Russia is the cause.

So, I think it shows Biden's optimism, but it also, to me, shows the challenge is going to face of bringing Republicans truly along on the table.

BROWN: Right.

What would make him think, what would give him the confidence that he could have, given what you just laid out? Is he being naive?

[16:05:00]

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, I mean, he -- Chris -- Senator Chris Murphy said to me the other day, there's lots of reasons to be skeptical about whether Republicans want to participate in the kind of cooperation that Biden has laid out, but people have made -- people have kind of gone astray underestimating Joe Biden over the last 18 months. So, if he says he can bring some Republicans along, I'm not willing to completely write that off from the outset.

But, look, you see the structural challenge. I mean, the passage of this COVID relief plan is kind of a mixed blessing for him, because, on the one hand, obviously, there's enormous human need that he wants Congress to respond to, and it also will help the economy be in a stronger shape when he takes office than otherwise.

But there is the clear risk, the catch-22, that many Republicans will now say, we gave at the office, we have already passed this bill, when he comes back, and, as he said in his speech today, asks for a much larger package in the spring.

BROWN: Right. And, Seung Min, he was talking to my colleague Jeff Zeleny here, and

he acknowledged that he doesn't think there will be any honeymoon period with Congress, even though Biden is saying he wants to pass more economic relief. So what do you think? Is it realistic to think that he will be able to get a better deal?

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It was a fascinating remark that he made to Jeff Zeleny, most presidents do get a little bit of a honeymoon of sorts.

But president-elect Biden is acknowledging the political reality that he is headed into here, certainly a smaller House majority, a smaller House Democratic majority in Congress that keeps getting smaller as the Biden White House plucks people from the House majority to join his administration, and a Senate majority that remains up in the air and could clearly be controlled -- could very much be controlled by Republicans come January.

So I think what -- president-elect Biden here is trying to set some realistic expectations. We saw what he was asking for in terms of a COVID relief package. And he has really struck that message for weeks now, saying the composition of the relief package that eventually passed Congress last night was a small step, but is clearly not going to be enough.

BROWN: And then also it was brought up about his attorney general pick. Jeff Zeleny brought that up as well. And Biden acknowledged that they are weighing having enough diversity in his Cabinet, something they're looking at.

What do you think, Ron, that it says that this decision still has not been made? As Jeff pointed out, normally, we would know by now.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, look, I mean, they have had to deal with kind of a three -- a Rubik's Cube here of trying to both ensure ideological diversity, generational diversity, racial and ethnic diversity, gender diversity. And, on some fronts, they have done a better than others.

I mean, the fact that it is taking -- and added to that, I think layering over that, particularly in the Justice Department, is this question of the feeling that the Trump administration has politicized the Justice Department to an unprecedented degree, which is probably historically accurate, and their desire to send a message of independence and kind of putting it back on a traditional track, but, again, wanting someone in there -- I mean, that is a critical position in the modern -- in the modern government -- that you can trust.

So, they are weighing a lot of things. They have erred on the side of experience and familiarity. it's a Cabinet whose strengths are its weaknesses, kind of mirror of the same. They're people who've been around a long time, by and large, who know how to pull the levers of power.

And one of the issues he is going to face is, he reflecting the desire for change and for generational transition in a Democratic Party that relies heavily on young voters, but right now is led by a lot of people in their 70s?

BROWN: Right. And he did acknowledge, look, that whoever that's going to be is not going to be my lawyer.

But you have the extra layer, the extra dynamic here of DOJ, as we have reported, investigating his son Hunter Biden.

All right, thank you so much, Ron, Seung Min. Really appreciate it.

Well, with 29 days left in office, President Trump is increasingly unpredictable, leaving some White House advisers to fear his final days in office.

As CNN's Joe Johns reports, one White House official says it's scary.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump's increasingly delusional effort to overturn the 2020 election is going into overdrive today, as he pushes away and lashes out at anyone who disagrees with his conspiracy theories.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need a party that's going to fight. And we have some great congress men and women that are doing it, and we have other, some great fighters. But we won this in a landslide.

JOHNS: Trump has been huddling with attorneys Rudy Giuliani and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell, who's been spotted at the White House three times this week, amid reports Trump is considering her for a special counsel position, but even Giuliani distancing the president from Powell.

RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Sidney Powell is not part of our legal team.

JOHNS: Today, Vice President Pence keeping up the election drumbeat.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As our election contest continues, I will make you a promise. We're going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

[16:10:00]

JOHNS: White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows tweeting: "The White House is preparing to fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud. Stay tuned."

That follows Monday's meeting between Trump, Pence and a handful of Republican lawmakers who plan to challenge the election when the new Congress convenes on January 6. Several senators too have not ruled out joining the effort, but Republican leadership has warned against it.

Majority Whip John Thune telling CNN: "In the Senate, it would go down like a shot dog."

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The Electoral College has spoken.

JOHNS: Trump now also lashing out at Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for acknowledging Biden's victory, sending this e-mail to a dozen or more GOP offices taking credit for McConnell's reelection win.

"Sadly, Mitch forgot," it reads. "He was the first one off the ship."

The e-mail intended as a warning to other Republicans who may defy the president. But Trump is losing support from one prominent backer, televangelist Pat Robertson, well-known for espousing several conspiracy theories of his own. But now, despite recently voicing support for Trump's claims of widespread fraud, he's saying this:

PAT ROBERTSON, HOST, "THE 700 CLUB": I think it's all over. I think the Electoral College has spoken. hand I think it would be well to say, you have had your day and it's time to move on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Also today, the Trump campaign manager, Bill Stepien, announced that he is stepping down to relaunch his consulting firm, just one more sign that, while the president continues his futile fight to stay in the office with the help of people on the fringe, some others in Trump world are accepting reality and moving on -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Joe Johns, thank you so much.

Well, for many, this right here, this was the moment, Dr. Anthony Fauci getting the coronavirus vaccine, but, up next, the distribution issues we're now seeing which may delay when you can get it.

Plus: Is that new highly contagious COVID strain in the U.S.? We have some new details on what the CDC is doing to find out.

And anxiety inside the Pentagon -- what military leaders are telling CNN they fear about President Trump's final days.

We will be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:16:35]

BROWN: Well, just minutes ago, president-elect Biden said, while he's gotten his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, it will take months to get the rest of the public taken care of.

And, in the meantime, the pandemic is only getting worse.

As CNN's Sara Murray reports, Dr. Anthony Fauci says it's possible that the new variant spreading in the United Kingdom may already be in the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: I want to encourage everyone who has the opportunity to get vaccinated.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The nation's top infectious disease doctor rolling up his sleeves for a dose of the Moderna vaccine today, alongside other prominent members of the Trump administration.

FAUCI: Are you done yet?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just got lucky.

FAUCI: That was no problem, people.

MURRAY: While officials are buoyed by the vaccines...

ALEX AZAR, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: I have complete confidence in the safety and efficacy of these vaccines.

MURRAY: ... there are still concerns about a strain of the coronavirus that may be more transmissible. The CDC says the U.K. variant hasn't been identified in the U.S., but it could already be in the United States without having been detected.

FAUCI: You really need to assume that it's here already.

MURRAY: Even so, administration officials tell CNN the White House is considering requiring travelers from the U.K. to show proof of a negative COVID test before arriving in the U.S., this as both Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna are testing their vaccines against the new strain.

And a BioNTech executive tells CNN's Fred Pleitgen it's possible to adjust the vaccine to combat this strain.

UGUR SAHIN, CEO, BIONTECH: We should not forget that there's still the opportunity, if required, to adjust the vaccine exactly to this -- to this new virus variant, if this is needed.

MURRAY: Vaccines are already rolling out across the U.S., with more than 4.6 million doses shipped and more than 600,000 shots in arms, according to the CDC.

While those numbers could be lagging by days, it's clear it will take beyond December to hit the administration's target of getting the first doses to 20 million Americans.

Meantime, coronavirus cases in the U.S. continue to climb, now surpassing 18 million.

DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH: Our hospitals are overwhelmed in many locations.

MURRAY: Hospitals also under tremendous strain, as the U.S. recorded more than 115,000 hospitalizations Monday, a new record. While officials plead with Americans to stay home for the holidays, there are already signs air travel is picking up, with more than four million people flying in the past four days.

ERIN BROMAGE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: If you're going to jump in a big metal tube, an airplane, with lots of people, so a million people everyday flying right now, you're going to be sharing a lot of air. People are still getting this wrong, even now. It's the air we share.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY (on camera): Now, we're also learning today that there will be one familiar face that we will not be seeing in the Biden administration. And that is Dr. Deborah Birx. She's telling other news outlets that she plans to retire, that she wants the Biden administration to succeed, and she's happy to help them in any way she can as a civilian.

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

Meantime, 44 countries are now restricting travel from the U.K. because of concerns surrounding the COVID virus strain found there, but, so far, the U.S. is not joining that list, allowing for flights between the two countries.

I want to bring in CNN's Pete Muntean.

Pete, the White House is considering taking action. What are you learning?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, we know the White House had a task force meeting about this yesterday and it discussed whether or not to require passengers coming into the United States from the United Kingdom test negative for coronavirus.

[16:20:05]

This would be a first-of-its-kind of restriction, although not near as onerous as what some other countries are doing, Canada outright prohibiting flights from the United Kingdom.

Dr. Anthony Fauci says we do not need to go that far, at least not just yet. The federal government says it's continuing to monitor this. The FAA says it's looking at it.

BROWN: So, what are airlines doing right now specifically to try to keep passengers safe, given what's going on?

MUNTEAN: Well, airlines are stepping up in the absence of any new regulations from the federal government.

We know that airlines are essentially emulating what the federal government has already discussed. Delta will require passengers test negative for coronavirus before they come in from the United Kingdom. British Airways, Virgin Atlantic also doing the same, in an agreement with the state in New York.

JFK is where a lot of these flights come into, but flights from the United Kingdom, flights from London still arriving here at Dulles International Airport.

BROWN: And, quickly, it seems pretty crowded behind you, lines. What are you seeing?

MUNTEAN: Well, it really ebbs and flows here.Pamela.

We know that the last few days have been really big for air travel, especially, leading into this holiday. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, more than a million people flew, according to the TSA, nearly a million yesterday. It's that three-day stretch that's so interesting.

That is something we have not seen in the pandemic, not even during the Thanksgiving rush.

BROWN: All right, Pete Muntean, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Now we're joined by emergency physician at Brown University Dr. Megan Ranney.

All right, so, I first want to start off the heels of what we just heard from Pete, seeing all these travelers going to the airport flying, because, of course, Christmas is right around the corner. And what is your message right now, as you see that play out, especially after Thanksgiving and what we saw play out there?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: You know, Pamela, I worked in the emergency department last night. And the majority of the patients that I took care of who were sick with COVID got infected over the Thanksgiving holiday.

And so seeing those folks traveling just gives me angina. It makes me nervous for what's coming two and three weeks from now, because we know that most of those folks have not quarantined and have not tested negative prior to traveling. They are spreading virus with them across the country.

And they are going to worsen the surge of positive cases, the pressure on our hospitals and our intensive care units in the weeks to come. And I'm most of all worried that they're going to spread it to their elderly relatives, who I know they're traveling to see because they love, but they could be making this their last Christmas. So

BROWN: This, is really important to hone in on, so that the patients you are seeing now, you're learning that they chose to travel, they chose to fly or whatever, however they chose to travel, for Thanksgiving to be with their loved ones. And now they're ending up in intensive care, right?

RANNEY: That's exactly right, that we know that the time period between when you get infected and when you end up sick enough to be hospitalized or in the intensive care unit is about two to three weeks.

So, the people that I saw last night almost all got infected over Thanksgiving from family gatherings, from people who had traveled from outside into our state or from traveling themselves from here to elsewhere.

They got infected, they tested positive somewhere around five to seven days later. And then COVID gets to its worst around seven to 14 days after that positive test. So what we're seeing today came from Thanksgiving. And that travel that you're showing on the screen is going to show up in our hospitals somewhere around the 14th to 21st of January.

BROWN: So, if you would, take us behind the scenes, Dr. Ranney.

We are seeing record hospitalizations in this pandemic right now. In California, ICU capacity remains at zero percent in about half the state. You're saying it's going to get worse, essentially, because of the holiday, people traveling right now.

What are you seeing now behind the scenes, because you're right in the thick of it, and what are you anticipating?

RANNEY: So, what I am seeing is that we are all working as hard as we can. We're calling in backup for sick colleagues. I have a friend just today who just got a positive COVID test. She got vaccinated about a week ago, and, unfortunately, didn't get the vaccine in time to be protected, right?

So, we're still having sick colleagues. We are having trouble staying staffed. Our ICUs are full. We are all exhausted on the front lines. And, meanwhile, my colleagues in California are telling me that they're calling for extra body bags because their ICUs so full. The death rates are so high that their coroners are running out of room.

It is absolutely a system on the edge of the brink of disaster right now.

BROWN: I'm impressed that you could come on and have it together so well, just given what you have been going through on the front lines there.

I want to talk about this new strain. Officials say that this strain that was discovered in the U.K. is 70 percent more contagious. Dr. Fauci said it is very possible that it is in the States right now.

How worried should we all about this new strain?

[16:25:02]

RANNEY: So, honestly, I agree with Dr. Fauci. I think the cat is probably already out of the bag.

The reports from the U.K. are saying that they first detected that strain around September 20. That's three months ago. Think about the number of people that have traveled back and forth between the U.K. and the United States since then. The chance of it not already circulating here is virtually none.

And, at the end of the day, it reinforces that the best measures we have right now are those very basic public health prevention steps that we have been talking about since the beginning. It's about masking. It's about avoiding indoor get-togethers. It's about, honestly, avoiding travel and about washing your hands and doing all those other basic steps.

That strain is already out there. It worries me, but it's just -- we got to stick with those very basic things in order to make it through this winter.

BROWN: Absolutely.

And, as we know, some are getting vaccinated right now, people, folks like you who are on the front lines. Pfizer, Moderna are both now testing this strain and how it responds to their vaccines. But they have said that they actually think their vaccine will be effective against this strain.

If you would walk us through how this is different than the flu shot, where you have different strains, and sometimes a flu shot isn't as effective some years.

RANNEY: Absolutely.

So, the difference here is a couple of things. One is, we don't fully know that this -- that the vaccines are going to be fully effective against this strain. But everything that we know so far suggests that it will, because the mutations that we're seeing are very slight, and are not enough to change your body's immune response to the vaccine.

The second part is, is that the flu vaccine usually stays effective for the majority of the year. But we have that antigenic shift. We have those mutations over the course of a year that require a new vaccine the following year. Most of us are expecting at this point that COVID is going to shift over time.

We're seeing enough mutations that we think that we will have to change the vaccine a little, but probably every two to three years, rather than every single year. It's just a different virus and it works a little differently.

The last thing is, is that this is a really exciting part about the mRNA. Because it produces a specific part of the virus that the body mounts have very strong immune response to, those minor differences, those minor mutations are less likely to make the vaccine totally ineffective than vaccines like the flu vaccine that are based on the entire virus.

BROWN: That is very encouraging. Essentially, they don't have to go back to the drawing board with this new strain is what I'm hearing from you.

All right, Dr. Megan Ranney, thank you. And thank you for all your hard work on the front lines. We appreciate it. RANNEY: Thank you.

BROWN: And up next: "We are in strange times."

That is coming from a military officer as we get new insight into the growing anxiety inside the Pentagon about what President Trump might do in his final days.

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