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Don Lemon Tonight

Trump Allies Tested Positive for COVID-19; Joe Biden Deserves an Intel Briefing; President Trump Can't Accept His Defeat; Removal of Pentagon officials Not Safe for the Country; DHS Officials Admits There is No Election Fraud; More Americans Could Die from Coronavirus; Media Changed its Tune. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired November 12, 2020 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: I saw him.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: You know, and he was saying, no, I think McConnell is going to do the relief bill, and I think that there is going to be pressure on them to do more. I don't know. I mean, look, I hope he's right. Everybody wants progress. I think voters, all the voters in this election who voted for Biden or voted for the other guy deserve that.

LEMON: Yes.

CUOMO: But I don't see any sign of that. McConnell playing this game now to justify the special election makes it more likely that he's going to take opposition his culture which is makes it more likely that he's going to go hard on them. If they control the Senate, he can lock up the game again and all the appointments, especially the judicial ones.

LEMON: Well, listen. Let's -- hearing from lieutenant governor that you had on, all the election officials, all the Republican and Democratic governors from all over the, you know, all the states who are battleground states, and they're all saying there's no evidence right no. There's no systemic or widespread voter fraud.

CUOMO: Yes, they're doing what they can for Trump in Georgia.

LEMON: If things --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: They are hand counting every ballot again.

LEMON: Yes. Come on.

CUOMO: It's not what their law provides.

LEMON: I know, but come on. You know what that is, right?

CUOMO: Yes.

LEMON: Yes.

CUOMO: I think that's going bending over backwards to do what Trump wants.

LEMON: It's about what's going to happen in January. And that is, and I'm not talking about the inauguration. I'm not talking about the --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Special election.

LEMON: I'm talking about the special election. That's what that's about. And they -- they've got to keep the people riled up, OK? They've got to keep them riled up so they have energy to go out to the polls. That's like the folks I saw today coming into work. I sent you the video among the lie (Ph), and there's like, there's a Trump parade with giant Trump flags. And I just wanted -- I didn't say -- I just drove by and took video of it. I wanted to say, hey, it's over.

CUOMO: Well, Trump says it's not over.

LEMON: Yes.

CUOMO: It suggests that he may run again.

LEMON: Well there you go. I won't even go there. I will you one of the smartest things that you said tonight, and you say a lot of smart things is that we have -- we've gotten better at treating this disease, at keeping people alive. It's not that it's changed, that it's morphed and all that, or that it's less invasive or deadly or, you know, or infectious.

It is that we've gotten better at treating people, at keeping them alive. You don't throw them on ventilators right away. You keep their lungs strong. And you know -- and the things that you went through, the advice that you gave people.

So, for everybody who's out there thinking it's no big deal, don't wear the mask, I don't want the lockdown. If you don't want the lockdown, it's very simple. Just do what the experts tell you, socially distance, look out for others, wear a mask, so on and so forth and then maybe we wouldn't have to close restaurants down and all of those things, which -- which -- who wants that? Nobody wants that.

CUOMO: You know, I've got to tell you though, this is like a real philosopher's dilemma because you don't want to shut things down. It's scary. People don't like it and it's been politicized.

LEMON: Right.

CUOMO: But you don't have a lot of tools against this thing ether.

LEMON: No.

CUOMO: And you get it both ways as a politician and I'm OK with that because that's what they signed up for. And you know, if they make the right calls, they win. If they make the wrong calls, they should lose. But I'm going to -- you know, New York, my brother is now having to deal with this we're going to close restaurants at 10. Some people will be happy, some won't. Some should say it should be 8. Some would say leave them open, some say it doesn't matter.

And if the numbers keep getting bad, what other options do you have? And then you make the move that you have to make to keep people alive.

LEMON: OK. Let me tell you this. So, we both have a friend who owns restaurants here in the city and out in the Hamptons and also in Palm Beach.

CUOMO: Yes.

LEMON: But do you know what he wants to know. He doesn't know what to do. Do I have to have people out of my restaurant by 10. He's OK with whatever the governor says. He just wants to have some clarity about do I have to shut the restaurant down?

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: He's not going to get it. He's not going to get it because they do it on the fly.

LEMON: That's what they want to know, what to do. But I'll tell you what because I have to run. Here's what I have to say. And you know, looking at hindsight. It's not even hindsight, it's 2020. We knew this. So for everybody who's saying who's upset, my God, I can't believe, these governors and Democrat cities and all that, if we had done the right thing in the begins, if you had done the right thing in the beginning, if you had believed in wearing masks, if you had believed in social distancing, if you had believed in all the things that Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx and all the people were saying and not what the president was saying, perhaps we would be at a different place right now and you might be able to see your loved ones for Thanksgiving.

That's all I'm saying. So, this time around, believe in the science. Do what the experts say. I've got to go.

CUOMO: I love you, Don Lemon.

LEMON: I love you.

CUOMO: Preach.

LEMON: I beat you to it. All right. I'll see you. Thanks, Chris.

This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon.

I've got a lot to tell you about tonight. So, you remember this, right? The promise is very simple. The promise was, make America great again, right? MAGA. Fit so well on that, you know, little bright red hat.

[22:05:03]

Well, here we are, America. We had an election just nine days ago. The president was roundly rejected, and he and his party just refuse to accept that. So, now what? Here we are, America, living under a pandemic. We've known for months what to do to get it under control. We were just talking about it, except the president and his party chose, they chose to make a simple piece of cloth a culture war issue to fuel up their base when they could have been saving lives.

And now what? Make America great again? How did that work out for you?

The new COVID-19 model from the institute of Healths Metrics and -- Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, a model the White House Task Force or Task Coronavirus Force has used, it is projecting up to 439,000 deaths here in the U.S. That's by March 1st.

And the institute says that COVID-19 is the second leading cause of death here in the U.S. I know it's hard even still to comprehend a president who wouldn't protect the American people, except this president doesn't even bother to protect his own people.

Here's the proof. At least six people who attended that maskless indoor, non-socially distanced White House party, just happened last week, well they have tested positive for the virus including the Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski, political adviser David Bossie, HUD Secretary Ben Carson and who knows who maybe, hopefully there's nobody else, but we may not know about some folks. Maybe they haven't tested yet. Who knows?

And where is the president? Where is President Trump, Donald J. Trump anyway? Where is he? Where is the Vice President Mike Pence? Mike Pence by the way is the head of the task force? Where are they? Where is he? Where are they? They want to claim to power they have no claim to and yet they are invisible do-nothings.

Trump -- I don't know if he's in a bunker, but he's certainly holed up inside the White House. He's tweeting, and he's watching the TV. Hello. He's showing absolutely no leadership. You're not showing any leadership right now, President Trump, outgoing President Trump. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

Looking desperately for a scheme to steal the election, yes, from Joe Biden, but really steal it from you, the American people. This office belongs to no man. But one man who did hold it, and that's the former President Barack Obama, tonight telling CBS News why he thinks Trump and his enablers are still pushing false claims of widespread election fraud.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They appear to be motivated in part because the president doesn't like to lose and never admits loss. I'm more troubled by the fact that other Republican officials who clearly know better are going along with this, are humoring him in this fashion. It is one more step in delegitimizing not just the incoming Biden administration but democracy generally. And that's a dangerous path.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Wow. I know. It sounds like a president. Complete sentences. Train of thought. Haven't had that, haven't we, for about four years. Didn't more than 77 million people just vote to stop getting dragged down dangerous paths by the President of the United States, and yet -- and yet -- sons, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, pushing the president to aggressively fight to the end.

Like their father, they're claiming without evidence that the outcome of the election is rigged. No evidence. No evidence. Trump's daughter, Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, both senior Trump aides, said to be concerned that his refusal to concede could damage his legacy and his business, that it could do that going forward.

So, they're worried. They're very concerned, very concerned, very concerned. Wonder what they're concerned about. The legacy or the business?

[22:10:08]

You want to know what passes for standing up for reality for Republicans in D.C. these days? Senators Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley and John Thune saying that Biden should receive the intel briefings. Other senators joining them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): At this point, just as a matter of protecting our nation's interests, I do think that both the president and his competition here, the Vice President Biden, should have access to those classified reports.

We should be in the same posture that we were in throughout the whole campaign with both of them receiving briefings as they're both trying to be able to prepare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. And guess what they didn't say. Still won't say that he got elected. Did anybody say President-elect Biden? I don't know, maybe they did. I didn't hear it but let me know. They're acting like it is still a campaign and it's any man's race to win. Your guy lost. You want to turn up the volume? He lost.

And here's what's so funny to me about the way the Republican Party can't say, boo, to their golden goose. This is the New York Times, OK, as a next step, Mr. Trump is talking seriously about announcing that he is planning to run again in 2024, aware that whether he actually does it or not, it will freeze an already crowded field of possible Republican candidates.

So, these Republicans are willing to put Trump first and democracy second because they want the Trump base. OK? But here, think about it. Trump is never ever going to let you have it, you people who think you're running in 2024. Never going to have it. Never. He'll accept all of those followers as his own. Those are his followers. I guarantee you that.

And if you're a Republican out there and you're sucking up to the president, to President Trump because you want to run in 2024 after soon-to-be President Biden, guess what? He's going to freeze you out and keep that base all to himself. So, good luck with that.

Boy, there's a turnip truck somewhere with you all's names on it and an open vat.

Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary was asked about this weak sauce grasp on reality, this whole both men should get the briefings position this morning. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kayleigh, why this is happening this has been brought up by Senator Lankford, a Republican, he said, listen, give Joe Biden a presidential daily brief. After all Senator Harris gets these on the intel committee. She is getting -- she has high level security access. Has the president considered that?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I haven't spoken to the president about that. That would be a question more for the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: What do you even say to that? I'd ask the White House press secretary except that's you Kayleigh McEnany, that's you Kayleigh. That's you. You're the White House press secretary. Unbelievable.

So, here's a look. Last thing we reported sources saying that President Trump is dragging all this out as he figures out how to profit from the chaos, raising money for his election defense fund, with some of that money going to his newly-established political action committee.

Sources also saying Trump's being encouraged by top aides, including Kushner, his attorney Rudy Giuliani and campaign adviser Jason Miller to hold rallies in order to gather support from his base for recounts. So, if you think about that, that's a P.R. move. And there is a snag, they say, OK?

Here's the snag. Ask all the people who go on tour around the country for a living, right, tour buses and all that. Rallies are expensive. They don't bring in any money. And we know this is all about the grift, not about the country. It's about the grift, money.

[22:15:03]

The wheels have come off the Trump White House. The president is clearly no longer interested in governing, so now what? GOP leaders need to find a backbone. They need to tell him it's time to concede. They need to let Joe Biden prepare to run this country. Enough is enough, people.

Kaitlan Collins is here. Pamela Brown as well. And I'm happy to see both of you. Good evening. Kaitlan, late breaking news at the president's own government is saying the 2020 election was secure. No votes lost, deleted or changed. They're refuting President Trump's lies.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Don, not only are they saying it was secure, they're saying it was the most secure in American history. This is an agency within the president's own Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency saying it was the most secure election in American history. There is no evidence of any kind of widespread fraud that the president and his allies have insisted there is an alleged without evidence, of course.

But also, Don, they're directly refuting something the president just elevated today, this conspiracy, this theory from a fringe site saying that there were votes changed because of voting systems that were used in certain states. They say in the statement tonight no votes were changed or compromised or anything of that nature.

And of course, this is an agency whose job it is, Don, to look into this kind of stuff. And so, they are directly refuting what the president is saying. So, the question is how does the president respond to this. Because of course, these are officials within his own administration. We've seen how there have been purges happening at the Pentagon at the Department of Homeland Security over the last several days.

So, it's not clear how the president is going to respond. He's obviously not going to be happy with this because it goes against what he's been saying. But, you know, even his political advisers behind the scenes who have been fighting these legal battles in courts, they know, Don, that there's not a lot of chance of success here if any chance at all.

LEMON: So, this isn't Obama administration officials. It's not President-elect Biden administration officials? These are officials for who?

COLLINS: They work in Donald Trump's administration in his Department of Homeland Security. And of course, we've seen how the presidential personnel office which is in charge of some of the political appointee - or all the political appointees at those different agencies, how they've responded.

You know, we reported this week they were threatening to fire anyone who is looking for a job, even though they know Donald Trump's time in the White House is coming to an end. So, the question is how does they -- how do they respond to this kind of a statement, rebuking what the president has alleged.

LEMON: Pamela, you have heard -- you heard the reporting. You heard what I said earlier. This is your reporting that the president is getting conflicting advice from his eldest children about next steps. What are you learning?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so there are these two different approaches that the president's eldest kids are advising him on. And on one side of this, you have Don, Jr., and Eric Trump who want to fight this until the bitter end. They want to fight the election outcome. They want to continue to have this big push with those baseless claims, Don, that this election was rigged and that's why Donald Trump lost, which we know is not true.

They basically want to go guns blazing until the bitter end. And that is what they have been advising their dad on, and that is what we've been seeing out play out on their Instagram and Twitter feeds. On the other hand, you have the president's daughter Ivanka Trump who was also senior adviser and we were told by sources that she sees a shelf life to this. She knows that her dad lost the election. She knows he's going to have to leave the White House. No one thinks he's going to concede.

But basically, she's trying to play both sides here. We're also seeing that from her husband Jared. Essentially she wants the legal fight to continue up to a point, once we see some of these dubious lawsuits the Trump gave in his file come to an end to the Georgia recount which is supposed to end November 20th, that is when -- that's sort of what she's looking ahead to as the time to turn the corner, new chapter, and to acknowledge for her dad to acknowledge that he lost this election, although it certainly won't be in those words because we know how Donald Trump works.

But it's also important to point out for context that Ivanka Trump has an eye toward the future and how she wants this. This is a political calculation. It's about perception. She's looking ahead to the family business. She knows her future is very much tied to her father.

And Jared Kushner also has an interest in having somewhat of a smooth, if you could even say that, transition now at this point moving forward because he doesn't want the work, he has done in his Middle East portfolio to be undone. So, really, it's walking a fine line on that side of things.

LEMON: Wow. Wow. Well, I'm so happy you guys are here reporting. I mean, I can't really believe it, but then again, I can. Thank you, Kaitlan. Thank you, Pamela.

BROWN: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: I appreciate it. Good to see both of you.

Well, Trump won't concede. He is purging the Pentagon. The CIA might be next and the majority of his party isn't condemning him for any of it. Well, President trump's former national security advisers say that it is irresponsible and dangerous.

[22:20:01]

I'm going to ask John Bolton what the end game is. He's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Election officials calling the 2020 election the most secure in American history. This includes people working in the Trump administration. So, why is the president still pushing conspiracy theories about voter fraud?

Let's discuss now with President Trump's former national security adviser, Ambassador John Bolton. I'm so happy that you're appearing on the program. Thank you so much in advance. How you doing?

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, thanks for having me.

LEMON: Absolutely.

BOLTON: Doing fine, thank you.

LEMON: So, ambassador, we know what kind of man Donald Trump is. Why are Republicans letting him drag not only the party but the entire democracy through the mud right now? Why are we going through this and why are people allowing it?

BOLTON: Well, the best I can discern is that many people think that he's going through a process or at least they hope he is where he'll come to the realization he's lost and that he'll just go quietly. I'm afraid the reaction is going to be exactly the opposite. The way he's operated is when he can push people around and get what he wants and they don't push back, he just demands more.

[22:24:59]

So, I think -- and I'm just speaking as a Republican myself here -- the way to contain the damage not only to the country, which is significant, but for the party as well is for Republican leaders to speak out, as some now are, to recognize reality to show they understand that Joe Biden is the president-elect. There are some contests that need to get gotten through, but we need to get on with the business of the transition.

LEMON: Do you think -- so, having said that, do you think it's going to get worse? Are we going to see more erratic behavior? Are we going to see -- I mean, obviously this is a danger, as I said, to the democracy, to the republic. Is this going to get worse before it gets better?

BOLTON: Well, I think it's entirely possible it will. I mean, the good news and the bad news is I really don't think Donald Trump has a comprehensive strategy he's following. If he did, it would be probably the first time in his presidency. I think he's going through kind of hour by hour, day by day looking for something that will bring relief.

I mean, we have heard now ever since the election massive evidence was coming that would show voter fraud, that would show a conspiracy that was so widespread and so vast that we can't even find evidence of it. Some was promised tonight. We haven't seen it yet. I don't think there is any. But I think the longer this goes on the greater to the U.S. and its

reputation internationally in particular when they see a president who's just even more detached from reality than he has been before.

LEMON: You were there and many people thought, you know, well, at least there's an adult in the room and some of the folks around the president in the beginning and even in the middle of his administration, his term. Is there an adult left? Is there someone there who can say now is there a John Bolton, is there a General Kelly, someone who can say listen, this is what we need to do and stop with the shenanigans, anybody?

BOLTON: well, you know, there were a lot of adults in the administration over the four years that left under better or worse circumstances. I don't think there is anybody left there now. I think that -- and I think that's part of the problem. So, that's why I'm hoping Republicans in the House and the Senate, as some have, will begin -- will begin to speak up.

And I think it's entirely consistent with the legitimate political objective of winning those two run offs in Georgia in January. I think actually its counterproductive to the objective of getting 52 Republican seats in the Senate to acquiesce in this fantasia that Trump is trying to create.

I think voters can handle the truth. I think they need people who will give them accurate information, and the Republican base is fully capable of processing the truth if people are telling it to them.

LEMON: So, you think this actually hurts -- this actually weakens their chances of winning the Senate seats in January, the way they're conducting themselves now than if they stood up to the president and admitted what is reality?

BOLTON: Yes, I'm not -- I'm not asking for some kind of massive civil disobedience on the part of Republicans.

LEMON: I get it.

BOLTON: I'm just saying let's talk about what's actually going on. Let's explain that it was a close election, closer than the public opinion pollsters said, but that Trump has lost. Absent that huge amount of evidence that nobody seemed to see yet. You know, testifying in court is not the same as tweeting. And if people just explained that, I think Republican voters would understand and accept it.

LEMON: Listen, you said that you don't think that this is a plan that he has. Maybe that's good news for you. But listen, in your book you wrote about a number of dangerous autocratic things the president said and did.

So, I have to ask you, watching this purge that he's got underway right now, knowing what's going on inside of his head as much as you can and how much damage can -- how much damage do you think this can do before he leaves the White House? BOLTON: Well, I think in the national security space, I think there's

a lot of damage he can do. Just to take the Defense Department purge first, it looks to me like it's motivate bid personal peak. There is no legitimate ground to fire Defense Secretary Mark Esper or the other people who have been let go. And it can have significant damage.

And we've got a little bit less than ten weeks until the inauguration. This is a time where adversaries of the United States hope that our attention is diverted to take advantage of us in one way or another. And now you've got a new team at the top of the civilian side of the Defense Department that's very inexperienced. That's the most you can say.

Now, I have confidence in the uniformed military. I think they very much don't want to be put in the political sphere, and I think they'll stand firm. But that's a risk we have to look at.

[22:30:05]

Also, today at the Department of Homeland Security, one official in the cyber security area was forced to resign. There are rumors others are going to be purged as well because they've spoken out about these what they've called properly hoaxes about computer programs and things from the twilight zone.

So, there may be more coming. The FBI director has been rumored to be fired, the CIA director. There's no reason to go through any of that except personal peak. But if we had more firings, it really could make us weaker internationally.

LEMON: Ambassador, the president is apparently thinking about pardoning himself. That's according to current and former officials who are saying that he has been asking about whether he can do it since 2017. Do you know anything about this? Have you ever heard anything like this from the president, and what do you think of that?

BOLTON: Now I haven't heard him say anything, but I do think we better prepare ourselves for a wave of pardonings of the president's friends and quite possibly himself and his family. It's never been adjudicated, but I think constitutional scholars rightly believe the pardon power is essentially unrestricted. The only thing I would say is that even Richard Nixon didn't pardon himself.

LEMON: Ambassador Bolton, thank you for your time. I hope to see you again.

BOLTON: Thanks for having me.

LEMON: Thank you.

CNN obtaining a copy of President Obama's new memoir, what he says about how his presidency played into Trump's rise to power, and what racism has to do with it. One of his closest advisers breaks it down with me, and that's Valerie Jarrett, and she's next.

[22:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The former President Barack Obama speaking out tonight on President Trump's lies about voter fraud in the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT PELLEY, CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR, CBS NEWS: What are these false claims of widespread election fraud doing to our country right now?

OBAMA: They appear to be motivated in part because the president doesn't like to lose and never admits loss. I'm more troubled by the fact that other Republican officials who clearly know better are going along with this, are humoring him in this fashion. It is one more step in delegitimizing not just the incoming Biden administration but democracy generally. And that's a dangerous path.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's get straight now to Valerie Jarrett, the former senior adviser to President Barack Obama and the author of "Finding by Boys When My Perfect Plan Crumbles and the Adventure Begins."

So good to have you on. Thank you so much for appearing.

VALERIE JARRETT, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Hello, Don, how are you this evening?

LEMON: I'm doing very well. Thank you so much.

President Obama is not only criticizing Trump, he says that he is -- he is more troubled by the Republicans who are enabling him. Is this how you see it as well?

JARRETT: Yes, absolutely. I mean, this is what we've come to (Inaudible) from the president, but the Republicans, many who serve on committees dealing with national security, they know better than this and they enable him.

But Don, here's the good news. As we heard from the president-elect, President-elect Biden earlier in the week, he is confident that he'll be prepared to hit the ground running come January 20th. His team is moving full speed ahead.

You saw his announcement of the COVID coronavirus task force that's going to look at containing the virus and how we make sure the vaccine is distributed fairly. He spoke up together with the vice president- elect about the Affordable Care Act and what's in jeopardy when the Supreme Court had oral argument this week.

Just yesterday he announced his chief of staff, a terrific pick. I had the honor of working with Ron Klain both when he was the vice president's chief of staff and then when he was tackling the Ebola crisis.

So, he's moving forward and his team is moving forward, they are looking for people to fill in the White House and, in the cabinet important positions. And so, it is what it is. If he's not going to cooperate, then we'll just move -- they will move --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: You've got to keep -- you've got to keep moving forward, right? So, listen, I want to talk to you about the former President Obama's latest memoir, it's called "Promised Land." And he explains why he sent his vice president to Capitol Hill to negotiate on his behalf.

He said one of the reasons I'd chosen Joe to act as an intermediary in addition to his Senate experience in legislative acumen was my awareness that in McConnell's mind negotiations with the vice president didn't inflame the Republican base in quite the same way that any appearance of cooperation with black Muslim socialist Obama was bound to do.

Now listen, we thought all of those things might be happening, right? But that was a calculation that the former president was making. That speaks volumes at Senate Republicans would deal better with the V.P. Biden because he's a white man. Is that how it was?

JARRETT: Look, I think one of the strengths of President Obama is he's a pragmatist. His ego didn't need to be the one up there negotiating. What he wanted to do was to get something done. And if Vice President Biden was more palpable to them and if we could make progress with them as the negotiator, that was fine with President Obama. And Yes, I think race had a lot to do with it.

LEMON: Well, it's interesting because I'm not sure that any other president in history would have to make that sort of calculation besides maybe a woman who had a male vice president. I wonder if they would work better -- you understand what I'm saying? Nobody else has had the --

(CROSSTALK)

JARRETT: I know exactly --

LEMON: Yes.

JARRETT: I know exactly what you're saying. But that's the price of being the first.

[22:40:00]

But fortunately, we were lucky that President Obama wasn't going to put his own ego ahead of what was best for the country. And I think it's one of the strengths that President-elect Biden will have when he takes office is that he does have these long and deep relationships with many of the members on both sides of the aisle in both the House and the Senate.

LEMON: Well, let me ask you this. I want to make sure I get it in. President Obama also opens up in his book about the role his presidency played in Trump's rise. OK? And he writes this in part. He says it was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted, which is exactly what Donald Trump understood when he started peddling assertions that I had not been born in the United States and was thus an illegitimate president. For millions of Americans spooked by a Black man in the White House, he promised an elixir for their racial anxiety.

talk to me about that.

JARRETT: Well, pretty diabolical strategy, don't you think? And it was effective. Look, he's the President of the United States now. And the whole birther nonsense was intended to delegitimize President Obama beginning when he was a candidate. Pull the rug out from underneath him. What other president, to make the point you were making earlier, Don, has had his citizenship questioned? None, none. It's outrageous.

LEMON: Valerie Jarrett, always a pleasure. Please come back and you be safe. OK?

JARRETT: Thanks for having me, Don. Stay well.

LEMON: And that's a -- I love that grandbaby behind you on the counter.

JARRETT: Thank you, don, Thank you.

LEMON: Thank you. Humanitarian crisis. That's what CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is saying about the state of the pandemic right now. And a key model is predicting it could get much worse. Stay with us for the very latest.

[22:45:00]

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LEMON: A new record high today of COVID-19 cases in a single day. More than 147,000. That breaks the old record set yesterday. At the end of October, the five days with the highest new case counts were all from the month of October, with not a single day of over 100,000 new cases.

The current list of the top five days are all from this month, and that is November. And all of them are in the six figures. New projections tonight from the influential IHME model are painting a grim picture of the next few months.

Let's discuss with Dr. Larry brilliant, a CNN medical analyst and epidemiologist. Dr. Brilliant, good to see you. Thank you, sir.

LARRY BRILLIANT, CNN MEDICAL ANALSYT: Hi, Don.

LEMON: So, this model says 439,000 deaths by March, and that is assuming states have lockdowns and people mask up. If not, it goes as high as 587,000.

President Trump is meeting the task force with the task force tomorrow, but is this the result of a White House that believes in herd immunity and, you know, otherwise just kind of sits back and watches this as it gets out of control.

BRILLIANT: Don, I think it's a combination of a lot of things going into the winter season. People are huddling together. A more transmissible virus under circumstances like that. But let's go back to that figure you mentioned of just shy of 600,000 that Chris Murray has forecasted if we don't behave well.

And 600,000 was the number of people who died in 1918 in the Spanish flu in the United States. And that was three years. We're going to have this virus with us for a lot longer. Six hundred thousand 600,000, if you think about numbers of that scale, it's just unimaginable. But we all imagined it.

Every epidemiologist you've had on your show said this would be the season, these would be the numbers. The virus is behaving just as we unfortunately expected. What we never expected was a White House that would be so disinterested in a pandemic, so disinterested in the deaths in the United States. It's unfathomable.

LEMON: Yes, I wanted to make sure I have my numbers correct, and it appears that they are. If you look at this map, it's from the IHME. It shows the most -- excuse me -- the month hospitals are expected to exceed ICU bed capacity. All those states are expected to run out this month. Yellow states will run out in December. Can we slow this down at all?

BRILLIANT: We can. We had right now we have 65,000 people in hospitals. That's exceeding the peak that we've ever had from the pandemic. We are doing much better with preventing deaths once people have got the disease. In fact, we're doing a lot better once people are in hospitals.

I think what we face and that we need to really worry about is that scene of ambulances and refrigerator trucks with corpses and being unable to take care of people who have heart attacks, who have cancer and need to be treated in the hospital. That's the real fear.

And I'd like to say it's sort of the darkest just before the dawn because I think that springtime, we'll really start seeing the effect of these new vaccines and antivirals, monoclonal antibodies, better testing. We have a lot of people, and Tony Fauci said the cavalry is coming. I really believe that that's true.

But we've got three, four, five tough months that we have to get through. And please, wear your masks, practice social distancing, wash your hands, stay away from crowds, think twice about whether this is the only Thanksgiving that you'll ever have. Maybe have two of them next year?

LEMON: Maybe -- maybe all of next year we can just be thankful and celebrate every single day. But you're right about what's coming up. We are going to have the flu, COVID on top of the flu on top of the cold season. And it's -- yes, we've got a lot coming in the coming months. So, thank you, doctor. We'll see you soon.

[22:50:08] BRILLIANT: Don, thanks. Nice to talk to you.

LEMON: So, they are parroting Trump's false election fraud claims but Fox News while singing a very different tune in 2016. We're going roll back the tape, next.

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LEMON: So, take this. Nine days after the election, Republicans were refusing to admit that Biden is going to be sworn in as president on January 20th. Do you recall what happened when Donald Trump was projected to win in 2016? Hillary Clinton conceded the race the next day. Here's how President Trump described it.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: So, Hillary called, and it was a lovely call, and it was a tough call for her. I mean I can imagine. Tougher for her than it would have been for me. And for me it would have been very difficult. She couldn't have been nicer. She just said, congratulations, Donald. Well done.

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LEMON: But I want you to take a look at what the KFile team dug up. This is what state TV said back in 2016 when Trump won while losing the popular vote.

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STEVE DOOCY, HOST, FOX NEWS: Brian, they're saying it's rigged but they have absolutely no evidence that it's rigged.

BRIAN KILMEADE, HOST, FOX NEWS: I don't think we should give them the time of day. Also, he's about to win, we know it's a matter of time, about to win Michigan officially. So that would put Donald Trump over the top with over electoral votes. It was a blowout. It was a blowout. I just wonder what the Democrats were doing trying to convince their electoral representatives not to vote the way the people wanted.

DOOCY: There are six of them.

KILMEADE: Now there these states which have a recount.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, FOX NEWS: It's a crisis when the people running your democracy don't believe in democracy.

JEANINE PIRRO, HOST, FOX NEWS: We believe in free speech, we believe in accepting winners and not being sore losers.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST, FOX NEWS: They have no proof of voter fraud or any wrongdoing. What happened to the peaceful transition of power and supporting the incoming administration?

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LEMON: What do you even say after that? What do you even say after that? Money, money, money, money. So, it turns out for the all the bashing of Hillary Clinton you hear from that crowd, when it came to accepting the results of a tough election, she was the bigger person.

Security officials say Trump's refusal to participate in the transition is putting Americans in danger. Two former homeland security secretaries from both Bush and Obama administrations speak out right here, next.

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