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Sources: Trump Campaign Planning Messaging Blitz To Fuel Unsupported Election Questions; Most GOP Senators Silent As Top Republicans Won't Acknowledge Result; Biden Moves Ahead With Transition As Trump Fights Election Results; U.S. Hitting Highest Daily New Case Counts Since Pandemic Began; Biden to Name 12-Member Coronavirus Task Force Tomorrow; Biden To Trump Supporters: "Let's Give Each Other A Chance"; Harris Makes History As First Woman Elected VP. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired November 08, 2020 - 22:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: --with Pamela brown starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN BREAKING NEWS.

[22:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I'm Pamela Brown. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM, and we start tonight with Breaking News. Nearly 36 hours after the presidential race was called for President-Elect Joe Biden, the current occupant of the White House is railing against the results.

Sources close to the president tell me the key advisors are considering campaign style rallies amplifying baseless claims that the election was stolen from President Trump. Now, I want to go straight to Kaitlin Collins at the White House. Kaitlin, what more are you learning?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no surprise, Pam, that the President wants to take this show on the road. What he's been tweeting behind closed doors for the last several days ever since CNN and several other outlets called this race for Joe Biden, the President has continued to push these baseless accusations that this election is fraudulent, and it's been stolen from him without providing any evidence from his campaign or campaign officials about their claims of voter fraud and what's been happening in these critical states where the President has been lagging behind.

And so now, the president and his team are planning these rallies potentially to where the president can go on the road, talk about what he's been saying here. And of course, that is a message that could resonate with a lot of his supporters who believe what the president says.

But despite that, despite the push by the president and his allies, we have talked to state officials, we have talked to election administrators, county officials about these allegations from the president in his campaign. And of course, the thing is that they are alleging this fraud, they'd have to go to court, get affidavits for it, go to the FBI. There are steps that you would take if you actually, legitimately believe there is fraud.

And we should note, Pam, that the Trump campaign has set up this voter fraud hotline, where I'm told, earlier last week they had set up a conference room basically where they could field calls about these allegations of voter fraud. I'm told actually a lot of those calls have been prank calls that have been coming in.

But this is the path that the Trump campaign and the president are continuing to pursue, even as Joe Biden is moving full steam ahead with pursuing his transition to power, starting with formulating this potential Coronavirus Task Force in the transition period.

So the question that is really surrounding the president and his advisors, how much longer can he deny the reality publicly if he doesn't ever accept or concede the race? They still believe the president at some point will acknowledge the fact that he is not going to be remaining in the White House in about two months.

BROWN: Yes. And it's interesting that they're claiming voter fraud after the fact when the GOP did have poll observers, poll watchers in there while these mailing ballots are being processed in most of the states around the country, except for of course, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which started the day of the election. So they have the chance then to claim voter fraud to challenge ballots to get them tossed out. And it's very hard to do it after all right. Kaitlan Collins, thank you so much for that.

Let's talk more about this was CNN Senior Legal Analyst Laura Coates. Laura thanks for coming on. Let's talk about this a little bit deeper. The campaign's legal strategy plans talking about voter fraud after the fact, when they could have made these claims before and actually challenged ballots. Could they actually change the outcome of the election with what they're doing right now?

LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It's highly unlikely they could, because the margin of victory that we now see in the states that they're actually challenging the results in, the margin of victory compared to the number of ballots that are being challenged is less. And so you don't have this notion where it's going to be able to overturn.

I think the key phrase here you use here, Pam is after the fact. It is exceedingly, if not impossibly difficult, to be able to try to gather up evidence after the fact. You'd have to go and try to essentially put a jigsaw puzzle back together. And you really can't do that very well if you don't have the pieces to begin with, if you don't have the actual at in the moment evidence of fraud, of clerical error, of something else, of intimidation. If you don't have that you are beginning with the result and trying to work backwards for the steps to get there. That does not bode well in litigation.

BROWN: It's like putting toothpaste back in the tube, right?

COATES: Yes.

BROWN: Because when they process, for example the mail-in ballots, once they check the signature and everything, then the ballot with the vote is separated from the envelope. So you can't then put the two back together. It would be very difficult to challenge them.

Let's talk about the reaction we're hearing from Republicans. Senator Romney warns that it is destructive to the cause of democracy to suggest widespread fraud or corruption, and he has seen no evidence of that. But listen to these other prominent Republicans on the President's legal challenges.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R-PA): 70 million Americans voted for Donald Trump and they and the president deserve to have this process played out.

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R) MARYLAND: A couple of Republican governors are the ones responsible for a couple of the states that are still in question. They haven't questioned the results. We want to make sure every single vote is counted fairly. And I think there are legal processes if you think there are mistakes, but I don't think we're going to see anything that's going to overturn this election and I haven't seen any evidence of widespread - this is the way our system works, whether you like it or not. It's time to get behind the winner of the race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[22:05:00]

BROWN: So is there harm in letting this process play out? Or from a legal perspective does this look like purely an attempt to delay the inevitable as much as possible?

COATES: Well, first of all, the process will play out. As much as we have the popular vote, and we tallied up those, Electoral College has still yet to convene. A slate of workers is yet to be organized, and you have not had an actual total certification. So the process will play out.

They're actually trying to conflate two concepts about the idea of the college system playing out, and the idea that somehow, because people are claiming with bald assertions of fraud without an iota of evidence, if it has not played out, that should be enough to try to undermine the integrity, and that can't be done.

Remember here, we're talking about the presidency, which is the head of the executive branch of government whose job it is, Pam, to enforce the laws. Well, fraud - voter fraud has a legal definition. You got an entire division, a whole section in the Department of Justice that's devoted to just that. I was a part of it.

And the idea here that simply saying, I'm going to use the umbrella term fraud and hope to envelop everything underneath, without actually having substantiated evidence is really, really harmful to democracy, and makes people question the motivations here. And it seems to me, there's an old saying, Pam, if you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. The President is tying a knot, but it's slipping through because people are able to see, perhaps what this all about.

BROWN: We've clearly seen this play out in the courts just in these few days after the election and the Trump campaign Republicans have not made much headway. But I was talking to a source tonight close to the campaign who said, there's this idea being tossed around and running out the clock so that they could put forth a slate of electors or push states to put forth a state of electors that would support Trump in states where Biden won.

As you know laws vary on the subject from state to state. The Supreme Court said that it's OK for states to have laws that that require plates of electors to support the popular vote. But do you think that this is a realistic possibility?

COATES: Unfortunately, we've seen that anything seems to be possible as terms of trying to assert a position. But realistically, you're talking about what would happen if people tried to put up competing slates of electors and have the House and Senate decide the presidency? What a contravention of what we've been accustomed to in our modern democracy here.

The number - the date to watch here, Pam, is December 8th. That's what every state's going to be scrambling towards. Why? Because that's the Safe Harbor deadline. Essentially, if you're able to have the results known in your individual state, and essentially, the winning party is able to have their electors, who then present the votes for the Senate and the House to vote and count in January, excuse me.

And so everyone's going towards there. This idea of trying to run past the clock and maybe have the Supreme Court weigh in, they did in Bush v. Gore before that Safe Harbor deadline and remove the decision (ph) from the House, this is something that would really be quite a novelty in American history. And I think that it would be unwelcome to those who appreciate the idea of the power of the people deciding the president of United States, not litigation strategy.

BROWN: Right. So you have December 8th, which was the Safe Harbor deadline; December 14, when the electors are supposed to get together and count. And then there is a January 6th, I believe that Congress will then count the votes. So those are the important dates we should keep an eye on as all of this unfolds. Laura Coates, thanks so much.

COATES: Thanks, Pam.

BROWN: While the numbers tell a very different story than the one President Trump wants you to believe. Ballots are still being counted in several key swing states and Biden's lead is holding. CNN's Senior Political Analyst Mark Preston is here now. Mark, this is math - simple math. Where does the vote count stand now?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, to that point, it is slowly getting there. But we're getting there in several states. For instance, let's look at the State of Arizona, a state that the Trump campaign might actually have a shot of winning right now. There is just shy of a 17,000 vote difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in this state. Now this is a state that Democrats have not won since 1996. So where are these votes that we're looking at right now? Well, we're still waiting on 18,455 signature verified ballots that are left to be counted in Maricopa County, 10,900 provisional ballots that are left to verify, and 3,700 early ballots are left to verify in Maricopa County, that is in and around the Phoenix area I should say.

Now going down to a Pinal County 21,000 early ballots are left and that includes 1,800 provisional ballots. Now, while we see that lead has shrunk now for Joe Biden to about 17,000, the idea that there could be a recount will be a high watermark for them - the Trump campaign to get to, because specifically, Pam, the way to get a recount in Arizona, that you have to have a victory that is less than 200 votes are one 10th of 1 percent. So that is unlikely to happen.

[22:10:00]

In Georgia, let's take a look out there. This is a hotly contested race, as we know 16 electoral votes that are on the table right now. There is a Biden lead right now. But it's only by about 0.2 percentage points if you look at that right there. Let's look at specifically where those votes are out right now that are still waiting to be counted.

Gwinnett County, which is up in the northeast corner, just north of Atlanta, 965 provisional ballots need to be reviewed, 535 absentee ballots need to be reviewed. And when we talk about transparency, get this three military ballots to be reviewed. So talk about getting down into the real data points there.

Now, here's the deal. We haven't called this race either because of these tight margins that we are seeing, but we expect this very much so to go to a recount. We've seen the Trump campaign has name Doug Collins to lead the recount efforts of the Trump campaign in Georgia. The way it goes to a rebound is that once all these votes are certified, then you will have two days - the Trump campaign will have two days to ask for a recount if it's less than 0.5 percent. And it looks like it is going that way.

And let's just go to Pennsylvania because there's so much talk about Pennsylvania. This is the state that helped Joe Biden win the day. Look at their Joe Biden has a lead of about 0.7 percent. Again, he is the president-elect. But where are those outstanding ballots, because there's been so much talk about fraud and what have you?

Well, we have them right here. There is about 55,692 votes to count state wide. In Allegheny County, which is right around Pittsburgh in the western part of the states, it's a little more than 12,000 votes left and in Philadelphia County 11,000 plus - 11.1 left to be counted.

So we just have to point this out, while we talk about all these votes, we know that Joe Biden is the president-elect. We have to make sure that to relate that these are not just data points, these are people's votes and when we talked about the sanctity to vote, every buddy's vote should count. So that's why we're giving you these numbers. And specifically, if you look down in Georgia, there is a race that is

going to carry into January, when we see very likely we're going to have two senate run offs and control Senate on the line. Pam.

BROWN: All right, Mark Preston, thanks for breaking it all down for us, a lot of numbers there. We appreciate it. Well, despite President Trump's refusal to concede the election, President-Elect Joe Biden is moving forward with plans for his administration, launching a transition website today. CNN's Arlette Saenz is following the very latest. So Arlette, Biden has laid out four priorities for his administration. What is he going to focus on first?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam, in the very first days of President-Elect Joe Biden's team, he is going to hone in on the coronavirus pandemic. Tomorrow, he will be announcing the formation of a 12 person Coronavirus Task Force as he is looking to get to work right away, tackling this health crisis.

The coronavirus pandemic really shaped so much of Joe Biden's messaging in the closing months of this campaign, and it is now going to shape these early days of the transition period. Biden has talked about how he wants his response to be led by scientists and experts and that is something that you will see play out as he announces this team tomorrow.

And Biden's team has been working behind the scenes for many months preparing for this possible transition, putting together lists of possible cabinet members and also taking a look at policies. It's expected that Joe Biden will sign a series of executive actions in his first day in office trying to undo some of the actions that President Trump has taken.

This includes rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, and also rejoining the World Health Organization. These are things that Joe Biden has talked about out on the campaign trail, that he is hoping to make good on once he is in office.

And as this transition period plays out, there is still a technical point that needs to be addressed. It's something called ascertainment. The General Services Administration - the administrator needs to determine that Joe Biden has won the election and become president- elect and then she will sign a letter that releases funds that the transition team can use to move their team and their transition process forward. So that is something to watch for in the coming days.

Now, the president-elect spent today here at home in Wilmington, Delaware. He attended mass with a few members of his family. And while he was at that Catholic church he also visited the grave site of his late son Beau Biden. You can see in those images Beau Biden's son Hunter Biden is there as the former vice president is holding him as they visited Beau's grave site, a touching moment. This entire weekend has really been for the Biden family.

[22:15:00]

And he's also received some congratulatory phone calls, including from former President George W. Bush. He released a statement this morning saying that he spoke to both Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, acknowledging that they have political differences, but that Joe Biden has earned the right to lead the country and to unite it.

But there is one person that Joe Biden still has not heard from and that is the current president of the United States. President Donald Trump and Biden's Senior Adviser Symone Sanders talked about that a little bit earlier today on CNN, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SYMONE SANDERS, BIDEN CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: I don't believe anyone from the White House has. I think the White House has made clear what their strategy is here and that they are going to continue to participate and push forward these flailing and in many respects baseless legal strategies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: And so Joe Biden is putting all of that aside and he is focused on getting to work on the coronavirus pandemic, even if the president is still trying to raise questions about this election. Pam.

BROWN: Right. He can still plug ahead even if he hasn't heard from the White House. Arlette Saenz, thank you so much.

And so as we were just talking, the president refuses to concede, but the Biden transition team is moving ahead. And Valerie Jarrett was there as the Vice President-elect Joe Biden and President-Elect Obama started their transition. So what are some of the lessons that can help Biden this time around as president-elect? We're going to discuss that with her up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:20:00]

BROWN: Nearly 36 hours and counting have passed since the presidential race was called, yet most Republican senators have yet to say anything publicly about the result. In fact, several top GOP senators refused to acknowledge Biden as president-elect. The Utah Senator Mitt Romney who ran for president in 2012 and lost, is one of only two senators who have congratulated Biden so far and he has this warning about the baseless claims being spread.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): I understand why the President wants to keep on fighting, I do believe, however, that it's destructive to the cause of democracy to suggest widespread fraud or corruption. There's just no evidence of that at this stage. And I think it's important for us to recognize that the world is watching.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The world is watching. Joining me now is Valerie Jarrett, who worked in the Obama-Biden administration, as a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama. And she's also the author of "Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing, and the Path Forward." Valerie, thanks so much for joining us this evening.

VALERIE JARRETT, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good evening, Pamela. How are you doing?

BROWN: I'm doing OK. Let's get right to it and how this is going to play out moving forward. How do you think the vice president-elect and his team should navigate beginning work on the transition, when the president is still vowing to contest the results?

JARRETT: Well, I think the president-elect is going to do what the American people have elected him to do, and that is to focus on them, which is why tomorrow he will be announcing his science advisors that are going to help him with a strategy to get their arms around this COVID-19 pandemic that is spiking again around our country.

He's moving forward with his transition team, looking at both staff in the White House as well as cabinet members, focusing on the executive orders that he wants to sign right off the bat. During the campaign, you heard him speak about how important climate change is and so rejoining the Paris Climate Accord will be important. The Dreamers, who have been living in limbo now for nearly four years, give them some certainty. Make clear to the world that the United States is open to people of all faiths.

He has a lot of work to do. The racial healing now has to happen in our country. And his focus will be just what it has always been, and that's public service, which isn't about himself, it's about us, the American people. And he and vice president-elect Harris are going to be about the people's business.

BROWN: So let's talk about that the biggest item on his agenda is of course, this pandemic that is worsening by the day, it seems. How challenging is it to transition power amid a crisis like this, especially where the outgoing and incoming administrations have such vastly different strategies for responding to it?

JARRETT: Well, I'll say this you, Pam, having been a co-chair of President Obama's transition, we just agreed with President Bush about just about every policy issue you could think of. But President Bush made it clear to his team that they should be supportive with a smooth and orderly transition of power. That's one of the hallmarks of a democracy. And having been inside I saw just how incredibly helpful they were to make sure that we were brought up to steam.

I don't expect that President Trump was going to afford President- Elect Biden that same courtesy, and that's hurtful to the, to the democracy and to the good of the efforts to make sure that there is a smooth transition.

But the good news is this. A President-Elect Biden has been - he served for eight years as Vice President. He's been through inheriting a crisis when he walked in the door with President Obama, we were in the middle of an economic crisis. He has been following the science and has had advisors all along who've been informing him of how we could get our arms around this pandemic.

In fact, Pamela, having been through the Ebola crisis, and H1N1, and Zika, we left the Trump administration a playbook on how they could have gotten their arms around this. They tossed that playbook into the garbage. Well, you know what, we still have that playbook. So I am confident that he will be able to hit the ground running, but not with the benefit of support from President Trump. And that is damaging to the smooth and orderly transition of power.

And I would hope that President Trump sooner rather than later - look, nobody likes to lose, and you had the comment earlier from Governor Romney. He had to make a very difficult phone call to President Obama. He did it for the good of the country. And at some point, we'd like to hope that President Trump would do the same. But I assure you that President-Elect Biden is not sitting around waiting for that phone call, he's focusing on how to move our country forward.

[22:25:00]

BROWN: And he's making clear he's moving forward. But I just want to drill down on the practical impact that this could have dealing with this crisis and not have any - not being able to work closely with the admin - the current administration. What kind of practical impact would that have on American people? You said, it's not good for democracy? What do you mean by that?

JARRETT: Well, you'd like to be able to have the sharing of information. But you know what, there are career folks, and there is a mechanism in place to get briefings. He'll get security briefings. The wheels of the institutions will begin to move. But it would be much more helpful if the President and the top was signaling that he expected that full cooperation.

But I do know that President-Elect Biden and his team know plenty of people who are still working in the government, incredibly devoted public service, and they will certainly get help from them. But that's not the way it's supposed to work. You shouldn't have to depend on those relationships for this smooth and orderly transition. But it is what it is. And I'm confident that when President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris are sworn in, they will be ready to hit the ground running.

BROWN: It is what it is, that's been used a fair amount this year. Valerie Jarrett, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

JARRETT: You're welcome, Pamela.

BROWN: So how can the Biden Task Force and get the pandemic under control? I'm going to speak with an emergency room doctor who says coronavirus will have already, "run rampant through the U.S. by the time he takes office."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:30:00] BROWN: There's been so much focus on the election lately. But let's not forget, the United States is inching dangerously close to passing 10 million coronavirus cases. Just yesterday, the nation reported the most new cases in a single day since this pandemic began, over 126,000 new infections. That is marking the third consecutive day that cases topped 120,000. And today, another 100,000 new cases reported.

This is not just cases I'm talking about, also deaths and hospitalizations are ticking up as the nation faces a worsening crisis. Almost a dozen states broke their own records for the highest number of new cases in a single day, while the whole country appears to be trending in the wrong direction.

Look at this right here a sea of red on our map, indicating the fall surge is spreading rapidly across the country as cases climb. Joining me now to discuss is Dr. Megan Ranney, CNN Medical Analyst and Emergency Physician at Brown University. Nice to see you, Dr. Ranney.

Just so sobering to look at those numbers today and see where we are in this pandemic so many months after it started. I want to start with the task force. As I mentioned earlier, President-Elect Joe Biden is naming members of the transition team tomorrow, making it clear this is a top priority. We know a few members already named on the team. But who do you want to see leading this transition team on such an important topic?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: From what's come out from the campaign and the transition plan so far, I have every confidence that the folks that are going to be named to the transition team are people who have a history of leading good public health, people with a history of being great scientists and people with a history of creating collaborative change across this country.

Dr. Murphy, who's already been named, Dr. Kessler, Dr. Nunez are all incredible physicians and public health experts. And I am so excited to see a task force in place who is going to both take science seriously and be empowered to put the changes in place that we need to stop or slow transmission of the virus across the country.

BROWN: Another aspect to all of this is of course, turning around the months of uncertainty and misinformation that President Trump has spread about the virus, frankly. The country is almost 10 million cases, what is at stake right now if the nation doesn't take this seriously as a whole?

RANNEY: So let's be clear that in ERs and hospitals across the country, we are already feeling this surge. Day by day and week by week, we are seeing more and more really sick patients come through our doors with COVID-19, who require hospitalization, Intensive Care Unit stays and who are dying on our watch.

Unfortunately, we have 74 days until the president elects team takes over and those 74 days are going to be critical for us as a nation in slowing the spread of this virus. We need to wear masks, we need to maintain distance. And we need to minimize the number of people that we're with indoors, outside of our own family, in the next two months, if we want to have hope of making it to that transition without losing hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of Americans in the interim period.

BROWN: So you're mentioning how important it is to be careful. As you saw, there were a lot of people gathering yesterday. You saw people gathering outside of the White House when you see that as a doctor - here are some pictures from that. You - I mean, there really isn't much social distancing based on these pictures. They are wearing - some of them, as you see in the pictures wearing masks. When you see that as a doctor, what is your message?

RANNEY: So the first thing is being outdoors is absolutely safer than being indoors. And many outdoor activities, even activities with lots of people can be safe if we're all masked, and if we're maintaining distance. But those pictures that you showed, people are not maintaining distance. They were popping open bottles of champagne.

[22:35:00]

I know that there are a lot of folks across the country who are celebrating, but I urge them to do so safely. To maintain that distance, to wear those masks, to not be spending time unmasked with folks that are not part of their household, or else we risk turning our celebrations into super spreader events of our own, which is the last thing that people want to do.

BROWN: All right, everyone, just the bottom line is stay vigilant. We're all tired of this. We all have COVID fatigue, but it's not over yet. We just need to be in it together. Stay vigilant. Dr. Megan Ranney, thank you so much.

RANNEY: Thank you.

BROWN: So are cracks starting to emerge in the Democratic Party, while the blame game is being played over their shrinking majority as a result of last week's election losses. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, in his first speech, as America's President-Elect Joe Biden's message was one of unity.

[22:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENT-ELECT: It's time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again, and make to progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Meanwhile, President Trump is pushing the opposite message, still refusing to accept the election results. He said I won this election by a lot. That was in a Saturday tweet. But now CNN is learning that some key advisors in the President's inner circle are pushing him to hold rallies or pushing campaign rallies to push this baseless conspiracy theory.

Joining me now to discuss this Astead Herndon with the New York Times, and presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. All right, Astead, let's start with you. There's this PR aspect, and the legal aspect, right. And my understanding from talking to sources is the Trump campaign is trying to sort of merge the two, filing lawsuits, in many cases, what we have seen that haven't gone very far, and then holding these rallies to amplify the message to affect public perception. What do you think about that?

ASTEAD HERNDON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I mean, that is - I mean, I think we should speak about it, frankly, it is an unprecedented kind of assault on our democratic norms. It is it is an unlikely one to be successful. It is one that belies the math of the presidential election. It is one that defies the kind of basic core of our democratic principles. And it is one that the President still has no - he has no kind of reverence of for that.

And we have not seen Republicans kind of in mass say that this is something that they find unacceptable. At most we've seen politically folks acknowledge the existence of President-Elect Biden's victory. But they have not gone that next step to denounce the actions that we've seen from the president.

We know that that is kind of in his personal nature to not want to accept those results, to not kind of admit defeat. But this is a kind of larger question that I think is at stake here is about our democratic principles. It is about our norms as a country, and it's about the proud traditions that we have a carrying on that transfer of power. It is too early to say that that is eroding, but we did not see a president yet that has reverence for that history of in this country.

BROWN: For months, I was talking to sources close to the president and the campaign, and they were saying yes, we're going to hold rallies if he loses, we're going to plan post-election events, and we're going to try to put out the fraud message, and we're seeing it play out right now in real time. This is what they've been planning to do if President Trump didn't win the election.

But, Doug, what is the practical impact for democracy? If you do have millions of people - look, 70 plus million people voted for President Trump. And if people actually believe this message that it was rigged against the president, and that the votes for fraudulent, what does that do practically if all these people don't think that Biden was duly elected?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, you know, back in 1860, Abraham Lincoln wasn't on the ballot in seven states, and once he became president, those states just rejected him and it triggered a civil war.

Donald Trump would like civil unrest. He's goading us. We've been calling what we're living in a Neo Civil War, the battle of the blue states and the red states. This is about being a tyrant. This is Donald Trump refusing to accept a free and fair election. This election wasn't close. Joe Biden won by 5 million votes. This was not a close Electoral College. Want to see close, look at John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon back in 1960.

This is a very decisive victory for Joe Biden, swept through, Minnesota and Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania, probably Georgia, Arizona, Nevada. It's a huge victory for Biden. So what Trump's going to do is hold COVID rallies. He's going to - he has spent an entire year running for reelection and has stopped being this wartime COVID president.

Remember, in the spring, I'm at war, I'm a wartime, but one more time? He's acting like the coronavirus isn't here and isn't surging. He's basically just trying to self - aggrandized himself and whine about losing. And he can be very disruptive in the coming weeks, and we'll have to see how an unspools.

BROWN: Well, Astead the election results also put a lot more scrutiny on Democrats, frankly. The Senate may pull up President Biden to the right is what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told you in this interview that was in "The New York Times." She says progressives in the house, want to pull him to the left here. She is speaking of Jake Tapper this Morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): There are at least in the House caucus very deep divisions within the party, and I believe that we need to really come together and not allow Republican narratives to tear us apart. As you mentioned, we have a slimmer Democratic majority, it's going to be more important than ever for us to work together and not fight each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[22:45:00]

BROWN: So what do you think who has more leverage here?

HERNDON: I think everyone's playing their cards. One of the interesting things about Tuesday is that you could see little pockets of everyone's kind of message and they can kind of point to a piece of evidence that proves it. But there's also something that disproves it.

So, yes, you had moderates losing in kind of tough districts, places where there might have been a real backlash to progressive policies. You have progressives who have won primaries, and especially in those deep blue states, who look at public polling and say that the country is increasingly with us, even if Joe Biden was elected.

And you have Joe Biden, someone who has not really defined himself kind of strictly by ideological moderateness, but by consensus building, by trying to bring folks together. That gives everyone a kind of shot to believe that they can pull this administration this way or that way. Even the Vice President, Senator Kamala Harris is not someone who in a presidential run was chiefly defined in either to the progressive or moderate wings. That's kind of giving everyone hope that the next year could be a Biden administration that works for them. But they are facing the reality of a Republican Senate at the moment, because they did not get those wins that they were expecting in some of those Senate races.

That could mean gridlock. That could mean compromise. That could mean one side has increasing leverage. We just know at this point it means that the Democratic tensions that we saw in the primaries are increasing spilling out into the open.

BROWN: Absolutely. And my sense is from reading your interview you did, there's a fair amount of reflection going on in the Democratic Party as well. Astead Herndon, Douglas Brinkley, thank you, gentlemen for coming on. Great to hear from you.

HERNDON: Thank you and

BROWN: And when we come back how women across the nation are celebrating Kamala Harris making history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D) VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.

(Applause)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:50:00]

BROWN: Well, Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris is making history this weekend on so many levels. Harris is becoming the first female, the first Black woman and first woman of South Asian descent to be elected to the office of vice president.

CNN's Kyung Lah takes a closer look at Harris and the historical significance of her ascent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wearing the color of the women's right to vote movement a century ago, Vice President- Elect Kamala Harris showed the world what the future now holds.

HARRIS: Every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibility.

(APPLAUSE)

LAH (voice-over): The audience mirroring her message. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now we know that we have hope to do that.

LAH (voice-over): From those who saw her in person--

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a refugee myself that I came here 11 years ago, I'm really excited to see her in the office.

LAH (voice-over): To those who spilled into city streets.

JAMIE GRAY, CELEBRATING BIDEN WIN: Today was a monumental day. I didn't wake up this morning, expecting for this to be one of the best days of my life. It really is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today women made history!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To posts across social media. Women and Girls, especially those of color, celebrating themselves, finally reflected in one of the most powerful positions in the country.

Paving the path has been a passion for Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, a mission instilled in her by her late mother, as she told me during her own presidential run.

HARRIS: When I see those little girls in particular, I see myself, right. And I see the children of my family and I see the children of our country. And I see the promise of our country. My mother had many sayings and one of them is, you may be the first to do many things, make sure you're not the last.

LAH (voice-over): A dream now realized.

HARRIS: While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.

LAH (voice-over): And it's not just with future generations that Harris hopes to have an impact, it's with women right now, as we saw during her presidential run. And also her time as a senator, she hires a diverse staff leaning on women of color, and not just in numbers of staff, but in placing those women in decision making roles. Kyung Lah, CNN, Scottsdale, Arizona.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Kyung Lah, thanks so much for that. Well, after hosting more than 8,000 episodes of Jeopardy! Alex Trebek often felt like part of a family. Well, today he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer and up next, a tribute from one of the best players of the game.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:55:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alex Trebek.

(APPLAUSE)

ALEX TREBEK, JEOPARDY! HOST: Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of all of us welcome to America's favorite answer and question game Jeopardy! You know how we play it? We provide the categories and the answers--

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: We all are so familiar with that voice. The world lost a game show a legend. Alex Trebek died this morning at the age of 80 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was a staple in millions of households. Hosting Jeopardy! for more than three decades, he felt like he was a member of the family.

And Ken Jennings who won 74 consecutive games tweeted, "Alex wasn't just the best ever at what he did. He was also a lovely and deeply decent man and I'm grateful for every minute I got to spend with him."

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN BREAKING NEWS.