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New Votes Come in for Gwinnett County, Georgia; Trump may Face Lawsuits and Investigations Once He Leaves Office; Biden Lays Out His COVID-19 Plan after Announcing His Advisory Board. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired November 09, 2020 - 11:30   ET

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

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[11:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN INSIDE POLITICS: It is President-elect Joe Biden, that's what this map tells us. And we continue to get some results from the states. One of the states where it is close is Georgia. They're still counting mail-in ballots. You see former vice president, now President-elect Biden's lead 21,621 votes.

Just moments ago -- let me come into the Atlanta suburbs first. Just moments ago, let me move around here, here we go, Gwinnett County, just moments ago, some new votes. Let us show you what they are. It's exciting. Election Day continues. We continue to count votes. Just in from Gwinnett County, 407 votes for now President-elect Joe Biden, 274 votes for President Trump. Green party candidate got a few votes there but Joe Biden getting 58.2 percent, 58.2 percent.

So this is the challenge for Joe Biden, right? You already have a lead. You want to essentially matching what you're getting in Gwinnett County. They are looking for evidence, is there any chance President Trump can catch up with these late county votes? We've projected this race because the answer is no and there's more proof of right there. We'll continue to do this, count votes, as we go through the election.

Georgia, just one of the states, over the weekend, the president- elect's lead in Pennsylvania grew, in Nevada grew. It did shrink a little bit in Arizona. We're still counting these votes. When we get new votes, we'll bring them to you all the time.

But there is no doubt Joe Biden is the president-elect. And there's already a post-election family feud brewing among Democrats. Yes, Biden won the White House, but hopes for a blue wave, House races, Senate races, just simply not realized. Some moderates Democrats say progressives advocating things like Medicare for all and defunding police hurt the party's brand. The leading progressives say, no, and they're pushing back.

This is Congresswoman Ilhan Omar yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ILAHN OMAR (D-MN): We have seen things like increasing the minimum wage when as a ballot measure in Florida while some Democrats lost. We've seen policies like legalizing marijuana win in Montana and other places. Our policies are resonating with the American people. And if our big tent Democratic Party wants to govern on behalf of all Americans, we should have a seat at the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Jamaal Bowman is a congressman-elect from New York City. He defeated the incumbent, Eliot Engel, in a July primary and is now the projected winner from the general election on Tuesday.

Congressman-elect, congratulations. First, let's start there.

JAMAAL BOWMAN (D), NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN-ELECT: Thank you, thank you so much, John. Great to be with you.

KING: You're going to this city where I work, Washington, and you're going to instantly be put in the middle of a family, right? It's like a big Thanksgiving dinner and everybody gets together and you're a family and, occasionally, as the turkey gets (INAUDIBLE), people get fights.

I want you to listen here. One of your new colleagues will be Abigail Spanberger. She's a moderate and a centrist from a district that President Trump had carried before. She won re-election but a couple of her centrist friends lost and she's not happy and she blames progressives. Listen.

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REP. ABIGAIL SPANBERGER (D-VA): Not only did we not win the Senate but we lost House seats that we shouldn't have lost, in my opinion, great members who were focused on the issues that matter to people and had voted on issues that matter to people.

And what I expressed to my colleagues is this is a place where we need to do an after-action report about how we thought what would happen was so different from, in fact, what did happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: She says one of the problems is Democrats who push for defunding police, one of the problems is Democrats who identify as Democratic socialists. Do you agree?

BOWMAN: I disagree. You have to run your race in your district in response to the needs of the people in your district. And if you're responding to their needs, and if you're building relationships and making connections and doing everything you have to do, then you should be able to win your race.

[11:35:04]

This is about deep, authentic relationships, this is about transformational politics, and I disagree that someone running on a different platform hundreds of miles away is going to impact what happens in a particular race. So, I disagree.

I agree with the need to do a thorough analysis into why certain candidates won in particular districts and why others did not win. I think that's very important for us to become a data-driven Democratic Party. But I disagree with the notion that it's the fault of progressives, especially when you look at how much progressives organized across the country to help Joe Biden win and how we're going to continue to organize to make sure we win the two Democratic Senate seats in Georgia.

KING: And so those two Democratic seats -- the two seats in Georgia will decide which party controls the Senate. So we're a little TBD on that one. But in any event, it will be narrowly divided.

You've lost a little bit on the House majority. You will be a new member, and, again, congratulations. But Nancy Pelosi, if she's reelected as speaker, which we assume, will have a smaller majority.

So when Joe Biden meets with you all in January and says, look, thank you, number one, we share goals but we have to trim our sails a little bit. We can't sell Medicare for all. He wasn't for it anyway. We're going to try to do a modest build on Obamacare. We can't do as much as you would to do, as fast as you would like to do on climate change, we have to trim our sails there.

Are you going to say, I get the math or are you going to say, no, Mr. President you won, push it, be bolder?

BOWMAN: Well, we've already been pushing throughout the Biden campaign. I mean, it was a Biden/Sanders coalition that made it a central focus of the Biden campaign. There was a Biden/Sanders coalition that made racial equity a focus and President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are focused on universal child care and early child care education.

So we have already begun to work in collaboration with the White House to make sure our progressive policies are on the agenda and we will continue to work in collaboration with the White House and our colleagues in Congress. We have to. That is our mandate from the America people.

The American people support Medicare for all in overwhelming numbers. The American people support a reallocation of resources from how we look at public safety now, which is additional police, to how we should look at public safety which is food security, housing security, job programs and fully funding education.

So we're going to continue to have these conversations around the Thanksgiving table, as you mentioned, because we have to be responsive to the American people and the American people who came out for Joe Biden and pushed him over the top in Detroit, in Philadelphia, in Milwaukee and Atlanta. These are majority urban centers of color, they came out and helped Joe Biden win this election. So we have to be responsive to their needs.

KING: Congressman-elect Bowman, I really appreciate your time today. Grateful for your time. I look forward to meeting you when you come here in Washington.

BOWMAN: Right. Thank you, sir. Great to be here.

KING: Take care, sir. Best of luck. Best of luck to you.

And still ahead for us, stocks surging after the coronavirus vaccine news and the markets apparently liked the election results.

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[11:40:00]

KING: Financial markets are soaring right now. You see the big board right there, the Dow up more than 1,000 points. The huge gains following that announcement by Pfizer this morning that its coronavirus vaccine candidate is 90 percent effective. Investors also reacting and reacting positively to news that Joe Biden is now president-elect of the United States.

Our Business Correspondent, Alison Kosick, tracking the markets from the stock exchange for us. Those are big numbers, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: They are big numbers, John. And just when you thought that it couldn't be much to overshadow who won the presidential race, well, then came the news from Pfizer about a viable COVID vaccine. That, as you can see, is sending stocks rocketing higher.

I can't stress enough how critical it is a vaccine is to getting the economy back on track. That is what Wall Street is seeing. It is seeing this vaccine as a game changer. And now, there's even talk about a post-COVID world where there's a prediction that we could see a snap back in the economy in 2021.

Now, we did see stocks jumping before we got the news from Pfizer on Joe Biden's presidential victory. The investors that I'm talking to, they are okay with a Biden victory here because there wasn't a blue wave in Congress. We are looking at a GOP-controlled Senate, apparently, and a Democratic-controlled House.

And the way Wall Street sees it is gridlock is good. A divided government is good. It puts the checks and balances into play and it's less likely we'll see tax hikes and more regulation in health care and energy. And, of course, there's a caveat with the Senate, as you know, that that runoff race on January 5th in Georgia for those two Senate seats.

KING: Always makes me shake my heads when you hear investors think gridlock is good. Okay, we'll watch that one play out. Alison Kosik, grateful for the update on this important day.

Again, you see the Dow now up 1,100. We'll keep an eye on that throughout the day.

And up next for us, leaving the White House, well, it puts the president in serious legal jeopardy. [11:45:02]

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KING: Some important breaking news into CNN. The secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, tested positive for coronavirus this morning. Carson attended that election night party at the White House where the chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and most other attendees were not wearing masks. Meadows and four others in Trump's orbit have since tested positive.

Carson was also at a Trump campaign rally in Michigan on October 30th. He was seen there without a mask as well.

Tweets from the president and his sons challenging election results remind us this transition of power is a legal drama as well as political tug-of-war.

[11:50:00]

President Trump has used the presidency to stall several investigations and lawsuits related to his business dealings and to his personal conduct. Those protections would lapse the moment Joe Biden takes oath of office. Some of the cases include defamation lawsuits and investigations into the Trump organization.

CNN's Kara Scannell joins me now. Kara, once the president leaves 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it is a lot harder to keep pushing and pushing to delay and to stall.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: That's right, John. I mean, the president has been able to use his position to delay multiple investigations and lawsuits and that will go away come the end of January when Joe Biden is sworn into office.

The most serious of them is the criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. They have said that it is a broad investigation and suggested it could involve anything from tax fraud to insurance fraud. That case has been delayed because of a fight over a subpoena for the president's tax returns. We are expecting a decision on that any day now by the Supreme Court.

But that's not the only one. The New York Attorney General's Office is also investigating a civil investigation into the Trump organization, looking into whether they improperly inflated value of certain assets. There are four specific properties that they are digging into.

The attorney generals for Washington, D.C. and Maryland have already sued the president over the emoluments issue. They're alleging that he improperly profited from the presidency through his hotel in Washington, D.C. and golf courses. That lawsuit has been essentially on hold.

30 subpoenas have been held up because the president is in office. So, come January, those subpoenas will be able to be sent. And there's this civil audit by the IRS. The New York Times reported that the IRS is looking into nearly $73 million tax refund that the president has taken. Now, that's a civil audit. At this point, if the IRS were to find against the president, that could result in fines reaching more than $100 million. But there's always the possibility that it could be referred to Department of Justice if the IRS believes that there was some kind of criminal wrongdoing.

But there are a number of other lawsuits that are ongoing that relate to the president's personal conduct. He has two defamation lawsuits, one brought by E. Jean Carroll, the magazine columnist who alleged the president raped her in a New York department store dressing room in the mid1990s. Trump tried to get the DOJ involved in that but a judge in New York rejected that. That lawsuit will continue, and E. Jean Carroll is seeking the president's DNA.

There's also a defamation suit by Summer Zervos. She was the -- she was on The Apprentice. She was one of the contestants. She has alleged that the president sexually assaulted her. She has a defamation case that's ongoing.

And there's also a lawsuit by the president's niece, Mary Trump. She sued the president alleging that he engaged in fraud relating to the family assets.

So, John, a lot of issues coming to a head for the president once he leaves office.

KING: That adds a little oomph to the transition. We'll see how they all play out. And president, of course, this is all a witch hunt and he deserves his day in court. But it looks like he's going to get several days in court.

Kara Scannell, I'm really grateful for the update and the reporting there.

Up next, global leaders reacting to Joe Biden's victory, but some, including Russia, keeping quiet.

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KING: Let's take you to the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: I am humbled by the trust and confidence the American people placed in me and Vice President-elect Harris. And we are ready to get to work addressing the needs of the American people.

Today, that work begins. It starts with doing everything possible to get the COVID-19 under control so that we can reopen businesses safely and sustainably, resume our lives, put this pandemic behind us.

And we just received positive news in this fight with the announcement that there's been progress made toward a successful vaccine. Soon, the expectation is the FDA will run the process of rigorous reviews and approvals. And the process must also be grounded in science and fully transparent so the American people can have every confidence that any approved vaccine is safe and effective.

At the same time, it is clear that this vaccine, even if approved, will not be widely available for many months yet to come. The challenge before us right now is still immense and growing. And although we are not in office yet, I'm just laying out what we expect to do and hope can be done, some of it, between now and the time we are sworn in. But -- so the purpose of this is to let you know what we're going to do once sworn in.

And so there's a need for bold action to fight this pandemic. We're still facing a very dark winter. There are now nearly 10 million COVID cases in the United States. Last week, we topped 120,000 new cases on multiple successive days.

[11:55:02]

Infection rates are going up, hospitalizations are going up and deaths are going up.

This crisis claimed nearly a thousand American lives a day, nearly 240,000 deaths so far. The projections still indicate we could lose 200,000 more lives in the coming months, before a vaccine can be made widely available.

So we can't forego important work that needs to be done between now and then to get our country through the worst wave yet in this pandemic, to reduce the spread, to save lives. So that's why today I have named a COVID-19 transition advisory board comprised of distinguished public health experts to help the transition team translate the Biden/Harris COVID-19 plan into action, a blueprint that we can put in place as soon as Kamala and I are sworn into office on January 20th, 2021.

And we will seek to add other members to this board during the important -- with very additional important perspectives on public health and expertise throughout the transition. This group will advise on detailed plans built on a bedrock of science and then keep compassion, empathy and care for every American at its core, making rapid testing widely available, more widely, much more widely available, and building a core of contact tracers who will track and curb this disease while we prioritize getting vaccines first to the most at risk populations.

Developing clear and detailed guidance and providing necessary resources for small businesses, schools, child care centers to reopen and operate safely and effectively during the pandemic, protecting both workers and the public, scaling up productive life-saving treatments and therapeutics. And when it is ready, making sure an approved vaccine is distributed equitably and efficiently and free for every American.

With cases rising once more, it is imperative that we ramp up production of personal protective equipment, to make sure our brave health care workers have what they need to do battle safely against this virus. We're going to get states, cities and tribes the tests and the supplies they need. We're going to protect vulnerable populations who are at risk, most at risk from this virus, older Americans and those with pre-existing conditions. We're going to address health and economic disparities that mean this virus is hitting the black, Latino, Asian American, Pacific Islanders, Native American communities harder than white communities. Focusing on these communities is one of the priorities, not an afterthought.

The bottom line, I will spare no effort to turn this pandemic around once we are sworn in in January 20th, to get our kids back to school safely, our businesses growing and our economy running full speed again, and to get an approved vaccine manufactured and distributed as quickly as possible to as many Americans as possible, free of charge.

We will follow the science. We'll follow the science. Let me say that again. And we'll adjust to new data when it comes in. And we'll listen and work in cooperation with governors and local leaders of both parties who are fighting the virus in their communities this very day. There's so much good work happening at state and local levels across the country, governors, mayors, they're stepping up. The advisory board will listen and learn lessons from their experience.

And because we know we won't fully defeat COVID-19 until we defeat it everywhere, the advisory council also includes those on global health security so that we can restore the U.S. global leadership to fight this pandemic.

This is a crisis that affects everyone. As I said throughout this campaign, I will be a president for every American. This election is over. It is time to put aside the partisanship and the rhetoric that designed to demonize one another. It's time to end the politicization of basic responsible public health steps like mask-wearing and social distancing. We have to come together to heal the soul of this country so that we can effectively address this crisis as one country. We are hard working Americans, have each other's backs and united in our shared goal, defeating this virus.

As you work towards a safe and effective vaccine, we know the single most effective thing we can do to stop the spread of COVID is wear a mask.

[12:00:00]

The head of the CDC warned this fall, for the foreseeable future, a mask remains the most potent weapon against the virus.