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Biden Prepares for Presidency; Trump Refuses to Conceded, Supporters Remain Defiant; World Leaders Express Eagerness to Work with Biden; Russian State TV Amplifies Trump's Unfounded Fraud Claims; Sources: Biden to Announce COVID-19 Task Force on Monday; Biden Pushing for 'Principled Diplomacy' with North Korea. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired November 09, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Getting down to business. U.S. President-elect Joe Biden it clear coronavirus is at the top of his to-do list.
[00:00:21]
Messaging blitz. Donald Trump has no plans to concede, instead, doubling down.
And all of this being watched closely around the world. This hour, we're live from Moscow to Seoul.
Hello, everyone. This is CNN NEWSROOM. Welcome. I'm Michael Holmes.
U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden, getting ready to launches his plans for the country as President Trump faces growing pressure to come to grips with his defeat.
Biden is working on executive actions that would undo many of President Trump's controversial decisions. But his first focus will be on the pandemic. He will be briefed by his new coronavirus task force on Monday.
New records were set over the weekend, with the most daily cases ever reported on Saturday. Sunday became the fifth straight day with more than 100,000 new infections.
Meanwhile, there's no sign the current president is willing to admit defeat and start packing. We're hearing the Trump campaign is actually planning a messaging blitz over baseless claims that the election is being stolen from him.
White House correspondent Boris Sanchez is live from Washington with the latest from the Trump campaign. But first, let's go to Jason Carroll in Joe Biden's town of Wilmington, Delaware.
Let's talk about those immediate priorities, Jason. COVID, clearly, but also, reports of plans for a raft of executive orders.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. This is true. Look, leading health perks [SIC] -- leading health experts have been saying, for quite some time now, that the pandemic is at such a point here in the United States, Michael, that the Biden team is really going to have to hit the ground running, if they're going to have any hope of getting this pandemic under control.
And the Biden team as well aware of that. They knew, going in, that they were going to have to hit the ground running. That is why they've been working on this behind the scenes for some time.
Tomorrow, Joe Biden will be announcing and giving details about this 12-person coronavirus task force that he's put together. He's also going to be giving statements tomorrow and remarks about his plan to beat the coronavirus task force.
So these are some of the very early things that he is going to have to do immediately in order to get this pandemic under control.
You mentioned very quickly, though, about some of these executive orders. Eventually, the president-elect has -- is going to be getting to touring -- to trying to get the U.S. back on the international stage. So perhaps through a series of executive orders, he'll get the United States back into the Paris Accord, rejoin the World Health Organization.
But first things first. He's got to get this pandemic under control. That is why tomorrow we're going to be hearing more about this coronavirus task force that he's put together.
HOLMES: Yes. He is going to be busy undoing a lot of those environmental regulations and other things, as well. The president, of course, while he hasn't conceded, are there concerns about White House cooperation in the transition in the weeks ahead? You know, and these claims that the president is making that he was robbed. How's the campaign dealing with those things?
CARROLL: Well, the -- well, the Biden team has basically compared -- prepared for the good, bad, and the ugly in all of this. They've got a legal team that they've assembled. They've been working behind the scenes, their transition team, since Labor Day, for all different sort of possible scenarios.
I don't want to get too much in the weeds on this, but you know, one part of all of this, one step in the whole presence, is called ascertainment. For example, it's the -- it's the process where you've got this administrator of a government agency who basically officially signs off that this is the president-elect, this is the vice president-elect. She signs this paperwork which allows them to get access to paperwork and millions of dollars in government funds to help with the transition.
That paperwork hasn't been signed off yet. That person who's responsible for doing it is a Trump appointee. So waiting for that paperwork to be signed off, it's just a small sort of part of this process, an important part of the process. But once again, this is a team that has prepared for the good, the bad, and the ugly.
HOLMES: Yes. Certainly, not a good signal, that's for sure. Jason Carroll in Wilmington, Delaware, appreciate it. Good to see you.
Let's go now to the White House, where we find out our Boris Sanchez.
Let's talk about, you know, this lack of a concession from the president and what pressure is being put on him to do so.
[00:05:07]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, the reporting so far indicates that the president has been discussing the subject of a potential concession with people very close to him, including first lady Melania Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. It does not appear as though he's ready to do that, though.
And even though he's broached the subject with his son-in-law, it appears that Kushner, along with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and a campaign adviser, David Bossie, have encouraged the president to go on a media blitz to promote this idea that the election was stolen, to try and drum up support among his base, to argue that the election was illegitimate, despite not really having any evidence to support that claim.
We're told that part of these ideas include actual rallies for the president would come out and rile up his supporters with his supposed evidence. Clearly, a controversial idea, one that will likely be hit met with heavy criticism, not just from Democrats, but even those within the president's own party -- Michael.
HOLMES: That would be without precedent, an outgoing president going to rallies and riling up an already angry base. And to that point, I mean, what are you hearing about, you know, what's next for Donald Trump? He's got 70 million people who voted for him. Obviously, that's a lot of support, but any thoughts about where he goes with that influence? Where that political capital?
SANCHEZ: Yes. There are several different paths this could take. But there's no doubt that the president has tremendous influence within the Republican Party. And it would not be a surprise to see him capitalize on that moving forward.
He's sort of a kingmaker, in a sense, at this point within the Republican Party. And any name that he lends his voice to, in several different layers of races, whether international, or local level, the Republican would likely benefit from the vast numbers in the president's base.
You can imagine, you'll likely be involved in several ghost-written books, perhaps paid public speeches. There's been a question since back in 2016 about a potential media network led by the Trumps.
And then there's also this other possibility that we know has been discussed, according to sources in the White House, of a Grover Cleveland-style situation, where the president accepts the loss, but then, potentially, runs for president again in 2024. HOLMES: Well, that would be something. What are you hearing, too,
about the party itself? You know, a lot of people say it's become the Trump party. What -- what do the Republicans looking forward in the next four years about where they go?
SANCHEZ: Look, there's undoubtedly a lot of caution because of the amount of power that President Trump holds over the GOP. And I think, really, the most glaring example of that is the different voices that we're hearing when it comes to the approach that the president should take on a concession, on acknowledging the reality that he lost to the president-elect, Joe Biden.
You're seeing some Republicans, like Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz. These very prominent senators come out and say a president should dig his heels; that he should fight this all the way; that he should spend as much time in court as needed to prove this claim that he won the election.
Some of those voices, including Ted Cruz, and South Dakota's governor, Kristi Noem, they've been involved in speculation about 2024. So you can kind of see that as a potential prism of their intent.
On top of that, you have more moderate voices, like the Mitt Romneys of the world, the senator from Utah, effectively saying that people should work with Joe Biden, but there should be some form of compromise in helping Americans who are deeply in need because of the economic and physical ramifications of coronavirus.
And then, there's this other category of Republicans, people like the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell; and even the vice president, Mike Pence, who we haven't really heard much at all from. The Senate majority leader is sending out a simple tweet, sort of hedging, talking about legal votes being counted, choosing his language vert carefully.
The vice president, we haven't seen him since 2:30 in the morning on Wednesday when he shared maybe three sentences with the American public. Also, very careful and hedging his words, following some of the president's bombastic claims.
HOLMES: Extraordinary times continue. Boris, good to see you. Boris Sanchez in Washington. Appreciate it.
Now, CNN is covering reaction to Joe Biden's victory across the globe this hour. We will have live reports from Moscow to Hong Kong, and Seoul, as well. But let's begin with our senior diplomatic editor, Nic Robinson, in London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FRENCH)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING GERMAN)
NIC ROBINSON, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): A closely- watched election. Not just in the United States but around the world. Many leaders quickly sending messages of congratulations to President- Elect Joe Biden.
[00:10:09]
SCOTT MORRISON, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: I look forward to forging a great partnership.
URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: It is clear now that the 46th President-Elect is Joe Biden.
ROBERTSON: Even the U.K.'s Trump-friendly P.M., Boris Johnson, shifting gears.
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I look forward very much to working with President Biden.
ROBERTSON: The win for Biden is a hope for many U.S. allies that relations, strained after four years of Donald Trump's "America first" presidency, will return to what they once were.
(on camera): Well, this is the image that people in Europe are waking up to for the next American president. Aviator sunglasses and all. And I think this encapsulates the message here that people around the world want, as well, "Time to Heal." You have it here in this newspaper as well: "Time to Heal America."
But time to heal the world, as well. There's a real feeling that President Trump has bruised relations all around the world. People are now looking to Biden to change that up.
(voice-over): But some Trump allies still slow to shift. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who benefited from Trump moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, took more than 12 hours to issue a statement on the election results.
And Mexico's president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose country shares a border with the U.S., says he is waiting until the legal fighting is finished.
ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR, MEXICAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I can't congratulate one candidate or the other. I want to wait until the electoral process was over.
ROBERTSON: Iran is reacting with caution. Its foreign minister says it will wait to see if Biden abandons the, quote, "lawless bullying" of the outgoing regime.
Biden has said he would try to revive the nuclear deal with Iran, struck by former President Barack Obama, which Trump withdrew from two years ago. Many people in Iran say they would welcome relief from crippling U.S. sanctions that have hurt their economy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I feel things are somehow calmer. God willing, things will get even better for us, the people of Iran.
ROBERTSON: China also had a rocky relationship with the Trump administration over trade. Some residents in Beijing hope that will change.
Unidentified male (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I hope, when Biden becomes president, he can control the pandemic well and improve the bad relationships with China.
ROBERTSON: But overwhelmingly, many people across the globe say they've grown weary of the tweets, and the tone, coming from the current White House.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm really hoping that, you know, outside of a late-night reality show, we never have to see him again.
ROBERTSON: In London, at the world-famous Madame Tussaud's wax museum, they're working on just that. Trump, not quite disappearing but off to play golf.
Nic Robinson, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Someone who hasn't reached out to the new U.S. president- elect, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Russian state TV amplifying Donald Trump's unfounded claims of election fraud.
Matthew Chance is in Moscow for us, joins us now. It was a feature of criticism, Donald Trump, that he seemed unable to criticize Vladimir Putin. And as we say, he's not congratulated the Vice [SIC] President- Elect. How might the dynamic change under a President Biden?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, I definitely think that Russians and the Kremlin, in particular, is probably bracing himself for -- for a change of tone. Remember, you know, President-elect Biden has, in the past, called Russia the main threat to U.S. national security. So that's going to be very different from the kind of, you know -- kind of, you know, messages they've had from President Trump for the past four years, or at least said that he wanted to make relations better with Russia, and was, in some ways, very deferential to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.
But I have to say, it has been deafening, the silence that we've had from the Kremlin over the last couple of days when it comes to the U.S. presidential election. There's been no formal congratulations to President-Elect Biden. There's been no commiserations with -- with President Trump either. That might change, obviously, as we move through this day. As the Kremlin comes in, perhaps they'll make a statement later on we, obviously, will bring to you as soon as we can.
But you're right. You do get a sense of what the Kremlin is thinking often in this country by listening to very tightly-controlled state television. Over the weekend, on the main current affair shows, several Russian state media anchors have been, you know, talking about the -- repeating, essentially, the unfounded claims of President Trump in terms of U.S. presidential election fraud.
One of them talking about the sloppy way in which the presidential elections in the United States were held, saying all hope is lost now for an honest expression of the -- of the people's will.
[00:15:09]
And so you have a situation here where the Kremlin are silent, but Russian state media, which is tightly controlled by the Kremlin, is repeating those unfounded Trump claims of election fraud in the United States, Michael.
HOLMES: And you're there on the ground. You know the country better than most. What would Vladimir Putin be most worried about with a President Biden, as opposed to what he's enjoyed with President Trump, certainly, in their personal relationship.
CHANCE: Well, it's -- it's an interesting question, isn't it? Because on the one hand, of course, President Trump was always very positive, very differential, as I said, towards Vladimir Putin. But the sanctions regime against Russia from the United States has been ratcheted up over the past several years. There hasn't been any really material kind of improvement in the relationship between Washington and Moscow, despite the sort of kind words and the intentions, or the stated intentions of -- of President Trump.
And of course, I think will be a sense in which the Kremlin will sort of miss that sort of positive tone coming out of the White House. And as I say, they are bracing for a change of tone.
But I mean, there's another strand of thinking, as well, which is that, you know, after four years of President Trump and the unpredictability, in some ways, that's come from the White House and the mixed messages on the one hand saying, Let's make the relationship better, and on the other hand, a ratcheting up of -- of sanctions, and other kinds of escalating tensions.
I think some in the administration, the government here in Russia, are looking forward to a more predictable Washington, a more predictable U.S. administration, with whom they can do deals on things like arms control and other issues that both Moscow and Washington care very deeply about -- Michael.
HOLMES: Great analysis. Thank you, Matthew. Matthew Chance there in Moscow for us. Appreciate it.
And we will take a quick break here on the program. When we come back, carnivorous cases hitting record new highs in the U.S., and experts warn the outbreak could get even worse. Ahead, what the president- elect plans to do about it. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:20:01]
HOLMES: Welcome back.
A day after confirming a record number of new coronavirus cases, the U.S. has seen another staggering rise in infections, reporting more than 100,000 on Sunday. Now, that is actually the fifth straight day that the country has passed that number, 100,000. And it pushes the nationwide total closer to 10 million, about a fifth of the global tally.
Still, experts fear the crisis will only get worse as the holiday season approaches.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY: So we're about to see all of these little epidemics across the country, cross and mix, and it's going to be an awful lot like pouring gasoline on a fire, I worry. I'm so concerned about later November and early December.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, President-Elect Joe Biden says the pandemic will be his top concern. As we've said, that starts just hours from now when he unveils his coronavirus task force and speaks about his plan going forward.
Let's discuss this with CNN medical analyst Dr. Larry Brilliant. It's always good to get you, Doctor. I mean, these numbers are just mind- blowing. We've been -- everybody's been so wrapped up in the election. A lot of this has sort of slipped by a lot of people's attention, I think.
Joe Biden will handle this pandemic differently, of course. But what should that look like to you? What would you like to see change?
DR. LARRY BRILLIANT, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Hello, Michael. Thank you for inviting me.
The last time you and I spoke, I think the U.S. was seeing 40,000 cases a day. And that was only a couple of weeks ago. We're now going to hit half a million in the last five days. Ten million in the last two weeks. This is astounding. We're really in for a lot of trouble.
A hundred thousand cases a day can easily go to 200,000 cases if there's no pushback. And right now, as we go into our holiday season of Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's, and colder weather, people gathering together inside in small groups instead of outside, I'm afraid that there's no pushback against the virus except what President-Elect Biden is planning to do, which is to bring together scientists to try to reclaim the once sterling reputation of CDC as epidemic fighters, and to stop politicizing the virus, and to get down to business. I'm optimistic about that.
HOLMES: You mentioned the word "politicization," and the hallmark of the Trump COVID response has been politicization. Whether it be mask wearing or the reliability of numbers testing and so on. How important is it that a Biden administration really does, you know, hand back the science to the scientists and follow their lead?
BRILLIANT: Well, you know, the U.S. has always been a leader in the fight against pandemics around the world, instead of being a laggard, as we have been here. It isn't even so much just the politicization of the pandemic. It's been ignoring the science, ignoring how bad this pandemic is. Pretending that almost a quarter of a million Americans have died from this disease.
And that toll is also rising. We're back to 1,000, and soon, I'm afraid, 2,000 people dying every single day from the coronavirus.
So step No. 1, bringing in the scientists, is to just deal with the facts. To take a look at how this epidemic is spreading. To try to find those places where mask wearing, which we know is effective, is not being used; to understand what MPIs, targeted closures, not big clampdown closures, where they would work. Social distancing. Understanding how you deal with clusters and super spreaders and how you do good old-fashioned epidemiology to trace these diseases back to the roots.
I'm optimistic that we will get back to that, and when we do that, then we've got a really good shot at throwing COVID into the dustbin of history.
HOLMES: How many lives have been lost in the interim? You know, I was curious, your thoughts. A number of experts today were on Twitter, saying that the true number of new infections in the U.S., 100,000 is mind-blowing. But there were a number of experts saying it is actually probably between 3 and 400,000 a day.
What is your assessment of what is to come? Would you agree with that?
BRILLIANT: I would agree with that. I mean, what we know by looking at it serial epidemiology, which is looking at the immune status of people who presumably have had the disease before, is that there are probably four or five or six asymptomatic cases, which means that they were never tested, they were never brought into the system.
So yes, if it's 100,000 reported cases who are test positive, it wouldn't at all surprise me that there were two or three or 400,000 that were missed -- or missed is the wrong word. We just didn't take official notice of them.
[00:25:04]
HOLMES: I did want to ask you one thing about the Biden plan. They want to appoint Vice President Kamala Harris to head a task force to tackle racial and ethnic disparities. The impact of the virus could learn to -- lead to a permanent task force on racial disparities in infectious diseases. That's a big deal, isn't it?
BRILLIANT: It is a big deal. I mean, I think that one of the disparities we talk about the most is economic disparities. But when you think of life expectancy, infant mortality, diabetes, African- Americans, people of Latinx origin, minorities in the United States fare much more poorly and have life expectancies that can be 10, 15 years less than the dominant culture.
And even in COVID, what we found at one time was that 80 percent of all the deaths from COVID in Georgia, this highly-contested state, were African-Americans. We don't completely understand why. Obviously, socioeconomic status, access to health care, pre-existing conditions are all part of it. That would be a really good idea for Vice President-Elect Harris to look into.
HOLMES: Great to see you, Doctor. It always is. Dr. Larry Brilliant, thank you.
BRILLIANT: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
HOLMES: Good to see you.
Well, more than 50 million people around the world have now been infected with the coronavirus. John Hopkins University also reporting more than 1.2 million people dying from the pandemic.
France, Germany, and other countries across Europe all seeing record numbers of infections, risking a strain on already taxed hospitals.
And the streets of Rome emptied over the weekend as Italy went into its second lockdown. The country broke records for new cases and deaths last week.
We're going to take a quick break. When we come back on CNN NEWSROOM, Joe Biden has worked together with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell for decades, but will they still be able to get things done once Biden is president? We will discuss that.
Also, how will Biden differ from Donald Trump when it comes to North Korea? We'll have a look at the president-elect's strategy after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:30:17]
HOLMES: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate you sticking around.
Now we return to our top story this hour. U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden planning to hit the ground running. Sources telling CNN he will name a 12-person coronavirus task force in just a few hours.
Now, this comes just a couple of days after the U.S. reported its most COVID cases ever in a single day.
Biden also planning a series of executive actions to undo many of President Trump's foreign policy moves. Also, on the environment, as well.
Meanwhile, President Trump clearly is not going to go down without a fight or cause some trouble. We're told he has no plans to concede as of now. In fact, his campaign is planning a messaging blitz with no real evidence that the election is being stolen from him through corrupt vote counts.
CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein joins me now, live from Los Angeles.
I mean, I'm just curious, Ron. What do you think Joe Biden will not just do but undo when it comes to Trump policies? I mean, we're hearing about these sort of series of day one executive actions. The Muslim ban, climate accord.
What do you imagine his priorities are going to be, going in?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, I think there are a couple areas. I mean, obviously, you know, the cycle that we are in, Michael, is that it has been hard for either side to pass a lot of legislation, and so we've seen presidents move to execute their agenda by unilateral executive action. And that is very susceptible to being overturned.
So the environmental area, President Trump overturned or began the process of undoing, you know, a wide array of President Obama's environmental actions, particularly on reducing carbon emissions. And you've got to think that President Biden will be undoing the undoing.
On immigration. I think, you know, virtually everything that the president -- President Trump has done is going to be subject to reconsideration.
And then, as you mention, there are a bunch of foreign policy. I think it's called the Mexico City policy. Whether we can give, you know, international aid to organizations that also provide abortion. I mean, that's traditionally reversed immediately.
So you're going to see a lot of that. The challenge for President Biden is going to be, with this 6-3 Republican Supreme Court, they may try to strike down some of the things he tries to do by executive action, which means control of the Senate really is just so critical to this presidency.
HOLMES: I was just going to ask you about that. Mitch McConnell, for now the Senate majority leader, of course. You know, as we've seen in the last few years, he is happy to ignore literally hundreds of bills sent to him by the Democrat House, not even put them up for a vote.
During the Obama years, he blocked everything. Was famous for just saying no to everything. What are the risks of more of the same if Republicans hold the Senate? Those -- those Georgia seats obviously crucial. There's only so much a president can do without the Senate.
BROWNSTEIN: Right. Look, I think that there would be a lot of -- if Republicans hold the Senate, there would be a lot of pressure to make some kind of deal on coronavirus relief, because the need is so overwhelming and the -- and the outbreak is so out of control.
Meanwhile, the president is indulging in this fantasy of going around the country and protesting an election that he has decisively lost. He is abandoning the real job of the president and giving up on the idea of protecting the country from levels of this outbreak that are almost unimaginable. It is an autonomous sign for the Joe Biden presidency that Mitch
McConnell is not calling out the president on this very dangerous course of action and is kind of just, you know, staying silent at the moment, even as Mitt Romney and George W. Bush and a handful of other Republicans, you know, begin to -- begin to announce.
You can't overstate how different Biden's presidency will unfold based on whether or not they can win those two special election seats in Georgia in early January.
HOLMES: You know, it's interesting listening to the likes of Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham and others. You know, in a post-Trump world, what direction do you think the GOP will head in, as a party? I mean, it has been the party of Trump for four years.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
HOLMES: Does the party have to regroup in a post-Trump world, or do you see it forever changed?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, this is the paradox they're in. I mean, they've now lost the popular vote in seven out of eight elections. Trump is going to lose the popular vote by 5 or maybe 6 million votes when it's all over, but he got over 70 million votes. And he showed again he has enormous hold over Trump country.
The big metros, the big, dynamic, economically-productive metros of the country, whether we're talking about the Philadelphia area, or Madison, Wisconsin, or Minneapolis, or Denver, or even the big metros in Texas, they vote -- North Carolina, they voted overwhelmingly against President Trump.
[00:35:02]
But his ability to turn out his base allowed not only him to stay very competitive but helped Republicans beat back this extraordinary spending by Democrats in the states that he won.
But the second consecutive election Democrats are not going to win a single Senate seat in a state that President Trump carried. And what that means, Michael, is that not only Trump, but all of the Republican senators, are now more dependent on Trump's voters, on Trump country for their own survival.
And I think it's going to make it very difficult for many of them to chart a new course in the near term. I mean, this looks like it is -- it is the dominant force, certainly, inside the Republican Party until proven otherwise.
HOLMES: Yes. I did want to ask you. Democrats, you know, they won the White House, won it well and so on. But is it fair to say it wasn't really a great election for Democrats? They thought they'd expand their majority in the House. They did not. They thought they'd flip the Senate. They -- they did not. What did they do wrong?
BROWNSTEIN: Look, I describe this as the Antietam election. You know, Antietam was a battle of the Civil War that was the bloodiest battle, and it was inconclusive in the end.
I mean, this really underscores that we have two Americas. As I said, the Democrats consolidated at the presidential level their hold on metro America. That's what allowed them to, you know, probably flip Georgia, probably flip Arizona, and hold Pennsylvania, and hold Wisconsin.
But they didn't -- they didn't have equal success down-ballot in the places that they dominated. I mean, after 2018, when they pushed into Republican territory in suburban America, this election, they were hoping to push even further into Republican -- places that were even more Republican. The suburbs of Houston, the suburbs of Dallas, the suburbs of Indianapolis and so forth.
Biden did very well in those places. But down-ballot Democrats did not. Not only for Congress and the Senate, but also for the state house.
On the other hand, Trump country was consolidated overwhelmingly against Democrats, so some of those House seats they won in 2018 at the far frontier of their majority in places that were very, you know, disposed towards the president, they lost those.
I think the lesson of this campaign is you can't just rely on huge amounts of television spending. I mean, you have to change the underlying political dynamics in these states, because it's becoming a parliamentary kind of system.
If Biden -- I wrote an election day, if Biden doesn't win Iowa or North Carolina or Georgia, they're probably not going to win the Senate, because the crossover doesn't work. Even if you have $200 million in television ads.
Stacey Abrams is kind of the future of the party. They have to invest in building the party from the ground up in places like North Carolina, Texas, Arizona.
Because one thing I think this election showed is that the 2016 numbers in the Rust Belt, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin were not a fluke. They are not going to be guarantees for Democrats going forward. they have to build the party in the Rust Belt. And I think that's the big lesson. TV alone can't overcome if you don't change the underlying partisan dynamic.
HOLMES: Yes, grassroots, digital, so on. Yes, absolutely.
Ron, always a pleasure. Good to see you, my friend.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
HOLMES: Ron Brownstein there.
As we were sort of discussing there with Ron, numbers still coming in from some of these battleground states. In Georgia, Biden's lead is continuing to kick up. It's still close, as you can see there. But he's up by more than 10,300 votes, and 99 percent of the vote is in. A Biden win would turn that red state blue, which would be extraordinary if you follow U.S. politics.
Georgia voters, as we were just talking about there with Ron, too, we'll have the say in who controls the Senate, which is key to whether Biden can get anything done.
Democrats are hoping to flip two Republican seats, and both races now look like they're headed for runoffs. That will be in early January. January 5. That's going to mean everything in terms of what Joe Biden can get done legislatively. And appointments wise.
Now Biden's projected victory does seem to be pleasing the stock markets. U.S. futures shot up hundreds of points on Sunday. Here's a look at where they are now. Down futures up now nearly one and a half percent, NASDAQ two and a half percent.
And the Asia Pacific markets, let's have a look at those. They're also on the rise. The Nikkei up two and a half percent, doing well. The Shanghai composite nearly 2 percent.
We'll take a quick break. President-Elect Biden is pledging to reassert the United States' role on the global stage. What that could mean for travel restrictions President Trump imposed on certain countries.
We'll also be talking about with a new administration comes new global relations. What could change for the U.S. and, let's say, North Korea with a Biden White House? We'll discuss after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
When it comes to North Korea, you'll likely see Joe Biden take a four different approach than Donald Trump. Biden has long been critical of President Trump's relationship with Kim Jong-un. And for his part, the U.S. president-elect is promising principled diplomacy in dealing with North Korea.
CNN's Paula Hancocks joins me now from Seoul with more.
Good to see you, Paula. I guess, despite what Donald Trump said about his relationship with North Korea, Kim Jong-un expanded his nuclear arsenal and improved technology and long-range missiles right under Donald Trump's nose. Is there concern in the region about what North Korea might do in terms of flexing under Joe Biden?
PAUL HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, there's certainly the precedence to look at, and any expert you talk to says that, quite often, once a new U.S. president comes into power, then they are tested by North Korea. Meaning that there is some kind of missile test or even a nuclear test as we have seen recently, to see what kind of response there is. And also -- also to see where the -- where the boundaries are.
Now, certainly, this result in the U.S. election is unlikely to be the one that North Korea wanted.
The leader, Kim Jong-un, had invested so much time and effort into President Trump. They'd had those three historic meetings. Countless letters which Mr. Trump had described as love letters. And as you say, all the while, North Korea was able to continue to widen their ability when it came to the nuclear and missile capability. And really, didn't have to give up anything at all.
So what does North Korea think of President-elect Joe Biden? They have been clear in their rhetoric over recent months. Joe Biden himself has -- has pulled no punches when it comes to North Korea. He's criticized them. He called Kim John a thug in the last presidential debate.
And certainly, from -- from North Korea's point of view, they've called him in the past a fool of low I.Q., among other things. Of course, par for the course to have these kind of insults if you're any -- in any sense dealing with North Korea.
But I think the overwhelming feeling is there will be some kind of so- called provocation or some kind of test as -- as President-Elect Biden takes power -- Michael.
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HOLMES: Right. And before I let you go, I think where you are, South Korea, how might the election result change the dynamic, relations with South Korea?
HANCOCKS: Well, we've just heard in the past couple of minutes from the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, at a senior cabinet ministers' meeting, saying that there will be no vacuum when it comes to the Korean peace process. Talking about the peace process with North Korea clearly. And saying there will be no vacuum when it comes to the alliance.
So certainly, the rhetoric from the South Korean side is that they welcome President-Elect Biden, but of course, they did have a lot more engagement with North Korea when it came to -- to President Donald Trump.
So what they're feeling behind the scenes is unclear. But publicly, they're saying that there will be no vacuum when it comes to the peace process itself.
HOLMES: Good to have you THERE on the ground. Paula Hancocks in Seoul, South Korea for us.
Now, President-Elect Biden faces a unique set of challenges, of course, as he works to build relationships with countries in the Middle East.
Let's talk about that, and there's a lot to talk about. Joining me from Istanbul, CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon.
Arwa, one Trump move early on was pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. Talk about that. What is the feeling there in the region of how Joe Biden will handle Iran?
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, President- Elect Biden has said that he would try to restore that Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, if Iran moved back into compliance with its nuclear obligations.
But you have to remember, too, that a lot of the hardliners in Iran were actually opposed to this deal. And it's that hardline perspective that we're hearing, at least publicly, right now, with Iran's foreign minister effectively saying that it doesn't matter what external forces try to do, that Iran needed to work more on building relationships with its neighbors.
And then, of course, we heard from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who flat- out said that the U.S. elections were nothing short of a spectacle. But that being said, there may be motivation for Iran to try to move towards a close relationship with the United States, given just how brutal sanctions have been on that country.
HOLMES: You, of course, have spent much of your life in the Middle East, and one of Donald Trump's many controversial decisions was the so-called Muslim ban. Joe Biden says it's on his short list to deal with. But what sort of damage was done under Trump when it comes to Muslim-majority countries?
DAMON: I mean, look, Michael. For a lot of people, I think, in this region, in Muslim-majority countries, that move by Donald Trump really just solidified their widespread belief that the U.S. rhetoric when it comes to the Middle East, when it came to prior presidents, was really just rhetoric. And at the very core, the United States was always going to hold a bias towards Muslims. When Donald Trump implemented the so-called Muslim ban, it amplified that perspective across the entire region.
So it's going to take a lot more than simply lifting that ban for the U.S. to even begin towards -- moving towards a relationship that would be built on trust, when it comes to America and the vast majority of the Muslim world.
Because whether it's a Democratic president who's in power or a Republican, the U.S. policies, especially towards the Middle East, it must be said, do not really fundamentally change all that much.
HOLMES: Good point. I did want to squeeze in one more question. I mean, Donald Trump's drawdown of U.S. forces in Syria was a gift to Erdogan, where you are in Turkey, but also Vladimir Putin, Syria's Bashar al-Assad. And of course, Donald Trump drew down in Iraq, as well. So what's been the impact of that? What might change?
DAMON: I mean, look, Vice President -- President-Elect Biden has said that he would maintain, perhaps, a low level of troops in both Iraq and Syria to try to prevent against a reemergence of ISIS, as well as al-Qaeda.
But you also have to remember that this, in both countries, is going to be a very tricky decision, in terms of maintaining a balance where you do have enough U.S. presence. Not only just to counter a resurgence of ISIS and other terrorist groups, but also to counter Iran moving in when the U.S. invariably withdraws, should it withdraw, leaving behind a power vacuum.
You have to remember back to the Obama-era U.S. withdrawal from Iraq back in 2011. That was done very hastily, that then effectively created the conditions that allowed for Iran to emerge as a greater power in Iraq and also for ISIS to take advantage of the situation and reemerge, as well.
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Now President-Elect Biden has learned from those lessons, has seen the impact of what U.S. moves in the region can potentially have. Those risks do still remain today. So that is going to be a very tricky one to try to navigate, and whether or not President-Elect Biden can this time around get the calculus right, a calculus that was so wrongly played out and analyzed back in 2011.
HOLMES: Great analysis, as always. Arwa Damon, good to see you, my friend, there in Istanbul. Appreciate it.
And you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.
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SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE-PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE U.S.: Every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities. And to the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message. Dream with ambition. Lead with conviction, and see yourselves in a way that others may not. Simply because they've never seen it before. But know that we will applaud you every step of the way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Kamala Harris has made history, of course, as the first female and the first black and South Asian vice president-elect.
CNN's Kyung Lah explains some of what Harris will add to the Biden administration.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN 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.
LAH: The audience mirroring her message.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now we know that we have hope to do that. LAH: 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: -- to those who spilled into city streets --
JAMIE GRAY, CELEBRATING BIDEN: Today was a monumental day. I didn't wake up this morning expecting this to be one of the best days of my life, but it really is.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today, women made history.
LAH: -- 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. 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 one many sayings, and one of them was, You may be the first to do many things, but make sure you're not the last.
LAH: A dream now realized.
HARRIS: While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.
LAH (on camera): 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 in color. And not just in numbers of staff but in placing those women in decision-making rules.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Scottsdale, Arizona.
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HOLMES: Now, fans around the world are remembering game show legend Alex Trebek, who died on Sunday, surrounded by family and friends.
Trebek's "Jeopardy" was what we call appointment viewing in millions of households. He hosted the show for more than three decades.
Canada's prime minister among those paying respects, Justin Trudeau noting that Trebek was a proud Canadian, adding in a statement, quote, "We looked forward to his quick wit and dry jokes and questions about Canada that he'd sneak into the show." Trebek revealed he had stage four pancreatic cancer in March of last
year. He was 80 years old.
Thanks for watching, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. I'll have another hour of CNN NEWSROOM after the break.
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HOLMES: Not wasting any time, U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden sets day one plans for his presidency, including taking on the coronavirus pandemic.
But President Trump, well, he's not conceding.
