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World Leaders Outnumber Senate GOP in Acknowledging Biden Win; Georgia to Conduct, Full, Hand Recount; Biden's Popular Vote Lead over Trump Exceeds 5 Million; Alarm Grows Across State Department as Trump Denies Defeat; U.S. Seeing Record COVID-19 Cases and Hospitalizations. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired November 11, 2020 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: The list of world leaders sending their congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden is growing by the day. Sadly, that cannot be said of America's Republican Party. Only four -- you can see them on your screen -- four GOP Senators have acknowledged his victory. And while the rest are rather silent or actively giving life to the President's baseless claims that this election was actually stolen from him.

Charlie Dent is a CNN political commentator and former Republican Congressman in Pennsylvania. So Congressman Dent, good to see you, welcome. The fact

that more world leaders have congratulated Joe Biden than Senate Republicans, why?

CHARLIE DENT (R-PA) FORMER REPRESENTATIVE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the only calculation I see on part of Senate Republicans is that they don't want the President to go throw a snit or tantrum that might somehow --

BALDWIN: Have you checked his Twitter in the last several days?

DENT: I mean, yes, well, he's in a constant state of tantrum, I guess, but maybe he'll do damage down in Georgia. I mean I don't think it's right. I think it's a miscalculation. I think every Republican ought to acknowledge Joe Biden's victory and congratulate him and get on with the transition. I don't see anything to be gained by denying reality any longer.

BALDWIN: Has your party just been entirely overtaken by Trump? And if so, when will Mitch McConnell, who has, you know, quite a bit of experience working across the aisle, working with Joe Biden, when will he say enough?

DENT: Well, I think that's an open question whether the party's been taken over by Trump.

BALDWIN: Well, what do you think? DENT: Donald Trump was rejected. And that's my view. He was rejected.

And Republicans below him on the ballot were not. In fact, they were overwhelmingly elected across the country. So Donald Trump has been rejected. The question is, has Trumpism been rejected? I hope it has been. But that will be the debate going forward. There's nothing to be gained, I think by continuing to attach yourself to a defeated President. It makes no sense from my view.

BALDWIN: But you just made a great point, just mentioning the down ballot races. I mean isn't it convenient that the Republican Party is continuing to support the President's baseless claims of voter fraud, yet no Republican seems to have any issue of the down ballot, you know, races -- down ballot votes that elected those Republicans which are all on the same ballot, same election, counted by the same officials. Congressman, how do they square that?

DENT: They simply can't. In fact, if the Democrats were trying to steal the vote in Philadelphia, they did a lousy job of it. Because Philadelphia, by my calculation, is the only county in Pennsylvania where Hillary Clinton overperformed Joe Biden. And so go figure. But by trying to delegitimize Vice President's Biden's victory, the President is delegitimizing these down ballot races.

In Pennsylvania, an African-America Republican won statewide for Auditor General by a substantial margin. Why delegitimize his race or Brian Fitzpatrick who overperformed Joe Biden significantly in suburban Philadelphia? Donald Trump is actually harming those Republican victors who did astonishingly well.

BALDWIN: You look at Georgia, the governor is Republican, the Secretary of State is Republican. I mean the big question to me is when will the rest of the Republican Party ultimately acknowledge that Biden won and move on?

[15:35:00]

And one answer might actually be, you know, the Georgia special election runoffs which will control the -- you know, ultimately, will determine the control of the U.S. Senate. And so how can Republicans convince their base to -- to your point, Congressman, you know, to calm out and vote when their talking point seems to be, it's rigged.

DENT: Well, look, you're right. This is an incoherent argument. It makes no sense. Republicans have to get their head together -- truthfully, Brooke, if you ask most Republican members of Congress, I bet you ask them, they're glad that Donald Trump is going to be gone. He's made their lives nothing but miserable, and now they'll be able to at least get back to some sense of normalcy in terms of work. Well, they're glad he's gone, now the message has to be --

BALDWIN: But why aren't they saying that out loud? We heard that from Chris Coons, you know, the Democratic Senator, yesterday morning saying, hey, well, I'm hearing from my Republican buddies up on Capitol Hill, and behind the scenes, they're saying, hey, congratulations to Joe Biden, but we can't quite say that yet. That's ridiculous. DENT: Well, I think there is fear. In the state of Pennsylvania right

now, the commonwealth, I think that Republican legislators at the state level are probably hearing from constituents. Because of all this noise about a rigged, fixed election, they're being put under tremendous pressure to present some type of alternative electors for the electoral college.

Which I don't think they're going to do but I think they're feeling base pressure. If anything they're feeling pressure more from their voters than from the President. But this is a time to lead. The base will follow if enough members stand up and lead. And I think that's one thing they have to get through their heads. Don't hide, don't be shy, don't be afraid, lead.

BALDWIN: Thank you so much for that, former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent, great to have you on. Thank you.

DENT: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Coming up next here on CNN, Georgia's Republican Secretary of State ordering this full hand recount of all Presidential ballots, but the question we're asking is, does this change anything? We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:40:00]

BALDWIN: Georgia announced today it will conduct a full hand recount by millions of ballots cast in that state. That is something President Trump has pushed for after falling well behind President-elect Joe Biden in the race there. Georgia's Secretary of State, a Republican, mind you, says, quote, it will be an audit, a recount and a recanvass all at once.

And that should be finished before the state's deadline for certifying the election on November 20th. Deadline day in Pennsylvania and Michigan is the following week, November 23rd. The next day Nevada, then Arizona, November 30th in Wisconsin December 1st.

So now that you get the dates let's go straight to our political director David Chalian there at the magic wall, and so, David, where does the vote stand now with critical battleground states?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, you'd mentioned Georgia and the recount that is going to happen there. Take a look at where it stands. Joe Biden, 14,000 votes ahead of Donald Trump. That lead has been growing, Brooke, as you know over the last week, 49.5 percent to 49.2 percent.

And even after this initial hand recount that has been announced is done and certified on November 20th, even after that I believe the Trump campaign can still request a recount because it's inside a .5 percent margin once the vote has been certified. So it may be a little while before we get final-final in Georgia. There are two other states. Arizona is still not called. We see Joe

Biden with an 12,813 vote lead over Donald Trump. That lead's actually been diminishing over time as the vote's been coming in, Donald Trump has made up ground in Arizona, but it's 49.4 percent to 49 percent, and the Biden folks feel pretty confident they're going to be able to hang on to that lead. I think they're about 50,000 votes left to count.

And the third state is North Carolina, where Donald Trump has a huge lead, 73,000 votes, 50 percent to 48.7 percent. In North Carolina tomorrow's the deadline for ballots that were cast and postmarked by election day to be received and still counted. So we'll see what votes we get into North Carolina tomorrow but maybe we will be able to project that and I think all signs point that Trump is likely to win that. So those are the three states outstanding.

BALDWIN: And before I let you go, I heard President-elect Joe Biden just hit a historic milestone when it comes to the popular vote. Tell me more.

CHALIAN: Yes, I mean look at this, these numbers are just staggering. Joe Biden has 77 million votes to Donald Trump's 72 million. Joe Biden has 12 million more votes than Hillary Clinton got last time, remember when she beat Donald Trump in the national popular vote, but that 50.8 percent, that is the largest percentage of the national vote that a challenger to an incumbent President has had since FDR had it in 1932.

That is sort of a record-breaking number there for, what is that now, 80, 90 years ago that that existed. So that is another thing that Joe Biden has as a feather in his cap. As you know, we elect Presidents through the electoral college, but that's a really impressive national popular vote victory.

BALDWIN: 50.8, add that for all the --

CHALIAN: And still counting.

BALDWIN: And still counting. It's bananas. David Chalian, thank you very much.

CHALIAN: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Coming up, State Department officials now are blasting President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo's refusal to recognize the President-elect and his win. Why this is putting diplomats in a terrible position. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:00]

BALDWIN: Let me read you these quotes, I am sick. How dare he? And he is stooping to the lowest of the low. That is the reaction pouring in across the State Department following these remarks by their boss, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration, right. We're ready. The world is watching what's taking place here. We're going to count all the votes. When the process is complete, there will be electors selected. There's a process. The Constitution lays it out pretty clearly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Kori Schake is the Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and she has held posts at the State Department, the Department of Defense and the National Security council at the White House. So Kori, a pleasure to have you on, welcome.

KORI SCHAKE, DIRECTOR OF FOREIGN AND DEFENSE POLICY STUDIES, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: Thanks.

BALDWIN: You hear these quotes from inside the State Department. You know folks there who have served, who are serving. What is going through your mind as you see these top officials replaced?

[15:50:00]

SCHAKE: Well, two things. First, the foreign service officers and civil servants of the State Department, I understand their anguish, but it's actually unprofessional of them to be commenting in public. That I think a difference in the culture between the military and our diplomats is that you don't hear those kinds of comments out of the military ranks even if they may share the views. So I think professionalism is really important.

But that said, Secretary Pompeo's joke about a smooth transition actually isn't very funny given that how high tensions are running with the President's refusal to acknowledge the election of President- elect Biden.

BALDWIN: Listening to Secretary Pompeo, he's obviously playing to an audience of one but there are broader repercussions, you know that very well. How are President Trump's baseless claims, you know, a gift to America's adversaries?

SCHAKE: There's such a big gift to America's adversaries. It will be difficult for the United States of America to argue for free and fair elections in other places given the chaos that the challenges to the election will have. It will be hard for us to argue for any American diplomat to be able to argue for transparency for gracefully accepting the outcomes of elections in other places. And for strengthening the nuts and bolts of democratic institutions in other places.

BALDWIN: You mentioned the diplomats, I mean, how are diplomats right now supposed to acknowledge Biden's victory and Trump's allegations of fraud? To our own allies, what do they say?

SCHAKE: Oh, it leaves America's diplomats in a terrible place. Because on the one hand, they need to support the current President. On the other hand he's in such crass violation of the norms of democratic practice in the United States. So it puts them in a very awkward position and it's frankly irresponsible of the commander in chief to leave America's diplomats in that position.

BALDWIN: To the commander in chief here, there is plenty of time, there is 70 days now between now and inauguration, January 20th, for this President to take extreme measures overseas whether it be Iran, Afghanistan, you're seeing some of the people who are being put in these positions at DOD or North Korea. What concerns you the most, Kori?

SCHAKE: Well, I do think a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is the most likely. But there could be unexpected challenges by Russia or China or other adversaries of the United States to try and capitalize on the chaos that the Trump administration has created by not reinforcing the stability and routine nature of a presidential transition in the United States. There are encouraging challenges --

BALDWIN: Is 70 days --- sorry for just jumping in, but just is 70 days enough time to do damage or no?

SCHAKE: Yes, it's plenty of time to do damage. For the Trump administration, to the institutions of American power, and for America's adversaries to make foreign policy moves that damage our security.

BALDWIN: Seventy days between now and Inauguration Day. Dr, Kori Schake, I appreciate your wisdom. Thank you so much.

SCHAKE: It's a pleasure.

BALDWIN: Coming up, our special coverage of this chaotic transition continues, including what President Trump is doing behind closed doors today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:00]

BALDWIN: This pandemic is entering a disturbing new phase. More and more states are reporting record high case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths all from coronavirus. Right now, nearly 62,000 Americans are in the hospital because of COVID and that is a record number higher than ever before in this pandemic. Now a new COVID-19 study which suggests which types of gathering places may have the highest risk for spreading the virus. CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard takes a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Brianna, this new modeling study really lays out which venues may have the highest risk for spreading the coronavirus in big cities. The model is based on cell phone location data and it suggests that restaurants, gyms, hotels, cafes and religious establishments all come with a large risk, but the model also shows that occupancy limits can help.

For instance in Chicago, the study says that capping maximum occupancy at 20 percent was linked with a more than 80 percent drop in new coronavirus infections.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: All right, Jackie, thank you so much. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me, THE LEAD start rights now.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Pamela Brown in today for Jake Tapper. And we begin with the 2020 LEAD.