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Source Describes Trump As "Dejected" Over Election Fight; Trump Adviser Lewandowski Tests Positive For Coronavirus; Obama Memoir Confronts Role His Presidency Played In Trump's Rise; Airlines Adding Flights For Holiday Despite COVID Concerns. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 12, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

KARA SCANNELL, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And if that happened under one scenario, that would allow Republican legislators to put forward their own slate of electors that could vote for the President Trump against the will of the people who have voted in each of those states, predominantly for Joe Biden. You know, that is the goal here. And one Republican lawyer describes to me this scenario as a doomsday scenario.

Now, given Joe Biden's lead in all of these states, and in the Electoral College, it is -- it would be, you know, it's such a big leap for the President to win here. He would have to have legal victories in multiple states in order for this strategy to make a difference. And, you know, to use a non -- to use, you know, a very legal term here, it's like a Hail Mary of Hail Mary passes.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: All right. Yes, math is math. You know, I get politics but math is math. It's an overwhelming hail for the President.

Kara, appreciate the important insights. We'll keep tracking these cases. But as you know, as of now, there's just no evidence to back any claim of widespread fraud.

When we come back, remember late in the campaign, President Trump asking suburban women to love him. Well, a new study suggests they did not.

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[12:35:32]

KING: Some brand new CNN reporting right now from our White House team. Sources telling CNN, President Trump is, quote, waffling over whether to keep fighting the election results. Let's get straight to our White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins at the White House. Kaitlan, waffling, in what way?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Basically, the question is, what does the President do and how long does he run the clock out here? Because advisers have been pretty blunt with the President that politically and legally with the vote count, this isn't likely to break his way. They've explained that to the President while also being in the situation, John, where they are telling the President what he wants to hear pushing these claims about fraud, even though they don't have evidence to back them up. That is what they've still been discussing in these near daily meetings that the President has been having with his political advisers, with his legal team, with people dialing in like the Republican Party Chair Ronna McDaniel, as well, also talking to the President about this.

But what our sources are saying, John, is that the President knows that right now, he is not going to win this election. He is not going to be successful in these legal efforts. But the question is, how long does he drag this fight out? And does it go for a month from now until they start certifying the race results? Or does the President get the idea that the new cycle is not breaking his way either and does he start to change course? That is the question.

And the other one is how does he end this? Because, basically, no one around the President believes that he's actually going to come out and say, you're right, Joe Biden won the election. And here we go moving on. They actually instead believe the President is going to continue insist that this election was filled with fraud. He's going to tease (ph) a 2024 run without fully committing it to it. And, of course, that's going to put people like Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, in very uncomfortable positions, given they telegraphed pretty obviously that they do plan on running in 2024.

So that's the question right now is how long is the President going to drag this out? And if you talk to the people around him, John, even they do not know at this point.

KING: And Kaitlan, quickly, someone else around the President a lot in recent days, around the White House in recent days, around the election, his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski now among those testing positive?

COLLINS: Yes. Corey Lewandowski has confirmed that he has tested positive for coronavirus. He's now self-isolating at home and of course this comes on the heels of David Bossie who was the deputy campaign manager in 2016, but is now supposed to be overseeing all of these legal efforts, also testing positive. And, of course, that follows a number of other people who were at that election night party a little over a week ago here at the White House that have all tested positive for coronavirus.

And so, of course, it's been over a week now. Now Cory Lewandowski has contracted, it's not clear if he got it from that party or from someone who got it at that party given the David Bossie has tested, positive Mark Meadows, the Chief of Staff who was often at the campaign headquarters has tested positive. The HUD Secretary Ben Carson also positive, but it does go to show you that we are on the third outbreak that this White House has had the ones that we've actually found out about and been able to report on.

And still they've continued to do things like hold large indoor parties as they did last week, where they insisted to reporters that it would be fine because they were testing everyone beforehand. But we've still seen just how short-sighted that can be and how it does not protect the people who attend those parties where, of course, no social distancing and very little mask wearing, John.

KING: That's short-sighted might be too polite of a term .Kaitlan Collins live at the White House, appreciate that.

Now, like him or not, President Trump is very transparent about what is on his mind and transparent about what his advisers are telling him about his shortcomings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They talk about the suburban women and somebody said, I don't know if the suburban woman likes you. I'm about law and order. I'm about having you safe. I'm about having your suburban communities. I don't want to build low- income housing next to your house, OK?

Suburban women, would you please like me? Remember? Please. Please. I saved your damn neighborhood, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Well, we now know from these results that those appeals failed. Supports from suburban women helped power Joe Biden's big election win. A new research from a GOP polling firm outlines the problem in stark detail and warns Republicans the President's problems might carry over to them too.

Nicole McCleskey is a Partner with Public Opinion Strategies, which conducted this election night survey. Nicole, appreciate your time very much. So, as we try to go through the verdict of this election if you will, I just want to pull this line up. Among suburban women in your election night poll, 56 percent for Joe Biden, 40 percent for Donald Trump. A 16-point gap.

And we have another graphic I want to show our viewers that puts it into context. If you look at the right hand of your screen here, you see Joe Biden's 16-point gap.

[12:40:02]

Yes, Hillary Clinton won suburban women. Barack Obama won them twice. But look at how much more narrow those gaps were. What happened, Nicole?

NICOLE MCCLESKEY, PARTNER, PUBLIC OPINION STRATEGIES: It's really interesting. Yes, the President did worse with suburban women this election cycle. But that's offset by suburban men. His gap where the gap there was equally as large with the President winning suburban men. So, I think in the case of suburban women, they were really wrestling with some difficult issues this election cycle. Both the virus and the economy were playing on their minds, for sure this election cycle, and they really wrestled with the issues, they really wrestled with the candidates in this election cycle. In this case, they gave Joe Biden a wide margin, the suburban women did. And the advantage went to him on the virus. But when women were voting on the economy, the advantage went to President Trump. So, it's a very interesting election to watch suburban women.

KING: It is, and just to follow up on that point, one of the key states, obviously, the state to put the President over top was Pennsylvania, and to win Pennsylvania, as you know, very well, winning in Philadelphia and this suburban color right around it is absolutely critical for Democrats. Our Kate Baldwin did some fascinating reporting there on the very subject, you're now looking into suburban women.

Listen to just a snippet of the women she spoke to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Do you regret your vote?

HOLLY GEITNER, VOTED FOR TRUMP IN 2016: Where we are today? Yes. I do. I don't think this is the great again that everyone thought it was going to be.

JULIE BRADY, VOTER FOR TRUMP IN 2016: I feel like I did a disservice to women by voting for this guy.

BALDWIN: Was there a moment in the last four years when you said, I can't do this again?

BRADY: Like COVID pandemic, the way he handled it, that was the absolute last straw for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So there, Nicole, you had two suburban women who had voted for Trump in 2016, who changed their mind this time. You heard COVID mentioned there, I've watched focus groups done by a great pollsters like yourself, you know, the tweets and the constant chaos and the insulting people. What is it that most, for the women who were driven away from the President, who said I can't do this again? What was the most important factor?

MCCLESKEY: Well, the virus was a big deal. Joe Biden won virus suburban women by a large margin. What was really interesting to me, though, was the economy edged out the virus among suburban women in terms of the issues they considered important in this election. And at the end -- and Trump won those women by an equally large margin in the survey.

So, you know, at the end of the day, these women, you know, looked at their personal financial situation and said, you know, the President maybe you know, for some of his faults and some of the things I don't like that he does, he's maintained a good economy and my personal financial situation is a little bit better. So, those two issues they really did wrestle with, and I think it, you know, it helps explain why some of these women were really late in deciding how to vote this election cycle.

KING: Nicole McCleskey, grateful for your time. Let's continue the conversation. I know everybody's trying to do the autopsy what exactly happened, what lesson should be learned by both parties. I'd be great to continue the conversation as we move forward. Appreciate your time today.

MCCLESKEY: Sure. Thank you.

KING: Up next for us, a new book by Barack Obama reveals how the former President believes his presidency played a role in the rise of Donald Trump.

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[12:47:59]

KING: We heard quite a bit from the former President Barack Obama at the end of the campaign. And in less than a week, the first volume of his latest memoir, "A Promised Land", hit store shelves. CNN Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny has a sneak peek for us right now, Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, there's an extraordinary look into the eight years that President Obama served in office. But one thing that is really striking just given the moment that we're in is the transition to power. So, think back to January 20th, 2009. When then Barack Obama, President-elect Barack Obama was writing in the limousine, The Beast, the first time he was ever in The Beast with President George W. Bush. It's a time-honored tradition of going from the White House to the Capitol together. Who knows if that will happen this year given the situation perhaps not.

But take a listen, a look at how President Obama described that day as they went along Pennsylvania Avenue and saw signs saying, indict the criminal and war criminal. He writes this. He said, 'To protest a man in the final hour of his presidency seemed graceless and unnecessary. More generally, I was troubled by what these last minute protests said about the divisions that were churning across the country, and the weakening of whatever boundaries of decorum had once regulated politics".

He goes on to talk about the transition of power. He says this, "Whether because of the respect for the institution, lessons from his father, bad memories of his own transition, or just basic decency, President Bush would end up doing all he could to make the 11 weeks go -- between my election and his departure goes smoothly. I promised myself that when the time came, I would treat my successor the same way".

So, John, an extraordinary look into the President. Once you are running for office, you're a partisan, but once you're in office and after, you're a member of a club, a very exclusive club, and that is the lens in which a former President Barack Obama is viewing that transition. And Joe Biden, of course, is not getting anything like that at all from President Donald Trump. KING: Not at all. And, of course, Barack Obama made history as our first black President and I understand in this new memoir, there some striking comments about race.

[12:50:02]

ZELENY: John, they're absolutely are. This is something that the former President has said privately but has never talked as directly or publicly or bluntly about the reaction to his presidency that really has brought about the last eight years or so in politics. Take a listen to what he says about this. He said, "It was if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted, which is exactly what Donald Trump understood when he started peddling assertions that I had not been born in the United States, and was thus an illegitimate president. For millions of American spooked by a black man in the White House, he promised an elixir for their racial anxiety".

S, John, some very weighty, powerful words there, as the former President has watched all of this transpire, certainly when he was in office, and since then. But the book is filled with, you know, many interesting details. But it is that moment when he went out to the White House briefing room in 2011, and presented his birth certificate.

One detail struck me, John, he said he looked at the young press ages, he walked in to the briefing room, and he said, remember, we are better than this. We are better than this. So the book is chock full of details. President Trump only comes up at the very end in some interesting ways. But, John, this is just the first volume of what he says will be two volumes. He's a writer and he has 780 pages now under his belt. The book's out next week. John?

KING: Stirring memories, sir. On that day when the President released his long-form birth certificate, I interviewed one Donald J. Trump, a long time ago.

ZELENY: That's right.

KING: A long time ago. Jeff Zeleny, fascinating insights into an important book. Appreciate the hustle and the reporting there.

Still ahead for us, airlines planning for a rise in Thanksgiving travel, even as coronavirus cases skyrocket.

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[12:56:20]

KING: The President of Ukraine now hospitalized with COVID-19 as his country registers a record increase in infections. President Volodymyr Zelensky confirming on Monday, he had contracted COVID-19. There is, of course, a covert surge across Europe. Ben Wedeman has this update from Italy.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ben Wedeman in Rome. Italy has now recorded more than 1 million cases of coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic earlier this year. More than 600,000 of those cases are currently active. The second wave of this pandemic shows no sign of slowing down despite ever stricter measures to try to stop the spread. An overnight nationwide curfew is already in place. Five regions are under lockdown and other regions of Italy.

Perhaps the entire country may soon follow suit. Italian hospitals are finding it ever more difficult to handle the flood of new patients. Some hospitals are running out of beds and staff to treat the sick Wednesday the daily death toll from coronavirus. 623 was the highest daily death toll in more than seven months. Officials here warn that as bad as things are now, the worst is yet to come.

KING: Ben Wedeman in Rome there. And despite all the evidence -- all the advice to the contrary, a lot of people planning to travel over this Thanksgiving holiday coming up. Some airlines actually adding flights to meet the increased holiday demand. The TSA says its numbers show travelers are inching towards setting a record for travel during this pandemic.

CNN's Pete Muntean is at Washington's Reagan National Airport. Pete, so they're expecting more traffic.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And you know, we're in the middle of a serious surge right now, John. More travel restrictions popping up each and every day. But what's so interesting is that airlines think they're about to be the busiest they have been since March and they are already laying the groundwork. Here are the new numbers. American Airlines says it's about to ratchet up its flight schedule by about 15 percent during the week of Thanksgiving, it's flying about 3,500 flights a day right now. It's going to fly 4,000 flights a day during the week of Thanksgiving.

United Airlines is adding 1,400 flights, it's scheduled roughly a 10 percent increase. But this is a bit of a gamble for struggling airlines. Industry groups say passengers are waiting until the last minute to book their tickets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK CALIO, CEO, AIRLINES FOR AMERICA: It's getting better, but the bookings are way down. A lot of people are making last minute decisions to fly. For Thanksgiving, we'd recommend that you make your decision ahead of time. It'll be a really good travel experience. But more people will be traveling at Thanksgiving than have been. And as you know there are a lot less planes in the air than they used to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Airlines are insisting up and down that flying right now is safe. New research shows that the chances of you getting coronavirus while on board an airplane is actually relatively low. But even the CDC cautions that you have to take care during every part of your trip consider that door to door possibility. You know, there's not much research, researchers point out on the spread of the virus in airports, in jet ways, in security lines.

About a million people pass through security at America's airports back on October 18th. That's when they set the record of the pandemic. A number we almost saw, again, this past Sunday. So, we will see if undaunted passengers set a new record of the pandemic, John.

KING: Pete Muntean, appreciate the live report from the Reagan National Airport, still striking even eight months. And you see that airport so quiet behind you. It is normally so busy. Appreciate the hustle and a great reporting.

Pete, thanks for joining us today and spending some time with us. Don't go anywhere, busy Newsday. Pamela Brown picks up our coverage right now. Have a good day.

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