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NY Restaurant & Bar Owners Slam Governor Cuomo's New 10PM Closing Time; Source: 2 Homeland Security Officials Forced to Resign; Arizona Audit of Half of States Shows No Fraud, One of Trump's Many Baseless Election Fraud Claims; Head of "Warp Speed" Vaccine Distribution Plan Speaks to CNN; Update on Coronavirus Responses During Thanksgiving Holiday; Source: Trump Children Split on Post- Election Approach. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired November 12, 2020 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
BUTCH YAMALI, OWNER, THE MILLERIDGE INN: And it's just going to -- it's like a trickle-down effect too, now our staff has less hours, there's going to be less people that want to do parties. You're not going to be able to turn over tables inside of our restaurant.
Because our last seating in a restaurant would have to be around 8:00 if we're going to get someone out and they have to have time to eat dinner, have a drink, and have a desert.
It takes at least an hour and a half, two hours. So the latest we could sit someone is 8:00 to get them out by 10:00.
(CROSSTALK)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: So what would you propose -- if you could talk to Andrew Cuomo, what would you propose to him, as a restaurant owner, who also wants to keep his staff and the patrons safe?
YAMALI: My best proposal to him would be maybe limit the days their open, not so much on the hours. To be open and close at 10:00 or 12:00, I don't know what that will prove to anybody.
I don't think the virus is that smart to that after 10:00 it comes out in the open.
If we were able to close maybe Mondays and Tuesdays and open the rest of the week, and maybe there's a curfew, you can't open those days, at least we know that we can tell the staff, you're going to work this many hours. We can book a party that will know we can be open to 10:00, 11:00.
See there's no end in sight here. We were also part of Sandy. Many of my locations got hurt during Superstorm Sandy. At least we knew it was over and we could rebuild.
Here we don't know when it's going to be over. This could be the start of another wave and another closure. And we can't sustain any more closures.
I have big places. And it's very expensive to keep them going.
I would plead to them, talk to the restaurant owners and let's come up with a plan that's safe, first, hopefully, slow this down or stop it a little bit, and we can survive.
Otherwise, we're just going to close. That will be the end of us.
BROWN: Like I said at the beginning, you're in such a difficult spot. That would obviously the worst case for you. And I understand why you would not want that.
YAMALI: Yes.
BROWN: Butch Yamali, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your perspective of what you're going through.
YAMALI: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you.
BROWN: Breaking news at this hour. Sources are telling CNN two Department of Homeland Security officials have been forced to resign by the White House. Those details coming up.
Plus, bad news for the president's baseless claims of voter fraud. What Arizona just revealed in its audit of Election Day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:36:14]
BROWN: Breaking news out of the Washington. As more major personnel shake-ups happen in the wake of the election, sources tell CNN two Department of Homeland Security officials have been forced to resign by the White House.
This comes after the president fired his defense secretary and is installing loyalists at the Pentagon.
Alex Marquardt is following all of this.
What's the latest, Alex? What's going on?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, it's important to note for the audience it does come across the backdrop of what appears to be a major shake-up on the national security side of the Trump administration, what you noted at the Defense Department.
We also know that the director of the CIA, Gina Haspel, and the director of the FBI, Chris Wray, are on the president's radar in terms of people he's deemed not sufficiently royal and could have his eye on.
Moving over to DHS, we have learned in the past hour is that two officials from the Department of Homeland Security were asked for their resignations.
One is Valerie Boyd, the assistant secretary for international affairs at DHS. Another is Bryan Ware, who worked for the cyber arm of DHS.
What's notable is these are not -- they're certainty not junior officials, by any means, but they're not the most senior, either. They're kind of mid-level officials.
So it's not exactly clear why the White House would ask for their resignation.
In the case of Ware, I did see the letter that he sent to the president, saying that his -- that his resignation is effective tomorrow. He said it was an honor to serve.
He wrote another letter to his own staff, saying he's resigning with much sadness, saying it's far too soon, and detailed at length the successes they had as an organization.
Most notably, having just secured and safely run, essentially, alongside the states, this 2020 election, which everybody expected to be targeted by foreign adversaries.
(CROSSTALK)
MARQUARDT: So CISA is the cyber-arm of DHS where Mr. Ware works. This is a rather apolitical organization that has done very good work in terms of securing the election.
And in recent days, Pamela, they have also been at the forefront of batting down a lot of these conspiracy theories, false claims, fraudulent claims by the president and his supporters.
So I imagine that that did raise the ire of the White House, perhaps of the president, if he was aware of that.
But, yes, we have learned these two DHS officials, Valerie Boyd and Bryan Ware, have been asked to resign by the White House.
BROWN: It's interesting because Chris Krebs, who is the head of CISA, was part of that video released before the election saying we may not know the results on election night, that's OK, it could be days.
So we'll have to see how it plays out. It seems like there could be more. We'll have to see.
Alex Marquardt, thank you so much.
This just in. Officials in Arizona have completed post-election audits in more than half the state's counties. They found no evidence of systemic voter fraud.
President Trump has made baseless claims that election workers incorrectly invalidated thousands of ballots cast in person.
Arizona currently has the closest margin between President-Elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, as you see on the screen. The state has about 25,000 ballots left to count.
And in North Carolina, today is the deadline for ballots to be received as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. Right now, President Trump holds a slim lead.
I want to bring in CNN political director and co-host of the "POLITICALLY SOUND" podcast, David Chalian.
Hi, there, David.
There are some razor-thin margins in some races. Which ones are Republicans focused on right now?
[14:40:04]
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You mentioned the big one in Arizona. Joe Biden has a 11,537-vote lead in Arizona. There's about 20,000, 25,000 ballots outstanding.
Donald Trump would need 75 percent of what's outstanding in order to overtake Joe Biden in Arizona. He hasn't been getting 75 percent of the totals that are getting in.
We'll look to see as more votes comes in from all around the state, especially in Pima County, which is a Biden county. We'll see what more gets reported.
But the bulk of the vote that is out from this Biden stronghold down here. So this is one state.
And then, of course, Republicans are looking in Pennsylvania, in Michigan, in Wisconsin, in Nevada. We mentioned Arizona, the recount in Georgia.
I mean, they're trying everywhere. None of this is sort of a consistent approach, Pam. And none of it suggests that we've seen that the returns will get upended.
BROWN: Based on this year's results, where will Democrats be focusing their efforts for the next four years? Where do you think they can turn the map blue?
CHALIAN: If, indeed, Georgia and Arizona stay blue, as they are right now, that means Democrats are making inroads into this sort of Sunbelt region, which is really important for them in a decades-long project.
Take a look here in Texas, as one place that will be on Democrats' minds for cycles to come.
Just to show you, in 2012, if I can get there -- yes. Mitt Romney had a 16-percentage point lead.
In 2016, Donald Trump had a nine-percentage point lead in the state. Now in 2020, that's down to a six-percentage point lead for the president, for Republicans in Texas.
So Texas is marching along here. Democrats see hope there for the future.
I would note, in North Carolina, which we haven't called yet, the president has a healthy lead right now.
This is a state also, ever since Barack Obama won it in 2008, that Democrats will continue to rely on suburban expansion as a way for potentially North Carolina, in the future, to stay a target and try to bring it to the blue column for Democrats.
BROWN: David Chalian, thank you for bringing us the latest.
CHALIAN: Sure.
BROWN: Well, Canada has a warning for Americans planning to travel and gather in big groups for Thanksgiving. Don't do it. A look at the COVID numbers there one month after their version of the holiday.
Plus, the man in charge of getting a coronavirus vaccine out to the public speaks to CNN. Hear what he thinks the timeline will look like as the country faces record hospitalizations.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:47:06]
BROWN: And this just into CNN. We are learning new details about the plan to distribute a coronavirus vaccine. Whether the vaccine is weeks or months away, the process to get it to Americans is extremely complex and inherently political.
CNN senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, just wrap up an interview with the director of distribution for Operation Warp Speed.
He addressed some of the hurdles they will need to clear. What did you learn, Elizabeth?
DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: He did, Pam. We've been talking for so many months about getting a vaccine that works. Now it appears we may have done that.
The question is, how do we distribute it. This is a big country. This vaccine has very tough handling requirements because it needs to be kept at negative 75 degrees centigrade.
So I ask Mr. Ostrowski, Paul Ostrowski -- he's a retired general, a military man.
I said, all right, you're in charge of this. If the FDA were to give approval tomorrow -- to be clear, they are not -- but if they were to give approval tomorrow for Pfizer's vaccine, would we be ready to go?
Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: If this happened tomorrow, would be we be ready to go? If this happened next week, would be ready to go? When do you think we'll be operationally ready to go today?
LT. GEN. PAUL OSTROWSKI, DIRECTOR OF SUPPLY, PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION, OPERATION WARP SPEED: We are ready to go today.
COHEN: Some of the state immunization managers, they think it is pretty different. They don't feel ready to go at all.
OSTROWSKI: Well, each state has their own status of what they're going through right now with respect to their readiness.
I will tell you that we're working very closely with each and every state to ensure that they are ready to go.
And, again, we do this every day with influenza.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: As we just heard from Mr. Ostrowski, he said that Operation Warp Speed, which is the federal government part of this, he said they are ready to go.
But when I talk to state immunization managers, they do not feel ready to go at all. They do not feel prepared to receive and to administer this vaccine because, as I said, it has to be kept so low. It's a complicated procedure.
The CDC -- a doctor at the CDC called the handling and storage requirements of this vaccine very complex. So we'll have to see what happens from here -- Pam?
BROWN: There's so many layers.
What about distribution? Who gets the vaccine first? And when will the average American have access to it?
COHEN: Right. So the thinking is that there are certain high-priority groups.
Those include frontline medical workers, who work directly with coronavirus patients, people who are elderly, people with underlying conditions. They will be the ones to get it first.
What we're hearing from Dr. Fauci and from others is that could begin to happen by the end of the year, by the end of next month.
But other people who don't fall into these high-priority groups, they will have to wait probably until the spring to get it.
The question is, once this vaccine is distributed, how will it be decided how much goes to each state. There won't be a huge supply. They'll have to decide and they haven't decided that yet.
And that's another step along this process.
[14:50:00]
BROWN: That's another part of the political aspect of this process.
Elizabeth Cohen --
COHEN: Right.
BROWN: -- thank you very much. We appreciate it.
COHEN: Thanks.
BROWN: The CDC says the safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving is the people within your own household. That's it. Experts are pointing to Canada where, one month after holiday celebrations, they're seeing a COVID spike.
Experts warn that Thanksgiving gatherings here in the U.S. will only contribute to a significant surge in cases.
My CNN colleagues are following the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Paula Newton in Ottawa, where Canadian Thanksgiving was exactly one month ago today. And now the country is struggling to cope with a new surge until daily cases, hospitalizations and, sadly, deaths.
Now, public health officials say new daily average cases have doubled since the holiday.
And they are also saying that a lot of this happened from what someone considered harmless, those small social gatherings in the home.
It's worth noting, at the time of the holiday, community transmission in Canada wasn't nearly as high as it is right now in the United States.
It now has some doctors in the country calling for a second lockdown.
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: I'm Pete Muntean, at Reagan National Airport. So many of you are considering whether or not to travel during the Thanksgiving holiday. And mayor airlines think they are about to be the business they have been since March.
American Airlines says it's ramping up its flight schedule the week of Thanksgiving by about 15 percent over United Airlines. It's increasing its flight schedule by about 10 percent.
This is a bit of a gamble for struggling airlines. The industry trend is passengers waiting until the last minute to book, even though airlines insist that it is safe.
About a million people flew on October 18th. That was the record of the pandemic. We will see if travelers set another record during the Thanksgiving holiday.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: We have more breaking news. As Republican Senators push the president to start the transition with President-Elect Joe Biden, we have new reporting on how the president's children feel about the path forward. Stand by on that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:56:45]
BROWN: Just in, CNN is reporting the president's children are split on the path forward for Trump, as he continues to deny he lost the election.
Dana Bash joins me now.
Dana, we have been working on this story over the last day or two.
The sense we've been getting from talking to sources is Ivanka and Jared have a different approach from Don Jr and Eric.
And that approach is not just evident on what we're seeing play out on social media, where you see Don Jr very much out there pushing the fight, making baseless claims about widespread fraud. And Ivanka Trump taking a different tact.
Behind the scenes, we're getting the sense that is what's happening as well.
That Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are more of the mind of, let's let this play out with the court battle and the Georgia recount, knowing full well it's over for the president.
But looking ahead to the future and saying, well, if it exposes anything, then we can apply that to future elections.
Whereas, Don Jr and his brother, Eric, are of the mind of, let's fight as aggressively as we can until the very end.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. We've done this reporting with our colleagues, Gloria Borger and Kate Bennett.
BROWN: Of course.
BASH: And Betsy Klein. And --
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Yes. Thank you for mentioning them.
BASH: No, no. Of course. And you got the headline out there.
But what is so interesting about this is that, as you said, we have seen in public that Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump are out guns blazing. They are extremely aggressive about the fact that they believe
everything is rigged, it's all riddled with fraud, which there's no evidence that that is the case.
They are calling people who may publicly start to disagree with the president on the tack that he's taking.
Whereas, it seems, according to our reporting, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are being much more cautious and signaling to people in and around them and allies on Capitol Hill that this could be over relatively soon.
When I say "relatively," I mean it could be over once they start to see the recount results in Georgia. That date is November 20th.
Once they start to see red states or states that are run by Republicans begin to certify those results.
Because they have lots of different -- lots of different goals and calculations than their brothers do.
I think that has been the case from the start. Not that they all don't want Donald Trump to be successful, because, in his success is their success. But they seem to have a different approach right now.
BROWN: You're seen, with what we're hearing from sources, with Ivanka and Jared, they are walking that fine line where they are trying to be delicate with Trump, knowing he's going through this grieving process, saying we should see this through, the fight.
But they know full well -- they have a realistic view looking ahead of what the end game is here. You're really seeing that contrast.
But in terms of Trump, Ivanka is the only child that is a senior adviser in the West Wing. So she is the one that is right there in his ear consistently.
All right. Dana Bash, thanks for coming on with that reporting.
[15:00:04]
Our special coverage continues now with Brooke Baldwin.
