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Texas Becomes First State to Surpass One Million Cases; Biden Announces COVID-19 Task Force, Urges Mask-Wearing; Raffensperger: Votes Counted Accurately in Georgia; North Korea Silent About President-Elect Biden; Eta Makes Landfall in Norther Florida. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 12, 2020 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to you, our viewers in the United States, Canada, and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Texas is now battling a surge in COVID-19 infections as the state marks a staggering milestone. More than 1 million confirmed cases. On Wednesday, reported more than 10,000 new cases for a second straight day, and as cases climbed, so do the hospitalizations. Medical tests will be set up outside two hospitals in Lubbock, to help expand capacity. The governor of Texas is now deploying additional resources to cities like El Paso where the county judge has extended a stay-at- home order until the end of the month as cases and hospitalizations there soar. CNN's Omar Jimenez has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Churches are empty, businesses no different. And the new reality for El Paso, Texas, where coronavirus has taken hold unlike any other place in the country.

Based on the number of active cases in the population, one in every 30 people in the county actively has COVID-19. The test positivity rate has been at 20 percent or higher since before Halloween, nearly 1,100 people are in the hospital with coronavirus, record levels, and the virus continues to claim lives.

MINERVA MORALES, MOTHER OF DANIEL MORALES: He went to work, that was the last time we saw him. That's the last time his children saw him.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Daniel Morales, a nurse, fought for weeks.

M. MORALES: We'd gather in front of the hospital in the parking lot, every evening at 9:00 p.m., and we'd pray because we believed he'd come home.

FRANCISCO MORALES, DANIEL MORALES' FATHER: I'd always have a positive nature where he's going to be fine, he's going to -- he's fighting this thing off, he's fighting it, he'll be fine. And he never recovered.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Daniel Morales was 39 years old, leaving a wife and four kids behind. It's a pain that's become all too familiar.

JIMENEZ (on camera): This is one of six mobile morgues currently in operation here in El Paso, and they say there are more on the way, just to try and keep up with the number of deaths that we have seen here. All in all, officials here say they can hold up to 176 bodies if necessary. You couple that possibility with what's been a record level of hospitalizations here, and officials say they are on the brink of disaster.

DAVID STOUT, COUNTY COMMISSIONER IN EL PASO, TEXAS: We're in a dire situation.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): David Stout is a county commissioner in El Paso and knows the medical examiner may need even more resources.

STOUT: He's also asked that we start looking for an actual brick-and- mortar situation that has refrigeration.

JIMENEZ (on camera): And that's purely because you have so many bodies backing up?

STOUT: Exactly.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): In recent weeks, the county judge instituted a shutdown of nonessential businesses. Some are pushing back.

JOHN HALMQUIST, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, PIZZA PROPERTIES, INC: Our team members don't have paychecks. If we don't have hours to give them because we can't serve customers, they don't get paid.

JIMENEZ: The state supports the businesses, calling the judge's move illegal, pushing for other mitigation strategies. Stout supports the county judge's order and an extension of the shutdown, especially as numbers across Texas continue to rise.

STOUT: When things start getting worse everywhere else, I mean, people are going to have to go back to those other places, right? And then what's going to happen in El Paso --

JIMENEZ: But the debate over how to proceed -- shut down or not --

M. MORALES: These are his ashes.

JIMENEZ: -- is a back-and-forth Morales no longer has patience for.

M. MORALES: We have an empty chair now. We have a void that will never be filled. And you know what? If I lose my house if I lose my car, I'll replace it, I'll rebuild. But you cannot bring my son back. You can't. And they're arguing over this, and it makes me angry.

Jimenez: Omar Jimenez, CNN, El Paso, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Joining me now from El Paso, Texas is infectious disease specialist Dr. Ogechika Alozie. He is also on the Texas Medical Association COVID-19 Task Force. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us.

Texas, you know, the first state to reach a million cases. El Paso, where you are, one of the worst hotspots. More people are hospitalized with COVID-19 than most states. What does the surge look like on the ground there?

DR. OGECHIKA ALOZIE, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: You know, first of all, thanks for having me. I think one thing people need to understand is that this is not the situation you want to be in. We've sort of gone through this journey that has been COVID, we never expected to be here.

We truly believe that as our community sort of gets its hands around it, we mobilize local state and national resources.

[04:35:00]

But we really hope that by the end of this month or hopefully in December, we can start to see a levelling down of some of these numbers and hopefully going to 2021 with some hope looking at vaccines and some of the antibodies.

BRUNHUBER: In terms of, you know, beds and resources and, you know, just the staff having to deal with this influx of patients, what's it like for health care workers there? What are you seeing?

ALOZIE: Well, I mean one of the things I tell friends that call me and ask the same thing is, we have a tent outside of our multiple emergency room. Those tents are not for camping. Those tents are for putting patients. And that's never the situation you want to be. The physicians, the nurses, the health care community is tired and fatigued. And this isn't like a shooting or a Katrina or a natural disaster that happens a few days or a week. This has been going on for weeks to months. And so, people are tired.

But I think what I'm excited about really going forward is the hope the community has, the focus that our political resources are really putting and trying to get a hold of this in going forward.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, I want to ask you about that in a second, but, you know, you mentioned the tents. I mean, those are concrete images that people have when you hear about the city bringing in more mobile morgues. I mean, those are things that really resonate and hit home with people. You get a sense of dread that the numbers and the charts maybe don't convey. With these more hospitalizations, eventually we will see more deaths. How bad are you expecting this to get there?

ALOZIE: Make no mistake that this is not pleasant. These are darker days that we have ahead. The medical examiner is working through a backlog of unfortunate fatalities. So, again, for me, it's just sort of talk about that picture of hope for our community. We need to get through this.

The buildup that we've had in cases and hospitalizations and eventually unfortunate deaths isn't good. We can get through this if we focus on limiting mobility, physically distancing, and then really focusing on towards the end of this year and to next year. So, that's really what I'm trying to tell the community, that we need to fix this.

BRUNHUBER: What about, you know, lockdowns? I mean, when you look around the country, more and more cities might look like El Paso. There was a local shutdown order there. And so, is that what it's going to take to get this under control there and perhaps in other cities, as well?

ALOZIE: Yes, I think it's important for people to understand that the politics was never going to save us, only we as individuals and communities. Each community has to take this on their own, right? And I think if there's no therapeutic backdrop, there is no backstop to this naturally, individuals in each community will slow down their behavior. They will stop to interact. I think this is not the Thanksgiving to have 10 people over, definitely not the Christmas to have a full family Christmas.

And if people understand that, now that we have that hope at the end of that proverbial tunnel with the therapeutics and potential vaccine next year, they can understand that this is just a slice in time. Let's get into next year. A year from now, we can celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, but critically important we focus on now.

BRUNHUBER: I want to ask you before we go, you know, president-elect Biden had already announced a coronavirus advisory board. So if you could address the board, what would you tell them?

ALOZIE: Well, I think, first of all, great group of scientists. One of my mentors, Dr. Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota, CIDRAP is on it. I know that they are going to do the right things. They're going to focus on the science, the data, and give recommendations to that political team of what needs to happen going forward.

And I'm hoping that we can get away from the politicization of COVID and the recommendations around it and do what we need to as a community and a country to move forward and go into the next year on a better footing.

BRUNHUBER: All right, that's all the time we have. We appreciate you coming on and best of luck over there in El Paso. Dr. Ogechika Alozie, appreciate you joining us.

ALOZIE: Appreciate it.

BRUNHUBER: Well, as we've reported, control of the U.S. Senate hangs in the balance in the state of Georgia. A runoff election in January will determine which party gets control. CNN's Kyung Lah reports, claims of widespread election fraud are muddying the water.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): It's all on the line. All eyes in this country are on Georgia. We are going to save the country.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Control of the U.S. Senate comes down to two Senate runoffs in Georgia. Two incumbent Republican Senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, are rallying their base, in part, by attacking a member of their own party, the Republican secretary of state in charge of the elections.

[04:40:00]

The Senators are calling on Brad Raffensperger to resign, questioning the legitimacy of the results without offering any specific evidence to support their claims.

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: If you report it, we will investigate it. Every legal will count.

LAH: Raffensperger fired back, saying he will not resign. But today, announced a hand recount of the nearly five million ballots in the presidential race in the state, which Joe Biden currently leads by more than 14,000 votes.

RAFFENSPERGER: With a margin being so close, it will require a full by hand recount in each county. This will help build confidence. It will be an audit, a recount and a recanvas.

LAH: Georgia's leading paper condemned the Senators efforts to muddy the results, slamming them as baseless accusations, reckless and a risky side show.

REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK, (D), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: Are you ready for the red, white and blue?

LAH: Senator Loeffler's Democratic challenger, Reverend Raphael Warnock, jumped on the editorial, saying Loeffler intentionally seeked to erode trust in our democracy for her own political benefit.

JON OSSOFF, (D), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: Thank you, all.

LAH: And Senator Perdue's opponent, Democrat Jon Ossoff, also seized on the Republican infighting, calling it a distraction.

OSSOFF: They're fighting amongst themselves over the election results. But the people have spoken.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): This is literally, you know, the showdown of all showdowns in term of politics.

LAH: Back at the crowded indoor Republican rally, Florida Senator Marco Rubio travelled in to stump for his Georgia colleagues, bolstering their message of distrust.

RUBIO: I don't think the politicians, I don't think the media enjoy the credibility any longer to tell people what to believe about these things.

LAH: Turn to the crowd, many not wearing masks. And despite no evidence of widespread voting fraud, supporters say they don't trust the system works.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there's something to it. They got to -- this is the tip of the iceberg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: That was Kyung Lah reporting.

Well, the unusual relationship between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un is coming to an end. That may explain why the North Korea leader hasn't said a word so far about the man who soon will replace President Trump at the White House. We'll have more. Stay with us.

[04:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: Donald Trump might not be willing to admit publicly that his presidency is coming to an end, but many U.S. allies are already looking ahead to the new administration.

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison is the latest world leader to congratulate Joe Biden as the President-elect. Morrison spoke with Biden by phone Wednesday and noted the deep and enduring alliance between the two countries. This coming year marks the 70th anniversary of the historic ANZUS the historic security treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

South Korea's President is among those who have reached out to President-elect Biden but there have been some conspicuous silences, including North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Biden isn't likely to give Mr. Kim the lavish attention and respect he got from President Trump. For that here's Paula Hancocks in Seoul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the legacy for President Trump's North Korean policy. Historic meetings with leader Kim Jong-un. Letters describe by the U.S. President is love letters. A statement signed in Singapore, but little tangible progress on denuclearization.

CHRISTOPHER HILL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SOUTH KOREA: Well it's not really in a better place, it's not at all in a better place as a result of the sort of reality TV diplomacy we saw from President Trump.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: The thugs like in North Korea ...

HANCOCKS: President-elect Biden is very unlikely to have been North Korea's preference. Until today there's been no reaction from Pyongyang, even after Biden called Kim Jong-un a thug in the last presidential debate. North Korea has often welcome to a new U.S. administration with a provocation. Pyongyang launched a missile just three weeks after President Trump's inauguration in 2017. But opinion is split on whether a test is planned for the early days of Biden's presidency.

JOHN DELURY, YONSEI UNIVERSITY: The premise of a test is, Kim Jong-un is desperate, you know, for attention and he needs it. And that's not what I'm seeing. You know, Kim Jong-un looks very focused on just getting through COVID. North Korea's had a really bad year economically.

BIDEN: I know from my discussions ...

HANCOCKS: President-elect Biden has not mentioned North Korea as a pressing national security priority, as outgoing President Obama considered it four years ago. Coronavirus, climate change, racial inequality dominating his attention. He's also not necessarily expected to return to the policy of strategic patients. Waiting for Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table a feature of Obama's time in office.

JOSEPH YUN, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL REP FOR NORTH KOREA POLICY: He has emphasized denuclearization, but at the same time he has emphasized what he called, principled diplomacy. So, I would hope that the engagement door would be more open now.

HANCOCKS: Ambassador Yun said cautions against ignoring what Trump did achieve by talking to Kim Jung-un.

YUN: We need to say what we can, preserve what we can and build from there.

HANCOCKS (on camera): One thing experts do agree on is that President- elect Biden's approach would be far more conventional, working level diplomacy. The days of top-down diplomacy and personality like theater are coming to an end.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: We're in the middle of a dramatic day for Hong Kong's embattled democracy. One by one all of Hong Kong's pro-democracy lawmakers are resigning. One holding an umbrella as a symbol of resistance to China's role. They're quitting in solidarity with four other colleagues who've been sacked after a new decree from Beijing. The political drama started with the ruling that effectively disbars any council member deemed unpatriotic.

Now Western leaders are happy. The U.S. is accusing China of flagrantly violating its own promises to Hong Kong and the world.

And were following some breaking news. Tropical storm Eta has just made landfall on the Florida coastline. Our CNN whether center is tracking the storm. Will have a live update after a quick break. Do stay with CNN for the latest.

[04:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BRUNHUBER: All right, we're following some breaking news. Tropical storm Eta has just made landfall on Florida's northwest coast. The storm's pommeling the region with heavy rain and high winds. There are reports of storm surges more than a meter over the normal tide and some 21,000 customers lost electricity.

Flooding in parts of Florida already has exceeded more than 1 1/2 feet deep with a lot more rain expected in the coming hours. Meteorologist Tyler Mauldin joins us now. Tyler, how bad is it going to be and where is it heading?

TYLER MAULDIN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we're going to see conditions continue to go downhill for portions North Florida and South Georgia but improving across Tampa and areas south over the coming hours. It is heading to the north, and as you mentioned it's made landfall. Now it made landfall near Cedar Key -- and that's right up here in the big bend of Florida. So, 50 miles per hour storm right now, and Eta with this landfall, and this is actually its fourth landfall, the first one was in Central America, second was in Cuba. Then a third landfall in the Keys, and this is its fourth and final landfall in the big bend of Florida. And it makes for the 12th named storm to make landfall during this record-breaking season.

Here's what it looks like on radar now, pretty ragged now that it's made landfall. And that doesn't change the effects, though, even though it's not looking as impressive on satellite and radar imagery. That doesn't change the impacts. We're still seeing a lot of moisture flowing up the peninsula of Florida. And that is leading to heavy rainfall across areas that really don't need the rainfall now because they're waterlogged. You picked up so much rainfall across Tampa, and now Daytona, upwards going up into Jacksonville, you're also seeing it at Ponte Vedra Beach, you're beginning to see the rainfall too.

[04:55:00]

Now South Florida, you've picked up, I would say, about 14 inches of rain, due to Eta since Sunday. You're going to add to the totals, and the National Hurricane Center still thinks that you can potentially get upwards of 2 feet in some portions of south Florida.

Tampa bay has picked up a 6 to 7 inches of rain in some spots, and then you add in a little bit of storm surge and you're definitely going to see flooding. So, we do have flood alerts up across the west coast of Florida because of all of this activity. And again, what's going to exacerbate that, and that would be storm surge. We have Eta up here to the north, and its on shore wind will help bring more water on shore.

The Gulf of Mexico, the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico isn't very steep. It's a gradual slope. That allows this water to go very far inland. So we're seeing some deep storm surge inundation, upwards of 3 to 5 feet across the Tampa Bay area. Now, as Eta pushes to the north, it is going to bring the tropical

storm force conditions to north Florida and South Georgia as I mentioned earlier. So, we do have tropical storm warnings out for that portion of the southeast.

Where does it go from here? It goes over north Florida, but then it actually stays offshore once we get to the end of the week, and that's because of a cold front dropping down. However, that front will work off of Eta to help bring very heavy rainfall across the mid-Atlantic once we get into later on today and also tomorrow. There is the risk, Kim, for flash flooding across that area. So, we have to be watchful for that.

BRUNHUBER: All right, obviously, we'll be following this story throughout the day here on CNN. Meteorologist Tyler Mauldin appreciate it.

MAULDIN: Absolutely.

BRUNHUBER: And that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Kim Brunhuber. "EARLY START" is next.

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