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Biden Cements Victory with Electoral College Count of 306; Trump Claims Election Fraud with No Evidence; States in the Dark about Vaccine Plan; COVID-19 Surge Likely to Impact Holidays. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired November 14, 2020 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST (voice-over): A troubled transition of power during a record-breaking coronavirus surge. Joe Biden works to get a grip on the pandemic despite Donald Trump refusing to acknowledge defeat.
And the vaccine rollout: after positive reports of the trials, exactly how you may eventually get your shot.
It may be a blue Christmas as leaders warn against festive gatherings as long as COVID-19 rages.
Welcome to our viewers. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
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BRUNHUBER: Several groups supporting Donald Trump are expected to hold rallies today in Washington to protest his election loss. Many of them are promoting the president's false narrative that the November 3rd election was rigged.
President Trump tweeted his appreciation for the expected show of support. He said he might stop by to say hello. Now there's virtually no chance that the election result will change. CNN projects that Biden will take Georgia and extend his electoral lead to 306.
All this comes as the U.S. hit a record 20 percent spike in coronavirus from the day before. President Trump has yet to concede and he may never. One week after the election was called for Joe Biden, the president still seems to the cling to the idea that he'll get a second term. Jim Acosta has the latest from the White House.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to the White House Twilight Zone, where President Trump is still publicly clinging to an alternate reality, the one where he can still win the 2020 election.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This administration will not be going to a lockdown. Hopefully, the -- whatever happens in the future -- who knows which administration it will be? I guess time will tell.
ACOSTA: But in the real world, it's a different story, as CNN projects Joe Biden has won Arizona and Georgia, with Mr. Trump clinching North Carolina.
That gives Biden a big 306-electoral vote victory, as the popular vote margin shows the President-Elect to head by more than five million ballots.
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS: I got no impression that he was plotting the overthrow of the elected government.
ACOSTA: Still, some of the president's friends like FOX's Geraldo Rivera are sounding like hostage negotiators, trying to talk Mr. Trump into surrendering to defeat.
RIVERA: Every impression he gave me, Harris, was that, if the process went against him and he was satisfied that every vote, legitimate vote, had been counted and every illegitimate vote had been thrown out, that he would follow the edict of the Constitution and surrender the office.
ACOSTA: The problem is the president still has a team of dead enders enabling him.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who is doubling as a campaign adviser, is spinning the fantasy that Mr. Trump is marching toward a second term.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think the president will attend his own inauguration. He would have to be there, in fact.
ACOSTA: The president's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, sounds stuck in an upside-down world too.
PETER NAVARRO, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF TRADE AND MANUFACTURING POLICY: We're moving forward here at the White House new assumption that there will be a second Trump term. We think he won that election. And any speculation about what Joe Biden might do, I think, is moot at this point.
ACOSTA: They're taking their cues from Mr. Trump, who's tying himself into a pretzel claiming he's been cheated, tweeting, "Now they're saying what a wonderful job the Trump administration did in making 2020 the most secure election ever. Actually, this is true, except for what the Democrats did. Rigged election."
Not so, according to the president's own Cybersecurity Agency, which stated: "The November 3 election was the most secure in American history. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."
And while McEnany insists Mr. Trump will fight it out in the courts...
MCENANY: Read through some of these affidavits. I now have three binders. SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Wait. Hold that up. Let me up. Hold that up. Can I see it?
MCENANY: Well, I have three binders. These are court filings and affidavits. But they're startling, Sean.
ACOSTA: His campaign has dropped a legal challenge in Arizona and his lawyers have bailed on a case in Pennsylvania. Despite those developments, advisers say the president may never can see the race, a contest he once said he couldn't handle losing.
TRUMP: He is the worst candidate ever to run in the history of a presidential election, really. At least, if you lost, you could say, hey, you lost to a good candidate. How the hell do you lose to a guy like this?
ACOSTA: One White House adviser comparing him to the 1991 Detroit Pistons, who famously refused to fake shake hands with the Chicago Bulls, who won the NBA championship that year.
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ACOSTA: The advisor said the president can do the same thing when it comes to the election: leave the stage without conceding defeat -- Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.
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BRUNHUBER: The Biden transition team has found ways to work around the lack of cooperation from the Trump administration. CNN's Jessica Dean has the latest.
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JEN PSAKI, BIDEN TRANSITION ADVISER: We're charging ahead with the transition.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During a virtual briefing, Biden's transition team offering assurances the transition process is moving ahead, even as they continue to wait for the General Services Administration to trigger the official transition process.
PSAKI: We're not interested in having a food fight with the GSA administrator or anyone really. We just want to get access to intelligence information, to threat assessments, to the ongoing work on COVID, so that we can prepare to govern.
DEAN: With official access to federal agencies blocked, CNN has learned Biden's transition team is back-channeling with governors, the private sector and the medical community to prepare its COVID-19 response.
Biden's newly named chief of staff, Ron Klain, said in his first interview since getting the job that Biden will issue a national mask mandate on his first day in office and install a White House COVID coordinator. RON KLAIN, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: And he will have a COVID coordinator who works in the White House who has direct access to him and will be briefing him daily.
DEAN: When it comes to Republican outreach, Klain says Biden has spoken to some GOP governors and senators, but not Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who so far has refused to acknowledge Biden as President-Elect.
KLAIN: There will be a time and a place for Joe Biden and Senator McConnell to talk.
DEAN: In a new interview, former President Barack Obama expressed his disappointment in Republicans for not pushing back against President Trump's false allegations of election fraud or his refusal to concede.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's damage to this, because what happens is that the peaceful transfer of power, the notion that any of us who attain an elected office, whether it's dogcatcher or president, are servants of the people. It's a temporary job. We're not above the rules. We're not above the law. That's the essence of our democracy.
DEAN: CNN has also learned that members of Biden's transition team are reaching out to former Pentagon officials who worked under former Defense Secretary James Mattis.
Remember, they're not allowed to contact the current Pentagon officials right now. Former officials were the best they could get, trying to get the lay of the land inside the Pentagon -- Jessica Dean, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
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BRUNHUBER: Leslie Vinjamuri is head of the U.S. and Americas Programme at Chatham House in London.
Thanks for joining us. As we just heard the Biden team is finding workarounds through their experience and contacts, reaching out to former officials. We're assured by some Democrats and experts. We don't have to worry.
Others are saying, because Biden isn't getting the briefings and can't put his team together, get people vetted, it potentially could lead to another 9/11.
Which side do you fall on?
LESLIE VINJAMURI, CHATHAM HOUSE: I think it's inevitably somewhere in the middle. We know that President-Elect Biden is putting his team together, very seriously pushing forward on that. He got a raft of highly accomplished and experienced people who are deeply familiar across the range of issues.
They're moving forward as best they can at a precarious moment for the United States. To do this in the context not only of a belligerent president, who isn't accepting defeat, in a pandemic, is a serious dereliction of responsibility.
But the question is, how will it impede the vaccination?
I think that is the gravest possible outcome.
The second question is, what is the rest of the world doing?
Right now, President Trump is relying on the good will of the rest of the world to treat America with kid gloves.
What if somebody decides to take advantage?
I think that's a scenario that would be deeply worrying, not only because of President Trump's decision to get rid of the Secretary of Defense and others and the uncertainty that creates but across a range of agencies. It's not a time for the United States not to be fully on guard and to be collaborating on other measures.
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BRUNHUBER: Turning back to those domestic issues, Biden ran on the promise of bipartisanship.
What does this continued intransigence from Republican leadership, suggest about that hope?
You wrote, "Physical infrastructure is desperately needed in America but the only bridges that can save the nation are built between the nation's divided communities."
How does he do that?
VINJAMURI: I think there's going to be a period of reckoning for America and the reckoning over the results of this election and the narrative that that accompanies that is going to need to come from the Republican Party.
It's not going to happen while President Trump is still in power and it's not going to happen before those runoff races in Georgia that will determine the fate of the Senate, at least in the short term.
Clearly the Republican Party is still in campaign mode. It must be incredibly uncomfortable to be a Republican senator especially right now, understanding that you're going to against the will of the American people and America's democracy and knowing that, if you don't speak up soon, history will judge you, people will judge you.
But I think, once we're through this moment, President-Elect Biden is incredibly well placed through his deep history with the Senate to build those bridges. I think we'll begin to see movement in the Senate after they're liberated from a president who still hasn't acknowledged the results.
But also, according to international election observers, it's one of the most carefully and thoroughly conducted elections with the greatest turnout in over one hundred years in the context of a pandemic. Frankly, it's extraordinary that it's been delivered as effectively it has. But the politics around it are really toxic.
BRUNHUBER: And there is so much that needs to be done, there will be some coming together, one of the key issues will be trade, I'm wondering how Biden will negotiate that as he moves away from America first without alienating the very states that won him the presidency, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
VINJAMURI: If we look at the tariff wars, it's quite clear they haven't benefited the American family, they haven't benefited the American consumer. And I think when -- when a President Biden after January 20th puts that to the American people, when he turns to America's long, long-time partners in Europe and he works with them to counter some of the really concerning challenges in the global economy related to China and market access and he puts forward a more credible plan accompanied by domestic investment in those states, such as Pennsylvania, that are so important to him and to the American people, so important to this election, that whole package, integrated approach to the domestic economy, to the international economy, I think that people will begin to understand.
I think American families know that the tariffs really haven't helped them.
BRUNHUBER: Leslie Vinjamuri, thank you so much. We appreciate it.
VINJAMURI: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: The president-elect's transition team is also criticizing the Trump's administration lack of cooperation on the coronavirus. A member of Mr. Biden's COVID team, says that could pose real danger.
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DR. CELINE GOUNDER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: This is truly a national security threat and I can't even imagine another situation if we were in the midst of a war, that you wouldn't have handoff of information and plans to a succeeding president.
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BRUNHUBER: Concerns come as U.S. coronavirus numbers are heading in the wrong direction and fast. The country smashed another record Friday, more than 184,000 new infections, the most confirmed in a single day, more than 20 percent higher than the day before.
Deaths and hospitalizations are also rising across the country. Health care workers say they're overwhelmed and running low on resources.
Now all eyes are on a potential vaccine. Mr. Trump touted the contributions of his Coronavirus Task Force for the development of Pfizer's vaccine, still awaiting regulatory approval. But many states are wondering how an approved vaccine will be distributed.
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BRUNHUBER: CNN's Sara Murray explains. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the U.S. on the cusp of a coronavirus vaccine, states are still in the dark about how many doses they may get, yet another hurdle in the scramble to nail down distribution plans.
CLAIRE HANNAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE ASSOCIATION OF IMMUNIZATION MANAGERS: States have heard different reports about how many doses they'll get. Pfizer is saying they'll have, you know, several million ready to go. We're not quite sure exactly how many it will be.
MURRAY (voice-over): With Pfizer's vaccine showing promising results in clinical trials and Moderna on the verge of announcing its own efficacy data, experts say a vaccine could be available to some Americans beginning in December.
HANNAN: It will be targeted to priority populations, mostly health care workers and essential workers and those over 65.
MURRAY (voice-over): But the alphabet soup of government agencies overseeing the vaccine effort, CDC, DOD, HHS, has states struggling to plan for what's to come, adding to the unease, memories of severe shortages in personal protective gear early in the pandemic, which left states clamoring for more supplies and undermined confidence between states and the federal government.
Once again, states tell CNN they're looking for more clarity and transparency.
In Missouri, General Gustave Perna, one of the leads of Operation Warp Speed, told a top health official he knew how many doses a state would likely get but wasn't willing to share the number yet.
In California, officials say they're planning for multiple scenarios and, in Minnesota, officials say they need more federal funds to carry out a vaccination program. The government hasn't publicly revealed its allocation formula. But HHS official Paul Mango says they'll take into account priority groups in each state when doling out doses.
PAUL MANGO, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR POLICY, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: We know how many folks are residents in nursing homes, for instance. We can get through the Bureau of Labor Statistics and otherwise information on the number of frontline health care workers, the number of folks, again, through the Department of Agriculture and others.
MURRAY (voice-over): Once states learn how many doses they'll get, they'll decide where to direct them. Pfizer's vaccine comes with an added challenge. It must be kept around minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which will limit where it's available.
ALEX AZAR, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: The Pfizer vaccine requires extra cold storage. It also will come in large quantities so it will be best attuned early on to mass vaccination programs; for instance, of healthcare workers at hospitals or our skilled nursing facilities.
MURRAY (voice-over): Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: President Trump is taking aim at New York governor Andrew Cuomo threatening to withhold a shipment of COVID-19 vaccines to the state, citing comments made by the governor in September about having a scientific panel review federal approval of vaccine candidates.
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TRUMP: He doesn't trust the fact that it's this White House, this administration, we won't be delivering it until New York until we have authorization to do so.
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BRUNHUBER: Governor Cuomo called President Trump a bully and the steps he were taking to maintain the safety of the vaccine.
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GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): We're in a situation now where half the people in the country are saying, I don't know if I should trust the vaccine. A number of states, New York included, but a number of states set up a separate scientific panel that will review the FDA's approval to give people confidence in the approval process.
Ours is headed by a Nobel Prize laureate to establish the credibility that they don't have in President Trump because they believe he politicized the health process.
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BRUNHUBER: How do we celebrate holidays in the middle of a global pandemic?
Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back.
In Europe, the coronavirus picture, it's mixed. Several European countries make up some of the biggest viral hot spots right now.
Just one example, Austria on Friday reported a daily record of more than 9,500 coronavirus infections. But infection rates for other European nations are improving. The numbers are starting to flatten in Germany, France and Belgium. And Madrid is expected to relax some restrictions there in some districts.
Still as cases escalate across most of the world, the reality of the pandemic and the likely impact on the upcoming holidays are sinking in. Michael Holmes gives us a glimpse of what the season might look like.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A rainbow of colors, of lamps, baubles and firecrackers, decorate shops in India. A brilliant display of holiday wares mark Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.
This year, officials worry the occasion will spark a new surge in the coronavirus, as large crowds of people, tired of months of restrictions, look for a reason to celebrate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so bored at home, that I'm just trying to go out, I don't care about COVID.
HOLMES (voice-over): A different holiday but the same fears in many parts of the world. The Philippines already decking the halls for Christmas. But the government is urging people to avoid holding and attending crowded social gatherings.
Church services are also limited there, which could make the season a more somber one.
Ireland, currently under a six-week lockdown, said that if cases decline, it will consider a phased reopening, beginning in December, to allow people to enjoy the season. Though one official warns, restrictions on travel to Ireland, still in the air.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In terms of people booking flights, for Christmas, to come home, I would advise them to not do that at the moment. I know it's difficult, I know it's tough.
HOLMES (voice-over): In the U.S., the mayor of Chicago advising all residents to stay home, starting on the 16th, saying, people should consider canceling the upcoming traditional Thanksgiving celebrations, something health experts say, would be hard to swallow for some.
FAUCI: Obviously, it's difficult to be, eating and drinking, at a dinner, with a mask on. You can't do that. But to the extent that you can keep the mask on.
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FAUCI: I mean, nothing will be perfect in this.
HOLMES (voice-over): Canadian officials say they saw a new spike in cases after it celebrated its Thanksgiving, about a month ago. Prime minister Justin Trudeau, warning, Christmas could be in jeopardy if people do not reduce their contact.
JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: You have to reverse these trends now. HOLMES (voice-over): Still, some places, trying to find ways to keep
the holiday spirit up and the number of infections down, like this business in Germany, which turned its Christmas market into a drive- through.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My biggest Christmas wish?
The coronavirus is finally brought under control, that next year is halfway normal again.
HOLMES (voice-over): Even time-honored traditions like sitting on Santa's lap will have to adjust for this year's social distancing. The school for Santas in the U.K., giving Saint Nick a crash course in video conferencing to prepare for virtual visits with children. This focuses less on a global pandemic and more on toys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think, this year, we need it more than ever, it is watertight, it is safe and it will happen. Christmas is go.
HOLMES (voice-over): The wish of a weary world, in need of a bit of cheer -- Michael Holmes, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: That wraps up CNN NEWSROOM for our international audience. "Vital Signs" with Dr. Sanjay Gupta is up next.
But in the United States and Canada, stay with us we have much more news after this.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back.
Many states are grappling with surging coronavirus cases, just like the nation as a whole. Among them is Utah, where emergency measures are in effect to try to curb the spread. About every metric you can track there is trending in the wrong direction.
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LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The coronavirus pandemic is ravaging the State of Utah cases skyrocketing, the death count soaring officials sounding the alarm.
GOV. GARY HERBERT (R-UT): We're at the breaking point and ready to have some serious repercussions.
KAFANOV: The numbers shattering records. The state recording nearly 4,000 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, Utah's seven-day new case average now at a record 2,738 cases, the positivity rate for the first time surpassing 23 percent and the death toll nearing 700 and climbing.
HERBERT: Those numbers should be alarming to all of us as we look at the death rates and those that are being hospitalized and the overrunning of our hospital system.
KAFANOV: The surge wreaking havoc on hospitals.
Is Utah at a tipping point when it comes to COVID infections?
DR. ELIZABETH MIDDLETON, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HOSPITAL: I think so.
KAFANOV: Dr. Elizabeth Middleton helps oversee the University of Utah hospital's intensive care unit and is preparing for another surge.
MIDDLETON: If you ask me in two weeks, we'll be having a different situation again, because I think we'll see our hospitalizations increase across the state. And again, it's the suffering that weighs on me. The suffering of the patients, the suffering of the staff who feels helpless.
HERBERT: I'm declaring a new state of emergency to address hospital overcrowding.
KAFANOV: The crisis leading Governor Gary Herbert to issue a two-week state of emergency, requiring all Utahans to mask up, despite previously resisting a mandate, banning residents from socializing with people from different households, ramping up testing across the state, even deploying more National Guard to help with testing and contact tracing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's crazy to think that this lady right here is -- this is what she is now, just memories. And it's heartbreaking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is one of the last photos taken of them together.
KAFANOV: But Lindsay Wootton says those measures are too little, too late. Her grandfather died of COVID-19 last month. Days later, the woman she calls her best friend, her mom, also lost her life to COVID. Her father battled the disease for 46 days in the hospital, now home recovering and mourning the love of his life.
LINDSAY WOOTTON, LOST MOTHER AND GRANDFATHER TO COVID-19: The whole day was probably one of the harder days of my life.
KAFANOV: She recalls when doctors broke the news her mom wasn't going to survive. Moments later, she learned her grandfather was about to pass.
WOOTTON: We called my grandpa and I put him on speakerphone so he could talk to my mom. He called my mom Kiddo. He called us all Kiddo.
But he said, "Kiddo, I'm not doing good."
And she said, "Dad, I'm not either."
And he said, "Trey, I'm dying."
And she said, "Dad, I am too."
And he said, "Then I'll look for you in heaven."
KAFANOV: She wants others to learn from her family's tragedy.
WOOTTON: It's frustrating that people brush it off, that it is just the flu, because for some people, it's not. For some people, it costs their life. It took my mom and that's irreplaceable. My kids -- my kids don't get their grandma. My mom will never see my kids get married.
KAFANOV: Now dozens of people in her family were affected by COVID, so much so that part of her mom's funeral had to be broadcast by Zoom. Her story is a microcosm of what's happening to families across the state of Utah and across the country. Her message: this isn't political; if something as simple as wearing a mask can save even one life, please do so -- Lucy Kafanov, CNN, Salt Lake City, Utah.
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BRUNHUBER: It's not yet clear how this latest surge in cases could impact the already-struggling economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve chair calls it a key risk. Jerome Powell is also dashing hopes that a vaccine could provide a quick fix. He's warning things will likely be changed forever.
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JEROME POWELL, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE: Even after the unemployment rate goes down and the economy is -- and there's a vaccine, there will be probably a substantial group of workers that are going to need support as they find their way in the post-pandemic economy because it's going to be different in some fundamental ways.
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BRUNHUBER: Ryan Patel is a senior fellow at the Drucker School of Management and joins me now from Los Angeles.
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BRUNHUBER: Thanks so much for coming on.
Jobless claims were down for the fourth straight week, unemployment fell and there's a vaccine in sight. But before we get too giddy, there are plenty of alarm bells. The Federal Reserve chair rang some of them, saying we're going to go back to a different economy.
How worried should we be, even with a vaccine, the economy as we knew it may never be the same?
RYAN PATEL, GLOBAL BUSINESS EXECUTIVE: It won't be the same. Pre- COVID, we knew that economy was going to evolve with technology. We were just talking about it. What the pandemic, has allowed is a spotlight on what's going to be in the future and the way society has moved. It's clear that the way that we used to do things, the way we work, the way we ship, the way we buy, has changed.
It will have a spillover effect in the workforce. And Jerome Powell, with all the news, he was trying to be realistic, to tell everybody, the longer this goes in the pandemic, the more entrenched that it takes us longer to recover.
So I don't think he's trying to set expectations, that there's going to be a recovery process and what the U.S. does in its economy to continue to evolve is something that needs to be talked about.
BRUNHUBER: You know, when I was in L.A. reporting, I have done plenty of stories on those long-term trends and how technology and automation is changing the service sector, for instance. And people were talking about how, you know, women, Black people, Latinos were especially vulnerable.
Is that the same in this case, post-COVID?
PATEL: If you see the unemployment numbers and who's being hit the hardest, that's what you're seeing. When you talk about A.I., these things that were going to happen in future, retail and restaurants are getting hit the hardest. Small businesses are getting hit very hard.
How are they going to recover?
Let's talk about manufacturing, what has happened, there's a negative side and a plus side. The PPE, the manufacturing, 3D printing stepped in.
Do you think manufacturing is going to go back to what normal was?
Or are they going to move forward with the technology to continue to take advantage of these opportunities?
I think part of this is, companies and businesses and governments need to help understand and retool their citizens and their employees, some of the top companies are starting to do that behind that. But I think we need have a conversation as a global community and society, what are the skill sets that we need to enhance?
BRUNHUBER: That's kind of looking into the future. But for the here and now, in the next weeks and months, 22 million people were laid off in March and April; 12 million have gone back to their jobs> That's still 10 million or so who haven't. And now cases are rising, some areas are going back to lockdowns.
What effect could this have?
PATEL: Yes, a couple of months ago, you would hope to see we were going in the right path. But look at what's happening in Europe, having that lockdown, it's safe to say, if that happens again in the U.S., you know, that's going to have a trickle effect to postpone more things further.
Many of these companies were waiting for the initial stimulus.
If we go back to lockdown, is that going to occur again over the next three, four months?
It's the case, to open the economy, to have everybody healthy and safe, understanding that if this is the new normal, they know how to handle it.
But businesses know they can't fully open and that's a problem.
BRUNHUBER: You mentioned the stimulus package, you know, still stuck in Congress, Biden has promised a wide range of relief measures. But if Democrats don't get control of the Senate then what difference will that make?
PATEL: One thing, this is my opinion, they need the support. Jerome Powell said there needs to be support, a stimulus package to the workers, 11 million-12 million people who are directly affected by this.
Both sides need to be very targeted about helping industries. This is a second stimulus package, not the first one. We need a second one because there's no more. We still need help.
I'm hoping both sides will realize that, you know, with the cases rising, there's no back and forth. You need to get something quickly not only for the U.S. but citizens and hopefully the global community as well.
BRUNHUBER: Let's hope for the millions of people out there affected by this. Ryan Patel, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
PATEL: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: The cruise ship Sea Dream was supposed to show the world that the cruising industry could set sail again even without a coronavirus vaccine.
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BRUNHUBER: But despite all the safety measures, the virus has managed to sneak its way onboard. CNN's Patrick Oppmann report on how seven passengers so far have tested positive for COVID-19.
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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Months after the pandemic altered the operations of cruise lines around the globe. The sailing of the Sea Dream I was meant to show that cruises were again open for business in the Caribbean. Passengers were promised luxury.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'll be greeted on board with champagne, cold towels, hors d'oeuvres and big smiles.
OPPMANN (voice-over): And safety: passengers say they were supposed to self-isolate and have two negative COVID tests before setting sail. BEN HEWITT, CRUISE WITH BEN AND DAVID: We had to have two tests before
we left; one, 72 hours before, which was a full PCR test and then, at the port, again, we had oxygen level tests, temperature checks a few times as well as another PCR rapid test by the ship's doctor. So, we were in full hope that this was going to be a really safe cruise.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Passengers initially were not required to wear masks. As they say, they were told by the, crew that the ship was a COVID free bubble. Then, a few days into sailing, guests were told to wear masks but not what prompted that change.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go take a look.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Several of the guests were cruise industry journalists and bloggers there to cover this new, reimagined way of cruising during the pandemic. With only 53 passengers and 66 crew, passengers said, they felt safe.
HEWITT: Here we the main lounge and there was so much seating so people can stay far apart and keep social distance.
OPPMANN (voice-over): But that illusion of safety burst on Wednesday, when the ship's captain announced there was one positive case of COVID aboard the ship and that all passengers had to isolate in their cabins.
GENE SLOAN, THE POINTS GUY: I was probably overconfident. I did not expect this to happen. I looked at what had been planned, you know, I looked at the testing and the social distancing, whatever there was. I was nobody's going to get sick on the ship.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Soon the number of cases grew to seven people who tested positive. Passengers were still enjoying the fine dining but said the food now had to be served under the room doors.
On Friday, passengers said the captain told them everyone who had had two recent negative tests would be able to disembark the ship in Barbados and fly home.
HEWITT: So, it is just so disappointing that this has happened because everybody had their hopes up high and we cannot see anything more that they could have done. It's just such a horrible virus, it just gets everywhere, even with the constant testing.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Not only was this maiden cruise cut short but the future of the industry, now, more than ever, is in doubt -- Patrick Oppmann, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: U.N. officials are worried fighting in Ethiopia could escalate into a civil war and it's already causing a humanitarian crisis. Coming up, we'll explain what's behind the violence.
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BRUNHUBER: Fighting between the Ethiopian government and a local political party in the north has forced thousands of people to flee to camps in neighboring Sudan. Food and fuel are in short supply. Here are reports of a massacre and some officials worry the conflict is rapidly escalating. David McKenzie explains what's driving the violence.
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DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Under a state of emergency with communications cut, this is some of the only video emerging from Ethiopia's Tigray region, seemingly far from the fighting, soldiers posing on state TV. But a senior U.N. official warning that the conflict could spiral out of control.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling for a full inquiry into a brutal mass killing; possibly of hundreds of day laborers that Amnesty International says occurred in Southwest Tigray on November 9th. Witnesses told Amnesty that it looks like the dead were killed by knives and machetes.
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ABIY AHMED, ETHIOPIAN PRIME MINISTER: This mischievous force is surrounded on all sides. It's a force in its final throes of death. Your children are suffering death and injuries on the front line.
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MCKENZIE: Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said that the concerns his country will descend into chaos are unfounded, but fears of an all-out civil war continue to grow. The recent tension in the north began in August, when Abiy's government delayed elections because it said the risk of COVID-19 was too high.
They held elections in Tigray anyways, setting off an escalation of rhetoric and action. That tension turned into full-blown conflict in early November, with an alleged attack by the Tigray people's liberation front, or TPLF, on a federal military base in the region.
For the prime minister, a red line had been crossed and he ordered troops in. Remember, this is the same prime minister who won a Nobel Peace Prize last year. He quickly negotiated peace with Eritrea, ending a dangerous stalemate following the Ethiopia/Eritrea war that ended in 2000.
But peace at home is proving more difficult to achieve. In Ethiopia's federal system, regions often divided among ethnic lines have considerable autonomy and run their own police force and militia.
When Abiy came into power, his appeal was built in part with his campaign of synergy, an effort to promote Ethiopia United above regional or ethnic lines.
Some accused him of a power grab, including regional leaders in Tigray, and they complained that Abiy's promises of a democratic transition were sham.
That set up a clash between the central government and regional capital leaders. Ethiopian parliament has since dissolved the region's leadership and Abiy has arrested opponents. He tweeted that the TPLF has shown criminal hubris and intransigence and says he's just enforcing the country's rule of law -- David McKenzie, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: And we'll be right back.
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BRUNHUBER: Fans of the "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" have something new to look forward to. The cast of the popular '90s sitcom returns next week for a reunion special. Will Smith, the prince himself, released this sneak peek.
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WILL SMITH, ACTOR: You couldn't be ready for this trailer. Happy Thanksgiving. Yes, you're welcome, Will. Thank you, Will, You're welcome. Thank you, Will. Yes, you're welcome, Will.
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SMITH: How crazy is it walking in here?
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The special starts streaming Thursday on HBO Max in honor of the show's 30th anniversary. HBO Max and CNN share the same parent company, Warner Media.
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BRUNHUBER: And this wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "NEW DAY" is just ahead. Stay with us.
