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Washington Protest Escalate Into Violence; Trump Pushing False Fraud Claims, Refuses To Conceded; US Smashes Another Coronavirus Record; Typhoon Vamco Lashing Vietnam. Aired 12-12:30a ET

Aired November 15, 2020 - 00:00   ET

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

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes.

Coming up here on "CNN Newsroom," protests in Washington have escalated into a night marred by violence. We will take you there live. Another day of the US shattering its own coronavirus record, I'll speak with a doctor seeing the devastation firsthand. And Tropical Storm Vamco is headed for Vietnam this hour. We'll have a live report from the CNN Weather Center.

Welcome, everyone, appreciate your company. Demonstrations in Washington in support of US President Donald Trump and his false claims of election fraud have taken a violent turn. Official say one man was stabbed on Saturday night is in critical condition we're told. The mayor's office says two police officers were also injured, and at least 20 arrests have been made.

We don't have a full picture yet of who was attacked or who might be responsible for the violence. But that's not stopping the President from weighing in, tweeting a short time ago that his supporters "aggressively fought back" after what he described as antifa attack them.

Sara Sidner is on the phone for us from Washington with the very latest. You were there on the street all day, Sara. What happened in DC? How did it unfold?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Look, there's a lot of different skirmishes that were going on for a while, Michael. At the very beginning, there were three different groups, if you will, that went out on social media trying to get people to show up, and that was a wholly peaceful event that started around 9:00 in the morning and went till about 4:00 when they had their permit. That would be so called Million MAGA March that was also coupled with a group called Stop the Steal, and another group called March for Trump.

There were thousands and thousands of people who came out to support Donald Trump because they believe that the election was stolen, although they are going on false information. They were -- it was a holy peaceful event. But as night fell, that's when we started to see some skirmishes.

And really what you're seeing are several different things. You're seeing antifascists who are out, who are anti-Trump as well. And when they see someone from, you know, this Trump supporting side of things who come into the area where they are, we've seen you know, arguments unfold, and then sometimes violent acts unfold as well.

We've also seen, conversely, some of those folks who are anti-Trump, who are walking the streets in large groups. And then, we have seen Trump supporters, including the Proud Boys who he infamously told to stand back and stand by during the very first 2020 presidential debate with Joe Biden. We have seen them running towards a group of people who were not being aggressive, until confronted with a bunch of folks who were coming and screaming, you know, curse words out them. And then, you know, it started to turn into a bit of a melee.

What we also have been saying is that, the police are very heavily involved in trying to stop the two sides from coming together. And this has been happening in places across, really in the area of the capital in the area, at first, the Freedom Plaza and then in the area of Black Lives Matter Plaza.

And so, we've been seeing this kind of dot all over the place in a certain radius, very near. All of the things that sort of denote, this is the capital of Washington, DC here in the States. And so, this has been happening on and off ever since nightfall.

But, there hasn't been a huge amount of violence, but enough to have a very large police presence. And for the most part, Michael, police have come within seconds. Not longer than minutes when there is contact between these two groups, those who support Donald Trump and those who are very much against him.

HOLMES: Yes. Sara, we mentioned the tweet from the President a short time ago. Just -- I want to read it for people so they get a sense of what he said.

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He said, "Antifa scum ran for the Hills today when they tried attacking the people at the Trump rally because those people aggressively fought back. Antifa waited until tonight when 99% were gone to attack innocent MAGA people. DC Police, get going, do your job and don't hold back."

I'm just curious, your sense on the street. What the protesters on either side tell you about the President's role in sort of continuing or stoking this division that we've seen today?

SIDNER: Yes. I mean, you know, for those who support him, often when he makes statements like that, it helps to stoke their confidence in going forward with whatever they decide to do. It certainly helps to generate hatred between the two groups. And so, you know, you'll see some of that, and you'll see it being reflected in what people say, and that the President is with them, if you will. For the other side, it's just another, you know, another statement by the President, which they have come to expect. But to say also, you know, police do your job. If he were to be paying attention and were to be out in the streets like I have been, you will see that the police are very active in DC, more or so than in several other cities that I have been in, they are there, again, within minutes, if not seconds of groups coming together.

That doesn't mean that they're always there in time, if you will, to stop any kind of physical altercation. But again, this has been sort of small skirmishes around the city.

You know, I was talking to some folks who were here visiting and some folks who are from DC and who live in the city. And, you know, they're very disappointed to see and, frankly, some of them are fearful to see what's happening. Many of them have said things to me like, you know, it's so sad that politics has gotten, you know, this acrimonious that, you know, after an election, that people can't just accept what the voters have said, by casting their ballot. And that there's this, there's this absolute anger towards one another when everyone that is out in the streets are Americans who are just trying to live their lives.

There's a lot of disappointment. There's a lot of, you know, fear that building up that this country is in a position where politically it's really broken, if you will, when it comes to relationships between people and people being able to simply talk out their ideas, and not resort to violent acts of screaming and yelling, were nobody's listening to anyone.

HOLMES: Great analysis. Good to have you out there on the street covering. It's Sara Sidner in Washington. Appreciate it, Sara, thank you.

Now, to be clear, Donald Trump has no path to electoral victory, but that is not stopping him, as we were just discussing, from denying reality continuing to push false claims. Jeremy Diamond report for us from the White House.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, one week after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election, President Trump is still refusing to concede and admit defeat in this 2020 election. Instead, what we've seen from the President is continuing to falsely claim that he has won, falsely claiming that there has been widespread voter fraud, and that this election was rigged against him.

Of course, these are the same claims that we saw the President making the run up to the election. But he has only continued to make those despite the clear and overwhelming evidence of this election. Despite the fact that we have seen election officials, Republicans and Democrats in all 50 states make very clear that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. And that in fact, the 2020 election was one of the most secure to date. During this week, we've also seen the President privately, according to our sources, waver between this pugilistic attitude where he says he wants to continue pursuing these lawsuits and recount challenges in key battleground states, and then also at other moments beginning to come to grips with reality.

We saw a sliver of that on Friday as the President spoke in the Rose Garden, acknowledging the possibility at least of a future Biden administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: This administration will not be going to a lockdown. Hopefully, the -- whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration will be, I guess time will tell. But I can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: But on Saturday, we saw the President drive through this crowd of supporters who were protesting in Washington, parodying his claims of a stolen election. And after that, the President seemed to be buoyed by those supporters, digging in once again on his claims of a rigged election, taking to Twitter and making several tweets that Twitter has labeled as misinformation about this election. And the President showing no sign that he is prepared to concede this election publicly. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

HOLMES: For more on this, let's bring in Michael Genovese. He's a Political Analyst and President of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University. Good to see you, Michael.

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We were just talking about the violence in protest in Washington, Saturday. How much damage is being done to the public face in the electoral system by the President's refusal to accept the result of the election?

MICHAEL GENOVESE, PRESIDENT, GLOBAL POLICY INSTITUTE, LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY: Well, let's be clear, Michael, this is unprecedented. You have a president who is intentionally stirring the embers of conflict, by attacking our electoral system and our democracy, by a false narrative that the election was stolen, that it's all unfair, it's fraud. He's inflaming the passions of his followers when he should be calming things down. He's egging them on.

And so, the Proud Boys and sort of the tinfoil hat wearing followers, and there are some of them, who are very susceptible to the President's words, see him throwing gas on this fire and this cannot end in anything that's good.

HOLMES: I'm interested, what direction do you think the GOP will head in as a party once this is all over? I mean, this has essentially been the Trump party for four years, does the party have to regroup in a post Trump world or do you do see it as the party has changed forever?

GENOVESE: Well, Donald Trump won't go away. He's probably going to announce running in 2024. And in the post-loss election autopsy, Republicans are going to have to do some soul searching, then they'll do a lot of finger pointing and there'll be some recriminations. But they have to figure out if they going forward are the party of Trump, because they still has the base and they're still loyal, or if they're going to purge themselves of the influence of Donald Trump, and try to move beyond Trump.

Whether they're going to try to be more moderate and try to attract newer voters, more women, more young folks, maybe Hispanics, or whether they're going to be the sort of the old party of white males. And so, there's going to be a lot of soul searching, and there's going to be a lot of argumentation. But it all hinges on the future and Donald Trump, whether he is in or out of the Republican tent.

HOLMES: Yes. I guess, you know, that is a reality. Joe Biden convincingly, overwhelmingly won the popular vote. However, the Democrats did not do well down ballot. They didn't flip the Senate. They lost seats in the House. The President did grow the vote, and he grew the vote among minorities and so on. Why is that?

GENOVESE: Well, I think there are a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's individual candidates and individual states. But I think what it is, is that we still, as a country, have not agreed on a consensus as to who we are and where we want to go. And we are so divided, and so polarized, that, you know, we're not talking to one another. We're talking and yelling at one another. And so, no one is captured the romance of the time, or the logic of the time. And so, no one has the narrative that they can describe that this is where we are, this is how we got here. This is where we're going, this is how to get there.

There is no consensus or agreement on that. So we remain a fragmented and fractured society. And in that kind of a society, there's no real direction in which we go, which is lurch from one side to another almost mindlessly.

HOLMES: Great analysis as always, Michael Genovese, thanks so much. Good to see you.

GENOVESE: Thank you, Michael.

HOLMES: To the pandemic now, US in dangerous territory. Coronavirus cases spreading like wildfire. It's not even winter yet. One medical expert pointing out, it's not an issue of hotspots anymore. The entire country is a hotspot.

The US just topped 100,000 daily cases for the 12th day in a row. Hospitalizations hit a new high for the fourth straight day, overwhelming medical facilities and health care workers across the country. And the daily desktop top 1,300 at least three times this week.

The Midwestern US, in particular, is seeing big jumps in coronavirus cases lately. Let's have a look at one state, Iowa, which now has more than 181,000 cases, more than 1,900 deaths. And they're seeing record high hospitalizations according to the COVID tracking project.

Dr. Gregory Schmidt is a Critical Care Specialist affiliated with University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Doctor, thanks so much for being with us. I saw you quoted in saying, people in leadership are starting to say things in meetings like I have a sense of impending doom. And it's chilling to hear that, explain.

DR. GREGORY SCHMIDT, ASSOCIATE CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, UNIVERSITY OF IOWA HOSPITALS: Well, these are unprecedented times for us. And we see the numbers, we see the trends. And we know that roughly two weeks after infections, patients will be in the ICU.

And so, we can see our future before us and we're doing everything that we possibly can to get ready. But we know that this is an unprecedented search and we're going to really have stressed systems.

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HOLMES: You are truly frontline, give us a sense because I don't think most people have a clue. Give us a sense of what it is like in the ER as beds fill up. And you're looking patients in the eye, it all seems a bit anonymous for most people, I think.

SCHMIDT: Well, this is a profound illness. Patients become desperately sick, critically ill, unable to breathe, often requiring artificial machines to breathe, sometimes even artificial lungs to replace their failing lungs. So they're desperately ill. And they are separated from their usual support systems. That's one of the things that's particularly unusual about this disease, is that because we're in a pandemic, families are not there, which means these patients are on their own. That's hard on them and it's hard on us.

HOLMES: Well, exactly. I was going to get to that in a moment. But, you know, you are dealing with sick and dying COVID patients, and then, you know, you and the people you work with, perhaps leave and see bars that are packed. People in restaurants, people partying, you know, they're watching the football or whatever. What goes through your minds and the minds of your colleagues when you walk outside and you see that behavior?

SCHMIDT: Well, Michael, frankly, we're concerned. It's -- some of my colleagues are angry. They're scared about what's going to happen. And maybe the best word would be frustrated. Frustrated because the devastation that is in front of us now and worsening in the next few weeks is preventable, at least to a substantial degree is preventable if we took the proper steps.

And so, seeing those people at bars, that's not the proper steps. And that's not going to ameliorate this pandemic.

HOLMES: You touched on this, and I do want to revisit it. You speak about the toll on staff, it has been non-stop months on and that cannot go on forever. What sort of mental toll is taking on medical staff?

SCHMIDT: Well, you know, Michael, on the one hand, we're professionals, and we are doing our job and we will do our job. But when every day, you are up to your elbows in critical illness that is -- that keeps coming. You know, that one of the challenges about this is that, we're kind of mopping up the damage of a virus. And we can do that, but somehow the spigot has got to be turned off.

And this illness needs to be controlled. And those are things that are beyond the power of any one hospital or any one specialty group. This is something that is going to require national action on the part of our leaders and on the part of our population.

HOLMES: Right.

SCHMIDT: I need them to join with us in this fight.

HOLMES: I was just about to ask you about that, what is your message for those showing COVID mitigation fatigue, if we can call it that? You know, I saw a tweet. There was a brand new member of Congress who tweeted yesterday, you know, masks are oppressive. My body, my choice. What do you say to people who continue to push back on coronavirus restrictions, you know, the whole freedom argument?

SCHMIDT: Well, I think freedom is not really the right term. There are many things that we're not free to do because we live in a civilized society. We can't drive down the wrong side of the street. We can't go downtown with our pants off. These are things that in a civilized world, you don't do.

But I think, I actually want to defend the citizens in a sense, because they've gotten conflicted messages. And I think one of the things that the coming administration needs to do, is to be more on point with messaging, a consistent message to the population about what is going to be required to get this under control. Because the vaccine is going to help, it's going to be a while before a vaccine is going to have its effect. And hundreds of thousands of Americans are going to die before that happens.

HOLMES: Absolutely, yes. A pleasure to speak with, Dr. Gregory Schmidt. We appreciate your expertise. We appreciate what you and your colleagues are doing every single day that people I think, by and large, are getting at the moment and it's important. Thank you.

SCHMIDT: My pleasure, Michael. Thank you.

HOLMES: All right. We're going to take a break here on the program. When we come back, Typhoon Vamco making landfall in Vietnam after devastating the Philippines, we're going to have a live report from the CNN Weather Center, next.

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HOLMES: Let's have a look at that. This was the scene in Honduras, says the Colombian Air Force assisted in rescue missions more than a week after Hurricane Eta devastated the region. And another storm is quickly approaching as Tropical Storm Iota heads towards Central America.

Nearly 1 million people in Honduras have been displaced thanks to landslides and major floods from the powerful Hurricane Eta, sparking growing fears as Iota approaches.

And we're also tracking Typhoon Vamco, which is currently bearing down on Vietnam. Let's get the latest now with CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam. Good to see you, Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, nice to see you, Michael. Let's get to the most immediate threat and that is of course, Typhoon Vamco, as you just mentioned, making landfall across central Vietnam just to the north and west of the Danang Region, 150 kilometer per hour sustained winds.

There's a lot of cool ocean water temperatures right along the coast of Vietnam. Really, you need water temperatures above 28 degrees Celsius to sustain a typhoon or a hurricane. Water temperatures, they're just checked about 24 to 25 degrees Celsius. So this has caused rapid weakening in the storm. So this is mainly a rain event for Central Vietnam.

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You can see rainfall totals over the past 24 hours had been substantial over 100 millimeters in some locations. Another 50 to 100 millimeters still in the cards for that area, so the potential exists for landslides, mudslides and flash flooding. And it has been an extremely busy past two months for Vietnam. They've had eight land falling named storms just within the past two months. I mean, that's just incredible. Very similar things happening on the other side of the earth.

This is, of course, the Atlantic Basin, we have had the most amount of named tropical systems across the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. That's the Atlantic Basin.

And unfortunately, we have yet another storm to talk about Tropical Storm Iota, 110 kilometer per hour sustained winds. This storm is strengthening, and it has the potential to rapidly intensify. We use that term when winds exceed 35 miles per hour in strengthening within a 24-hour period. It looks like it may do that and it's going to impact the same areas that major Hurricane Eta struck substantial devastation to Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. So we'll be thinking about those people for sure.

HOLMES: Absolutely. Derek, appreciate you being on duty there. Thanks, Derek Van Dam, for us.

Ethiopians fleeing war in the country's north cross the river into Sudan on Saturday, some using boats and rafts, others risking swimming through the water, all to escape growing conflict. Rebel forces say they launch missile attacks late Friday in retaliation for government air strikes. Two airports targeted with rocket fire. Ethiopia's government accuses the rebels of attacking federal troops. The UN estimates nearly 15,000 people have fled the Tigray Region since the conflict broke out.

Thanks for being with us on "CNN Newsroom." I'm Michael Holmes. If you're an international viewer, "Vital Signs" is up next. If you're with us here in the US, I'll be right back with more news.

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