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COVID-19 Surging Across Texas; Trump Pushes Fraud, Refuses To Concede; Republicans Resist Acknowledging Trump's Loss; Europe Tightness Coronavirus Restrictions; Jared And Ivanka Likely To Find New York Society Unwelcoming. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired November 15, 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): The U.S. president is blaming Antifa for violence on the streets of the U.S. capital as Trump supporters protest Joe Biden's clear and fair election win.

Meanwhile the pandemic rages. The U.S. posts six-figure case numbers for 12 consecutive days with warnings that the worst is yet to come.

And some other countries aren't managing this wave much better. Europe trying to cope with new restrictions despite COVID fatigue.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to you, our viewers here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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BRUNHUBER: There's been a strong police presence in the nation's capital after a violent confrontation between pro-Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters. Officials say one person is in critical condition with stab wounds. Two police officers were injured and at least 20 people arrested. Sara Sidner followed the unrest as it unfolded.

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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Really, what you're seeing are several different things. You're seeing anti-fascists, who are out, who are anti-Trump as well.

And when they see someone from the Trump supporting side of things, who come into the area where they are, we've seen 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 toward a group of people who were not being

aggressive until confronted with a bunch of folks who were coming and screaming curse words at them. And then it started to turn into a bit of a melee.

What we also have been seeing is that the police are very heavily involved in trying to stop the two sides from coming together.

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BRUNHUBER: President Trump blamed the violence on left-wing agitators. He claims his supporters sent attackers running for the hills. The unrest erupted hours after a pro-Trump rally to protest his election loss.

As you can see in the upper right of your screen, the president's motorcade made a slow pass through the crowd on his way to a golf course.

Despite what his supporters think, he has no legitimate path to a second term. So far his legal challenges have been tossed out of court for having no merit. He continues to insist he was cheated in a fraudulent election. U.S. officials have said repeatedly and emphatically that isn't true. We get more from Jeremy Diamond at 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 we saw the president make in 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 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 the lawsuits and recount challenges in key battleground states and also, at other moments, beginning to come to grips with reality.

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: 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.

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DIAMOND: But on Saturday we saw the president drive through this crowd of supporters who were protesting in Washington, parroting 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.

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DIAMOND: Taking to Twitter, 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.

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BRUNHUBER: President-elect Joe Biden is staying above the drama. His primary focus is on the pandemic. CNN's Jessica Dean has those details.

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JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President-Elect Joe Biden spending the weekend meeting with his transition advisers. Earlier this week they announced the formation of their COVID-19 advisory board as they look toward the coronavirus pandemic and what they'll be able to do when Biden assumes office on January 20th.

As it stations now, the General Services Administration, the federal office responsible for validating Biden as the new president-elect and triggering this formal transition process, has yet to do that.

And what that means is that the Biden transition team cannot formally interface with any of the federal agencies. That includes Health and Human Services. That includes the Coronavirus Task Force out of the White House.

That's important because, when it comes to things like a vaccine distribution plan, plans are already being drawn up in Health and Human Services for what that might look like. And the Biden team, which will be in place once that would start, is not allowed to talk back and forth with them.

So what have they been doing?

We know that they have been doing some work-arounds, back channeling with local officials, governors, people in the medical community, trying to do as much as they can without interfacing with these official agencies. They're still waiting for that green light.

But they will tell you they feel good about where they are with their advisory board. The president-elect releasing a statement on Friday, saying urgent action is needed right now when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. It can't wait until he takes office in January.

He urged Americans once again to do all the things that he's been saying, wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands but acknowledged that he won't be in office until January but that the coronavirus pandemic is on its own timeline -- Jessica Dean, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

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BRUNHUBER: So to talk about all this, let's speak to Inderjeet Parmar, a teacher of international politics at City University in London.

Thank you very much for joining us. I want to start with what we're seeing in Washington, the Trump administration and his allies refusing to concede, rallies by his supporters, even isolated violence between pro- and anti-Trump factions.

Before the election you were signatory to a letter warning the president's refusal to accept the result of an election, you wrote, "There could be a rapid increase in radical right extremism, including increased risks of domestic terrorism."

Much of what you wrote about in that letter in October has come to pass.

So how worried are you by what you're seeing now?

INDERJEET PARMAR, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, CITY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: Well, I think it is worrying. The United States is -- it may not be an exceptional state but it isn't an ordinary state. What goes on inside the United States, its democracy and with other issues like race relations, they reverberate around the around.

The United States right now appears to be sleeping -- sleepwalking toward a coup by an authoritarian president who is refusing to abide by a fair election result.

And the leadership of the Republican Party, the principal leadership of it, at the national and state levels, is aiding and abetting him. So the mainstream conservatives, so-called, are aiding a much more right-wing kind of pressure to not accept a democratic election result.

And that is what is dividing the country. It's polarizing it. It's hardening the boundaries between the population. And whether or not President Trump remains to remain in power, despite the result, he's actually -- appears to be paving the way to making America ungovernable and releasing the Proud Boys and other right-wing forces and white supremacists in that project.

BRUNHUBER: Well, so, I mean, given all of that, where does the Republican Party go from here?

You wrote Trumpism will remain a major force in U.S. politics.

How exactly like, literally with Trump running in 2024 or will someone else pick up the baton?

PARMAR: Well, you have 72 million votes for President Trump. He has a very, very loyal base, probably more loyal than to any president in American history right the way through his presidency. He continues to command support; 70 percent of them have been persuaded that the election has been unfair and fraudulent and so on.

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PARMAR: I think either he's paving the way to return in 2024 for a second run at the presidency or he wants to be the kingmaker of the party; that is, by sucking up whatever kind of TV networks or whatever he may be planning, he wants to remain a kingmaker.

That's to way that President Trump is going to be likely to be around but the whole idea of Trumpism and the manner of politics, authoritarian politics, populist politics, untruth politics, I think that's going to remain. He didn't invent that, actually, but he has harnessed it fully.

And the Republican Party leadership is playing a dangerous game. I think they believe they can harness that Trumpism but let Trump go gently. And they have the Georgia runoffs in the Senate in January in their minds at the moment.

But it's such a dangerous game, with the mainstream conservatives playing a game of betting and appeasing the extreme right. We've seen historically what can happen when that sort of those two forces combine with one another, with one thinking, the mainstream thinking, they can control that genie, which they appear to be letting out of the bottle.

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BRUNHUBER: Our thanks to Professor Inderjeet Parmar, who joined me earlier.

The coronavirus pandemic is raging across the U.S. as Thanksgiving approaches. Just ahead, why recent spikes in new cases have health experts worried about the holiday. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The coronavirus pandemic is painting a grim picture across the U.S. Daily new cases have topped 100,000 for the 12th day in a row. Hospitalizations hit a new high for the fifth straight day, overwhelming medical facilities and health care workers across the country.

Those numbers have health officials worried that an unprecedented surge of new infections could follow the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Some states are enacting new restrictions, like limiting the number of people gathering in a household as well as stay at home orders that run through the end of the month.

Advisers to President-Elect Biden are also worried that a lack of leadership from the current administration could lead to more financial pain for Americans.

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MIKE OSTERHOLM, CENTER FOR DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY INSTITUTE: How are we going to help support our communities if we're asking them to reduce their work time, what is open?

We need to protect the waitress that doesn't have a job anymore. We need to make a conscious decision, are we going to open bars and restaurants or our schools?

We need to look at all those issues collaboratively and with the financial support to basically make do what we have to. At this point I don't see that leadership coming and it's going to take really, unfortunately, until January, when President Biden can get in and hopefully make a big difference.

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BRUNHUBER: Texas is swamped with coronavirus hospitalizations and new infections. It was the first state to pass 1 million cases. Texas crossed that marker Tuesday, days ahead of California, even though California has roughly 10 million more people.

More than 7,000 Texans were hospitalized due to COVID-19 as of Friday according to the state's health department.

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BRUNHUBER: Dr. James McDeavitt is the senior vice president and dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine and he joins me now from Houston.

Thank you for joining us, Doctor. We've seen how bad the situation is elsewhere in Texas. Places like El Paso, where they've had to call in mobile morgues, there aren't enough nurses to help patients. Hospitalizations are surging in Houston, where you are.

And this week you wrote a message to your university medical community that caught my eye for a couple of reasons. The first was the stark assessment of where we are. The title was "Winter is coming," a bleak "Game of Thrones" reference.

You wrote, "If this were a flood, most of our neighbors' houses have already flooded, we hope ours will not but quietly believe it will."

Tell us where we could be in the next weeks and months.

DR. JAMES MCDEAVITT, DEAN OF CLINICAL AFFAIRS, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Here in Houston, we've lived through this twice now. We had a surge in April, a surge in July and we're surging again, I believe, but it's a slow surge. It's been going on for nine weeks now. We're at about 700 cases per day.

That's about double what it was six weeks ago. But on a per capita basis, I know you had a physician on from El Paso a couple of days ago on your program. The situation's terrible there. They are seeing case rates 10 to 20 times of the per capita base we're seeing in Houston.

It is hard to believe we could see so much growth in the virus around us and not think it's going to hit us in Houston eventually. I think it will.

BRUNHUBER: There are plenty of reasons for worry from what you said. But there are also reasons that we might have to be a little more optimistic, shall we say. In that letter I was struck by your hopeful tone. You said there was cause for optimism, that even though things look especially grim, that we shouldn't give up hope.

Why is that?

MCDEAVITT: So I write this message to the Baylor College of Medicine every week. I try to remain apolitical. I try to be realistic in my assessment of where we are but also try and look to the future.

I think there is ample cause for optimism right now. For one thing, our hospitals now are battle hardened. We've been here, we've done it, we've got therapeutics we didn't have before. Hospitals have surge plans in place that they just have to reactivate, they don't have to reinvent them again.

So we are ready for whatever comes down the pike. Second, based in Houston, I'm sure it's true of most areas of the country, our community leaders are all pulled together. Hospitals, business leaders, the religious community, the faith community, city and county health department, we all know each other.

We're on the first-name basis. We have each other on speed dial. We are very well prepared to respond. And I think our public health organizations have substantially improved.

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MCDEAVITT: As an example, in Houston, we monitor wastewater. We can pick up viral products in wastewater. That predicts where we're going to see a hot spot one to two weeks in advance so the health department can mobilize the resources to try to extinguish that hot spot, a huge advantage.

Then I think, fundamentally, although masks may have become politicized and may be a little bit of an issue, I went to the zoo with my daughter this weekend. And it's timed entry, so there was lots of spacing. Everybody was wearing a mask.

I saw mothers telling their children, you need to wear your mask. I think the public in most communities, by and large, enough people have bought into this that we're in far better shape than we were three or four months ago.

BRUNHUBER: I want to go back to -- sorry, I just want to go back to something you said about community response because that struck me. Perhaps people have come together in Houston.

But I'm looking around different communities in Texas; just as one example, in El Paso, there was a stay-at-home order and then that was overturned. The judge in his decision wrote, a servant cannot have two masters, a Biblical reference there.

And that gets to the crux of the problem, that there's no one authority here. We have different levels of government often disagreeing about what should be done.

So how hazardous that make it when there are still -- eight months after coronavirus hit the country, we still can't come together and agree on even the basics?

MCDEAVITT: Yes, I guess I would say to people in general, this is not that hard.

What do we have to control the virus right now?

Masking and social distancing. That's it. That's why we're doing as well as we are right now in some communities.

It would certainly be useful if government officials are unified in that message but for whatever reason we're not. But we also, in Texas, we are proud of our independence. We don't like the government telling us what to do in Houston.

I think this is really a matter of personal responsibility. I don't necessarily care what the state or federal or local government is saying. If I walk into a place of business and people aren't wearing masks and they're elbow to elbow, that is not a safe environment and I should turn around and walk out.

So if we have 70 percent of the population that feels that way, we're going to be in really good shape in terms of viral control. And the politicians can argue about who's right and who's wrong and history will decide. But I think it's more about personal responsibility than waiting for the government to tell us what we can and should do.

BRUNHUBER: All right, a very Texas response there. Thank you very much for coming on and talking to us and giving us at least a few causes for optimism there. Thank you so much, Dr. James McDeavitt of Baylor College of Medicine, appreciate it.

MCDEAVITT: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: Mexico has now passed 1 million coronavirus cases and nearly 100,000 people have died there because of the virus. With numbers going up and up, parts of the country are reimposing restrictive lockdowns. Our Matt Rivers has more.

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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Mexico City, officials have announced for the first time since this pandemic began that Mexico has now recorded more than 1 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

This as the seven-day moving average of new cases, the seven-day average of new deaths, both of those metrics continue to steadily rise.

And just this week, we saw on a single day this week more than 7,600 cases confirmed in a single day. That is one of the highest single-day case increases that we have seen since this pandemic began.

As a result of that, multiple states across the country are moving back into more restrictive lockdown measures, all the way from the country's north to here in Mexico City, with the mayor of Mexico City saying this week that she could impose even stricter lockdown measures, should the numbers that we've been seeing recently continue to move in the wrong direction -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.

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BRUNHUBER: An explosion of new cases has forced Austrian authorities to declare a second national lockdown. The restrictions go into effect Tuesday and last at least 2.5 weeks. They reported an infection rate this week 10 times higher than expected.

Rising infection numbers in Greece have prompted authorities to close primary schools and nurseries starting Monday.

And on Saturday, Russia reported the most new cases in one day since the pandemic started, well over 22,000.

But there are a few encouraging numbers coming out of other countries. Melissa Bell is in one of them. That's France.

From where you are in Paris, you know, it's some good news. But looking across Europe, decidedly mixed picture we're seeing here.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. There are those countries, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, the Czech Republic, where there's been a stabilization of infection rates.

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BELL: And those countries where things are going bad to worse, Austria, where the country's system of tracing has not functioned as it should; 77 percent of infections simply couldn't be traced. They couldn't work out where they were coming from; hence the lockdown. Greece announcing some of the younger school children will be stopping

school from this week. Their classes are closed. In Poland, a single day record in terms of the number of COVID-19 related deaths on Saturday.

Italy as well has extended the number of parts of the country under partial lockdown with a record that was reached on Friday and another large increase on Saturday. So a number of countries continue to see a worsening situation, even as some are seeing the beginning of a stabilization as a result of the partial lockdowns in place.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thank you so much. CNN's Melissa Bell in Paris.

That wraps up CNN NEWSROOM for our international audience. If you're in the United States or Canada, stay with us. We have much more news after this.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back.

Police in Washington, D.C., have been out in force after violent confrontations between pro-Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters.

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BRUNHUBER: Officials say one person is in critical condition with stab wounds. Two police officers were injured. At least 20 people have been arrested.

The president blamed the violence on left-wing agitators. The unrest erupted hours after a pro-Trump rally to protest his election loss. The president's motorcade made a slow pass through the crowd on his way to a golf course.

His firing of the U.S. Defense Secretary and other government officials have set off alarms. One official called it "a dictator move."

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BRUNHUBER: Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat joins us via Skype from New York, author of "Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present."

With Trump's refusal to acknowledge the election, people have been throwing around the term dictator, Trump's a dictator, so on. You've studied modern authoritarian leaders, propaganda, the cult of personality, the hypermasculinity, so on, so forth.

In your book there's a frightening symmetry in the similarity between Mussolini and what's happening now with President Trump. Explain what they have in common. RUTH BEN-GHIAT, HISTORIAN: So when we think of fascists, we often --

our mind goes straight to Hitler and there's very good reasons for that. But Mussolini was the one who laid down this template of authoritarian rule.

We can understand better the way authoritarianism develops today because he was a prime minister in a democracy for three years. And during those years he chipped away at the institutions and built his personality cult. And then he declared dictatorship in 1925 to escape a special investigation that was going to send him to jail.

BRUNHUBER: There was also an appeal to Christians as well, right?

So there are other things that sort of make them similar, too?

BEN-GHIAT: Yes. And Mussolini was, along with the Communists who were doing this in parallel fashion, the first to really develop a personality cult. And he was extremely savvy with the media. He'd been a journalist.

So the canons of the personality cult haven't changed over 100 years. You have to be a man of the people, very approachable; Mussolini used to strip off his shirt, the hypermasculinity. He was also a man above all other men, who was said to rule with a divine benediction.

He was the one, although he was very profane, he was an atheist, he made peace with the Catholic Church. So there's many, many similarities.

And it was very interesting to me when Donald Trump, who certainly didn't have a very pious past, has been proclaimed as ruling -- he's there with God's will to save the nation by the evangelical Christians and orthodox Jews. So there are a lot of recurrences between then and now.

BRUNHUBER: Another word we associate with dictatorships is coup. Understandably, many people are nervous about the possibility, obviously what's happening right now hasn't risen to that.

But at what point does it become a coup?

Or since he's already in office, an auto-coup?

BEN-GHIAT: Yes, it's -- I mean, the age of coups is mostly gone. And it would be indeed a kind of auto-coup or self-coup, where somebody's already in power and they're trying to stay there by illegal means.

To pull that off, you need the collaboration of law enforcement and the military. And, you know, the other day, General Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a very clear statement that the armed forces is going to obey the Constitution and not an individual. So I don't think he will pull this off in the end.

But we should all be very alarmed that he is trying to invalidate the election. And he has the support of the GOP. And this is one thing I'd like to emphasize, that although he came, he didn't start the GOP. Mussolini started his party.

Berlusconi started Force Italia. Trump came from the outside and, within four years, wrapped the GOP around his finger. They acquitted him in the Senate trial, now very few Republican senators have accepted the results of the election, even though foreign leaders like Modi and Erdogan have.

BRUNHUBER: There's one thing I hear often in discussions with Democrats, that the Trump administration itself was kind of incompetent, couldn't actually achieve most of its goals.

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BRUNHUBER: Whether it was ending ObamaCare or even building the wall.

They always shudder at the thought of what could happen under the rule of a competent authoritarian -- a smarter Trump, I guess. But you see things differently.

I guess we're using the wrong criteria to assess his competency?

BEN-GHIAT: Yes. And you know, it makes perfect sense that Americans would use a democratic frame of reference to think about Trump because we've never had foreign occupation. We've never had national dictatorship. All we know is democracy. This is the playbook.

But I've said since before he was even inaugurated that he's following an authoritarian playbook. And his goals as president have not been the goals of regular democratic presidents, whatever party they are.

He has been in office to make money for Trump Organization. So when he goes golfing, people say, oh, he's lazy, he just goes golfing. But what he's doing is at taxpayers' expense. He's traveling to promote Trump's private businesses. These are all Trump branded properties he goes to.

Then he's been building his personality cult, which he's been phenomenally successful at that. So he had 70 plus million people vote for him.

And he's spreading hatred to encourage polarization because then people remain dependent on him. So when we think -- if the metric is what a regular democratic president would do, he doesn't suit any of these things.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, we'll have to leave it there. But I just wonder, we'll have to see what happens after Trump.

Does this era sort of end?

Do people who wanted this authoritarian leader just wait for the next one or maybe for Trump 2024?

We'll have to see. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you joining us.

BEN-GHIAT: Thank you.

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BRUNHUBER: In just 66 days, President-Elect Joe Biden will be sworn in as president.

So what happens in those days leading up to the inauguration?

And who does what?

Tom Foreman takes a look at the complicated process that lies ahead.

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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From now until the second week of December, states should settle their vote counts and certify the results. They all have their own particular deadlines, so it won't happen all at once.

And, of course, if their local rules or legal challenge require a recount, that could produce some delays but they're all headed for the same goal, saying within a few weeks, we've settled all disputes and this is our final tally for each candidate.

They must have that complete by December 14th, because that is when the electors must vote. Who are they? They are 538 people from all 50 states chosen by the parties and they mirror the number of senators and representatives in each state plus the District of Columbia which gets three.

This is the Electoral College. Typically, they gather at their local state Houses and award their electoral votes in most cases, to whoever gathered the most popular votes in their state. Although occasionally some break from that and cast rogue votes becoming what we call faithless electors. Although the Supreme Court rule just this year, they can be punished or removed if they take that action.

In any event, the results must be sent to Washington no later than December 23rd. And then on January 6th, those electoral votes are counted during a joint session of Congress, under the watchful eye of the President of the Senate, meaning Vice President Mike Pence. And when that count is done, he will be the first person to officially announce the names of the next president and vice president.

And then on Wednesday, January 20th, at noon, as prescribed by the Constitution, the big finish, the president and vice president will be sworn in at the U.S. Capitol and begin four years of leading the country -- or at least trying to amid these challenging times -- Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

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BRUNHUBER: As the Trump presidency winds down, the future of his eldest daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, remains unclear. After four years of serving in her father's divisive administration, the couple will likely find New York's high society unwelcoming. CNN's Kate Bennett explains why.

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KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: When Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner leave the White House in January, the question is, will they return to Manhattan?

If they do go back to New York City, they will likely receive a chilly reception. CNN spoke with several sources who say that Trump and Kushner may not be welcome in the way they once were living in New York City.

Ivanka Trump did build her brand on her name but after four years in the White House and a contentious administration, she might struggle to get footing again, should she want to reenter that business.

[05:40:00]

BENNETT: There are other options for the couple, of course. They might go to Florida or to New Jersey but returning to New York City will certainly be a challenge.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the couple's three children were withdrawn from their private school after the school noticed that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were not abiding by set rules for COVID precaution.

The school and the couple as well as other parents who complained tried to make terms on how to keep the children in the school. However, Kushner and Trump decided the best move for their family was to withdraw the children rather than meet the demands of the school, who was insisting that they follow the COVID guideline -- Kate Bennett, CNN, Washington.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, wherever Jared and Ivanka go, they likely won't wind up as far away as some fellow citizens. Some Americans are thinking of moving to Italy to replace the frenetic U.S. lifestyle with la dolce vita. Our Ben Wedeman explains why the Italian sweet life is so attractive.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They call it the bel Paese, the beautiful country. Americans have always loved to visit Italy and now some would also like to settle here.

In a busy office in the northern town of Rovigo, the staff struggles to keep up with the demands from Americans of Italian origin which entitles them to Italian citizenship. Marco Permunian hired 60 additional people to handle the workload.

WEDEMAN: How much has your business increased since 2016?

MARCO PERMUNIAN, DIRECTOR, ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP ASSISTANCE: So we were getting about 20-25 requests per day on average. Now we are averaging 100 requests roughly every day.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): Once synonymous with political chaos, Italy appears stable compared to the U.S. And while coronavirus hit Italy hard, it seems to be handling it better.

JIM CAVALLARO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY NETWORK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: The university education, which is also free in Italy.

WEDEMAN: Professor Jim Cavallaro, now a dual U.S.-Italian citizen, questions old assumptions.

CAVALLARO: So there are decisions about how a state should be run that I think could be coming more and more clear to people in the United States.

And people are really beginning to question, is this the best place in the world to live?

And I think the answer increasingly to that question, unfortunately, is not necessarily.

WEDEMAN: The benefits of Italian citizenship include basically free universal health care, affordable university tuition, the right to live and work anywhere in the European Union. And if you have one of these, at the moment you can travel to many more countries than you can with an American passport.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): Earlier this year, Kristen and Greg Helmstetter and their daughter, Kamea, moved to the town of Orvieto. A novelist, Kristen obtained citizenship through her grandfather.

KRISTEN HELMSTETTER, NOVELIST: We started the process before coronavirus but the political situation has been less than ideal for a number of years. It didn't really weigh into our decision. It was more world travel and experience in other cultures outside of just the United States.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): They have no regrets.

GREG HELMSTETTER, CONSULTANT: You know, in the U.S., for wearing a mask, something as simple as that to become political, seems pathological to me. And so, to be as far away from that as possible during this crisis, I think is a good thing.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): In a bitter of time of pandemic and uncertainty, here you can still have a taste of la dolce vita -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, Orvieto, Italy.

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BRUNHUBER: Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, we're keeping our eye on Hurricane Iota as it threatens the storm-weary Latin America coastline. That's next. Stay with us.

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[05:45:00]

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BRUNHUBER: We're tracking two major storms right now on opposite sides of the world. Typhoon Vamco is on track to cause more havoc in southeast Asia. It made landfall in central Vietnam, packing winds of up to 93 miles per hour. At least 67 people were killed in the Philippines during the past few days bringing devastating mudslides and flooding.

We're also keeping an eye on Hurricane Iota. It's intensifying and will likely make landfall along the Honduras-Nicaragua border late Monday night as a destructive storm.

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[05:50:00]

BRUNHUBER: Just ahead on CNN, the final round of the Masters is about to get underway. We look at runaway leader Dustin Johnson and his chances to wear the green jacket. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The final round of the Masters wraps up later today at the historic Augusta national golf course in Georgia. It looks as if the world's number one is on the way to winning his first green jacket. But Dustin Johnson knows victory can slip away.

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[05:55:00]

BRUNHUBER: That wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber "NEW DAY" is just ahead.