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Illinois Report 10,000 New Cases For 10 Straight Days; Biden, Harris Receive Economic Briefing. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 16, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Chicago, the Public Health Commissioner there saying things are getting worse fast and Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ALLISON ARWADY, COMMISSIONER, CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: We've seen just in the last month, our cases go up five times, our hospitalizations go up three times, our deaths go up three times. And the biggest problem is that we've seen no slowing of that increase. At least here in Chicago, we have recommended canceling a traditional Thanksgiving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's discuss the problem more with Illinois Dr. Ngozi Ezike. She's the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. Dr. Ezike grateful for your time today as you go through this, I just want to show a chart to our viewers and asks you to explain why you think this is happening. If you look at the rate of cases right now, the seven day average of new cases, Illinois is the green line on this chart, the United States at large is the orange line, you're getting cases that more than twice the national average right now per 1 million residents, why?

DR. NGOZI EZIKE, DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS DEPT. OF PUBLIC HEALTH: So we definitely have had increased disease transmission, we have much more infection in our state. And we are also identifying a lot of this infection because of our robust testing capacity, testing over 100,000 tests being run in a single day in our in our state. We've had at least three or four days at that level. So it's definitely a combination of finding all those cases, as well as having just purely increased transmission of this deadly virus.

KING: And so as you well know, because you've been on the front line everyday, people are tired, right? Governments trying to do what they can people, most people trying to do what they can, but they get tired. Your governor now says if this doesn't turn around fast, he's going to have to think about some pretty drastic measures. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): We're running out of time, and we're running out of options. Our growth in new cases is now exponential, the numbers don't lie. If things don't take a turn in the coming days, we will quickly reach the point when some form of mandatory stay at home order is all that will be left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: How close are we to a decision like that, a mandatory stay at home order, and if the people of Illinois are going to stop short of that, what must they do?

EZIKE: Right, so we're definitely on our last leg. And we are working on additional statewide mitigations right now as we speak. And it's really going to be incumbent upon the individuals, the individuals in the state of Illinois have the ability to protect health care capacity in the hospitals. They have the ability to control the spread. They have the ability to support the economy as well and to keep themselves healthy with the simple prevention strategies that we've been preaching since the beginning.

I know we're very much into cures, and we're excited about the monoclonal antibody that's coming out. We're excited about the vaccine. We see great promise and some of the early data that's being released, but still prevention is what's going to get us through this now. And if people are looking for a vaccine that works and that's available, we've got that in the flu shot as well to help decrease hospital capacity by minimizing flu hospitalizations.

KING: Dr. Ngozi Ezike, great grateful for your time today and more importantly grateful for the work you're trying to do every day to keep people safe, appreciate and we'll keep in touch.

[12:33:23]

When we come back, they're counting votes in Georgia, recounting, the election just behind us and preparing for a critical, two critical senate runoffs just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Georgia is finishing its post-election audit this week. It's a hand recount of nearly 5 million votes cast right here. And the President's -- what the President says in his tweet, ignore it despite what he says the state's Republican lieutenant governor says this process is past the halfway point and all as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. GEOFF DUNCAN (R-GA): We have a deadline of Wednesday for that to be complete, and I believe they're well over 3 million votes into the process of counting those 5 million ballots and proud report that continued to not see any sort of systemic issues or fraud or improprieties.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: You heard that, that's the Republican lieutenant governor, no issues, no improprieties, haven't seen it yet. They're still looking at and the President is trying to allege that here. But Joe Biden winning by more than 14,000 votes there, the expectation is at the end of this he will still be the winner in Georgia, that will be part of his 360 Electoral College votes. And will close the door on the presidential race in 2020. But 2020 is not over yet. It's going to carry over into 2021 because of this, Georgia, let's look at the Senate races here.

Number one, you got to get over 50 percent, David Perdue Republican incumbent has to have a runoff in January against Jon Ossoff, the Democratic challenger. That's one senate runoff in Georgia. Also the top two candidates here Democrat Raphael Warnock, the Republican incumbent, Kelly Loeffler, they also will be on the ballot in January. And these elections matter. Why? Look at where we are at the moment, 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats, two seats on the ballot here in January. If Democrats win them both it's 50-50. Vice President Harris would break the tie. Democrats still have a chance to control the United States Senate.

If they win in both, which is why the President-elect's chief of staff says Joe Biden, most likely heading to Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON KLAIN, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We're going to work hard to help win those Senate seats in Georgia. I think you'll see the President-elect campaign down there as we get closer to Election Day. We're going to put people, money, resources down there to help our two good candidates win. I'm very hopeful that we could win those seats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining us now, someone else is trying to help win those seats, the former Democratic presidential candidate, Andrew Yang. He's also a CNN political commentator. Andrew, it's great to see you. So, you're in New York today but you're about to go to Georgia. You're about to go camp out here. Talk about your view of the challenge ahead. You know the history, Democrats do miserable in statewide runoffs in Georgia. That's the history in the rearview mirror. Why do you think it can be different now?

[12:40:21]

ANDREW YANG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Georgia in 2020 is a genuine swing state. We just saw it, it went to Joe at the top line, we have a lot of work ahead to try and animate the same voters who came out in November to come out in January. But the path of victory is there for Democrats and the stakes are so high because we've seen the movie where Mitch McConnell gets to play obstructionist in the Senate. We can't have that when the nation's recovery is at stake. So thrilled to get down there, but not going to dissemble, you have to look at the state's history and think that Democrats just have to do a lot of work in the days ahead, every moment counts. KING: I need one of those hats over your shoulder there. I used that term a lot, you know, at the magic wall over the last couple weeks. I need a math hat. So let's -- hang on for me, Andrew, one second. The President-elect and the Vice President-elect having a pool spray right now letting reporters into see this meeting. Let's take a listen for a second.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: (INAUDIBLE) look, thanks for giving me (INAUDIBLE), you know, (INAUDIBLE) obvious, we're going to (INAUDIBLE) right now, in case (INAUDIBLE). But we all have different perspectives on how we would deal with this issue. And how we deal with the virus and make sure that our workers (INAUDIBLE) business also getting operating safety. And we can get county back rolling where it should. And, you know, we get our economy back on track. We all agree on these common goals (INAUDIBLE) different perspectives. I think we all have pretty much in last step. We agree that we can't build back the economy, I think we all agree, we just can't (INAUDIBLE). And I think there's a lot of opportunity but I don't want to be closely optimistic, I know I'm curious to be with the general optimism. But I really think that (INAUDIBLE) --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's Delaware. The audio is not very good, reporters allowed in the room here to take wide shots. Essentially, there's no microphone on the President-elect, but he's meeting with union leaders and CEOs. Vice President-elect Harris in the room as well. This part of the, number one, President-elect Biden's plan to try to show the American people every day, he's busy about the business of transition, even if President Trump won't cooperate. Number two, this is interesting. You can see very clearly, the faces there on this call. There are several leaders of American labor unions there. But there are also several leaders of American business there, Mary Barra, for example, the CEO of General Motors, the President and CEO of Microsoft is there, the CEO and chairman of Target is there, the CEO of Gap is there.

So you have at this moment where the President of the United States, the current President continues to deny the Biden victory. You see more institutions, more leaders in American society and American business recognizing the truth, the fact, Joe Biden will be the president of the United States. We can bring you more of the substance of that call. We will. We apologize for the bad audio. We need to work with the President-elect's team on how to pull those things off, to be frank and candid with you.

Andrew Yang is still with us. Andrew, I want to get back to Georgia in one second. But I do want to ask about the importance of what we just saw. You come from the business community, the President of the United States, the incumbent just denies reality, denies an election. There you have the CEO of General Motors, an American iconic, American company, the CEO of Target, who has actually been at the White House for events recently during the Trump presidency in terms of getting the economy going during the pandemic, the CEO of Gap, the CEO of Microsoft, that is a signal from corporate America, the business community, and no disrespect to those labor unions, they're just more traditionally Democratic. So you would expect them to show up, if Joe Biden asked them to come to a meeting.

It is a signal from America, labor unions, corporate America to President Trump, get over it, let's work with the new guy like him or not.

YANG: I agree. And these CEOs know that again, there's no time to waste in terms of the nation's economic recovery. And they want to get down to business. They want to talk to the President-elect, they certainly aren't going to stand aside and wait for these diatric to subside because they know that their businesses and the American economy don't have that time to spare.

KING: So let's go back to the Georgia race because you know the playbook the Republicans are using and they think it will work. They think it worked in some places in this past election and they believe it will work in Georgia, which you mentioned, yes, it's a swing state right now, but it has a Republican pedigree. This is Kelly Loeffler tweeting about her opponent, Pastor Warnock, we should never -- we should cover preexisting conditions, we should lower health care costs. We should not socialized medicine. And I will never let that happen. That's Kelly Loeffler. And listen here. This is an exchange between Senator Perdue and Jon Ossoff and the other race where the same themes come up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:45:16]

SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R-GA): We heard Schumer just last week say that if we take Georgia, we change America, we heard AOC say we have -- they have to have these two seats, because they don't want to negotiate. They want total control.

RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA), SENATE CANDIDATE: This race is not about me and Chuck Schumer's name certainly isn't on the ballot. I'll tell you what's on the ballot. Healthcare is on the ballot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You can see the Republican playbook and again, it has some success, AOC Schumer socialism, how do Democrats counter that? What do they need to do?

YANG: They need to do what worked in November. And the Republican Party is nationalizing this race very quickly. You had a couple of senators already in Georgia campaigning, the Republicans are sending 1,000 field operatives to help get out their vote. They've already committed $32 million. And I'm sure it's going to go much, much higher than that. So I'm heading to Georgia, in part to animate voters on the ground. Now, 4.7 percent of Georgia voters are Asian Americans, I might be able to help increase the turnout. And Asian Americans went two to one for Joe. So that's going to be the game plan for Democrats is to get our voters out. And it's going to be a lot of work. The Republicans are already though set descending on the state and we should be doing the same.

KING: And I want you to listen here. This is the new ad from Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate running against Senator Perdue and it's an interesting, it's a test, right? Joe Biden is winning Georgia but just barely. President Trump and a lot of voters and they turned out but he's decided to take the risk and take it straight on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- it's very, very few.

SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R-GA): Very, very few people have been exposed to it.

TRUMP: The risk of the American people remains very low.

PERDUE: The risk of their virus still remains low.

TRUMP: We've had flus before.

PERDUE: We've had more flu seasons with more deaths.

TRUMP: It's going very well.

PERDUE: It's going very well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David Perdue ignored the medical experts, downplayed the crisis, and left us unprepared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's a creative ad that essentially tries to Velcro the Senator to the President. Do you think COVID, the coronavirus, the President's response to it is still the best message as we carry over into 2021?

YANG: Unfortunately, infection rates are surging, and they're going up in Georgia as well as other states. And Senator Perdue was very much a Trump loyalist when it came to coronavirus messaging. So it's a very legitimate line of attack for Jon Ossoff because it does draw a very sharp contrast. And it's not even just Trump's messaging, it really was something that was embraced by Senator Perdue.

KING: Andrew Yang, grateful for your time today. And we'll keep in touch as you go out and hit the campaign trail in Georgia and see how that works out. It's going to be fascinating.

YANG: -- out there this week, maybe I can even talk to voters. I can be a correspondent.

KING: We'll give you a microphone, have a great trip down there.

When we come back, more details on the Biden-Harris economic plan and what will they have to change from the campaign as they deal with a changing pandemic.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:51:21]

KING: Just moments ago, we saw the President-elect Joe Biden and the Vice President-elect Kamala Harris receiving a briefing on the economy with several business and labor leaders. You see the pictures there. Next hour, we'll get a sense of what the President-elect will push to help the economy recover from coronavirus. He will give a speech.

Joining us now to discuss, Errol Louis, host of the podcast, You Decide, and CNN political commentator. Errol, it's good to see you, grateful for your time. The challenge now for Joe Biden is to figure out what do you take from the campaign and you push as is or what do you have to change because the situation is so dynamic you have a surging pandemic, the economic impact? You also don't know the answer to the question today, will the lame-duck Congress pass some stimulus package or will all that fall to you come January?

I think we're having some issues with the connection with Errol here. Let me try one more time. Errol, it's John, can you hear me? We'll be right back. We'll figure this out. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:56:55]

KING: President-elect Joe Biden having a roundtable right now with American labor leaders and American business leaders. Next hour, he will give a speech in his view and how to build back as the way he puts it, build back better from the coronavirus pandemic. Before the break, we lost our connection with Errol Louis. He's hosted the podcast, You decide, and a CNN political commentator. Errol, we got you back in the age of COVID here.

I just wanted to discuss the challenge for Biden in the sense that they had a detailed plan, you know, extend insure -- unemployment insurance, have a public health job corps, they have a plan during the campaign. But then you have to govern, you're not sure which party is going to control the Senate right now. He'll know by the time he gets there. You're not sure whether the lame-duck is going to pass the new stimulus plan or whether all that's going to fall on you. Plus, you're not sure the toll of this daily hundred thousand plus new infections. What's the challenge in this transition to get ready with an economic plan?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the main challenge is to make sure that they have got a plan ready to go because they're never going to have more political capital than they do right now and into the first six months of the new administration. Joe Biden knows this very well. It was in those first few months of the Obama Biden administration that they got most of the Recovery Act on, that's when they got the basic outline of healthcare done.

And so he knows that. He's only going to get one shot at this and he's got to get it right. It was interesting to see that he's got corporate leaders there, including the head of G.M., it's going to make a big difference in places like Detroit and elsewhere in Michigan. He's got to get the consumer economy going. That's the real engine that's going to power all of this economy back to life, John.

So regardless of whether Congress acts properly or intelligently during the lame-duck and provides much needed relief, when the bell goes off, you know, when the clock strikes 12 on January 20th, that's when the real work starts. And he's got to be focused like a laser on getting all of this money off the sidelines into the economy and getting people back to work.

KING: And it's a fascinating situation in the sense that, Errol, he's talking to America's 75 percent of Trump voters think the economy is doing good, only 10 percent think it's doing poor, poorly, 24 percent of Biden voters think it's doing good, only 87 percent say it is going poorly. So it is a fascinating challenge for the President-elect. Errol, sadly, we have to leave it there for time. We'll bring you back another day as we go through this.

Just into us though, the Trump administration now beginning a leasing process for oil and gas drilling sites that off the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Environmental groups are worried. They call this a last minute giveaway to the energy industry before the end of the Trump administration. It is unclear if the Bureau of Land Management would be able to finish this process before the Biden administration takes over in January. But it may allow President Trump to leave his mark on this process before it falls to the incoming Biden team.

And the former President Barack Obama has some advice for his successor. He says conceding can help preserve Trump's legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When your time is up, then it is your job to put the country first and think beyond your own ego and your own interests and your own disappointments. My advice to President Trump is, if you want at this late stage in the game to be remembered as somebody who put country first, it's time for you to do the same thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:00:00]