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Trump Acknowledges Biden Victory But Refuses to Concede; Biden Advisers to Speak with Drug Companies About Vaccine; Fauci: Biden Transition will Improve U.S. COVID Response; Some European Nations Seeing Fewer Cases in Lockdown; Powerful Storm Gains Category Two Strength; SpaceX Launches Astronauts Into Orbit to Dock with ISS; Texas Adds Mobile Morgues as Cases, Hospitalizations Surge; Control of U.S. Senate to Be Decided in Georgia; Americans Moving to Italy for Greener Pastures; Rev. Raphael Warnock is Interviewed about Georgia Run-off; Trump's Lawsuits Shot Down, Laughed Off Across Country. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired November 16, 2020 - 00:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. Thanks for your company.

[00:00:22]

Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, a stunning surge of coronavirus cases across the U.S. More than a million cases in less than a week. And without any allowances from the Trump administration, the Biden transition team forced to take matters into their own hands.

Hurricane Iota is barreling towards Central America, and it's only growing stronger. We're live in the CNN Weather Center for you.

Also --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Five, four, three, two, one, zero. Ignition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And one more giant leap for mankind. The historic launch of SpaceX Crew Dragon.

A week after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the U.S. presidential election, President Donald Trump has for the first time acknowledged his opponent's victory, kind of. He is still refusing to concede, claiming without any proof, that the race was rigged, and he still has not allowed the start of the transition process, preventing Biden from receiving critical data about the pandemic.

On top of that, CNN has learned that the president hasn't even attended his own White House coronavirus task force meetings in at least five months. Now, this coming as infection numbers soar. On Sunday, the U.S. became

the first country in the world to top 11 million confirmed cases of the virus. As the nation sinks deeper into crisis, the president obsessed with the election he lost.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for a brief moment on Sunday morning, President Trump acknowledged something that he has not acknowledged before. And that is that Joe Biden has won this presidential election. The president saying in two words, "He won."

But the rest of the president's tweet and the tweets from the president for the rest of the day on Sunday were filled with the usual garden variety of conspiracy theories, baseless allegations about the 2020 election, and lies about fraud in this election.

The president's making very clear in a follow-up tweet that he was not at all conceding this election, as some Republicans are beginning to hope that he will do, saying, quote, "I concede nothing" and saying that he still has a long way to go in terms of contesting the results of this 2020 election.

The president's comments on Twitter were really reminiscent of what we've seen from the president over the last week. Sources have told me over the course of the week that the president has really vacillated between two states. On the one hand, this combative desire to pursue every possible legal avenue as it relates to contesting the results of the election. And at other moments, the president appearing to start to come to grips with reality.

But as of Sunday night, it was very clear that the president intends to continue fighting this out. He said that his administration, or rather, his legal team, will be pursuing more lawsuits in courts in key battleground states.

So far, the president's team and other Republican allies who are trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, they've been unsuccessful. Nine cases on Friday alone were either dropped by those legal teams or dismissed by federal courts, many of which really laughed out some of the claims that were made by these lawyers, who were not able to provide any substantive evidence of voter fraud.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, they in a joint statement with other local and state election officials, they said in a statement very clearly that the 2020 election was the most secure election in American history, and that there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: U.S. experts warn that the rocky transition of power could negatively impact much more the pandemic. It could also affect America's national security and leave the U.S. vulnerable to threats from adversaries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROGERS, FORMER U.S. HOUSE INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN: This is exactly what our adversaries love. Any crack. Any space that they can kind of a drive a wedge in, they're going to do it. So this notion that the new team is going to have to get up on its back legs and get running after January 20, is absolutely everything they love.

So you put yourself a little bit at risk of adversaries making, I would argue, a miscalculation, but a miscalculation that America isn't ready. And I think that's always dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:05:05]

HOLMES: Now, even though Biden has been denied access to federal data about the pandemic, he and his team are still trying to put together a working response plan by the time he takes office.

CNN's Jessica Dean explains how they're trying to get it done.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With a new week on the horizon for the Biden transition team, we're learning from incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, that the team will meet with drug manufacturers, including Pfizer, to discuss a vaccine distribution plan.

This as they continue to try to build their plan for a seamless transition on January 20, while still not being able to speak directly to people in the federal agencies to coordinate with them. People like on the White House coronavirus task force, or in Health and Human Services, who are also developing a distribution plan.

That's because the General Services Administration, that federal office that's responsible for signing off on the transition, has yet to do so. So that means that the Biden transition team is hamstrung in that way.

But they are working around it. We're told they're also back channeling to local governments, to people in the medical community as they try to get their plans together for when Biden takes office on January 20.

Now, on Monday afternoon, we are expecting to see and hear from the president-elect and the vice president-elect. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris set to give remarks on the economy and building back better. That was their slogan on the campaign trail. Now we wait to hear their plans for action when they take office on January 20.

Jessica Dean, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says the nation's response to coronavirus would be much better if the White House allowed the transition with President-elect Biden to begin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It's almost like passing a baton in a race. You don't want to stop and then give it to somebody. You want to just essentially keep going. And that's what transition is. So it certainly would make things go more smoothly if we could do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, Dr. Jorge Rodriguez is an internal medicine and viral specialist. He joins me now from Los Angeles.

Good to see you, Doctor.

DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: Thank you, Mike.

HOLMES: Do you think the delay in allowing the Biden transition to go ahead is hurting the plan for post-inauguration efficient action? I mean, not being able to meet with the task force, have the latest vaccine information and so on. What's the impact?

RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. It has a very deleterious impact. Yet again, the president has his knee on the neck of the American public, due to his own agenda.

Listen, we need to look at this as what it is, which is a war. As opposed to a visible enemy, we are -- we are fighting a war against an invisible enemy, and of this were that technically, war that we're used to, we would be completely besides ourselves if we were transitioning information. So will they have deleterious effects? Absolutely.

HOLMES: Yes. If there was -- if there was -- if it was a war, and 250,000 Americans had died, you'd think it would be a little bit more urgent, too.

Speaking -- speaking of numbers, cases are up, I think, 38 percent last week over the previous week; hospitalizations, 25 percent; deaths, around 20 percent. What do you say to people becoming lax in their precautions, or those who continue to say it's exaggerated? What do you say to them?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, if anything, it is under-reported. The number of people that have the virus. I don't see how much clearer it can be. If you just look at the graphs, this -- this is growing astronomically. What I'm saying is we do have an opportunity to stop this without a

national lockdown. All it takes is the precautions of wearing a mask, social distancing. And I saw some doctors today on TV saying what is going to take, us having to actually walk over dead people on the street? Gosh, I hope it doesn't get to that, but we are very close.

I think half of all the states of the United States, all the hospitals in the 25 states have reached the limits of ICU capacity. We are on a very serious ledge right now.

HOLMES: And to that point, I think it's one and a half million new cases in the last two weeks. When you look at a number like that, if hospitalizations lag 10 to 12 days after cases, one and a half million cases in two weeks, what is going to look like in early December?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, it's going to look horrible. We're going to continue having these cases. Even if today everybody in the United States started wearing a mask, we are still two weeks behind, because people who got infected are going to start having symptoms.

But however, the time to make changes is now. What could happen? We could have half a million people that have died by the end of February. That's what could happen if we don't take action today.

[00:10:09]

HOLMES: Yes. And as you point out, also, the potential strains on the hospital system and the -- and the workers. Medical workers, as well. It's hard -- it's just hard to imagine.

Let's try to be positive and -- for a minute. What's your take on the vaccine landscape and how the months ahead unfold?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, that's -- that's something that's very exciting. And it is very positive, but people shouldn't be hanging their hat on that. If everything goes well, I think Anthony Fauci was maybe a little optimistic, saying that maybe by April, everybody -- we would have a mass vaccination.

But I think that by the middle of the next year, hopefully, the majority of the United States will be vaccinated. And that goes a long way, a long way toward curbing this epidemic.

So is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Yes. And I think it is a sun and not a train. But until that end comes, we really still need to be cautious.

HOLMES: Yes. You know, one other thing that is perhaps under-reported is the elective and other surgeries impacted, because hospital beds are filling up with COVID patients.

What is the impact on other areas of health, you know, with those surgeries? And also people who we've already heard are not going to the hospital with things they should be going to the hospital.

RODRIGUEZ: Correct. Absolutely. Earlier on this year, it was estimated there will be anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 unnecessary deaths due to failed hospitals, due to people's fear of going to either doctors or hospitals.

So you're going to have a depletion of resources. Whether those resources are hospital beds, nurses, or physicians. So this does not -- does not just affect the people that have COVID. This affects all of us, because people with heart attacks may not be able to get service quickly enough to help them in the hospital. Pregnant women may have problems with delivery. People with asthma. And it just goes on, and on, and on.

HOLMES: Always a pleasure, Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, even if the subject matter is less than pleasant. Thanks. Good to see you.

RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, sir. There's hope.

HOLMES: There -- hopefully, you're right. Thank you.

Now the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, says he has been exposed to the coronavirus and is isolating at No. 10 Downing Street, tweeting that he has no symptoms but will be leading the British government's pandemic response in isolation.

Mr. Johnson was treated for the coronavirus in April, had quite a bad case of it, was in the hospital.

It has been a week of turmoil in the prime minister's office. Two of his top aides resigned. Mr. Johnson struggling to address the issue of a post-Brexit trade deal with the E.U.

Much of Europe in some form of lockdown right now with the virus. Those measures helping to bring new case numbers in some countries down. Or keep them steady, at least. But many people not happy about the restrictions.

Melissa Bell with the latest from Paris.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Europe, several countries continue to battle the COVID-19 second wave. France, Germany, and Belgium, those countries that put in second partial lockdowns a couple of weeks ago have noted a slight improvement in their infection rates, although all say the partial lockdowns will remain in place for the time being.

Elsewhere, though, infection rates continue to worsen. Austria announced that it is bringing in a second partial national lockdown from Tuesday. This after the country's chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, said at that infection rates were 10 times what authorities had expected them to be at this stage.

Greece, as well, announcing fresh restrictions with the youngest peoples told to stay at home from Monday.

Poland has reported on Saturday its highest single COVID-19-related death rate since the pandemic began.

Italy, meanwhile, has seen some extra regions added to its highest alert category, with the toughest restrictions brought in there. This after recording on Friday its highest ever rate in terms of new cases announced.

Meanwhile, resistance to those restrictions continues. We've seen it on the streets of Italy and Spain these last couple of weeks. On Saturday it was on the streets of Frankfurt when anti-mask protestors had to be pushed back by police water cannon.

The German government, however, has said that, although Angela Merkel will, as planned, be meeting the leaders of the German federal states on Monday, it is not expected that we will hear of any loosening of the restrictions for the time being.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Hurricane Iota is getting strength as it barrels towards an already storm-battled Central America. We're going to get the latest from the CNN Weather Center.

Also, an historic moment as Elon Musk's SpaceX launches four astronauts into orbit. Why this groundbreaking day for the future of space travel. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:17:08]

HOLMES: The president of Columbia has been viewing the devastation in regions hit by deadly landslides and floods. Scenes like the ones you see there on your screen, playing out in several provinces, where people had to climb onto roofs for safety.

So far, several people have been killed, hundreds forced to evacuate.

And just north of there, a hurricane growing in strength, and taking aim at storm-ravaged Central America.

CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is tracking Iota. What are you seeing, my friend?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Michael, you know, here we go again. Another storm system very similar to what we saw about two weeks ago, when it comes to Hurricanes Eta landfall across this region. And of course, altogether now, 30 named storms this season. That bests the record previously set in 2005. We had 28 named storms.

And the concern is with this next one in line among the strongest we've seen all season, headed towards an area that certainly cannot take another landfalling system of this magnitude, given what happened about two weeks ago. The system currently a strong Category 2, poised to become a Category

3, Michael, within the next, say, 8 to 10 hours. And then beyond that, as we go into Monday afternoon and Monday evening, could be a Category 4 as it makes landfall near the border of Nicaragua or Honduras. And this is exactly the area that was impacted by Eta.

And keep in mind, that storm took with it nearly 200 lives across Central America. In neighboring Honduras, it left behind $5 billion in losses, equivalent to about 20 percent of the nation's GDP.

So with an area that is so hard hit, we're concerned that levies here have been devastated, dams at capacity, and of course, water on the ground still from the previous storm.

The last thing you need is another devastating system to move ashore. Again, within about a 24-hour period from right now.

And to really give you a sense of scale of how rare a storm of this magnitude is, major hurricane making landfall, a Category 4 or stronger system, I should say, making landfall here happens once every 37 years. This particular storm now, of course, would be the second such storm to make landfall here in under the month, all of it happening in November 2020.

And model comparisons here between the American and European timing, looks pretty confident here as we go into the overnight hours of Monday into Tuesday morning. And you notice the amount of rainfall here forecast to be through the roof, potentially as much as a meter on some of these areas.

And the storm surge always is concerning, Michael, because some of these areas could push up to over 4 and a half meters of storm surge. Again, an area that has taken billions -- billions of dollars in losses and damages so far in the month of November, and another one ahead of us here. Certainly, have the potential to be a big story across this region.

HOLMES: Just tragic. Pedram, keep an eye on it for us. We'll check in with you later. Thanks for that. Pedram Javaheri there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Five, four, three, two, one, zero. Ignition, lift-off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:20:04]

HOLMES: A giant leap there for Elon Musk and SpaceX. The company has launched four astronauts into orbit, to meet up with the International Space Station. Rachel Crane reports for us from Kennedy Space Center.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL CRANE, CNN INNOVATION AND SPACE CORRESPONDENT: History was made here today at the Kennedy Space Center when NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi from Japan's space agency, after a successful launch at 7:27 from Launchpad 39-A which is, of course, where Apollo 11 astronauts blasted off to the moon back in 1969.

The mission was pegged Crew One, and it was the first operational mission for SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, which the astronauts renamed Resilience in honor of the hardships of 2020.

The countdown was not without its tense moments, including a detected air leak when the hatch door was first closed. However, technicians were able to troubleshoot the problem, and the astronauts launched on time.

They are currently making their way through space on a 27-hour journey before they rendezvous with the International Space Station, where they will live and work for the next six months. They will be joining three ISS crew numbers on board the floating laboratory, bringing the total number of crew members to seven, which will dramatically increase the amount of science and research the crew can perform.

Now, since the retirement of the shuttle back in 2011, NASA has not had a homegrown way of getting to the International Space Station. And over the years, NASA has paid Russia over $4 billion to fly in their Soyuz space craft to get there.

Sunday's launch is so significant, because it marks the true beginning of commercial flights to the International Space Station, something that ends our dependence on the Russians to ferry our astronauts to space. And NASA hopes the commercial flights will save the agency money and allow NASA to focus on deep space missions, like going back to the moon, and one day, putting boots on Mars.

Rachel Crane, CNN, Kennedy Space Center.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And next hour, I'll be speaking with former astronaut Leroy Chiao, who's on the advisory board of SpaceX. So do join us for that.

Peru's interim president resigned on Sunday, just five days in office. Celebrations breaking out in Lima as people cheered that news.

Protesters, opposition parties, and civil society at large have refused to recognize the interim president as the country's leader. Manuel Merino was appointed to the job after Congress impeached his predecessor last week. He stepped down following nearly a week of violent protests.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, the human tragedy behind the pandemic numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MINERVA MORALES, DANIEL MORALES' MOTHER: If I lose my house, if I lose my car, I will replace it. I'll rebuild. But you cannot bring my son back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Cases are out of control in Texas. A report from El Paso, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:25:21]

HOLMES: The line stretched as far as the eye could see for a food bank in Texas over the weekend. Nearly 25,000 people came through on Saturday alone. The food bank estimates nearly half of them were there for the first time. Some have been out of work for months because of the pandemic.

Last week, Texas became the first U.S. state to report more than a million coronavirus cases.

Hospitalizations are also rising sharply in Texas, and mobile medical tents, and morgues, even, are being set up outside some hospitals. The governor is deploying additional resources to cities hard-hit by the virus, like El Paso.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is there with the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

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

M. MORALES: He went to work. It was the last time we saw him. That's the last time his children saw him.

JIMENEZ: Daniel Morales, a nurse, fought for weeks.

M. MORALES: We'd gather in front of the hospital in the parking lot every evening at 9 p.m. I would pray, because he could come home.

FRANCISCO MORALES, DANIEL MORALES' FATHER: I always have a positive nature, where I he's going to be fine. He's going to make it. He's just fighting this thing off. He's fighting it. It will be fine. He never recovered.

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

(on camera): This is one of six mobile morgues currently in operation here in El Paso. And they say there are more on the way. Just to try and keep up with the number of deaths that we have seen here.

All in all, officials here say they can hold up to 176 bodies, if necessary. You couple that possibility with what's been a record level of hospitalizations here, and officials say they're on the brink of disaster.

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

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

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

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

STOUT: Exactly.

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our team members don't have paychecks. If we don't have ours to give them, because we can't serve customers, they don't get paid.

JIMENEZ: The state supports the businesses, calling the judge's move illegal, pushing for other mitigation strategies.

Stout supports the county judge's order, and an extension of the shutdown, especially as numbers across Texas continue to rise.

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

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

M. MORALES: These are his ashes.

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

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

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The U.S. election, not quite over. The stakes are enormous. Coming up, the national focus on not one but two senatorial runoffs in the state of Georgia.

Also, Barack Obama's message to his longtime pal, and now president- elect, Joe Biden. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:31:47]

HOLMES: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes.

Despite President Trump's protests, the U.S. presidential race is decided. What is not settled is control of the Senate, and that made the state of Georgia the center of the political universe for now.

Democrat Raphael Warnock is challenging Republican Kelly Loeffler, while Jon Ossoff is hoping to unseat David Perdue in run-off elections in early January.

Kyung Lah reports the stakes are high, and the donations are pouring into all four campaigns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R-GA): This is it. I win, she wins. She wins, I win.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Their first joint run-off campaign rally. The two Republican senators from Georgia are defending their jobs, hoping to secure their futures and control of the U.S. Senate.

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): Make no mistake, we are the firewall, not just for the U.S. Senate but the future of our country.

LAH: Underscoring the national scale of this fight, Florida Senator Rick Scott.

SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): You saw what Chuck Schumer said, right? He said first we're going to take Georgia, and then we're going to change the country. Not in Georgia. Not today.

LAH: The political world has turned to Georgia. So has much of its money. Total ad spending and reservations from all four campaigns and outside groups already tops $55 million through the end of December. Of that, about $47 million is from the Republican side. Democrats behind early as they try to flip the Senate seats blue.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Perdue to stop them.

LAH: Incumbent Senator David Perdue's first ads focused on keeping the Senate majority.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You heard him. Chuck Schumer was trying to use Georgia to take the Senate majority and radically change America.

LAH: Fellow Republican incumbent, Kelly Loeffler's ads echo that theme. But she also released an onslaught of negative ads against her opponent, Reverend Raphael Warnock. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Raphael Warnock, a radical's radical.

REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D), GEORGIA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: We stand out.

LAH: Warnock is defending himself in his ads.

WARNOCK: When people have no vision, they revert to division.

LAH: And in television interviews.

WARNOCK: She knows that she is misrepresenting who I am and what I represent. And so I'm going to stay focused on Georgia families.

JON OSSOFF (D), GEORGIA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: We need leaders who bring us together.

LAH: But one area of common ground in this campaign: how high the stakes are.

OSSOFF: Joe and Kamala, they will not be able to govern. They will not be able to lead us. They will not be able to contain this virus and rebuild this economy unless we win these two U.S. Senate races here in Georgia.

LAH (on camera): So Rick Scott was in the state. Earlier this week, it was Marco Rubio, and Vice President Mike Pence expected next week to be here, supporting his fellow Republicans.

On the Democratic side, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang expected in the state in the coming days.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Andrea Gillespie is a political scientist with Emory University here in Atlanta.

Good to see you and thanks for your time.

[00:35:01]

Just give us -- give people a sense of how bitter this battle is and how much bitter it might become between now and January 5 and just how much both parties are throwing at it.

ANDREA GILLESPIE, POLITICAL SCIENTIST, EMORY UNIVERSITY: So this race has the potential to be the most expensive and one of the nastiest in U.S. history.

Control of the Senate is at stake, and so if Democrats win these two seats, then they will have a 50/50 tie, which will be sort of abetted by Vice President Kamala Harris's tie-breaking vote. So that's why it matters.

It also matters because Georgia just voted for Joe Biden in the presidential race, demonstrating increased competitiveness for Democratic voters and candidates in this state that we haven't seen before.

So historically, Republicans have done very well in runoff elections in recent years. But that was aided by a huge advantage in terms of party identification in the state that has dissipated over time, and it's evidenced by Vice President Biden's win last week over President Trump. Democrats are going to try to defend their turf in this runoff election.

HOLMES: Yes. It was historic, really, flipping Georgia to blue from red.

The other interesting thing: Both Republican candidates very closely tied to President Trump and proud of it. Both of them have also faced allegations of playing down the pandemic, even allegations of profiting from their knowledge of what was to come early on. Are there signs that any of that has hurt them politically?

GILLESPIE: Well, I mean, so far the fact that they, you know, are both in these positions of having run-off elections, especially for Senator Loeffler in particular, we would argue that it probably didn't actually hurt her at all.

There were some incumbent senators like Susan Collins of Maine or Ben Sasse of Nebraska who were able to outperform significantly President Trump in the general election. Senator Purdue only outperformed President Trump by a little bit. And that's part of the reason why he is in a runoff election.

I wouldn't necessarily attribute that to his scandals without actually having further evidence to go on. But they're both very tied to Trump. And they want his base to turn out to vote again, because turnout is ultimately what's going to decide who wins or loses these elections.

HOLMES: Yes, and so much cash pouring in. I mean, ad reservations and spending books through December, $57 million, I think, has poured in. And more to come, and as is the case with much of American politics, you don't always know where that money is coming from. But it does show how important these races are, doesn't it?

GILLESPIE: Well, yes. I mean, Senate control is at stake. And so both parties have an incentive to try to run as hard as possible. And now that Democrats have proven themselves that they can be competitive in the state, they aren't going to take anything for granted.

And so I just expect that, you know, there won't be Christmas advertising at some point in the state and that we can expect lots of mail. And I could even expect that there are going to be people going door to door in the cold in the middle of a pandemic to try to get voters to turn out in this election.

HOLMES: I suspect you are absolutely right.

Interesting tidbit, by the way, Democrats say 23,000 young people in Georgia will become eligible to vote between now and that day so they're going to be out looking for them, as well, and signing them up.

Andrea Gillespie, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

GILLESPIE: Thank you.

HOLMES: Thanks, Professor.

Former U.S. President, Barack Obama, weighing in on this month's elections. Obama shared his concerns in an interview with CBS News while promoting his new memoir. The former president addressing the current state of the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GAYLE KING, CBS NEWS: Seventy-two million people voted for Donald Trump. What does that say to you about the state of this country?

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, what it says is that we are still deeply divided. The power of that alternative world view that's presented in the media that those voters consume, it carries a lot of weight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Obama was also asked if he had any advice for his longtime friend and ally, President-elect Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: He doesn't need my advice. And I will help them in any ways that I can. But no, I'm not planning to suddenly work on the White House staff or something.

KING: No cabinet position for you?

OBAMA: Because I -- there are probably some things I would not be doing, because Michelle would leave me.

KING: Yes.

OBAMA: She'd be like, What? You're doing what?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, the nasty politics and coronavirus pandemic, and a turbulent election in America, all of that means many Americans are seeking Italian citizenship in a bid for, among other things, free healthcare, affordable university education, and certainly, a less frenetic lifestyle.

Here's CNN's Ben Wedeman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

[00:40:05]

In a busy office in the northern town of Rovigo, the staff struggles to keep up with demand from Americans of Italian origin, which entitles them to Italian citizenship.

Marco Permunian hired 60 additional people to handle the workload.

WEDEMAN (on camera): Tell me, 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're 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.

PROFESSOR JIM CAVALLARO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY NETWORK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: 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 are becoming 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 (on camera): The benefits of Italian citizenship include, basically, free universal healthcare, 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.

(voice-over): Earlier this year, Kristen and Greg Helmstetter and their daughter, Camelia (ph), 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 experiencing other cultures outside of just the United States.

WEDEMAN: They have no regrets.

GREG HELMSTETTER, CONSULTANT: You know, in the U.S., for wearing a mask, for 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: In a bitter time of pandemic and uncertainty, here you can still have a taste of la dolce vita.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Orvieto, Italy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: In Belgium, a record-breaking auction for a 2-year-old racing pigeon. Have a look at the bird. He's named New Kim, was sold for almost $2 million on Sunday, breaking last year's record by a significant margin.

I think I saw one of those just outside in the car park.

She was initially put up for auction at about $235, but bidding rose sharply. She ultimately sold to a buyer from China, where long- distance pigeon racing is becoming popular.

One of the auctioneers says the new owner will likely want to breed her, because Belgium tends to produce elite birds and potential champions.

I'm sorry. Seriously, they're everywhere. Go outside and grab you ten.

Thanks for watching. I'm Michael Holmes. I'll be back in about 15 minutes with more news. Stay tuned, though, for WORLD SPORT.

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