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Trump Acknowledges Biden Victory But Refuses To Concede; SpaceX Launches Astronauts Into Orbit To Dock With ISS; Ethiopia's Conflict Sparks Fears Of Humanitarian Crisis; Thousands Flee Violence In Ethiopia's Tigray Region; Amnesty Int. Alleges Massacre In Northern Ethiopia; Control of US Senate to be Decided in Georgia; 15 Asia- Pacific Countries Form Largest Free Trade Bloc; Hundreds Evacuate After Deadly Flooding in Colombia; Iota Now a Major Category 4 Hurricane; Donald Trump Still Refuses to Concede; U.S. Surpasses 11 Million COVID-19 Cases; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Kicks Off Seven Nation Tour; Cuba Reopens International Airport. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired November 16, 2020 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN HOST: President Donald Trump, for the first-time, acknowledging a loss, but barely. He remains defiant, refusing to concede the election to Joe Biden.

To make matters more difficult, coronavirus cases keep spiking in the U.S., adding 2 million more in just over 2 weeks.

And another dangerous hurricane churning in the Caribbean. The timing on when Iota could make landfall.

Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. You are watching "CNN Newsroom."

Welcome everyone. After acknowledging for the first time that Joe Biden won last week's U.S. election, President Donald Trump quickly walking back those comments in no uncertain terms. In fact, just a little bit over an hour ago, the president tweeted this, all caps, "I won the election." That's it.

This, after claiming, without proof, that Biden had won because the election was rigged. Mr. Trump says he won't concede and is preventing Biden from accessing critical government data about the pandemic. This, even as the U.S. infection total now soared past 11 million.

Despite the worsening crisis, Biden and his team stay optimistic that they can put together a response plan by the time it takes office. CNN's Jessica Dean with the details.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With a new week on the horizon for the Biden transition team, we are learning from incoming chief of staff, Ron Clain, 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 20th, will still not being able to speak directly to people in the federal agency 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 is because the General Services Administration, that federal office that is 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 are 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 20th.

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. Now, we wait to hear their plans for action when they take office on January 20th. Jessica Dean, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

HOLMES: The president's top coronavirus adviser urged the state of Michigan to reject new coronavirus measures. A disturbing tweet, Scott Atlas criticizing the new restrictions, tweeting on Sunday, "The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept." Very concerning sort of tweet.

Later on CNN, Michigan's governor dismissed Atlas' comments, saying she would continue to follow the science.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRETCHEN WHITMER, GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN: We know that the White House likes to single us out here in Michigan, me out (ph) in particular. I'm not going to be bullied into not following reputable scientists and medical professionals. I listen to people that actually have studied and are well respected worldwide on these issues, not the individual that is doing the president's bidding on this one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And the past (ph) and the pain from the pandemic grows across the country, the president, obsessed with the election he lost. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, for a brief moment on Sunday morning, President Trump acknowledge something that he has not acknowledged before. And that is that Joe Biden has won this presidential election.

[02:04:51]

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 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, "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, really a reminiscent of what we've seen from the president over the last several weeks. 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 have 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 unable to provide substantiate of 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 is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

HOLMES: CNN political analyst, Julian Zelizer, is a professor at Princeton University. He is with us from New York. Good to see you Julian. You know, I want to start with this. You wrote on CNN.com and people should go read it, and I'll just quote from it now.

"If Trump continues on this path it will be tragic and historians will look back on the next two months and debate what might have been, how many lives and livelihoods could have been saved, if only Trump had been capable of thinking of someone other than himself." How damaging could the president's actions be and his non-actions?

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Extremely damaging. At one level it's damaging and that it really undermines any ability for Republicans and supporters of Trump to even give President Biden just a few months to get his administration started. More importantly, it's slowing down the transition.

This is a moment that the new administration should be getting set up, meeting with cabinet officials, and getting all of the information they need. And that will hamper our ability to deal with the pandemic, which is surging in the United States.

And we are also on the cusp of a vaccine, which requires a lot of government coordination. So at all levels, this is really tragic that this is what the president is deciding to do.

HOLMES: Yes. And also, you know, a separate sort of issue too, the damage that's being done to the public faith in the entire electoral system. And also the complicity in many ways of congressional Republicans enabling the president with their silence as he calls everything into doubt. And NBC on Sunday invited every single Republican senator on the "Meet the Press." No one accepted, none.

ZELIZER: I think that's a big part of the story. Other than a handful of Republicans, most of either been silent and some, such as Senator McConnell, the majority leader, has supported what the president is doing. So this really Republican effort to undermine confidence in the election, not just the presidential effort.

HOLMES: Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, he quoted what is a worrying aspect of the U.S. system and it's sort of de-centralized nature. You know, according to the Electoral Integrity Project, the U.S. elections are among the least trusted of all liberal democracies.

I mean, it's ranked 37 out of 38, just above Albania. I mean, some people suggested independent bipartisan election commission is needed. Given the complaints this time around, justified or not, do you see room for a look at the system?

ZELIZER: Well, we should hope so, but we need to remember after the 2000 election in the United States, which was contested and very divisive, there were reforms to the system, but not as many as you would think. Often, once this is finished, once the new administration starts, there is less support for reforming the way we have our democracy work.

But let's hope. Let's hope that the mail-in voting, which actually saved this election in many ways from the weight of the pandemic, offers a model for how to make voting easier in future years.

[02:10:05]

HOLMES: Yes. A lot of people think there should be more, not less of that. You know, when it comes to Donald Trump and his, you know, cult of personality, which is what it is in many ways, when he leaves the White House, as he will of course, how many of his 72 million voters are going to go with him to whatever he chooses to do post presidency do you think?

ZELIZER: Well, I am sure they'll still be following him, they'll still be listening to him, and he will still have a commanding voice in Republican politics. So, once you draw over 70 million votes, you don't go away.

And unless his interest wanes, unless he wants to focus on some new media project or go back to his real estate, I suspect we will hear a lot from him in the next 4 years. And this will be something that the Biden administration needs to contend with.

HOLMES: And I was curious too. What do you think Joe Biden administration's legislative priorities will be? I mean, with the Senate perhaps staying Republican. Can we expect a lot of what Donald Trump did, executive orders perhaps?

ZELIZER: I think there will be a lot of executive orders on regulatory issues such as climate change and the environment where Senate Republicans are unlikely to accept anything if they control the majority. But on the pandemic, I think the administration is going to try to push legislation, like a stimulus bill if that doesn't happen in the next few months.

They're going to try to shore up our infrastructure and put Republicans in a position where they either cooperate with the administration or they have to say no to pandemic legislation. And that might be one area where President-elect Biden will have some leverage.

HOLMES: Sixty something days to go. Political analyst, Julian Zelizer, professor at Princeton University. Good to see a professor. Thank you.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

HOLMES: U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is in France, his first stop on a seven nation tour. The trip may prove a little awkward. Each and every one of the countries he's visiting has already congratulated president-elect Joe Biden for his victory. Something that Pompeo and his boss, Donald Trump, refused to do. CNN's Melissa Bell joins us now from Paris. What do we know about the visit Melissa?

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you mentioned, Michael, the fact that he is visiting all these countries that have already congratulated President-elect Joe Biden. Emmanuel Macron, remember, was one of the first world leaders to do so.

And so, the Elysee has very much insisted on the fact that today's events and what we expect is a wreath laying ceremony, Michael, for the recent victims here in France of terrorism, and then a meeting with France's foreign minister, Pompeo's counterpart, but also with Emmanuel Macron.

What the Elysee has insisted upon is that this was a visit that was requested by Mike Pompeo, and his counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, was asked about this on French television on Friday. He explained that he had faith in American democracy, and that until January 20th, Mike Pompeo being his counterpart, he would continue to receive him, and that was normal.

Now, on the table today, an opportunity of course to talk about some of the burning issues of the day. We are told China, but also terrorism, a couple of sticking points so, Michael that are likely to emerge beyond the question of the functioning of American democracy.

And that is, first of, all on the question of Iraq and Afghanistan. The French authorities had made it real that they are going to be insisting with Mike Pompeo that they don't want to see and would oppose any unilateral and rushed withdrawal by the United States before January 20th, and also the thorny question of the Iran deal.

Remember that the French were really at the forefront of European efforts to try and salvage it. They will be insisting with Mike Pompeo, we're told today, on the need or on the fact that they wish that the American administration does nothing before it departs to get in the way of what they hope will be their efforts to try and pull it back together after January 20th, Michael.

HOLMES: All right, Melissa Bell there in Paris. Thank you so much, Melissa. Good to see you. And we will take a break here on the program. When we come back on "CNN Newsroom," hospitals across the U.S. already reaching their breaking points as the country battles a deadly surge of coronavirus cases. We will look at what states are doing to try to stop the spread.

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[02:15:00]

HOLMES: Now, as we mentioned, the U.S. is surpassing 11 million coronavirus cases now. That's well ahead, of course, of every other nation in the world. And it has happened at a record-breaking pace. One million cases added in the last 6 days. That is the number that previously took weeks to get to.

More than a dozen states already warning that their hospitals are at or nearing capacity. And as we know, hospitalizations normally lagged behind new cases, and that is a worrying sign of what we can expect in the weeks ahead.

States on the U.S. West Coast are putting in sweeping measures to battle the virus. CNN's Paul Vercammen reports from Los Angeles.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here on the West Coast, aggressive COVID-19 testing underway. In the city of Los Angeles alone, 128,000 people tested in one week. And that includes large testing sites such as Dodger Stadium. Eight thousand people tested in one day.

And then smaller sites -- this is a mobile or a pop-up testing site in south Los Angeles. They feel that they were not getting enough testing done in this Hispanic neighborhood, so they combined this with a toy drive, hundreds to come through here.

And up and down the west coast, a travel advisory has been issued for California, Oregon, and Washington. They want to anybody who comes into these states to quarantine for 14 days after. They are also saying that they do not want to see a lot of travel in between these states unless absolutely necessary.

And the governor of Washington taking some dramatic measures, closing down indoor dining at restaurants and closing down bars. Also, for indoor, also closing down movie theaters, bowling alleys, museums, and the like. [02:20:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY INSLEE, GOVERNOR OF WASHINGTON: Left unchecked, it will assuredly result in grossly overburdened hospitals. It will keep people from receiving routine, but necessary medical treatment because of the stresses our hospitals will be under.

Left unchecked, the economic devastation long term, will be continually prolonged. And most importantly, left unchecked, we will see continued untold numbers of deaths. We will not allow these things to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: And back on the streets of Los Angeles, they tested 33 percent more people this week, then last week. They are just trying to get ahead of the curve as they expect there to be a dramatic surge than the number of cases. Reporting from Los Angeles. I'm Paul Vercammen, now back to you.

HOLMES: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez is an internal medicine and viral specialist. He joins me now from Los Angeles. Good to see you doctor.

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

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 presidents 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 fighting a war against an invisible enemy.

And if this were that technically war that we are used to, we would be completely beside ourselves if we weren't transitioning information. So, will it have deleterious effects? Absolutely.

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

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

But I think that by the middle of next year, hopefully, the majority of the United States will be vaccinated, and that goes a long way, a long way toward curbing these epidemics. 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 would be anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 unnecessary deaths due to filled hospitals, due to peoples 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 just 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 unpleasant. Thanks. Good to see you.

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

HOLMES: The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, says he has been exposed to the coronavirus and is now isolating at 10 Downing Street. He tweeted that he has no symptoms, but will be leading the government's pandemic response from isolation.

Mr. Johnson, of course, was treated for coronavirus in April. A bad case of it. He was in the ICU for a while. This has been a week of turmoil in the prime minister's office. Two of his top aides resigned and Mr. Johnson is struggling to address the issue of a post Brexit trade deal with the E.U.

Now, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, will be meeting with state leaders on Monday, but we're not expecting to see looser restrictions. In fact, the country's economy minister says Germans should brace for another four to five months of severe measures.

And here is what they said, "We cannot afford a yo-yo shut down with the economy constantly opening and closing. If we don't want days with 50,000 new infections, we must see this through and not constantly speculate about which measures can be relaxed again."

[02:25:06]

Cuba has reopened its international airport in Havana months after the pandemic forced it to close. The near total ban on tourism severely hurt the nation's struggling economy, but now the government hopes the reopening can help turn things around. CNN's Patrick Oppmann reports for (inaudible) Havana.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When seven months after Havana's Jose Marti International Airport shutdown the commercial flights and Cuba closed its borders, this airport has now reopened. Although there are some significant changes.

You see over here people are getting their hand sprayed with a solution when they get inside. They have to have their temperature checked. And you see people with face masks everywhere, which is the law, and even some with face guards. So, it doesn't look like it used to, of course.

And there are many less flights than we have before the pandemic. The flights have begun to come in, first time in over seven months as there've been any kind of commercial traveling. Think how devastating that has been to the Cuban economy which depends on tourism.

So, that will slowly start to come back and will help people who have been waiting months and months to be able to reopen. The homes they rent if they have a rental car business or restaurants, you know, the Cubans who make a living off tourism as so many people here do.

But when travelers arrive now at the airport, they will have a PCR test here in this terminal, then they will have go to either their hotel or the home they are staying in and wait at least 24 hours, we are told, to get the all clear.

They are told that their test has come back negative and then they can really begin their trip. So, while this airport is now open, tourism is slowly returning to this island. It is going to be a drawn out process because Cuba says they don't want to open up too quickly to make sure that cases do not rise too quickly.

But at least, for now, people are relieved that this airport and that tourism has returned to the island. Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.

HOLMES: Coming up here on "CNN Newsroom" a historic moment is Elon Musk's SpaceX launches four astronauts into orbit. Why it was a groundbreaking moment for the future of space travel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:30:00]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Welcome back. President Donald Trump, once again, falsely claiming victory over Joe Biden, sending out an all caps tweet, a short time ago saying "I won the election". He hasn't of course. And this comes after the President at earlier appeared to, in a way, acknowledge his loss for the first time. That tweet had said Joe Biden won, but then listed off a series of false claims, and baseless conspiracy theories as the reason for it.

The major news networks called the election for Biden more than a week ago. Mr. Trump, not only it won't not accepted his administration, won't release transition resources, which are necessary for a smooth transition. Nevertheless, President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris are preparing to take over. They will be working with Pfizer on coronavirus response strategies this week. And they will be talk about their economic plans on Monday. Now earlier, I spoke about the presidential transition with Thomas Gift the Director of the Center for U.S. Politics at the University of College London. I asked him why he thinks the President is digging in and spreading his baseless claims of election fraud.

THOMAS GIFT, DIRECTOR, UCL CENTRE ON U.S. POLITICS: I think Trump's refusal to see it clearly represents a major challenge to Democratic norms. Still it's hard to be too surprised, given that the President has been telegraphing this for months that he may dispute the election results. You know in part, I think this might just be a personality byproduct of his narcissism, refusing to concede, however also allows Trump to maintain his relevance to attract dollars into his new political action committee he has recently created and also to sustain his position as the de facto leader of the party.

You know, I think more damaging here is that some Republicans on Capitol Hill continue to lend legitimacy to this claims, not all but some. And I think they are doing it not just because they're afraid of Trump or don't want to offend him, but because they realize that Trump remains extremely popular within the GOP base. They know that Trumpism will persist, even if Trump leaves office. And they sense that opposing Trump now would jeopardize their own electoral prospects going forward.

HOLMES: Yes. It's very unsettling when he tweets the things he did. "I won the election", he tweeted, did just in the last hour. And that fires up people who probably shouldn't be fired up to be honest. The only thing, after the last election Republicans had a singular message for Democrats which was - we get over it, it we won. In fact, have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary is on her sore loser tour. And now we have her going through recounts. She knows she needs to do. She needs to get over it. She lost. Get out of the way and let Donald Trump be President.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think the Democrats are sore losers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reality is they are bunch of small crybabies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: News flash for many of the partisan Democrats and those in the mainstream media who continue to try to delegitimize President-Elect Trump's massive and historical win last month, the election is over. Hillary Clinton lost.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Yes. So, what you heard then, you are not hearing now clearly. But when it comes to Congressional Republicans staying quiet on all of this, what do you think? Is it about not angering Trump ahead of a Georgia Senate election? What is it? What are they afraid of? GIFT: I really do think that to some extent, it's just the fact that they believe that Trumpism is going to persist in some form after this election. You know Trump did receive lots and lots and lots of Republican votes and the mobilization behind his movement, I think is not going anywhere, anytime soon. I think Republicans realized that the party is going to evolve, it's going to move on, but it's still going to maintain some non trivial, Trumpian elements within it.

HOLMES: Thomas Gift in Oxford England, always good to see you. Thanks so much.

GIFT: Thanks Michael.

HOLMES: Coming up here on CNN Newsroom, Ethiopians are risking their lives to escape fighting in the country's north. And refugee camps, overwhelmed by the growing humanitarian crisis, we will have a live report from David McKenzie, when we come back.

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[02:35:00]

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HOLMES: A giant leap for Elon Musk, and his SpaceX. The company has launched four astronauts into orbit to meet up with the International Space Station. They all docked to less than 24 hours from now. And spend the next six months out there. That's a mission that could by the way offer for a new era of commercial space travel.

Now a violent conflict in Northern Ethiopia has force thousands of people to flee to neighboring Sudan. And now, there are fears of a humanitarian crisis on both sides of the border. David McKenzie is following the developments for us from Johannesburg. What's the latest David, as always civilians are the ones to suffer?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael that is right. There's been a blackout of media and internet connections (inaudible) direct information coming out from Tigray conflict there in that region. But look at these images of people desperately trying to get across the border into Sudan on boats. They are paying ferrymen at what they can to get across.

And the UNHCR says, the refugee agency that 14,000 plus have come in just a last few days they are overwhelmed in those camps, trying to get people settled, give them the very basic food and shelter that they need. But what is happening in Tigray itself, certainly there are fears that this conflict could spiral out of control. Michael?

HOLMES: Yes. And the Prime Minister keeps, he's sort of talking of a quick war. I mean is that that realistic?

MCKENZIE: Well, certainly he is saying, and I want to show you this message he put out in the tweet, saying that "Our campaign in the Tigray region to uphold rule of law is progressing well, as well as other statements there in English. [02:40:00]

So clearly, targeting international communities, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said that this is a way to restore federal law to the country but to grand officials believe that he is overstepping his mark.

Regardless, what is happening now is the very real fair of a regional conflagration. There are substantial reports of cross border skirmishes at least, missiles landing potentially according to Reuters in neighboring Eritrea. This could pull in Eritrea. It could pull in neighboring countries into this conflict. And again, we are speaking about the refugees going across.

There is also fears that the surveillance impact would integrate itself is severe, but very little information is getting out. And the worry is what he says will be a quick campaign, it could be protracted and extremely damaging both to Ethiopia, and the region.

HOLMES: All right. I appreciate the reporting, David. Thank you, David McKenzie there in Johannesburg. All right, up next for our international viewers world sport and for our viewers here in the United States. I'll have more news after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:45:00]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN HOST: Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud aside the presidential race of course is over. What's still up in the air is control of the U.S. Senate, and it all comes down to runoff elections here in Georgia. There are two of them. Democrat Raphael Warnock challenging Republican Kelly Loeffler and Jon Ossoff hoping to see David Perdue. Kyung Lah reports the stakes are high and the campaign donations are pouring in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID PERDUE, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: This is it, I win, she wins. She wins, I win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Their first joint runoff campaign rally, the two Republican Senators from Georgia are defending their jobs, hoping to secure their futures and control of the U.S. Senate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY LOEFFLER, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: Make no mistake; we are the firewall not just for the U.S. Senate but the future of our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Underscoring the national scale of this fight, Florida Senator Rick Scott. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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 topped $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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vote Perdue to stop them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: (Incumbent Senator David Perdue's first ads focus on keeping the Senate Majority.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Raphael Warnock a radical to radical.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Warnock is defending himself in his ads.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When people have no vision, they resort to division.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: And in television interviews.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAPHAEL WARNOCK, U.S. DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: She knows that she is misrepresenting who I am and what I represent. I'm going to stay focused on Georgia families. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need leaders who bring us together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON OSSOFF, U.S. DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: 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.

HOLMES: Andra Gillespie is Political Scientist with Emory University here in Atlanta. Good to see you and thanks for your time. Just give people a sense of how bitter this battle is and how much more bitter it might become between now and January 5 and how much both parties are throwing at it?

ANDRA GILLESPIE, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, EMORY UNIVERSITY: So, this race has the potential to be the most extensive and one of the nastiest in U.S. history. Control of the Senate is at stake, and so if Democrats win these two seats they will have a 50/50 tie, which will be sort of abetted by Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris' 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 the 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 term of party identification in the state that has dissipated over time and is evidenced by Vice President Biden's win 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. Other interesting thing both Republican candidates very closely tied to President Trump and proud of it, both of them 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 are both in these positions of having runoff 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 Perdue 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.

[02:50:00]

GILLEPSIE: 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: Andra Gillespie thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

GILLESPIE: Thank you.

HOLMES: Now, the world's largest free trading block is now made up of 15 Asia-Pacific economies. They signed on to what's called the regional comprehensive economic partnership in Hanoi on Sunday. What's missing from the deal, the United States? John Defterios is in Abu Dhabi with the implications.

And, you know, of course Donald Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific partnership when he came to office. And this pact seems to be allowing China's influence to grow in Asia. Is that your read?

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: I think it's absolutely right, Michael, indeed. This is further evidence, if you're not sitting at the bargaining table, other countries around the world can move forward. So Donald Trump pivoted away from Asia, from the TPP, this is a regional play from Asia from north in China all the way down to New Zealand in the south 15 countries about a third of the global GDP and about a third of the global population.

And it does bring together for the first time East Asia into one block with China, Japan and South Korea. That says something in deed on its own. And Michael also interesting you know Australia and China - Australia being your homeland of course has been struggling with China on a number of different trade issues almost taking the U.S. position here.

They're saying with those 15 members regional comprehensive economic partnership doesn't actually roll off the tongue. They think they can mend relations with Beijing. There was always this concern that China would swamp Southeast Asia and Austral-Asia. This tone is changing right now, particularly with a very difficult position the U.S. has taken against China under the Trump Administration.

HOLMES: Yes, great analysis. This trade deals in Asia, solid growth in Japan. Off to the races for the markets. What are you seeing?

DEFTERIOS: Yes, incredible start to the week, Michael, because we had the trade pact as you noted there, Japan growing 5 percent in the third quarter, manufacturing in China much stronger. So let's take a look at the numbers here.

The NIKKEI Index is at the highest level in 29 years. That's how good they're feeling about the future here and the low interest rate environment with the gain of better than 2 percent Seoul part of the trade pact better than 2 percent or hovering around that level, Shanghai up 1 percent.

Overall in Asia, speaking of that trade pact we have the overall markets at the highest level since 1987. Right now this is spilling into U.S. Futures as well. The S&P500 finished a record high on Friday. So my point Michael is what's the political crisis in the United States have to do with the markets?

How about the COVID-19 case load? The view is that they can come forward with a stimulus package in the United States; this will be the first test for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in working with the Senate Republicans.

We'll hear more from two of them here on the economic blueprint. But right now the market is taking it at hand and saying we can move forward in 2021. That's the view.

HOLMES: All right, great analysis as always. Good to see you there, John Defterios in Abu Dhabi where it looks like a pretty day. Now the President of Colombia has been viewing the devastation in regions hit by deadly landslides and floods.

Scenes like these are playing out in several provinces where people actually climbed on to roofs for safety. So far several people though have been killed, hundreds have been forced to evacuate. And new this hour, a powerful hurricane in the Caribbean growing stronger and was just upgraded to category 4. CNN Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is tracking Iota and not looking good, is it?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not at all. You know, you can't overestimate the significance of this storm system. The rarity of the storm of this magnitude and of course it was just two weeks ago that Hurricane Eta made landfall in Nicaragua and left behind damage such as this here where significant losses in place, billions of dollars in loss not just in Nicaragua but also next door there in Honduras.

The concern another Category 4 winds sustained at 140-miles-per-hour. The system now statistically speaking got to go back to the 1870s when records began to be kept here. The rarity of the storm of this magnitude only happens once every 37 years.

In fact in the past 24 hours this has intensified rapidly yet again, the sixth of seven storms so far in the last couple of months to do so here intensifying rapidly on approach to land and already seeing hurricane warnings prompted across Puerto Cabezas which is the same area of Nicaragua where Eta made landfall less than two weeks ago.

That storm - left behind for Honduras $5 billion in losses which is equivalent to about 20 percent of the nation's GDP.

[02:55:00] JAVAHERI: Fatalities here exceeded 170 people and still some considered missing across the region as well. Of course the last thing you want to see is an incoming system with almost an identical track and identical magnitude, category 4, we think landfall sometime Monday night into Tuesday morning again along the same region of Northern Nicaragua near the border of Honduras.

You'll notice again two hurricanes that are category 4 now making landfall in under two weeks. Statistically this happens only once every 37 years. You can do the math and see it happen in less than 14 days really speaks to what is happening right now here across Nicaragua.

So the rainfall, tremendous volume of rainfall in the forecast here could easily exceed a foot in some of these areas. The storm surge could exceed say 10 feet to 15 feet which could be upwards about two plus meters in some of these areas close to three meters.

And of course some of the higher amounts could be as much as 4.5 meters. So, an incredible amount of damage potential in place especially Michael when you consider what is already on the ground here.

We know levies have been devastated and dams have reached full capacity. And some homes still - water quite a bit of it right along the top of the home. So you look at a forecast model that really doesn't deviate much through landfall, and what is concerning here across parts of Central America.

HOLMES: Just absolutely terrifying. All right, thanks very much. Pedram Javaheri there, I appreciate it. Thank you for watching and spending time of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. The far nicer Rosemary Church will be here with another hour of "CNN Newsroom" after the break.

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