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COVID Surges in the Dakotas; Trump Undermines Biden's Legitimacy; Navajo Nation Set to Lockdown; Navajo Nation's President on Lockdown. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired November 17, 2020 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[09:31:08]
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.
So both COVID cases and hospitalizations are rapidly increasing really across the country, but no place right now is being hit harder than North and South Dakota. They are leading the nation in new COVID infections and deaths per capita.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Yes, remember when this was all meant to be a coastal/big city problem?
Harrowing news as hospitals there are nearing capacity and doctors warn hospitals in those states could soon reach a breaking point because of a small number of ICU beds and specialists there.
CNN's Lucy Kafanov has the story from South Dakota.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS BJORKMAN, LOST HUSBAND TO COVID-19: I wanted him to come home. I always thought he would come home.
LUCY KAFANOV, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Chris Bjorkman of De Smet (ph), South Dakota, is missing her husband. She and John Bjorkman tested positive for coronavirus three months after their 39th wedding anniversary. She got better, but John's health took a turn for the worse.
JOHN BJORKMAN: No energy. No -- no drive. No -- I -- no nothing.
KAFANOV: He was struggling to breathe and was put on a ventilator. The Sioux Falls hospitals, so overwhelmed, he had to be airlifted to Minnesota, sharing his struggle with CNN affiliate KSFY.
J. BJORKMAN: And they flew me over here. I -- I literally didn't know if I would see the next day. It makes me more nervous. That's (INAUDIBLE).
KAFANOV: Chris describes visiting him in the ICU.
C. BJORKMAN: It's awful to see someone on a ventilator.
KAFANOV: John died after spending 30 days in the hospital. One of nearly 250,000 American lives claimed by COVID-19.
The pandemic is ravaging the Dakotas. Health experts say months of lax regulations have contributed to South Dakota's public health crisis. Republican Governor Kristi Noem ignoring safety measures that curbed the spread of COVID-19 elsewhere in the world.
GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R-SD): My people are happy. They're happy because they're free.
KAFANOV: The governor welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally this summer, didn't cancel the state fair and has resisted issuing stay-at-home orders or a mask mandate saying she would leave it up to the people to decide.
AMY BILLOWS, SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA, RESIDENT: Viruses are so small that expecting a mask to block them is like expecting a chain link fence to keep out mosquitos.
KAFANOV: In Sioux Falls, the mayor, who's previously urged residents to mask up --
MAYOR PAUL TENHAKEN (R), SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA: I, obviously, believe in masks. The importance they play in slowing the spread of COVID-19.
KAFANOV: Voting against the mandate after the city council ended up deadlocked.
TENHAKEN: So my official vote on this is a no.
KAFANOV: Dr. Shannon Emry is a local pediatrician who spent 14 years in the U.S. Air Force and blames politicians for not doing enough.
SR. SHANNON EMRY, PEDIATRICIAN: Our governor has been misleading her constituents. From the start, she has downplayed the dangers of the virus, downplayed the importance of wearing a mask and it's really undermined the people's trust in their medical community. And that's actually putting more people in danger.
KAFANOV: Governor Noem's office did not respond to CNN, but with elected leaders reluctant to intervene and COVID policy turning political, the burden of pushing people to take the virus seriously has now fallen on the families of those who have died.
KAFANOV (on camera): Why did you feel like you had to speak out?
C. BJORKMAN: Because I want people to not go through this, what I did. I want people to care enough about their neighbors, their family, that they wear a mask and that something gets done.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[09:35:00] KAFANOV: Chris does not get to see her husband again. Her grandchildren don't have a grandfather anymore. The only reason why she's speaking out is to honor John's memory in hopes of others being able to learn from her pain.
And I can tell you, we've been here in South Dakota for a few days now. There are not a lot of folks out on the street wearing masks. It's a sad day when health care becomes politicized.
Poppy, Jim, back to you.
HARLOW: That was an incredibly important and moving story, Lucy. Thank you for bringing that to light for so many of us who are not there on the ground.
It has been over a week since CNN projected Joe Biden to be the winner of the election and yet the Trump administration is still preventing the president-elect from receiving classified national security briefings. Why does that matter to you? We'll talk about it, next.
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[09:40:11]
SCIUTTO: Well, President-elect Biden will meet with national security experts today, but it will not be an official intelligence briefing as would normally happen for a president-elect. President Trump's refusal to concede this election is preventing Biden from getting those classified briefings, about, Poppy, the biggest threats to this country's national security.
It's pretty unbelievable. And even as President Trump's legal challenges are fizzling in the courts on the election, his efforts appear designed to undermine the president-elect's legitimacy, all while most senior Republican members are silent or amplifying the president's message.
Sabrina Siddiqui is with us, national politics reporter for "The Wall Street Journal."
Good morning.
I think, Sabrina, people held out hope when they heard Republican Senator Lankford say last week, I'm going to step in if Biden isn't getting these briefings by the end of the week. Then he went on another network and said that the media was twisting what step-in means. I think it's pretty clear. And then he issued this statement yesterday, quote, I did step in, I talked to them Friday. My staff has been involved. We talked through the process. I talked through what I see as a good process. There's no way that they can ascertain. GSA is not the electors.
Completely flipped. Why?
SABRINA SIDDIQUI, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, I think it just reinforcing the pressure a lot of these Republicans are under to allow President Trump to continue and try, even without merit, to challenge the outcome of the election, even though the writing is on the wall. This isn't going anywhere.
And, you know, based on the conversations I've had with the Biden transition team, every single day that they are not able to obtain that ascertainment and coordinate with the federal government on a smooth transition of power is a day where they will be less prepared to take office in January.
And it's not just about the intelligence briefings, but it's also about nominations that they will be making for cabinet officials, background checks that could be slowed down and the prospect of then, for example, the secretary of state or secretary of defense not being confirmed in a speedily fashion because of this delay that's been caused by these roadblocks the Trump administration is still putting forward before the Biden transition.
So, for now, the work-around has been to consult with outside experts, people who consult with the federal government but are not within the federal government, but they're really hoping this stand-off ends soon.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
And we should note that Kamala Harris maintains her access to some of this intelligence based on her position on the Intelligence Committee. But, still, he's the president-elect.
I wonder, Sabrina, can you help me understand the fear here, right? I know that the president still has a following. But the fact is, is in this election he lost, but he also underperformed his party. That's the thing, the president was less attractive to voters that many of the GOP lawmakers who are now fearful of getting on the wrong side of him.
Can you explain the fear?
SIDDIQUI: Well, it really just goes to show how much President Trump has transformed the Republican Party. And I think that because there were, let's say roughly 7 million more voters who turned out and also cast ballots for President Trump, it's clear that what the lesson that the Republican Party has taken away is that there is still is very much a strong base of support for the president.
And, you know, a lot of this is about those two runoffs in Georgia, those two Senate seats that will really determine control of the Senate. And they also expect President Trump to continue and be an influential figure in Republican Party politics as many of these lawmakers look ahead to 2022 and 2024. I mean you've had the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., openly threatening on social media any Republican member of Congress who doesn't fall in line. Now that, of course, is not an excuse to go along with this idea that the election is fraudulent when that is absolutely not the case and to cast doubt in the minds of the American public about the integrity of the election. But I think they just really fundamentally believe that President Trump is going to continue to hold considerable influence, not just over the party, but over the Republican electorate.
HARLOW: Can you imagine if it was the other way around, right, and what they'd be saying?
SCIUTTO: Yes.
HARLOW: Sabrina, we appreciate you. Thanks very much.
Ahead, the Navajo Nation is shutting down for three weeks to slow the surge of COVID cases there. We're going to speak with the president of the Navajo Nation ahead.
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[09:49:02]
HARLOW: The Navajo Nation this week has started a three-week lockdown. This is after officials found that COVID was spreading uncontrolled through 34 of their communities. This comes after a spring when the Navajo Nation had the highest rate of COVID-19 in the country, even surpassing New York City.
Our Martin Savidge went there and reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Last spring, COVID-19 devastated this sprawling 27,000 square mile Navajo Reservation that stretches across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. In May, per capita Navajo infection rates surpassed New York and New Jersey. Dee Dixson's younger sister among those infected.
DARLENE DIXSON, NAVAJO NATION RESIDENT: She went in to get tested. And she said she tested positive.
SAVIDGE: Just two weeks later, Dixson listened helplessly over the phone as her sister's COVID battle ended in a distant hospital room.
DIXSON: I was talking to her and I was telling her, sissy, you can't go and you have to come home to us. By 5:45, you just hear that -- that tone of her heart stopping and the doctor came on the phone and she said she was gone.
[09:50:12]
SAVIDGE: Now COVID's back. Navajo health officials warn of the virus' uncontrolled spread in 34 communities and fear an outbreak as bad as spring or worse.
DR. JILL JIM, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NAVAJO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: The cases just have been increasing. There is no plateau. There's no flattening.
SAVIDGE (on camera): How many ICU beds do you have here?
DR. LORETTA CHRISTENSEN, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, NAVAJO AREA INDIAN HEALTH SERVICES: We have 14 in Navajo area. Here at this site we have six.
SAVIDGE (voice over): Last time the Navajo sent many of their cases off reservation to larger hospitals in New Mexico and Arizona. Health volunteers poured in. That's not likely this time. Hospitals nationwide are struggling to find beds for their own critical cases. So the Navajo are preparing to fight alone, locking down the entire Navajo Nation for three weeks, announcing the news on Navajo Radio.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning. I hope everybody woke up feeling good, feeling that they want to stay home and take care of themselves.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: That was our Martin Savidge reporting. Our thanks to him for going there and bringing that to us.
Now let's bring in Jonathan Nez. He's the president of the Navajo Nation.
Good morning, President, Nez, and thank you for your time.
JONATHAN NEZ, PRESIDENT, NAVAJO NATION: Good morning, Poppy, and thank you for having me on our -- on your show.
HARLOW: Of course.
So is it going to be worse than what you guys experienced in the spring, which exceeded what we saw here in New York City?
NEZ: Well, Poppy, we are right now going through our second wave. And this country is going through its third wave. So we've managed to not go through one of the waves this country has gone through because of these very tough public health emergency orders.
And let me just speak to the Dine (ph) people right now, Poppy. (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE). Stay local and stay safe. And that means, stay on the Navajo Nation. Our family and friends that are off the Navajo Nation, now is not the time to come home or visit. We're all in this together.
And, you know, we are just praying and hoping that we will continue to utilize those same protocols that we used to get past the first wave in this second wave, Poppy.
HARLOW: Right. You know, help is coming in the form of a vaccine, but people need to be patient, right, until there's widespread vaccination.
NEZ: Right.
HARLOW: And we just learned from the CDC yesterday that Americans living in rural areas, like yours, are now three times as likely to die from COVID as those in urban centers. And you have called this an invisible monster.
What have you been told about when a vaccine is coming to Navajo Nation, how much of it you're going to get, and how you're going to get it in the arms of people that are living in very rural communities?
NEZ: Right now, Poppy, there are over 100 of our Navajo citizens doing the clinical trials and it's up to them, it's voluntary. And so they are studying the effects of those vaccines on Native Americans, the Navajo people. And, you know, with the transition that's happening with Biden and Harris and with their COVID-19 team, we are hopeful that we could get these vaccines -- the safe vaccines distributed to our most vulnerable population first, which is our elders. And our elders hold our cultural and traditional teaching. And we are warriors here and we're doing our very best to protect our elders and our most vulnerable population here on the Navajo Nation.
So, yes, we are hopeful that we will get that -- the vaccine, as well as everyone throughout this country. I think we want to get back to some normal, some normal day-to-day tasks.
HARLOW: You know, one of the big questions is, will vaccine distribution really be truly equitable or will those who are more advantaged, connected, be able to get them, right? I mean that's not how it's supposed to work, but there are questions about how equitable this will be. Obviously given the history of the treatment of indigenous people in this country, I wonder what guarantees you have from the federal government that your people won't be left behind?
NEZ: Well, through this transition right now, Poppy, you know, we have a seat at the table with this new incoming administration, but we still have two months of the former administration. So if the vaccine is available from now till the swearing in of the new president and the vice president, it's very concerning because sometimes we indigenous peoples, the 574 tribes tend to get left out in these types of decisions.
[09:55:07]
So, you know, we are hoping, of course, you've got to be hopeful for your people that we will be on the list of vaccine when it's available.
Now, of course, it's voluntary and so not everybody is most likely to take the vaccine. So this is going to probably be a new normal, not just for Navajo but for all people throughout the country.
HARLOW: Yes. Well, we wish all of -- all of you luck and also I will remind people that Dr. Fauci held you guys up and said you were a model example of what happens when you do things correctly. So good luck to you, President Nez, and thanks for your time this morning.
NEZ: Oh, yes, Poppy.
HARLOW: We appreciate it.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:00:06]
SCIUTTO: A very good Tuesday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.
HARLOW: And I'm Poppy Harlow.
