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Moderna Announces Its COVID-19 Vaccine is 94.5 Percent Effective; Trump Refuses to Concede Election to President-Elect; Giuliani's Relentless Drive to Challenge the Election; Europe Tightens Restrictions as Cases Surge; The Real Toll of Coronavirus in Russia; Black Congresswoman-Elect Called "Breonna" By Mistake. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 17, 2020 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: For the second time in a week, we are following promising news about a coronavirus vaccine. American biotech company Moderna says its vaccine is nearly 95 percent effective. It will join Pfizer in seeking FDA approvals and there is hope the first doses could be available next month. However, Joe Biden warns that President Trump's unwillingness to accept the outcome of the election could hamper his incoming administration's ability to rapidly distribute a vaccine and save lives.

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JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENT-ELECT: More people may die if we don't coordinate. I am hopeful that the President will be mildly more enlightened before we get to January 20th.

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CHURCH: Lawrence Douglas joins me now. He is a professor of law and social thought at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He is also the author of "Will He Go?" a book on the legal and constitutional consequences of a possible refusal by President Trump to acknowledge defeat in the 2020 election. Thank you so much for being with us.

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS, PROFESSOR OF LAW AND SOCIAL THOUGHT, AMHERST COLLEGE, MASSACHUSETTS: My pleasure to be with you.

CHURCH: Well, you seem to have a vision into the future. Here we are, confronted with a president who refuses to concede after free and fair elections. And now, "The New York Times" reveals Donald Trump had plans last week to attack Iran. Thankfully, he was talked out of it by senior advisers. But he clearly doesn't plan to go quietly. What does that indicate to you about his exit strategy and what else might he have planned for the next two months?

DOUGLAS: Right. Well, I mean, one thing I think it's important is to distinguish between conceding defeat and to submitting to defeat. [04:35:00]

So, conceding I really think of as when a loser -- a losing candidate recognizes the legitimacy of their opponent's victory, recognizes that it was a fair fight, and again, just kind of acknowledges the legitimacy of the opponent's victory.

Submitting to defeat, I think is just kind of a real world recognition that any further fighting and struggle is futile. So, I do think that Trump is ultimately going to submit to defeat. I do not think he is going to concede. I don't think he's ever going to concede defeat, that is I don't think he's ever going to recognize Biden's victory as legitimate. And that does suggest that for the next, you know, couple of months things could be really quite unstable.

CHURCH: Yes, and of course, as you are speaking to us, we were looking a vision there of Donald Trump out playing golf. And of course, he is doing this while people are dying from the coronavirus pandemic, and that is a real concern. What do you think he is trying to achieve by blocking President-Elect Joe Biden's transition to power? And how will this likely end come January 20th?

DOUGLAS: Right. Well, I do think it will end on January 20th. That is I do think that Biden will be duly inaugurated as the next president. That's something I don't think we need to worry about.

You know, again, if I was predicting things, I'd also probably guess that Donald Trump will not be participating in that inaugural ceremony. I would imagine he will boycott it. It is even possible to imagine that he would stage some kind of separate, simultaneous event simply to draw attention away from the limelight being on the President's-elect Biden.

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CHURCH: Professor Lawrence Douglas, many thanks.

Well, former first lady Michelle Obama is now weighing in on Instagram about Mr. Trump's refusal to concede. She wrote at length about how four years ago she put her anger and disappointment aside in order to bring about a peaceful transition of power.

And she said quote, our democracy is so much bigger than anybody's ego. Our love of country requires us to respect the results of an election, even when we don't like them or wish it had gone differently. The presidency doesn't belong to any one individual or any one party.

Well, a key adviser is stoking President Trump's denial of the election results. His efforts won't change the outcome, but they could have a lasting impact on voters' trust in the system. Drew Griffin reports on Rudy Giuliani's relentless campaign.

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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It would be laughable if this wasn't so dangerous.

RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They start doing ballots like this.

GRIFFIN: Rudy Giuliani on Fox Sunday spinning his latest false conspiracy theory about an American voting machine company, a bizarre take involving George Soros, votes being counted in Spain, and dead strongman Hugo Chavez.

GIULIANI: Company that has close, close ties with Venezuela and therefore, China.

GRIFFIN: False, truth, facts? They don't seem to matter to Giuliani, who is tweeting, posting on YouTube, showing up on far-right wing shows, spouting wildly false allegations even from the parking lot of a landscaping company next to an adult bookstore.

GIULIANI: Wow, what a beautiful day.

GRIFFIN: His argument in Philadelphia that vote counters were purposely hiding ballots from Trump's poll watchers.

GIULIANI: Because many, many of them were fraudulent.

GRIFFIN: Not true. This is the man President Trump has just put in charge of his legal challenges to Joe Biden's presidential win. A stack of lawsuits has already been thrown out or dropped, including nine in one day.

BEN GINSBERG, REPUBLICAN ELECTION LAWYER: All of the cases, all of the cases are falling apart. The way that he's going about continuing to file cases with no basis in court, just makes Donald Trump a loser more times.

GRIFFIN: In a Pennsylvania lawsuit, a judge asked Trump's attorney, are you claiming that there is any fraud in connection with these disputed ballots? The Trump attorney admitted, no. Yet along with other Trump cronies, Giuliani keeps feeding the world his debunked conspiracy theories.

GIULIANI: In each state, there were ineligible ballots that overwhelmed the margin of victory.

GRIFFIN: No, Mr. Giuliani, there weren't. The United States Department of Homeland Security issued this joint statement from its Elections Infrastructure Committee stating there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Rudy Giuliani is undermining confidence in the American election system and, therefore, undermining our national security.

GRIFFIN: It's a far cry from the man who was dubbed mayor of the world in the wake of 9/11.

[04:40:00]

GRIFFIN: Ever since Giuliani became a vocal supporter of the President's 2016 presidential bid, he's been Trump's chief conspiracist, even traveling to Ukraine to try to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden.

Intelligence officials told the White House Giuliani was the target of a Russian influence operation in 2019, according to "The Washington Post."

KENNETH MCCALLION, FORMER U.S. FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: It is very dangerous and it's extremely alarming.

GRIFFIN: Former federal prosecutor Ken McCallion, who specializes in Russian-organized crime and once worked with Giuliani, believes Giuliani may be unwittingly doing the Russians' business in this election.

MCCALLION: What they're doing is completely 100 percent in the interests of Russia, which is to create as much damage and confusion to the U.S.

GRIFFIN: And it's working, the lies and false reports sending thousands into the streets for a pro-Trump protest this past weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump must win!

GRIFFIN: And perhaps convincing millions of Americans to doubt the U.S. election system. Staunch Republican and former Trump national security adviser John Bolton says it's a damaging strategy that won't end after Trump leaves office.

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Real distrust in the system, casting doubt on the integrity of our electoral system, the constitutional process. The Russians and the Chinese couldn't ask for anymore. What Trump is doing is potentially dangerous for the country.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Former colleagues of Rudy Giuliani questioned whether there has been cognitive decline. They just don't know what happened to Rudy Giuliani. One telling me that because the President doesn't even pay his attorney, Rudy Giuliani seems to be destroying his reputation free of charge.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

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CHURCH: The truth matters and trust matters. When we come back, how Russia's response to the coronavirus pandemic is very different than reality. All that uncovered by an exclusive CNN investigation. We are live in Moscow, next.

[04:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHURCH: Europe is in the grip of a major coronavirus surge as countries across the continent tighten restrictions. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging citizens to further limit their social contact with others.

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ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): Contact restrictions are the formula for success. We need to restrict contacts further to reach our goals. We should only have the absolutely necessary minimum of contact with others. Private get together with friends, relatives and acquaintances should be limited to a fixed additional household.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Meanwhile, in France, the health minister says country has passed the peak of the pandemic as case numbers decline. But hospitalizations are still at a record high.

Well, Russia claims to be doing quite well at controlling the coronavirus, but a CNN investigation reveals something very different. Matthew Chance joins us now live from Moscow to explain. Good to see you, Matthew, so what did you find in your exclusive investigation?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, Russia is one of the worst affected countries when it comes to COVID-19. It's got nearly 2 million reported confirmed cases and an official death toll of 33,000 people, which is of course appalling. Now the Kremlin says the situation is under control. They've imposed certain measures. But if you look as we have done at the videos that are emerging from morgues and hospitals across the country and speak to front line medical workers and listen to their testimony, the reality of the situation seems a lot bleaker.

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CHANCE (voice over): This is the pandemic response Russia wants us to see. A vast, state-of-the-art field hospital set up to manage the coronavirus surge.

(on camera): And we are just about to head into the red zone.

(voice-over): Once a world championship ice skating stadium called the Ice Palace, now the view from the stands, these 1,300 beds and the staff of highly protected medics, apparently in control of this COVID- 19 crisis.

We have all the necessary diagnostic equipment, including ultrasound, and ventilators, the chief doctor on the left tells me.

The Russian government is taking serious anti-coronavirus measures, he insists, not just here, in Moscow, but far beyond.

But there's another side of Russia's raging pandemic. One the authorities here would prefer that we ignore with shocking evidence of an overloaded healthcare system buckling under the strain of COVID-19.

On social media, there are heartbreaking scenes like this one, of an ambulance medic trying in vain to get a 90-year-old patient admitted to an overcrowded ward.

I won't take her home to die, the paramedic shouts. Why do I have to weep and beg you for taking a patient, she cries. The Russian authorities admit hospitals in some regions are at more than 95 percent capacity.

But there's mounting evidence of a surge in death toll too. In this video, recorded last month and sent to us by an opposition link, Russian Doctors Union, a dead, woman dangles unattended from her hospital bed while other patients grasp for breath just feet away.

We lost another two in the ward overnight, says a male voice in the video. This is how COVID-19 is killing everyone, he says. There were horrific scenes of inundated morgues too, some too graphic to show, of corpses strewn across floors and stretchers.

It has also emerged that official Russian COVID death figures suspiciously low compared to other badly affected countries made grossly understate the real toll by excluding people who are presumed to have COVID postmortem, even those with pre-existing conditions that proved fatal due to the infection.

If they were counted as in many other countries, Russia's official death toll of over 33,000 people would be higher, much higher according to a former government statistician, those compiled figures are on excess deaths and spoke to CNN.

ALEXEY RAKSHA, FORMER RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT STATISTICIAN: I think -- I think its 130,000 people.

CHANCE (on camera): 130,000 people who have died in Russia with COVID- 19?

RAKSHA: Because of COVID. Because of COVID.

CHANCE: And do you believe that the Russian government is purposely hiding the real cost of the COVID death toll?

[04:50:00]

RAKSHA: Yes, of course. They need to make people not afraid of the virus. It's very helpful for providing a good picture. So we are Russians. We are Russians. We're very proud of our country. Everything is good with us.

CHANCE: Russian authorities haven't responded to the allegations they are downplaying the figures. But outside the highly organized and spacious field hospitals, the authorities are happy to showcase there are signs Russia's pandemic is getting worse.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHANCE: Well, Rosemary, the daily figures are certainly getting worse. The last 24 hour period records more than 22,000 new case officially across the country, and 442 deaths in the past 24 hours. Although what we've seen the real figure could be much higher than that -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes, and some shocking images there. Matthew Chance with that exclusive. Many thanks to you. And we'll be right back.

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[04:55:00]

CHURCH: An incoming U.S. House member Cori Bush said she was stunned and hurt when some Republicans called her Breonna during new membership orientation at the U.S. capitol. The Missouri Democrat tells CNN she was wearing a mask with Breonna Taylor's name on it. Some of her colleagues assumed Breonna was her name. Earlier this year of course, Breonna was shot and killed by police in Kentucky in a botched drug raid. Taylor's death prompted nationwide protests against police brutality, and systemic racism. Bush shared the details of her experience with CNN.

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CORI BUSH (D) MISSOURI HOUSE REP-ELECT: The very first person I just, you know, I looked around a little bit like is there somebody next to me. Then when I explained who she was, then the person just kind of gave me this blank look. So it didn't seem like they were being malicious. They just didn't know, but then after the next and the next and the next, I really started to feel hurt. Because I'm like this has been a national movement.

The reports are between 15 and 26 million people protests up to July from June into July. How do you not know, and we claim ourselves, we signed up to be leaders? We have to know what's happening in our communities, and not only our communities but what's happening in other communities because that's how we keep our people safe.

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CHURCH: Cori Bush will be Missouri's first black woman to represent the state in Congress.

Well, four more astronauts are now on board the International Space Station. There were hugs and cheers as the crew was welcomed by U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts. The SpaceX Crew Dragon docked with the station earlier. The docking ends the first leg of this landmark mission between NASA and SpaceX. The astronauts are expected to spend about six months on board the station.

And thanks so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church, "EARLY START" is up next. You're watching CNN. Have yourselves a great day.

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