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COVD-19 Cases Continue to Rise as Thanksgiving Approaches; Governors Around Country Vary in COVID-19 Response; Recapping Rudy Giuliani's Press Conference Alleging Voter Fraud. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 19, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:12]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST, NEWSROOM: Hello, it's the top of the hour, I am Brianna Keilar.

And the pandemic has now taken more than 250,000 American lives. It's a milestone that model after model shows could have been avoided.

Now, tens of thousands of families will miss loved ones at their Thanksgiving tables one week from today, and among them are mothers, fathers, uncles, grandparents, sisters, brothers -- that you are seeing here -- other victims include an elderly father and his grown daughter, who died within minutes of each other; two parents who died before their son's fifth birthday; and in rare cases, children with no known prior health conditions.

These faces here, they represent a fraction of those who are no longer with us. Many of them did not have to die. More people have died from coronavirus than not just the flu, but the flu, suicide and strokes combined -- in a year. And as hard as it is to believe 250,000 have died from one virus in just a matter of months, there are plenty of indicators that darker days are in front of us.

Forty-four states are showing an increasing trend of new infections. Just yesterday, the U.S. reported just over 1,800 deaths and more than 170,000 new cases, which is the second highest single-day today. On Wednesday, like every day this week, hospitalizations broke records. There are now nearly 80,000 people who are in the hospital fighting COVID.

But while the weeks ahead look grim, health officials are predicting that this will be the last big surge of the pandemic, as both Moderna and Pfizer plan to produce 70 million doses of their vaccines by the end of this year. They're both filing tomorrow for emergency authorization from the FDA, the nation's testing coordinator saying that we cannot let our guard down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT GIROIR, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TESTING COORDINATOR: The end of the pandemic is in sight with the vaccines. We have two apparently highly effective vaccines that are safe and work in elderly. This is going to be our endgame, and we're so excited.

That being said, this will get worse. We have had 1 million cases documented over the past week, our rate or rise is higher than it even was in the summer. We have hospitalizations going up 25 percent week over week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I want to turn now to rheumatologist Dr. Geeta Nayyar, she's an assistant clinical professor of medicine at Florida International University. Dr. G., thanks so much for being with us. I know it is tough times all over the country and including in Florida, which has just surpassed 900,000 total cases. Now we're seeing the nation at a quarter of a million deaths. What is your reaction to hitting this milestone?

GEETA NAYYAR, ASSISTANT CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY: Brianna, thank you so much. Listen, this is a tough time in the year for all of us. We're all looking forward to the holidays, we're all missing our family. I miss my mom. It is incredibly important that we realize the tragedy that we are seeing is 100 percent preventable. It is up to each and every one of us to do our part to turn and flatten this curve.

KEILAR: Yes, and that -- so that's the thing ,is we have the holidays upon us, and I know there are a lot of people who they're trying to figure out a way around this, they're trying to think of maybe a testing strategy so that they can get their kid home from college, or so that they can go see their elderly parents who they haven't seen in a while but they really want to see. What do you say to folks who are thinking about that?

NAYYAR: Sure. So, Brianna, the first thing I say -- and what I tell my patients -- is I understand. I understand that we're all tired, I miss my mom, I miss my dad. Please get creative. Stay in your bubble, get creative. At our house we're doing a virtual Tandoori turkey. You're more than welcome to join us.

But the important thing to actually remember this holiday season is the spirit of the holidays. It is to take care of one another, be thoughtful, send everyone you love a mask. And if you have a special situation that you feel you need to travel for despite CDC guidelines, please talk to your doctor. Please talk to your doctor about what opportunities you have to mitigate your risk but keep your family safe.

KEILAR: That's such good advice.

I do want to talk to you about these potential -- they seem to be vaccine breakthroughs. We're still awaiting, obviously, some key data. But Pfizer and Moderna are planning to apply for emergency use authorizations for their respective vaccines tomorrow. When the vaccines are ready and there are people who refuse to take it, then you know, what happens? How does society, how do workplaces, schools, how do they manage that? NAYYAR: Sure. So the important thing to remember is we have a path forward. This is positive news, there's a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, but vaccinations only work if we take them. Just like we turned out the vote, we have got to turn out the facts. It is up to us, we the people, to get smart, improve our health literacy, understand why we have to wear a mask so that we wear it.

[14:05:14]

Patients have questions all the time about stuff they hear on social media, stuff they hear from their political leaders. The only person you should be making health care decisions with today is your doctor. You don't have to trust me, talk to your doctor. They will guide you correctly, when and where is the time to take this vaccine and what you can do in the meantime.

KEILAR: President Trump right now is not allowing the transition to go forward as usual that would allow Joe Biden, the president-elect, and his team from getting information about vaccine distribution, about stockpiles. What concerns do you have about how that is going to affect the coming months for the country?

NAYYAR: Every day that we delay this transition is more and more time lost to preventable deaths. It is unacceptable. We need to take a cue from the scientific community. The reason we are on the verge of these breakthroughs and medicines and vaccinations that are going to be available is because the scientific community has led with collaboration .

The scientific community around the globe has put aside research, focused on COVID-19 and shared and collaborated like we never have before. And let me tell you, academia has its ego as well, but we understand this is not about one individual, this is about all of us.

We are going to do this together, and all of our leaders need to let scientists and doctors lead. And we the people need to listen and get smart and improve our health literacy across the country. That's the only way we can do this. This is a team sport. We have got to do this together, and if you don't trust me, please call your doctor. They will explain it to you way better than any political leader ever could.

KEILAR: Dr. G., thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it.

NAYYAR: Thank you, Brianna. I hope to see you at Thanksgiving.

KEILAR: Thanks for the invite. So kind of you, I really appreciate it.

(LAUGHTER)

Now in the absence of any government leadership on how to handle this coronavirus crisis, the response is falling to individual states to take the lead. Governors are tasked with finding ways to flatten the curve, and our correspondents are fanned out across the U.S.

So let's begin now in Illinois.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Adrienne Broaddus in Chicago. And here in Illinois, the governor says the virus is the third leading cause of death just behind cancer and heart disease.

Today, Illinois announced more than 14,000 new coronavirus cases. This comes one day before the state will implement tighter restrictions starting tomorrow: casinos, banquet halls, museums and movie theaters will shut down; grocery stores and other retail spaces will operate at reduced capacity.

Across the state, people are lining up to get a COVID test, but the state's top doctor wants to remind people a negative test is not a green light to visit your friends and family outside of your immediate household this Thanksgiving.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Natasha Chen in Orlando, Florida, where people behind us are in a long line of cars, waiting to get a rapid COVID test. This comes a day after the state of Florida surpassed 900,000 coronavirus cases, becoming the state with the third highest total case count after Texas and California.

And just within the past hour, Governor Ron DeSantis issued a recorded video message. He talked about the effectiveness of a treatment, a monoclonal antibody cocktail. And he says 3,000 doses of that are being sent to Florida hospitals. He also talked about preparation for vaccine distribution, and the fact that five hospital systems in Florida are prepared to store those vaccines at the appropriate temperature.

Now, what he didn't talk about was prevention measures, as the state sees a surge of new cases. He has not been seen publicly addressing prevention measures for coronavirus since at least early November. And of course, the state is still in phase three, which means there are currently no capacity restrictions on any business.

Now, a local jurisdiction like Orange County, where we are, can have a local face mask mandate -- and they do -- but in order for a local county to restrict the capacity of a restaurant for example, they have to give the state a reason and show the economic impact.

Now, we've asked the governor's press office why he has not addressed the prevention measures, curbing the spread of COVID and whether he would consider modifications to phase three -- we are still waiting to hear back.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Sara Sidner in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where coronavirus is out of control in this state, the positivity rate is almost 12 percent at this point. And in this small city alone, there are at least 300 patients that are in the main health care system here who are suffering with coronavirus.

[14:10:09]

We spoke with an E.R. doctor. He's 28 years old, he's healthy, he's a marathoner, he's a runner and he got coronavirus, and thought that he would be able to get over it quickly. But he says he has a warning for every single person, every single American out there that if it happened to him -- he ended up hospitalized, unable to breathe -- it can happen to you or your family.

His advice to everyone? Wear your mask, self-distance, do all the things that you're supposed to do. And when it comes to this Thanksgiving, he knows that people need to be around family -- he has felt the isolation of having coronavirus himself.

He says, look, this is one Thanksgiving and hopefully there will be many more to come, but please think of it this way. If you want to prevent families from having to say their final goodbyes -- something that he has seen over and over and over again in the last few months since coronavirus hit this nation -- then do your best to have a very, very small, nuclear family that you're normally living with. That should be your Thanksgiving. Maybe next Thanksgiving we can all relax and have a huge gathering and enjoy each other's company -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Sara, thank you so much, such an important message. And thank you to Natasha and Adrienne as well.

Any moment now, we are expecting the results of that hand-recount of votes in Georgia. Now, they're not expected to change the fact that Biden won the state, but still the president's attorneys -- Rudy Giuliani chief among them -- continuing to spew baseless accusations of election fraud. We are going to rather easily fact-check those next.

And later, CNN is on the ground where the real crisis is: food banks across America seeing unprecedented demand as millions of families go hungry in this pandemic.

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[14:16:08]

KEILAR: The Trump campaign has dropped its federal lawsuit in Michigan that alleged voting irregularities, but that doesn't mean the fight is over. The president is inviting Republican state lawmakers from Michigan to meet with him at the White House. And it's not known exactly why, but the Trump team is trying to derail results in key Michigan counties.

This comes as the Trump legal team met the media today to push a litany of conspiracy theories in what can only be described as a completely crazy press conference that they had.

I'm joined now by CNN justice correspondent Jessica Schneider. And, Jessica, we know that Rudy Giuliani had some issues when he was pleading that one case in federal court in Pennsylvania Tuesday, and he's back at it today. What are we hearing?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: He's back at it, Brianna. Rudy Giuliani, leading this effort by the Trump campaign. He just spent more than 90 minutes blasting out baseless and inaccurate information about ballots, the vote count, even the Supreme Court. And it's coming as he's speaking out more and more forcefully -- at

the same time, judges across the country, they're reacting skeptically and dismissively about all of these claims that continue to be pushed out by the Trump team.

The strategy here really seems to be to delay and to sow public confusion by throwing out all these baseless claims of fraud and voting irregularities, throwing them into the courts and now into the public sphere.

So I want to go point by point to lay out what has been debunked. Because as we've been reminded repeatedly, you know, making claims over Twitter or at a press conference, it is a lot different than proving these allegations in a court of law.

So first of all, Rudy Giuliani, he continues to promote hundreds of affidavits from election workers who he claims -- and they claim -- saw fraudulent activity in Michigan.

Two important points here. The Trump team, number one, they just voluntarily dismissed their own federal lawsuit in Michigan this morning that contained all of those affidavits, meaning they are evading a judge's review of what they initially put out there into the record and what Rudy Giuliani continues to talk about.

Second, for the affidavits that they actually have submitted previously to judges, those claims have also been dismissed and debunked. In fact, a state court judge in Michigan last week, he went point by point to point out that these claims, they are not backed by evidence. And to the contrary, every possible supposed irregularity that was raised, was actually part of the process. And the judge said that if these poll challengers had gone through the training in Michigan, they would have known that.

So next, Giuliani, he's also wrongly portraying the Supreme Court's order that related to ballots arriving after November 3rd in Pennsylvania. Giuliani said today that the court ordered that they be set aside and not opened. Where actually all of the Supreme Court that they've done up to this point is to say that the ballots must be separated, and that was in line with what the secretary of state mandated.

And finally, here, you know, the Trump team continues to hammer in on their message that there was widespread voter fraud in Democratic-led cities like Philadelphia and Detroit, Giuliani even saying today that Philadelphia cheated in this election.

But look at the numbers here. This is out of Wayne County, home to Detroit, where President Trump gained more votes this year than he did in 2016. In Detroit, he gained more than 35,000 votes this year over 2016. And now look at Philadelphia County, home to Philadelphia. President Trump, there, received more than 24,000 votes this year than he did in 2016.

So the takeaway here, Brianna, is this. You know, this widespread claim of voter fraud in cities like Philadelphia and Detroit and other cities across the country, these claims of voter fraud, Brianna, they are baseless, they're going nowhere in court. The Trump team continues to spout them but there's no reality to it and there's no evidence here -- Brianna.

[14:20:03]

KEILAR: And that doesn't stop them from, you know, yelling into the wind, as we see. Jessica, thank you so much for taking us through that.

I want to bring in CNN election law analyst Jonathan Diaz to talk about this. You know, just give us your take on what you're seeing from Rudy Giuliani and this team. They -- I mean, he goes into court and talks about fraud, and even seems to lack familiarity not just with basic legal terms, but with the fact that the lawsuit he's there to talk about doesn't allege fraud. So what is the motive here as you see it?

JONATHAN DIAZ, CNN ELECTION LAW ANALYST: I think it's become clear at this point in the game that there isn't really a legal strategy behind what Rudy Giuliani and the Trump campaign are doing here. This is, in many ways, a political and public relations strategy to try to delegitimize President-elect Biden and you know, sow chaos and confusion about the results of this election.

None of these lawsuits have -- as we said -- have any evidence of wrongdoing, and the legal theories that they're pushing in many of them are, to be frank, totally bogus. And even if they were to succeed, none of them are going to change the results in any of these states.

And so what this is really just doing is undermining public confidence in the election, and doing a lot of damage to the integrity of the democratic process, because it's reducing people's faith in the security and the integrity of what is an election that, you know, has no evidence of wrongdoing or fraud or any kind of malfeasance like they've been discussing at this press conference.

KEILAR: And CNN, Jonathan, has confirmed that President Trump called two members of the canvassing board in Wayne County. One of them says it was just a quick call to see how she was holding up. What do you think about this?

DIAZ: I mean, I think it's frankly disturbing that a sitting incumbent president who is a candidate in an election -- that he lost -- would be calling local election officials after the fact who are under enormous pressure.

And even if he didn't say anything to her -- I mean, I wasn't on the call, so I don't know exactly what he said -- but you know, the very fact that the president of the United States would call a county election official shortly, you know, around the time that she's supposed to be voting on whether or not to certify the results of the election, is not how democracy is supposed to work.

And as was just discussed earlier, that he's now inviting state legislators to the White House when you know, at the same time, Rudy Giuliani is out in public trying to discredit the results of the election, is deeply concerning.

You know, this election is not that close, there are multiple states whose results would have to be different, and they are states that the president lost by tens of thousands of votes. But if this were a closer election, if it had come down to just one state that was decided by a handful of votes, you know, to have the president of the United States pressuring election officials not to certify results, to take things to state legislatures so that they can subvert the will of the people -- who did not vote for him -- and hand him the election? You know, is deeply damaging to American democracy.

Because if we have another close election in the future, someone else is going to try this. And that's not how the American electoral system is supposed to work.

KEILAR: Yes. No, you're right, this is not a close election, so. Jonathan Diaz, thank you so much.

DIAZ: Thank you.

[14:23:52]

KEILAR: So next, we will weigh in on the damage that is being done to democracy that we were just talking about there, as the president and his team try to reverse Biden's win and block his transition. And a new poll shows an alarming number of Americans believe the lies.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Two hundred and fifty thousand American men, women and children are now dead of the coronavirus, and the president of the United States is tweetstorming lies and absurd theories about election fraud. But here's the problem, there's a lot of people in this country who believe him.

Just look at this new Reuters-Ipsos poll, where one of the questions was, "Did Joe Biden rightfully win?" And when you're looking at Republican voters, more than half of them polled said no, they agree with the president and his completely false claim that the election was rigged against him.

I want to bring in Gloria Borger -- she's our senior political analyst -- and CNN's presidential historian Tim Naftali to talk about this.

I guess one of the things I think of, Gloria, is even as people are believing what President Trump says, if you look at the way that President Trump and Joe Biden are spending their time right now -- it's very different ways -- it's quite revealing about where they believe they will be in a couple months.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And I've spoken with sources who say that up until this day, this president remains in his bunker, convinced that -- or has convinced himself, we're not sure -- that this was a rigged election, and that he should remain as president. That's why we saw Rudy Giuliani and his conspiracy theater, which the president adheres to at all times.

[14:30:08]