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Trump Lawyers Push Bizarre New Election Fraud Claims; Biden: 'Incredible Irresponsibility' from Trump; More U.S. Schools Closing Amid Surge in COVID-19 Cases; Mexico Reports More Than 100,000 COVID- 19 Deaths; Nigeria Threatens to Sanction CNN Over Investigation; Owl Found in Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree; Bill Gates Weighs in on COVID-19 Response, Vaccines. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired November 20, 2020 - 00:00   ET

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

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello. Welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm John Vause.

[00:00:14]

Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, Donald Trump's legal team lays out what it calls a very clear and viable path to victory. In reality, it was a bizarre 90-minute news conference of conspiracy theories, no evidence, and a meltdown like no other.

Meanwhile, President-elect Joe Biden moving ahead with the transition, without help from the White House.

Also, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Vaccines are close by. They're coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Dr. Anthony Fauci promising that help is on the way, but in the meantime, this pandemic is deadlier than ever.

Just as it did yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, the U.S. has once again broken the record for new coronavirus infections in a single day. But on that, there has been only silence from the man who is still president of the United States for 61 more days.

But Donald Trump has had plenty to tweet about when it comes to false and misleading statements about the election and retweeting bizarre conspiracy theories.

And the president has lost the state of Georgia for a second time. A hand recount confirmed the original result and found no evidence of widespread fraud. Still, here's Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: Georgia, we're about to file a major lawsuit in Georgia. That will be filed, probably, tomorrow. I don't need to go through it. Virtually the same things I've told you before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It was a bizarre news conference by the Trump campaign legal team. Giuliani, though, seemed to reveal what the real strategy is: an attempt to undermine faith in U.S. democracy, while at the same time, soothing Donald Trump's fragile ego.

A senior election security official, fired by the president this week, tweeted this: "That press conference was almost dangerous one hour and 45 minutes of television in American history. And possibly the craziest. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're lucky."

More now from CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump's assault on the outcome of the election taking on a new intensity tonight, as deadlines for finalizing results in many states grow closer, while his attorneys are set on delaying it.

GIULIANI: I know crimes. I can smell them.

COLLINS: After suffering a string of court losses, Rudy Giuliani and the rest of Trump's legal team held a press conference today that went off the rails, as they made a series of baseless allegations, and Giuliani's hair dye ran down his face.

GIULIANI: Did you all watch "My Cousin Vinny"? You know the movie? It's one of my favorite law movies. Of course, he comes from Brooklyn.

JENNA ELLIS, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR LEGAL ADVISOR: Your question is fundamentally flawed, when you're asking where is the evidence.

COLLINS: The president wasn't at that briefing, but CNN has learned he's taken the brazen step of inviting Michigan GOP state legislators to the White House tomorrow, as he tries to undermine the Electoral College process.

This week, he personally called a Republican election official in Michigan who tried to stop the certification of the results in the Democratic stronghold of Wayne County but reversed her decision and voted yes, after facing major backlash.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shame on you!

COLLINS: Now, Monica Palmer wants to rescind her vote, after getting a call from Trump, which she has no legal standing to do. The Trump campaign withdrew its lawsuit in Michigan today, claiming she could.

GIULIANI: Well, they did. They decertified.

COLLINS: Rudy Giuliani told a Pennsylvanian judge in court earlier this week he was not alleging fraud in Pennsylvania, just a "fraudulent process." But when he was in front of cameras today, Giuliani changed his tune.

GIULIANI: The number of voter fraud cases in Philadelphia could fill a library.

COLLINS: In his last two months in office, the president appears set on doing lasting damage to the democracy that put him there. And instead of condemning him, Republicans are humoring him.

SEN. MIKE BRAUN (R-IN): Vice President Biden is talking about unifying the country. I don't think that's possible until you overturn every stone out there.

COLLINS: Utah Senator Mitt Romney is one of few GOP voices expressing concern.

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): The consequences of what's happening during this lame-duck period, I think, are potentially more severe than the consequences associated with a -- a late transition process.

COLLINS: With the pandemic raging in the U.S., the White House coronavirus task force held its first press briefing in four months today. Coronavirus deaths in the U.S. have now surpassed a quarter of 1 million, despite President Trump's April projection they wouldn't go above six figures.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're probably heading to 60,000, 70,000.

COLLINS: Many across the U.S. are left wondering where is the federal government? But Trump wasn't at the briefing today, as sources say he's more consumed by his election loss than the pandemic.

[00:05:10]

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Trump directed us to host this briefing.

COLLINS (on camera): And that was the first coronavirus task force briefing in four months. But after all the officials went through the updated numbers and the vaccine distribution list, they refused to take a single question from reporters.

The vice president closed out the session. He was making his closing remarks. He closed his binder, and then he turned and walked out of the briefing room as reporters shouted questions at him.

Of course, that likely comes as the vice president, and several other top government taxpayer-funded officials have refused to comment on the president's efforts to destabilize the election.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House. (END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Ron Brownstein is CNN senior political analyst and the senior editor for "The Atlantic." And he's with us this hour from Los Angeles.

Ron, thanks for being with us.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks for having me.

VAUSE: OK. "The Washington Post" sort of nicely summed up the -- Trump's legal argument, as put forward by Giuliani at that news conference. This is part of it.

"China is in on it. Cuba is on it. Antifa and George Soros are in on it. At least two presidents of Venezuela, one dead and one living, are in on it. Big tech is in on it. A web server from Germany is involved. Argentina is in on it, too, sort of." On and on it goes.

And what it is is this giant scam. But the news conference confirmed what seemed to be obvious: There is no legitimate legal challenge to the election result. So, then does that mean that these lawsuits are being filed simply to undermine faith and confidence in the democratic process?

BROWNSTEIN: No, I think they're being -- they're being filed to, actually, overturn the election by providing some kind of excuse for Republican legislators to throw out the results of the election in their states and send a slate of electors favorable to Donald Trump.

I mean, the news conference today was so clownish, so hallucinatory. I mean, Joe McCarthy would not have imagined a conspiracy so immense as, you know, Trump's lawyers confected today. That it's easy to lose sight of how scary it was.

I mean, we have the president of the United States seeking to systematically overturn an election that he is going to lose by something like 7 million votes, that he lost in the decisive states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin by three times as big a margin as he won them in 2016.

He is trying to overturn that, and, virtually the entire Republican Party is either actively abetting him or looking the other way.

I mean, this is a frightening moment for American democracy and for the implications going forward, about our ability to function as one unified, country.

Don't forget, all -- As all of this is happening, as you have noted, we are seeing the highest, most dangerous spike of the coronavirus outbreak to date. And Republicans are being equally silent as Trump walks away from his responsibility, like a captain on a Navy ship, deserting the -- you know, deserting the bow under -- under fire. That's what he's doing. And they are abetting him to walk away from that and kind of humoring him, and really, more than humoring him; allowing him to spin these fantasies that are so dangerous to the fabric of the democracy.

VAUSE: I want you to listen to a little more from what came out of that news conference today from Trump's legal team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNEY POWELL, TRUMP ATTORNEY: This is stunning, heartbreaking, infuriating, and the most unpatriotic acts I can even imagine for people in this country to have participated in, in any way, shape, or form.

ELLIS: We are a nation of rules, not a nation of rulers. There is not someone that just gets to pick who the next president is, outside the will of the American people.

GIULIANI: The most important thing here is that this has been a massive attack on the integrity of the voting system in the greatest democracy on earth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: None of that is true.

BROWNSTEIN: No.

VAUSE: But it kind of sounds credible. And notably, there's a Monmouth poll which found 81 percent of Trump voters say they're not confident that the election had been conducted fairly. Seventy-seven percent say Biden only won due to voter fraud.

So, as a strategy, to create confusion and doubt, it's -- it's working.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, it's working for his audience, at enormous cost.

And it is working, in part, because, again, so many -- so few Republicans have spoken out in the same way that, for example, the secretary of state in Georgia has, against these baseless, and, really, somewhat insane allegations of a global conspiracy.

You know, it is also a fundamentally racist argument. Donald Trump lost this election in diverse, white-collar suburbs, with a lot of white college-educated voters, who voted against him in big numbers, because they thought he was personally unfit to be president. And, also, because they believe he has mismanaged the coronavirus pandemic.

[00:10:03]

And yet, what -- what are the -- what is the argument from his lawyers? It's that fraud was rampant in African-American -- you know, in major cities with large African-American populations, even though, as you know, John, in most cases, Trump ran better in those places -- in most cases, he ran better in those places than he did in 2016.

I mean, it is a fundamentally racist argument, and it is finding an audience. And there are those who think that is why Mitch McConnell is kind of countenancing it, because he knows this will poison the waters for Joe Biden with Republican rank-and-file voters. And as I write in my column today, that will make it harder for him to get Republicans to cross the line and work with him on his legislative agenda in '21 in '22.

VAUSE: So just looking at the Republicans right now in Congress, it seems they're all trying to work out -- it's been like a hedge fund. They're trying to work out how much influence Donald Trump will have once this is over. And, you know, will a tweet destroy their chances, you know, of being primaried, or make them primaried, you know, for 2022? That kind of stuff. Maybe that's a good move in the short term, but in the long term?

BROWNSTEIN: Right. Look, I described it today -- I described their approach today as a murder-suicide. Because on the one hand, they are significantly, potentially, killing Biden's ability to speak to Republican voters, if they believe it was kind of -- you know, he was only in office from fraud to begin with. And they are betting Donald Trump in that.

The suicide part is that they're snuffing out their chance of emerging from Trump's shadow. If Trump leaves office, and is able to say, I wasn't beaten. I wasn't defeated. It was only taken from me by fraud, obviously, that magnifies his influence in the party, makes him an even more formidable figure for 2024.

I don't know if he'll run in the end in 2024, but I bet -- I think -- I'm pretty confident that he will dangle the possibility of running until the very last possible moment of filing for Iowa and New Hampshire, as a way of increasing his influence over the party.

And everything they are doing, as several Republican strategists said to me, is cementing him in that position, giving him even more leverage over the base, and thus, over them, and limiting their freedom of action to kind of reset the party's course after an election in which, after all, Donald Trump is going to lose by about seven million votes. Not only lose those blue wall states from the Rust Belt that went back to Biden, but also suffer the erosion in Georgia and Arizona that allowed Democrats to plant a flag in the Sun Belt.

It's going to be much harder to change the direction, now that they have allowed him to make thus case that he wasn't beaten, it was stolen from him.

VAUSE: OK. Ron, thank you. Some powerful statements there and insight from you on that. Thank you. Appreciate it. Ron Brownstein there in Los Angles.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, John. Yes.

VAUSE: Take care.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

VAUSE: When it comes to dealing with this pandemic, it's a study in contrasts between Trump and President-elect Biden. On Thursday, Biden pushed for a national mask mandate but said he would not impose a national lockdown.

The president-elect has had some of his harshest criticism, as well, for Donald Trump. CNN's Arlette Saenz has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President- elect Joe Biden offered a blunt assessment of President Trump's refusal to concede.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think we're witnessing incredible irresponsibility, incredibly damaging messages being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions.

SAENZ: From his home base in Delaware, Biden delivered some of his sharpest rebukes yet of the outgoing president.

BIDEN: It's going to be another incident where he will go down in history as being one of the most irresponsible presidents in American history.

I think most of the Republicans I've spoken to, including some governors, think this is debilitating. It's not a -- it sends a horrible message about who we are as a country.

SAENZ: Biden's incoming White House chief of staff warned of the ramifications of Trump's stonewalling.

RON KLAIN, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I think all Americans should be concerned, about the way in which President Trump is behaving in his final days in office. Instead of doing when he should do, under the law, facilitating an orderly transition, helping us save lives in the fight against COVID, the president's thrashing around with these P.R. stunts.

SAENZ: Biden also blasted the administration for not coordinating on key coronavirus planning, including the distribution of a vaccine.

BIDEN: There is no excuse not to share the data and let us begin to plan. Because, on day one, it's going to take us time if we don't have access to all this data. It's going to put us behind the eight-ball by a matter of a month or more. And that's lives.

SAENZ: Without federal coordination, the president-elect is turning to the states, holding a virtual meeting with some Democratic and Republican governors.

BIDEN: I don't see this as a red state issue, or a blue state issue. I see this, we're all in this together.

SAENZ: Biden is eyeing mask mandates nationwide, but he has little authority to institute them himself and will need to convince governors and local officials to take on the task.

BIDEN: It's not a political statement. It's a patriotic duty.

SAENZ: Biden also said a national shutdown is not on the table.

[00:15:03]

BIDEN: No national shutdown. No national shutdown. Because every region, every area, every community is -- can be different.

SAENZ: Behind the scenes, the president-elect is weighing his cabinet picks and said he's made up his mind about treasury secretary, with an announcement coming as soon as next week.

BIDEN: You'll find it is someone who I think is -- will be accepted by all elements of the Democratic Party, progressive to the moderate coalitions.

SAENZ: One of Biden's former rivals making no secret about his hopes for a top job.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): I think something like secretary of labor would be a very attractive position.

SAENZ (on camera): And on Friday, Joe Biden will meet here in Wilmington, Delaware with House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. This will be the first time that Biden is meeting with those congressional leaders since becoming president- elect. And one key conversation Biden still has yet to have his is with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The two have yet to speak.

Arlette Saenz, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: A vaccine now so close to reality, but it could be months before distribution, and in that time, a staggering number will have died. We'll tell you more on that when we come back.

Also, a senior Nigerian official lashing out against CNN and an exclusive report. We'll have those details also ahead this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: With record number of daily new infections, this pandemic is out of control across the United States, and many hospitals have been left overwhelmed.

Almost 2,000 Americans died Thursday alone, a number not seen since early May. Experts from the University of Washington now say the pandemic death toll could reach more than 470,000 by March, an increase of more than 30,000 from its forecast just last week.

Here's CNN's Nick Watt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NICK WATT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Classrooms closed in New York City this morning. Bars, indoor dining, gyms will likely follow.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: It's just a matter of time. It's very likely to be in the next week or two.

WATT: Starting Monday, every K-12 school in Kentucky will also be online only.

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): When addressing COVID-19, action is unpopular, but inaction is deadly.

WATT: Schools are emptying, hospitals are filling up. Now, nearly 80,000 COVID patients nationwide; never been higher. Still --

DR. AUSTIN SIMONSON, INTERNAL MEDICINE SPECIALIST, SANFORD MEDICAL CENTER: I have family members that deny it exists, and it's hard to have that conversation with them.

FAUCI: Despite a quarter million deaths, despite more than 11 million infections, despite 150,000 new infections a day, they don't believe it's real. That is a real problem.

WATT: More than a quarter million people have now been killed by COVID in this country. That's a fact. So is this.

[00:20:07]

ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: The end of the pandemic is in sight with the vaccines. That being said, this will get worse.

WATT: The CDC is now advising against Thanksgiving travel, and celebrate very small.

DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING CDC DIRECTOR: My parents live here in town. They live about a mile from my -- my house. They're both 90. They're not coming for Thanksgiving.

WATT: Maybe 20 million vulnerable Americans might now get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine in the next few months.

PENCE: The day after one of these vaccines is approved, we'll be shipping vaccines to the American people. And within a day after that, we'll be seeing those vaccines injected.

WATT: This, by the way, the first White House coronavirus task force briefing in more than four months.

PENCE: America has never been more prepared to combat this virus than we are today.

WATT: Really? U.S. is now adding, on average, over 160,000 new cases a day. So hospitals will fill up. The death toll will rise. It's simple math. DR. NATHAN HATTON, PULMONARY SPECIALIST, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HOSPITAL:

Every day you walk into work, someone is super sick. Someone is potentially dying that day, having those family meetings. And then, even as I was driving home last night, I drove by one of our parks, and there's ongoing, you know, practices for some sporting event.

WATT (on camera): Here in California, from Saturday night, the governor has said that there will be a limited stay-at-home order over most of the state. It's basically a curfew: 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The governor says the virus is spreading here like it has never done before. They need to get a handle on it.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: For five decades, Dr. Anthony Fauci has guided the United States through health emergencies like HIV, SARS, swine flu, so when it comes to the vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, his words matter. And America's leading infectious disease expert only has praise.

Both drugs are showing 95 percent efficacy, which Fauci says is extraordinary. Pfizer is expected to apply for an emergency use authorization with the Food and Drug Administration in the coming hours. And at this point, with the vaccine so close, Fauci tells CNN now is not the time for Americans to drop their guard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAUCI: Vaccines are close by. They're coming. You know, I said, help is on the way, which, to me, I think should motivate people even more to double down because, pretty soon, we're going to get a heck of a lot of help from a very efficacious vaccine. Two vaccines that, just two weeks ago, in this past week, were shown to be extremely effective. I mean, efficacious, in 95 percent, and 94.5 percent. You know, that's almost as good as measles vaccine, which is an extraordinary vaccine that crushed measles in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The E.U. is looking to distribute vaccines quickly. The European Commission president says conditional authorization could be given as soon as mid-December.

Joining me now live from Los Angeles, Anne Rimoin, professor of epidemiology at UCLA.

Dr. Rimoin, thanks for being with us.

DR. ANNE RIMOIN, PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, UCLA: It's nice to be here, thank you.

VAUSE: OK. With regards to the vaccines, well, the trials have shown they're 95 percent effective. What is still not known is can they prevent the transmission of the coronavirus? In other words, the risk of -- people would get vaccinated but then potentially still carry and transmit the disease. How real is this concern to you?

RIMOIN: Well, we're still trying -- we still have a lot to learn about the vaccines. Right now, what we've learned is that the vaccine can prevent -- we can prevent symptomatic infection in most people, and in fact, can likely prevent severe disease in most people.

But what we don't know is if the vaccine is going to stop people from being infected at all. People may become infected, have a -- have -- be infected asymptomatically and still be able to spread it onto others. And so we need to understand that.

We also need to understand how long does the protective immunity last from these vaccines? And then, we also need to understand which populations these vaccines work the best in.

So there's still quite a bit to learn about these vaccines, but the news, overall, is very good news.

VAUSE: Yes, and that gets us down to this issue of distribution, because that's the next hurdle. You know, ideally, if everyone around the world got the vaccine at the same time, or developed antibodies, then this risk of transmission, once vaccinated, isn't really an issue.

But many parts of the U.S. may not be ready. The Kaiser Foundation reports to date only $200 million has been distributed to state, territorial, and local jurisdictions for vaccine preparedness, though it's estimated that at least $68 billion is needed.

So a vaccine isn't much use if it's sitting in a warehouse.

RIMOIN: Right. You've heard many people say over and over again, a vaccine is fine and great, but what we need is vaccination. We need those vaccines in people's arms, and -- to make them effective.

[00:25:11]

And so we come back to the same issue that we've been struggling with from the very beginning of this pandemic, which is that we need the logistics in place. We need the capacity to be able to push these vaccines out to people, just like we need the ability to be able to push out PPE to people. We need it to be able to push out testing to people. So where we may fall down are the logistics. And so that planning must occur right now.

But the other thing that we really need to work on is we need to be able to work on people being willing to take this vaccine. We know that there is quite a bit of what we call vaccine hesitancy, people being concerned about taking a vaccine.

My team at UCLA has just done a study where we've been canvassing healthcare workers, and many healthcare workers do have concerns about the vaccine. They believe in vaccines in general, but they're still very worried about this vaccine and what it actually means for them. So, you know, I think that there's so much work to be done for this

vaccine to be effective, to be in the arms of people and doing what it needs to do, which is to create herd immunity by vaccine, which will protect us all and allow us to get back to life as we know it.

VAUSE: So very quickly, on the issue of evolving science, a month after the FDA approved Remdesivir to treat COVID-19 comes word from the WHO that "Current evidence does not suggest Remdesivir affects the risk of dying from COVID-19 or needing mechanical ventilation, among other important outcomes. Any beneficial effects of Remdesivir, if they do exist," the guidelines say, "are likely to be small and the possibility of imported harm remains."

So they're recommending Remdesivir not be used to treat COVID-19. Is this typical for a drug approval?

RIMOIN: Well, you know, this whole process has been very, very fraught with a variety of different studies being done all over the world. We don't have -- we haven't been looking -- using the same standards across the board. So this is -- this is definitely important information. WHO has taken a whole host of information together and -- and spent a lot of time evaluating it.

I mean, I think that there are benefits to Remdesivir. We just have to be very clear what they are, at what stage, and who exactly benefits from it.

But it certainly does call into question the utility of Remdesivir. There's nothing that is -- there's nothing that's going to be a one- size-fits-all solution here. So Remdesivir may have some benefit, even if it is incremental, and now we really have to understand what other tools we have in our toolbox.

VAUSE: Yes. I guess it's still early days, believe it or not. We're about a week out from Thanksgiving now. The holidays are coming up in Europe and other parts of the world. So what are you and your family doing this year? What's your advice? Should we follow your example? What's the Rimoin family doing?

RIMOIN: Well, we are just having Thanksgiving with the people in our household. That's it. Because we know that bringing other people into your household, in particular at this time, is a dangerous proposition.

Now, I'm not going to be the first to say this, but I'm going to repeat what so many other wise people are saying, which is it is much better to have a Zoom Thanksgiving than an ICU Christmas.

And it's really important to remember we all want to spend time with our families. We all miss being amongst the people that we love and sharing holidays and important events with them. I, too, miss that, but we are at a very dangerous moment in this pandemic, and this virus is escalating to -- to incredible new rates every single day.

We had 185,000 cases here in the United States. We need to be doing everything we can to reduce the spread of this virus. Things that we're not doing right now will save lives.

So the thing to do is to spend Thanksgiving with your family, or whatever holiday it is that you're -- that you're celebrating during this -- during this season. We need to reduce the spread of the virus.

If you must see people for Thanksgiving or another holiday, do it outside, if you can. If you can't do it outside, spread out inside, and have as much ventilation as possible. Only take your masks off when you're eating.

And if you are just drinking something, use a straw, put it under your mask.

These are practical things that people can do, but there is no substitute here for just staying with your own family. We don't need to be mixing people and creating opportunity for this virus to spread.

VAUSE: Keep those loved ones at arm's length as best you can.

Anne Rimoin, thank you for being with us. We appreciate it.

RIMOIN: It's my pleasure.

VAUSE: Well, still to come here, Mexico also seeing a troubling rise in infections as well as death, passing a milestone few other countries have reached. We'll take you to a hard-hit area where hospitals are quickly filling.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:32:27]

VAUSE: Welcome back to our viewers around the world. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Mexico has confirmed the coronavirus has killed more than 100,000 people. For months, the rate of daily infections appeared to be falling, but then came the month of October.

CNN's Matt Rivers is in Durango, a state at the country's highest COVID alert level.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Mexico has now surpassed 100,000 confirmed deaths as a result of the coronavirus, making it just the fourth country around the world to reach that terrible milestone.

And across the country, in parts that seemingly had had the virus under control, we have been seeing rising cases, rising deaths, including right here in the state of Durango, where we were quickly reminded that this pandemic, not only is it not over, it remains a force to be reckoned with.

(voice-over): This was January, people packed in together to hear Patrullo 81 and lead singer Jose Angel Medina Soto. Crowds like these will eventually come back, but COVID-19 has forever robbed these fans in Durango state, Mexico, of a favorite son.

Durango native Jose Angel died in a hospital last week after fighting the virus for nearly a month. At his daughter's home, she spoke to us as some of his ashes hung around her neck.

"It's not fair," says his daughter, Alma Medina. "He had so many plans for his life."

Before his death, his family says four different hospitals near his home in the bordering state of Chihuahua refused to accept him, because they were too full.

Officials say Mexico is grappling with a distinct second wave of cases in many parts of the country. Recent single-day case counts have been some of the highest ever. Deaths are again on the rise.

Mexico City's mayor says if current trends continue, she will be forced to once again close parts of the city.

Look at this scene from just outside Mexico City: an illegal concert where hundreds are grouped close together.

The alert level in both the border state of Chihuahua and here in Durango has risen to semaforo rojo (ph), or red level, the country's highest, as cases have soared.

The state secretary of health says, "Parties continue, reunions, families, social gatherings, where people easily congregated, and infections are the direct consequence."

In Durango, nonessential businesses have been forced to close once again, and alcohol sales are banned. Cases have slowed slightly, though the state's health secretary worries what happens when restrictions ease. He says, "Yes, we are afraid of another wave, because we don't know how it could be."

[00:35:05]

(on camera): But the economic pain brought on by these restrictions has been brutal. Hundreds of thousands of people nationwide have lost their jobs, and Durango is no exception.

All of these people are waiting in line at a pawn shop. And while, of course, people visit pawn shops during normal times, multiple people in this line told us they're here to sell something because of tough times during the pandemic.

(voice-over): Miguel Camacho (ph) owns six restaurants across the city. Three have shut down, and he's laid off 60 percent of his staff. He says, "It hurts me a lot to see some of them on the streets looking for work. I've even seen some cleaning windshields at traffic lights."

Though Camacho (ph) says he understands putting people's health first, he says current restrictions are unsustainable. He says, "With these restricted hours and no alcohol sales, we are worse off now than in the beginning of the pandemic." Restrictions or not, we still don't have an exact idea of how bad

Mexico's pandemic truly is. The government continues to test at one of the lowest rates in the world, calling more testing, quote, "unnecessary."

But from the limited data we do have, and from the testimony of those it affects most, this pandemic seems to be as deadly as it's ever been.

"My father was such a good person," says Alma Medina. "He didn't deserve a death like this."

(voice-over): This is just the overall sense you get here in Mexico, is there is just exhaustion all around, on the part of health authorities over people not following the rules; business owners' angst over the economy; and just from ordinary people who really want all of this to be over, and yet, unfortunately, we likely have many months of this ahead of us.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Matt Rivers, thank you.

Well, after dozens of requests for comment, we finally have an official response from the Nigerian government to a CNN exclusive report which uncovered evidence of Nigerian security forces firing live ammunition on armed protestors last month.

And CNN's Nima Elbagir has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A CNN investigation into a peaceful protest in Lagos, Nigeria, turned deadly has drawn threats of sanctions from the Nigerian government. In the government's most significant response to the events which unfolded on October 20 at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, Nigeria's minister for information and culture, Lai Mohammed, dismissed the CNN investigation as, quote, "fake news" and, quote, "misinformation," repeatedly denying the military used live rounds against protesters.

LAI MOHAMMED, NIGERIAN MINISTER FOR INFORMATION AND CULTURE: Like everyone else, I watched the CNN report yesterday. I must tell you that military forces, it was misinformation that was going around. And it is blatantly irresponsible, and a poor piece of journalistic work by a reputable national news organization.

CNN, which touted its report as an exclusive, as a significant report, sadly relied on the same videos that have been circulating on social media without verification. This is very serious, and CNN should be sanctioned for that.

ELBAGIR: The minister also denied the findings of our reporting that there had been at least one fatality. He did not provide any evidence to back these accusations.

CNN's report was based on testimony from dozens of witnesses, and photos obtained and geolocated by CNN. It painted a picture of how members of the Nigerian army and the police shot at the crowd, killing at least one person and wounding dozens more.

We verified footage acquired from multiple eyewitnesses and protesters by using time stamps and data from the video files.

The police, in a tweet, denied shooting protesters. The army first called it "fake news," then said only blanks were fired in the air. But the video shows shoulders who appear to be shooting in the direction of protesters.

And accounts from eyewitnesses established that, after the army withdrew, a second round of shooting happened later in the evening.

Prior to broadcasting the report, CNN tried multiple times to elicit comment from the Nigerian army and the police force. Calls to the army were never returned.

The Lagos state government and the police force said that there would be no comment while a judicial tribunal was underway. In advance of the findings of the tribunal, the minister told reporters his government was very satisfied with the conduct of the military and police.

CNN stands by our reporting.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: With that, we'll take a short break. We'll be back in a moment. You're watching CNN.

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[00:42:12]

VAUSE: This might just be an apt metaphor for 2020. This year the traditional Christmas tree in New York's Rockefeller Center, sad, depressing, miserable tree. Look at it.

But then it's what's inside the tree which has given many just a little bit of hope for a better tomorrow. It's a tiny little owl. Apparently hitched a ride inside after the tree was cut down.

It's about the size of a soda can, believe it or not. A petite saw- whet owl. When full -- the sizes, full[grown, actually.

The adorable winged stowaway, as we're told, was given the fitting name Rockefeller. He's being care for at a nearby wildlife facility and will be released back into the wild.

And the long-held tradition off sitting on Santa's lap may not be possible for children this year, but Father Christmas will not let the pandemic get in the way of Christmas.

Thanks to one company, kids can now tell Santa what's on their wish list virtually. They've created a website, AskSanta.com, where children can talk to Santa using artificial intelligence. The Ask Santa database has over 180,000 questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you do in summer?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My favorite hobby, would you believe it? It's roller skating. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Apparently, the No. 1 question that kids asked -- no surprise -- whether they're on the naughty or nice list. The website, AskSanta.com, is live until New Year's Eve.

I'm John Vause, and I'll be back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. In the meantime, WORLD SPORT is next.

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