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U.S. Surpasses 12 Million Coronavirus Cases; Trump Stonewalls Biden As U.S Surpasses 12 Million Coronavirus Cases; Answering Viewers' Legal Questions in CNN's "Cross Exam"; California Issues Overnight Curfew Starting Tonight; People In Los Angeles Line Up At Food Banks As Cases Surge, Affect The Economy; Dr. Sanjay Gupta One- On-One With Dr. Deborah Birx On How To Handle The Holidays As Cases Surge. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired November 21, 2020 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:00:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Top of the hour in the CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Erica Hill in New York in for Ana Cabrera, and we begin with breaking news.

The world's most COVID-infected country, the United States, and we just passed another heartbreaking line. Health officials confirming more than 12 million people in the United States have now tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. 12 million people, less than a week ago, we hit 11 million cases. The virus is spreading faster and infecting more people right now than at any time during the pandemic so far.

So what makes this breaking news even more terrifying though is the -- what's happening in just a few days, Thanksgiving. Public health experts and the CDC pleading with Americans to not travel, not gather for large family meals and celebrations, not to do all the things that could likely kick the pandemic into higher gear.

As for the president and his concerns, so far today, silent on the worsening pandemic, on the growing death toll, on this terrible milestone reached just a short time ago. The president has been tweeting. He has been tweeting baseless voter fraud theories about his election loss. He also chose to skip a G20 world leader session on the pandemic, choosing instead to play golf, as you see right here.

I want to get right to CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro, who's here in New York. So, Evan, we are now past 12 million confirmed cases. Just give us a sense of how dire the situation is at this point, where we're headed with numbers like this.

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, as you mentioned, it is the holiday travel season, and that's what makes people very, very worried because you think about how the travel season usually works, right? You leave your house, you go to another place, gather with other people, and then return to where you came from. That's pretty much the worst case scenario in a pandemic. And it's not just that 12 million number that has people very, very worried right now, it's this number, 19 straight days of 100,000 or more newly-reported coronavirus cases in America.

That's why public health experts are saying to people, please make the hard choice, don't travel for Thanksgiving because this virus is spreading and it's spreading very, very fast. It's now in rural areas. It's spreading here in New York City. The numbers have gone up again to see, like, the schools have been closed already.

There's talk about other things being closed down. We're back in the really dark days of this pandemic when it comes to that number, that numerical spread, and this travel season really has experts worried that it could really super charge what's already a very fast-moving virus, Erica.

HILL: Yes, absolutely, especially seeing those warnings from the CDC not to travel and then we see people in airports like at the one behind you. Evan, thank you.

HILL: CNN Medical Analyst and Emergency Medicine Professor Dr. Esther Choo joining us now. So, Doctor, when you look at this, I mean, this milestone, look, I guess we all knew it was coming, right?

But the fact that we're now at more than 12 million infections in this country since the start of the pandemic, more than any other country, as Evan just pointed out, 19 straight days of more than 100,000 cases being reported and about a quarter of the total cases in this country have come in the last three weeks.

I mean, with the holiday bearing down on us, where do we go from here? Where could we be in another week?

DR. ESTHER CHOO, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Yes. You know, the scary thing, Erica, is, as concerning as those numbers are, I want to make them actually a little bit more scary, because we are still undertesting. So many states have test positivity rates of above 20 percent, which means that we are vastly lagging behind in our confirmed cases. So 12.5 million may sound really high but it multitudes more than that, actually.

And we're starting to think in terms not just of the speed of the rise in cases and not just the acceleration but how fast acceleration is increasing. That's a concept that researchers at Northwestern have come up with -- Northwestern University have come up, that's called jerk. And you can just picture what that means. Cases are jerking upwards at this rate that is just beyond what we can accommodate in our health systems.

So this is really terrifying. And, of course, every time we have a holiday, case rates go up. We, over the summer, had time to kind of recover, but the winter holidays are different. They're stacked on top of one another at a time when we're all indoors and spreading it more rapidly.

So this is not the time to play around. We just cannot say, well, I don't want to lose that $300 plane ticket.

[17:05:02] We need to just say, what we're giving up is so much smaller than what we have to gain here. And we just need to stay home.

HILL: You know, we're also hearing from Dr. Birx that what we're seeing could be faster, broader and last longer than what we've seen before. And this updated guidance we saw on spread from the CDC, they had been saying the estimate was about 40 percent of cases were asymptomatic spread. Even that number is going up.

As we add all of that together, what part of the message do you think is not getting through? I mean, we see these packed pictures at the airport in Phoenix. I get it. I want to see my mom on Thanksgiving. She's only an hour away. We're not getting together. I wonder where you think the disconnect is in the message.

CHOO: Well, I think there still was a lot that was lost in October when people were getting really confusing messages about -- you know, about how dangerous this disease was, and how much it was worth doing these public health safety measures compared to things like opening up businesses and getting our lives back.

And I think it's so comforting to get any message out there that says, it's not a big deal, and we can get -- you know, we can really go back out and do those things and that don't worry, we have more therapeutics and people aren't dying. I mean, the truth is, we still have not had the magic bullet therapeutic and people in hospitals will not do well when they're as crowded as they are becoming right now.

And so I think, you know, consistency of the message, really driving home that holidays cost us in lives, in many, many lives. And I think, you know, as disappointing as this administration has been, its messaging, President Trump even voted out, remains one of the most influential messengers out there, and this administration still has an opportunity through the holiday season to do some messaging that will bring people to the table and get them to do the things that we need to turn this around so that we can start seeing our family members again in the new year. I miss mine too.

HILL: Yes, words matter. Actions matter, to your point. And this is an opportunity that still exists for the next couple of months. I mean, but to that point, we saw what the president chose today. He chose not to attend a meeting of G20 leaders that was specifically targeted to the pandemic, and instead to go golfing. I mean, there's also the lack of coordination and conversation or at least appearing lack that's happening between this administration and other world leaders. This is a global pandemic. How much is that lack of coordination potentially setting us back as a country?

CHOO: It really is. I mean, the way that we, you know, we broke off from the WHO, the way that we have failed to come together at the table with other countries, I mean, this is, like you said, we're all in this together, truly, on a global level. And that coordination and that leadership, it was the difference between performing well and not doing -- and being where we are, which is an absolute catastrophe. And like you said, I mean, record-setting numbers every single day, every single week. And it's not only that the United States is leading in cases, we have individual states that are now exceeding case counts of entire countries. So, you know, it's so beyond -- it's so beyond where we should be and so much of this is having humility and reaching out to other countries that have done so much better and being willing to adopt what they're doing, but we haven't had any of that or any dialogue.

HILL: Before I let you, I do just want to one more time talking about hospitals, because it's staff which is such a concern. You can put up a field hospital if you have to. You can add beds. You cannot just create doctors and nurses and all of the staff that are required to run a hospital overnight. How concerned are you right now about these folks on the frontline who have been giving their all for the last, I mean, I've lost count, eight, nine months, where are we now?

CHOO (voice over): Yes. I mean, we're approaching a year pretty soon. It's been a really long stretch for us. And you're exactly right, we can build all the space that we want to but the human resources are really stretched, and it's that we're tired, it's that there simply aren't a lot of them. You just can't create people who are trained to do this very quickly.

One of the most stressful things in the spring for healthcare workers that led to the most anxiety and depression was being asked to perform roles that were out of your training. So when, you know, a pediatrician is pulled in to do adult critical care, which is the way that we are planning on filling gaps, that is not good for the patient, and it's not good for the provider either, because that is way too stressful.

And then, of course, you know, healthcare professionals are also human. So the things that are affecting everybody else, things like, you know, child care, just the stress, the fatigue, those are also affecting health care providers. And so we are not operating at full bore. We've lost a lot of healthcare workers and are really stretched to fill shifts right now.

[17:10:01]

Many of us are on double or triple back-up. This doesn't feel sustainable.

And we are really looking to everyone out there to be our heroes in this wave of the pandemic. We are maxed out as heroes. So all of you need to be our heroes and do the things that you can to really turn this around so that we can get some respite at some point.

HILL: You know, I spoke with a cardiac specialist earlier this week who was also a single mom who was redeployed, as you pointed out, in the spring here in New York, and she said all those same things and she said how concerned she is about the PTSD and the mental toll it's taking on her and her colleagues. Dr. Choo, thank you so much for shining a light on that, something we need to continue to do.

CHOO: Thank you, Erica. HILL: As the coronavirus spreads out of control in the United States, President Trump, as we showed you, is golfing. He did not join his G20 colleagues in a virtual meeting on the coronavirus. He is not pushing for a word with a transition. So how is that impacting you?

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[17:15:00]

HILL: It's been two weeks now since Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election. President Trump has used that time to fight the results tooth and nail or maybe tweet and nail. First, he turned to the courts, but his team has now lost or withdrawn from at least 28 election cases. He then turned to state legislatures where his efforts have been in vain, all in an attempt to subvert the will of the people, as President-elect Biden's margin in the popular vote has widened now to more than 6 million.

Trump's actions signaling that there is no concession or transition in sight. CNN White House Correspondent Jeremy Diamond joining me now.

So, Jeremy, the president has really at least tried to pull out all the stops. What's left at this point? Where does he go from here?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, for one thing, he's certainly continuing to make these baseless allegations on Twitter, spreading misinformation about the 2020 election. Today, the president was continuing to allege widespread voter fraud in the states of Michigan and Georgia, both of which the president has lost, and both of which either certified, as Georgia did on Friday, or are about certify, as Michigan may do on Monday, the results of their state's elections, and to certify that Joe Biden has indeed won both of those states.

And so now, the president seems to be turning to stalling as well. The Michigan Republican Party and the Republican National Committee, both of them calling for the state of Michigan to delay the certification of those results for two weeks, which is not at all how the process is supposed to run. It's really supposed to be kind of a rubber stamp on the results of the elections that have already been certified in 82 of those counties in Michigan.

But as the president is doing this and as he is also losing those cases in court, 28 dismissed or dropped already so far, the president is also beginning to face mounting pressure from some Republicans. Some Republican lawmakers last week began calling on the president to allow the transition to proceed even as he continues to exhaust some of those legal options.

And now, we are seeing the first sign of pressure from a member of the House Republican leadership and that is Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who says that America is a country governed by the rule of law and says that the president so far has not presented evidence in court and he should if indeed there is. She says if the president cannot prove these claims or demonstrate they would change the election results, he should fulfill his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States by respecting the sanctity of our electoral process.

So, obviously, Erica, we are now two weeks removed from Joe Biden being projected the president-elect of the United States, being projected the winner of the presidential election. And now, the question is, as this Republican pressure continues to build, will it get to a point where Republicans say, enough is enough and call on the president to concede and accept the results, accept his defeat?

HILL: Well, meantime, as we wait for that, and we did see the president today participating in this virtual G20 summit, but then he skipped out on a session on COVID. Do we know why?

DIAMOND: Look, I've asked the White House several times for comment on this. They referred me to the National Security Council, which has not responded to a request for comment so far. But what we know is that the president participated briefly in part of this virtual G20 summit earlier this morning and then headed off to the golf course, his golf course in Virginia. This is the 333rd day that the president has spent at his golf course.

And as he arrived there, the second pandemic preparedness sideline meeting was beginning to take place. And this isn't a meeting that was, you know -- this is a meeting that was attended by other world leaders, the president of France, the chancellor of Germany, all of them participating directly in this meeting, but the president of the United States, he was nowhere to be seen as he has so often these questions of responding to the pandemic. Erica?

HILL: Jeremy Diamond live at the White House for us, Jeremy, thank you.

Well, President Trump's blockade of a normal transition of power during a pandemic is forcing President-elect Biden to get creative because, listen, transitions need to happen, and especially in 2020. The stakes are very high.

CNN Political Correspondent Arlette Saenz joining me now. So, Arlette, what is the focus at this point? What is changing as the president- elect tries to navigate these very strange transition waters?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, President- elect Joe Biden is just trying to make it clear that he can still move forward with his transition planning as he does the work of president- elect, even as President Trump has refused to acknowledge the results of the election and the GSA has yet to ascertain Biden as the president-elect.

But you've seen Biden assembling his own teams of experts. We also know that the transition team is consulting outside experts as they're starting to look at all of these agencies and the steps they need to take before they take office come January.

And Biden has spent the weekend so far meeting with transition advisers. And a short while ago, he attended mass here in Wilmington, Delaware, at St. Ann's Catholic Church. And as he was leaving that church service, Biden was asked whether all Americans should be able to attend religious services amid the pandemic, and Biden responded, yes, if it's done safely.

[17:20:13]

We have seen the president-elect go to church quite a few times over the past few weeks. He's even noted that his own church has the one that he normally attends has limited the amount of people that they allow there in order to conduct these church and mass services in a safe manner.

Now, Biden, as he's meeting with his transition advisers, one issue that is top of mind is his cabinet picks. And he is actually speeding up the timeline for when he plans to announce his first cabinet nominees. These decisions were expected to come after the Thanksgiving holiday. But now it is getting sped up, and he is likely to announce a cabinet nominee as soon as early next week.

Biden has already said he's made up his mind about his treasury secretary, and he could soon announce also his secretary of state. So these are all steps that Biden is taking to try to show that he is still moving forward in the job of president-elect, even as the Trump administration continues to put up roadblocks. Erica?

HILL: Arlette Saenz live for us in Wilmington, Arlette, thank you.

Joining me now to discuss, CNN Senior Political Analyst and former adviser to four presidents, David Gergen, and CNN Political Analyst and National Politics Reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Sabrina Siddiqu.

As the president is actively blocking a smooth transition here, I just want to play a reminder of what happened after he won the election four years ago and his assessment of how things went at that point. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power. And we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent. Thank you. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The president's press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, meantime seems to be doing her best to rewrite history. Here is her take.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Something that I would note is just we talked a lot about transfer of power and the election and it's worth remembering that this president was never given an orderly transition of power. His presidency was never accepted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So, Sabrina, we know there was an orderly transfer of power. We know that there was a transition. We know that former President Obama and former Vice President Biden reached out pretty quickly after the election.

When we look at the latest messaging that we're getting from the White House, I mean, what kind of a road is that taking us down, Sabrina? Are we now really going to be rewriting history, it seems?

SABRINA SIDDIQUI, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, that's something that this administration has made a habit of over the course of the last four years and they're simply running out of excuses here. They haven't provided any evidence of widespread fraud, certainly no evidence that would change the outcome of the election.

And so to suggest that the delay in transition is anything other than feeding the president's ego is simply not rooted in reality, especially when a president like Joe Biden's margins in many of these battleground states are greater than what President Trump's margins were four years ago. So to act like there is something in this election that sets it apart from previous years, simply, it doesn't hold true.

And I think that the impact that it could have on the Biden transition is hard to really overstate. So far, they have been trying to meet with government experts, whether it's national security experts or people from the healthcare sector, economic leaders, who are not currently active members of the administration, but, you know, ultimately, President-elect Biden is going to be taking office against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic and an economic recession.

And so he really does, and his team really does need access to the departments and agencies, the career officials there, to brief intelligence briefings and especially, I think, what they've underscored is vaccine distribution plan because, that will really fall on the incoming administration to distribute a coronavirus vaccine at a time when cases are skyrocketing across the country.

HILL: You know, to that point, David, as we look at this, I don't think we can underscore enough. Maybe this is sour grapes on the part of President Trump. Perhaps he does want to sabotage the incoming administration, make it as difficult for Joe Biden as possible on day one. But the reality is, he is hurting the American people, including those who voted for him by not helping this transition.

This virus is raging, and each day, we are shattering the records set the day before. I mean, David, can you just put in perspective for us, again, why this really matters to the American people? This is about their health and their livelihood and their safety.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It goes not only to their health but also to the integrity of our democracy, you know, people's confidence in our democracy and in our institutions. [17:25:06]

Trust has been eroding and eroding year after year, presidency after presidency, and now I think it's hit rock bottom with President Trump and these antics, these adolescent antics.

And it does, as you say, Erica, it really does matter to the health of people. We've got this upward swing now, which is terrifying in terms of the number of cases, the number of people that are going to die. And if we only had messages that were consistent from our leadership, our national leadership, about it -- masks remain important. You know, social distancing remains vital. Yes, there are vaccines that we hope are coming very soon but a lot of people are going to die before we get to the vaccines unless we change our patterns. That's what a president should do. That's what decent presidents do.

This -- you know, he had said, I must tell you, I think this is a very deliberate act by his part to essentially smear Joe Biden and to make him a weaker president, to weaken him, to sabotage him, to use your phrase. I think they're setting out in every day that goes by with another lawsuit that they know they're going to lose. Every day that goes by when they try to extend the certification process, is one less day for the transition, one less day to prepare for this and to deal with the -- this virus, this terrible virus.

And I think it's -- I think it actually is hurting his base, but at the same time, it's deepening. Every day that goes by, he continues to deepen the belief within his own base that somehow Biden is illegitimate, that he's not a legitimate president. We know from the data that's come in so far that about 50 million Americans today, Republicans, believe that Joe Biden is not legitimate, will not be a legitimate president. That's terrible.

HILL (voice over): It really is. I mean, just to undermine -- I mean, it undermines, right, our democracy on so many levels, David, as you point out. We have heard so little from Republican lawmakers. We have heard from Mitt Romney. Today, we're hearing from Liz Cheney, who, in her statement, says the president cannot prove these claims or demonstrate that they would change the election result. He should fulfill his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States by respecting the sanctity of our electoral process.

Sabrina, as we look at that and the very few voices that we have heard, it seems pretty clear that Donald Trump still holds the strings of the Republican Party and may well do so after the inauguration.

SIDDIQUI: Absolutely. And I think that it's telling just how few Republicans have been willing to speak out in public. You pointed out Liz Cheney's statement there and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Senator Susan Collins of Maine. They also are among those who are now calling on the Trump administration to allow for some of these transition processes to take place.

But, by and large, what you have heard from Republicans on Capitol Hill is silence, and they're still giving the president and his campaign space to try and prove these allegations when the fact of the matter is, most of the legal challenges that the Trump campaign has put forward have already been dismissed in the courts or some of those cases, the Trump campaign has themselves withdrawn.

And so, even when they do say that, you know, if the president can -- if President-elect Biden is, in fact, going to take office in January, then a peaceful transition of power should take place, they're couching it in that if, and that if is what is casting doubt in the minds of Republican voters about not just the integrity of the election but as David was pointing out, the legitimacy of a Biden presidency.

And so, you know, this could really end tomorrow, I think, if more Republicans were willing to speak out, but we have seen over the last four years the transformation of the party really is Donald Trump's Republican Party. And I speak to the kind of influence he's going to continue to yield even after he leaves office in January and when Biden -- President Biden is trying to enact his agenda, this maybe gives you some sense of a preview that that cooperation he often talks about that he insists he will have from Republicans, it looks unlikely that he's going to get it from the other party.

HILL: Sabrina Siddiqui, David Gergen, I really appreciate it. Thank you both.

GERGEN: Thank you, Erica.

HILL: Well, as we know, the vote came in, the lawsuits immediately went flying, as we just discussed. But now the questions, does the president have any chance of legally overturning this election result? We'll cross-examine. CNN Legal Analyst Elie Honig has your answers.

Plus, a look at the legal issues President Trump could face once he is out of office.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[17:34:21]

HILL: Today marks exactly two weeks since CNN and other major outlets projected Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election.

Instead of accepting the results, however, the president continues to peddle baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election.

Which brings me to "CROSS EXAM" with CNN legal analyst, Elie Honig. He is a former federal and state prosecutor, here to answer your legal questions.

Elie, always good to see you, my friend.

First question from Linda in Ohio who asks: Is there any realistic chance that all the lawsuits by the Trump campaign can change the outcome of the presidential election? ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Erica, overwhelming response this

week from our viewers who are concerned about what Donald Trump's legal team is trying to do.

[17:35:01]

And rightly so. Because this is not normal. And this is terrible for our democracy.

But know this. This will not work. This effort will not succeed at keeping Donald Trump in office.

Here's the biggest problem. Rudy Giuliani and his elite strike force team -- I'm not making fun of them, that's their own term -- they've got nothing.

Rudy can rant and rave and tweet and scream conspiracy theories all day long, but none of that is a substitute in a real-life court of law for actual facts and evidence.

And that's why courts across this country are dismissing these lawsuits almost as fast as they're being filed.

In Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, the record speaks for itself. These cases are crashing and burning.

And even if, Erica, by some miracle, they did manage to flip one state's results, that would still not be enough.

Donald Trump would need to flip at least three close contested states in order to change the outcome here.

So, please, do not be swayed by the noise and the bluster. These lawsuits simply will not change the outcome of the 2020 election.

HILL: OK, so here's another question, though, about what could change the outcome.

Another viewer from New York asking: If a state has voted for one candidate, can an elector decide to vote for the other candidate when electoral votes are formally cast?

This is not the first time this question has come up.

HONIG: Yes, I've heard this a lot.

So, when we vote for president, we're not actually technically voting directly for Joe Biden or Donald Trump. We're actually voting for a slate of electors, who have pledged to cast their electoral votes for one of those candidates.

Now, this is important. Those electors are not selected at random from the public. They are chosen by the political parties, Democratic and Republican.

And they tend to be party loyalists. So good luck getting a pledged Democratic Party loyalist to flip a vote and vote for Donald Trump or vice versa.

Now, this can happen, but it almost never does.

Over our history, under 0.5 percent, under one half of one percent of all those electors have ever gone faithless and voted for the other candidate.

And this past summer, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld what we call faithless elector laws, which make it much harder for electors to vote for the other side.

A majority of our states do have those laws on the books.

And finally, remember, again, Joe Biden's electoral margin right now, 306-232. That means you would need not just one, not just a handful of electors to sort of go off the rails here.

You would need 37 Democratic Party loyalists to vote for Donald Trump, contrary to their state's actual popular vote, in order to make a difference.

Once again, Erica, this is not going the happen.

HILL: All right. Let's leave the election behind for just a moment, even if it was settled two weeks ago.

Another viewer from Massachusetts writes to ask: Could Ivanka Trump face legal jeopardy connected to her work for the Trump Organization?

HONIG: Yes, well, we know that New York State prosecutors, the Manhattan D.A and the New York attorney general, have been investigating the Trump Organization, including this $747,000 "consulting fee" -- I'm using quotes here -- to Ivanka Trump.

Now, as a prosecutor, Erica, that kind of enormous, unexplained consulting fee does raise red flags.

And it is hard to believe that Ivanka Trump actually provided three quarters of a million-dollars-worth of actual consulting services to a company, by the way, where she already was an employee.

If it turns out these were not legitimate consulting services, there could be various New York State crimes. We could have tax evasion. We could have falsification of business records.

Keep in mind, even if President Trump issues pardons on his way out the door, those only apply to federal cases. We're talking about state cases here. Presidential pardon has no bearing.

So this investigation is ongoing. It seems to be gaining steam. And, Erica, you know we will be watching this.

HILL: That is for sure.

Elie Honig, great to see you, my friend. Thank you.

HONIG: You, too. Thanks, Erica.

HILL: A quick programming note for you. Tomorrow, on the CNN original series, "FIRST LADIES," we are focusing on Hillary Clinton. A born leader, a fearless advisor, a political force. So, how did she get there? Tune in tomorrow night, 10:00 p.m., right here on CNN.

[17:40:09]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: The coronavirus is surging out of control in California. Today, the state reported a record-breaking 15,000 new cases, shattering a record set just yesterday. These are numbers the state hasn't seen since its high back in the summer.

Let's go down to CNN's Paul Vercammen, live in Los Angeles.

As we look at these numbers, Paul, they really tell a story that's pretty similar to what we're seeing across the rest of the country. Each state dealing with it a little bit differently.

Tonight, in California, there's actually a new curfew that's going into effect.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's because of the exponential leap in the number of cases here in California.

The state was doing relatively well compared to other states just a few weeks ago, and then this bounce back for the worse.

If you look behind me, this is the largest testing site in the nation. This is Dodgers Stadium.

And from above, you can see just how long the lines are. They are now testing here from 8:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night.

And about those new rules, starting at 10:00 tonight, no more gathering at restaurants, whether it be outside or inside, or bars.

There's this new curfew that is aimed directly at young people clustering up. It goes from 10:00 at night until 5:00 in the morning.

That's not to say that you can't walk your dog or make a trip to the grocery store, go to a friend's house and the like.

But it does mean that there's a prohibition against anybody getting together in large numbers.

This is going to last for a month -- Erica?

HILL: So, as we're looking at that, we're also seeing the other reality of this pandemic play out. There has been a record surge across the country. I know you have seen it firsthand there in Los Angeles, families

lining up at food banks. These food distributions, some of them waiting for hours.

[17:45:06]

And this is not just about Thanksgiving week. This is about taking care of their families on a daily, weekly basis.

VERCAMMEN: That's exactly right. Throughout Los Angeles, Southern California, the entire state today, food giveaways. Many of them are weekly giveaways.

As we look at the First Unitarian Church in Los Angeles, this was a weekly giveaway, usually for, oh, about 200 or 300 people in the Koreatown neighborhood.

There's also a lot of Central American immigrants who live in this area. They were lined up yesterday to try to get a crack at some of the few hundred turkeys they had. A thousand people went through here.

I walked this line with my iPhone. I have a long stride. I walk fast. It took me five minutes to get around three blocks just to see what was there.

And in talking to people in line, I talked to a woman, she was a maid. Her hours got cut dramatically. She just wanted to put some food on the table.

There's a real sense of desperation there now as this pandemic just drags on and has these ancillary economic effects as well -- Erica?

HILL: And this is a scene we are seeing play out in so many communities across the country.

Paul, really appreciate the reporting. Thank you.

Up next, a nightmarish November for the coronavirus. Nearly a quarter of all cases recorded in the United States since the pandemic began, they've come in this month alone. That's only three weeks. So, what could we be looking at after Thanksgiving?

Plus, Dr. Sanjay Gupta sat down with White House Coronavirus Task Force member, Dr. Deborah Birx, to find out what your family should be doing, how to handle the holidays. That and more, next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[17:51:31]

HILL: The nation surpassing 12 million coronavirus cases today. The holidays right around the corner.

CNN's Sanjay Gupta sat down with the Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, in a CNN exclusive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. DEBORAH BIRX, COORDINATOR, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: When you look at what's happening now, the rate of rise is dramatically different.

And the number of states and the number of counties in the United States that have what we consider a red zone because of their characteristics is now well over half of the country.

So this is faster. It's broader. And what worries me, it could be longer. And I think it's an all of us right now to make sure that it's not longer.

I'm making the personal sacrifices, not to infect my parents and my pregnant daughter.

And there's a lot of people out there who know how to protect one another and we just need to make sure we're all doing that.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You saw the news about New York City public schools. Because of the 3 percent positivity rate, they're going to shut down. A good decision?

BIRX: You know, Europe was willing to sacrifice restaurants and bars to maintain their schools.

We ask college students to sacrifice their college experience. And even the universities that were opened, it was a different experience.

But we asked them to change their behaviors, to wear a mask, to physically distance. We have 18-to-22-year-olds doing the right thing.

And we're not willing to tell people that they really can't gather in public spaces or even indoors with their masks off with people around them that could have the virus. Because that's how it spreads and you can't tell.

And I think, when this is all over, we need to look at our choices and really understand, in a different way, what choice is best for every American at the time.

GUPTA: Some of this is happening real time. I mean --

BIRX: Yes.

GUPTA: -- there will be time to reflect.

But the New York City public schools, based on their surveillance testing, has about a .17 percent positivity rate.

Why would you shut down schools when they're .17 and the city is 3 percent, and restaurants and bars and other places like that opened, even at limited capacity?

BIRX: I think the thing that confuses Americans. And I've heard this in the Rocky Mountain states.

When we tell people that these masks prevent transmission -- they're not perfect.

But when we tell them they prevent transmission and then we close the spaces where people are 100 percent masked and leave open the spaces where the people are on masks, which we know is a transmission area, that's confusing to the American people.

I understand why it's confusing. They're like, OK, you said masks work and I'm doing them here, and these spaces are safe and you are closing my space and leaving opened the spaces where people are on masks.

I think that's very -- I worry about that because then it gives people the option to say, well, if bars and restaurants are opened, then I can have 20 people over for Thanksgiving.

And so I don't like it to be any number. I like it to be, keep it to your immediate household.

Because you know, if you say it can be 10, and it's eight people from four different families, then that probably is not the same degree of safe as 10 people from your immediate household.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[17:55:07]

HILL: All important things to consider as we move into the Thanksgiving week.

Meantime, the country is moving in the wrong direction, by every metric. The U.S. is crossing 12 million cases now recorded since the pandemic began. The number continues to rise today. Is there hope, though, on the horizon?

Just ahead, we will speak to the doctor on the advisory committee set to meet with the FDA about the Pfizer vaccine.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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