Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
U.S. Sets New Daily Case Record of over 195,000; Pfizer- BioNTech Vaccine to FDA for Authorization; Europe Proceeds with Vaccine Distribution Plans; Biden Meets with Top Democratic Lawmakers; Trump Still Claims He Won Election; Ugandan Musician Turned Politician Bobi Wine out of Jail. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired November 21, 2020 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hi, welcome to CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow.
So, coming up on the show another record breaking day in the U.S. as COVID cases hit the highest single day total ever during the pandemic. But there's a glimmer of hope on the vaccine front.
And:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Which I won, by the way. But, you know, we'll find that out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: My Oval Office, mi casa, you casa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Denial versus moving forward as the door closes on Trump. President-Elect Joe Biden tries his best to transition into the White House, despite the president's stalling.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Robyn Curnow.
CURNOW: Great to have you along, wherever you are in the world. Thanks for joining me.
U.S. health experts are warning Americans to not let their guard down as coronavirus hospitalizations and infections soar to new heights. The country is reporting over 195,000 cases for Friday, a new record. That's according to Johns Hopkins University.
And the U.S. has now also recorded nearly 12 million cases since the pandemic began. Hospital beds are filling up. According to the COVID Tracking Project, hospitalization reached a record high of more than 82,000 on Friday.
Meanwhile, two more people close to the president, Donald Trump, including his eldest son, have become infected. A personal spokesman said Donald Trump Jr. is quarantining after testing positive earlier on this week.
Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani's son has also been diagnosed with the virus. Andrew Giuliani works as a special assistant to the president.
Now there is reason for hope amid all of these grim figures. The vaccine candidate from Pfizer and BioNTech is one step closer to getting the green light. Nick Watt has more on what comes next and he also takes us through how different regions of the country are handling the pandemic -- Nick.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Today, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted their COVID-19 vaccine to the FDA for emergency use authorization. There could be shots in some arms before New Year.
DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: This pandemic will start getting better once we get into February and March. And by April and May, things will be dramatically better.
WATT (voice-over): But what about now?
Thursday, a record number of new cases, more than 187,000, a record number of people in the hospital, more than 80,000 and, for the first time since early May, more than 2,000 lives reported lost to COVID-19 in a single day.
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE COORDINATOR: So this is faster. It's is broader. And what worries me, it could be longer.
WATT (voice-over): Today in Illinois, movie theaters, museums, indoor bars all closed again. Tomorrow night, 10:00 P.M. an overnight curfew kicks in across much of California.
DR. MARK GHALY, CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: We too are seeing this surge growing faster and faster and we must address it immediately.
WATT (voice-over): In New York, schools just closed after the city's positivity rate crept to 3 percent. Tempers are high.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why can a child go to a restaurant, why can a child go everywhere else but school? There is no excuse.
WATT (voice-over): Now we hear that New York City restaurants might close again after Thanksgiving and the schools might actually reopen.
DR. JAY VARMA, SENIOR ADVISER FOR PUBLIC HEALTH, NYC MAYOR'S OFFICE: The plan right now is to work on a plan so that after the Thanksgiving break, we can bring everybody back into the schools and we are going to adjust and adapt our protocols so that we can continue to do in- person learning.
WATT (voice-over): The latest signs suggest schools are not super- spreaders.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: My feeling, is that that the full position, keep the schools open if you possibly can.
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: Our big threat for transmission is not the public square. It is small family gathering.
WATT: The CDC and some states advising us not to travel over Thanksgiving. Utah had said just one household for dinner but --
GOV. GARY HERBERT (R-UT): We are taking that out of the order. What you do in the confines of your home is going to be up to you. But we also are given strong recommendations of how you conduct that in a safe environment.
WATT (voice-over): Today, 10 months since the first confirmed case in the country, we are still unsure.
Close schools, keep restaurants open or vice versa?
Are strict rules best or just recommendations?
Is personal freedom the priority or the health of others?
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[03:05:00]
CURNOW: Joining me now, Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, internal medicine and viral specialist.
Good to see you, Doctor.
How excited are you at the promise of these massive vaccine rollouts in the coming months?
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: It is very exciting. I think it is the first time, in almost a year, we are seeing some hopefulness. Some light at the end of the tunnel, that's not a train and it's actually something that might be worthwhile.
Pfizer did apply today for emergency access in the United States and they still have to actually look at the data, make sure that it's safe and we know that it's effective from what we've heard.
And then the rollout will, hopefully, begin at the end of December. But there is a difference between a vaccine and vaccination. In order for a vaccine to work, we have to vaccinate people. That's going to be, I think, the next big hurdle, getting enough people in the country to get vaccinated to make a difference.
CURNOW: You talk about a light at the end of the tunnel and, certainly, it's great to have that. But the numbers are mind-boggling on many levels and there's concern about Thanksgiving Week, which we've started and then Christmas.
What concerns you about the coming weeks before there is a vaccine or vaccination rollout?
RODRIGUEZ: What concerns me the most are the numbers and the fact that people seem to be so nonchalant. Some of them and cavalier, about what is going on. From the information today, we passed 201,000 new infections in the United States and close to 2,000 deaths.
We are behind the curve. These 2,000, unfortunately, their illness and their deaths are going to show up in two weeks. In the meantime, we have Thanksgiving. So that is what scares me the most, the fact that it would be such an easy, not solution but an easy tempering effect to put on a mask.
For one year, skip having such large family gatherings so that, next year, we can all have a great Thanksgiving. That is what worries me the most, the fact that people are so nonchalant and just not paying attention to what really is going on.
CURNOW: In many ways, what we are feeling right now is also the backlash from Halloween parties, which is playing out in the last few weeks as well. Certainly, very real concern there.
Let's talk about Donald Trump Jr., he has COVID-19.
What does that tell you?
RODRIGUEZ: It tells me that Donald Trump Jr. is not using proper precautions and is hanging around people who also aren't. We know the White House is a Petri dish of COVID activity. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci doesn't want to go there. The incidence of it occurring is so high.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez there, speaking to me.
Thanks, Doctor.
European officials, too, are working at how they'll distribute this vaccine if one is approved soon. So I want to look at their infection rates there.
The countries that were hit full force by the second wave over the past several weeks are doing much better. But now eastern Europe is struggling. The Spanish prime minister claims Spain and Germany will have Europe's first vaccination plans.
He also says a very substantial part of his country could be vaccinated through the first half of next year. Let's go to Jim Bittermann, Jim is standing by just outside Paris with more on all of this.
So some mixed news coming out of Europe. Good to see you. Hi, Jim.
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Right, good to see Robyn, good morning.
In fact, yes, it's good news, I think, coming out of Europe but it's kind of a mix of good news and bad news. Basically, the rate of infection and the number of cases is on the decline in Europe.
And when you look just a little bit everywhere, that's because, back about the end of last month, the beginning of this month, in Germany, France, Spain and other places, they put on very restrictive measures, confinement measures here in France.
For example that restricted all kinds of different activities, closed down bars and restaurants, that sort of thing. And varying measures in varying countries. But in any case, all of those measures have started to bear fruit.
In fact, here in France, there was a decline in the number of hospitalizations, a decline in the number of ICU beds. ICU beds are a real leading indicator as far as the infection rate is concerned. So now the attention is being focused on getting the vaccines approved by Europe agencies. The central European agency, health agency that approve the vaccines, they're negotiating with Pfizer and with Moderna. And then they'll distribute to the various countries. Then it's up to the countries to distribute the vaccine and it will be a question of who gets the vaccines first.
[03:10:00]
BITTERMANN: And it's likely to be health care workers first in line, probably followed by vulnerable populations and then everyone else.
But the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the other day she expects that the first vaccinations will begin in Germany before the end of the year. So it's kind of a hopeful sign. Things are on the decline but no one's taking a break yet.
Here in France for example, President Macron is expected to deliver an address to the nation on Tuesday night and he is likely to say -- likely to say; we don't know exactly what he is going to say -- going to lift some restrictions but he is not going to allow large restaurants to reopen just yet. It will be more restrictions on other kinds of businesses throughout France.
Some things coming off, maybe some of the restrictions coming off but not entirely. Nobody wants to release the brakes just yet -- Robyn.
CURNOW: But at least Europe has a plan and that's a good thing, slowly, slowly. Thanks so much, Jim Bittermann, reporting live from outside Paris, Thanks.
So this is CNN. President Trump continues to deny reality while President-Elect Biden moves forward. We'll have the latest on this very troubled transition.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow.
So U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden did not take the day off for his 78th birthday on Friday. He met with top Democratic lawmakers and he seemed to pay no attention to President Trump's ongoing attempts to subvert the election results, as Jessica Dean now reports on the Biden transition.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Welcome to Wilmington!
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris pushing ahead with their transition process today, meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in Wilmington, Delaware, to discuss a COVID relief bill.
JEN PSAKI, BIDEN-HARRIS TRANSITION SENIOR ADVISER: They're going to be working in lockstep and they're in lockstep agreement that there needs to be emergency assistance and aid before and during the lame duck session to help families.
DEAN (voice-over): With two months until Inauguration Day, Biden and his transition team are forging ahead with their plans despite President Trump's continued refusal to concede and begin the formal transition process.
YOHANNES ABRAHAM, BIDEN-HARRIS TRANSITION ADVISER: We continue to move forward in the absence ascertainment decision.
DEAN (voice-over): On a virtual call with reporters, Friday, senior adviser and lawyer for the Biden campaign, Bob Bauer said Trump's actions and baseless lawsuits are harming the democratic process but emphasized Trump will not be successful.
BOB BAUER, BIDEN FOR PRESIDENT SENIOR ADVISER: While the president and his allies are ripping at the fabric of the democracy in any way they can, the fabric is not tearing, it's holding firm.
DEAN (voice-over): Additionally, as part of the effort to show he is moving forward despite Trump's actions, Biden has expedited the process of selecting his cabinet nominees with some announcements expected the soonest next week. BIDEN: You'll soon hear my choice for Treasury. I made that decision. We made that decision.
[03:15:00]
BIDEN: And you'll hear that either just before or just after Thanksgiving.
DEAN (voice-over): Meantime, Biden continues to grow his incoming White House staff. Today, the transition announced a new round of senior appointments which included several long-time Biden aides who have worked for both the president-elect and his wife, Jill.
DEAN: Another area where the Biden transition team is pushing ahead is when it comes to fundraising yet again. Because the General Services Administration still hasn't certified and signed off on Biden as being president-elect and triggering the transition process, releasing millions of dollars they need to do so, the Biden transition team is now sending emails to its supporters, saying it's going likely have to self-fund its transition, asking for donations for that.
Also something to note, on this Friday, it is Joe Biden's 78th birthday, which means, when he takes office in two months, he'll be the oldest president ever in the history of the United States -- Jessica Dean, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: And more Republicans are breaking ranks trying to push the Trump administration to stop blocking this transition, but Mr. Trump is still falsely claiming that he won. And the measures he is taking seem to be more and more desperate as Kaitlan Collins now report from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump is ramping up his unparalleled efforts to overturn the U.S. election and wrongly claiming he won during a rare appearance in front of cameras today.
TRUMP: Big pharma ran millions of dollars of negative advertisements against me during the campaign -- which I won, by the way. But we'll find that out. Almost 74 million votes.
COLLINS (voice-over): The president appeared in the Briefing Room but took no questions for the 17th day in a row, after taking the brazen step of summoning Michigan's Republican state legislators to the White House.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: So he will be meeting later on. This is not an advocacy meeting. There will be no one from the campaign there. He routinely meets with lawmakers from all across the country.
COLLINS (voice-over): What the press secretary described as a routine meeting did not appear on the president's official schedule and comes only days before the state is set to formally certify Joe Biden as the winner.
Kayleigh McEnany claimed no one from the campaign would be present hours after Rudy Giuliani said he was planning on being there.
RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I will be there just to answer any questions they have, because I know -- I probably know the case better than anybody else.
COLLINS (voice-over): CNN has learned Giuliani's plans have changed and he won't attend the meeting but only because he was in contact with his son, who tested positive for coronavirus.
Officials say the president is also discussing inviting Republican legislators from other states like Pennsylvania in what could be an unprecedented effort to get legislators to override the will of voters.
Trump and his allies are now resorting to the last-ditch effort after losing or withdrawing more than 2 dozen lawsuits since Election Day. As Georgia secretary of state announced they were making Biden's win in the state official today, he dealt another blow to Trump and his team.
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: I live by the motto that numbers don't lie. As secretary of state, I believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct.
COLLINS (voice-over): Most in the administration are still refusing to recognize reality publicly.
PETER NAVARRO, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF TRADE AND MANUFACTURING POLICY: I don't accept the premise. I believe President Trump will have a second term.
COLLINS (voice-over): Many in the GOP have humored the president's efforts to undermine democracy and refuse to acknowledge Joe Biden's win.
But, today, outgoing Senator Lamar Alexander became the most senior Republican to call on Trump to let the transition go forward, quote, "so that both sides are ready on day one."
COLLINS: And those Michigan state lawmakers were at the White House for about an hour. But shortly after they left their meeting with President Trump, they issued a statement, saying they had seen no evidence that would change what they believe the outcome of the election should be.
They said, in part, that they have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome. They say they are going to continue to follow the normal process of Michigan's electors, basically saying they will not follow through on what you heard some of the president's attorneys, like Sidney Powell, say they hope they would do, which is to have electors that would pick Donald Trump over Joe Biden, even though, of course, Joe Biden won the state Michigan by 150,000 votes, at least -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Joining me now is Michael Moran, a lecturer on political risk at the Josef Korbel School of International Affairs at the University of Denver.
Michael, great to have you on the show. Thank you so much for joining me this hour. So the chances of Mr. Trump overturning the election results are becoming increasingly slim.
What does he do next?
MICHAEL MORAN, JOSEF KORBEL SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, UNIVERSITY OF DENVER: I think his game, right now, is to keep his base engaged. They would like to see him go down fighting. I don't think, for the last week, he has had a real sense that he could overturn the election.
[03:20:00]
MORAN: I think the idea now is to make the United States ungovernable without his say-so.
When I say that, I think it's mostly about his leverage with the Republican Party. As you can see, Republicans are quite afraid to say that this election is over. And that is, in part, because they fear a primary challenge from someone who Mr. Trump backs.
He has his own legal problems, of course, that he will have to contend with, once the election officially called. But he wants to maintain the ability to block things in the Senate and to be a player, maybe in 2024. So that's the tactic right, now, I think.
CURNOW: Or, even potentially, just kingmaker from Mar-a-Lago for the next few years.
Before we even get there, as he stonewalls in this transition process, actively stoking up divisions and many supporters believing the conspiracies coming out of the White House, there is a sense that this election will never be over.
How dangerous is that?
MORAN: It is terrible. It comes at a terrible time, both domestically for the United States and internationally.
Domestically, it is the third stage rocket, maybe the fourth stage rocket, of cynicism and distrust of government, in the United States, which now runs on both sides, from Left to Right, either extreme as deep misgivings about the central government, the state government, any structures of the country.
That really is a damaging thing. And Donald Trump stokes that, exploits it. It's his bread and butter.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Michael Moran there, speaking to us from Denver, Colorado, thank you very much.
Coming up on CNN, popular Ugandan musician and politician, Bobi Wine, is out of jail, some saying he was arrested because he poses a real threat to the incumbent president. Stay with us for a live report.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CURNOW: Dozens have died in Uganda after clashes between protesters and security forces, in the run-up to the January elections. The unrest began on Wednesday, after police arrested popular opposition presidential candidate, Bobi Wine.
He was released from jail on Friday. Wine is accused of breaking COVID rules at rallies, but a human rights group says that Ugandan authorities use the coronavirus to repress opposition to the president. David McKenzie joins me now, from Johannesburg, with more on all of this.
David, update us on what you know.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I just got off the phone with Bobi Wine, the popular presidential candidate, former pop star. He said, really, they are happy to go with the COVID regulations. But it's not a level playing field.
He also said that they have seen the violence of, in their words, the security and police over the last few days. But they said they are not going to stop campaigning for what he says, should be, ultimately, the removal from power of the president.
The president has been in power for more than 30 years. He said this is about a generational change that they're hoping for in Uganda, with the average age of under 16. The president, as I said, approaching 80. So they are going to keep on campaigning.
[03:25:00]
MCKENZIE: But I do think there is a sense, given the last few days of these protests in Kampala and other parts of the country, that they will face, potentially, more issues with the security forces in the country -- Robyn.
CURNOW: Give us a sense of what else is at stake in this election. You rightly say it and Bobi Wine as well, is appealing to a young population in Uganda and across east Africa.
What is it about Bobi Wine that is so appealing and perhaps, so threatening?
Also appealing to many but threatening to the government?
MCKENZIE: I think he is threatening to the government because for a long time, there has not been an opposition figure as popular as Bobi Wine. Certainly, within urban centers, like Kampala. He is a pop star, with a wide following in east Africa especially, who has transitioned into a political campaign and movement.
The president is a wily operator. He's been in power for all this time, he says he's the one to move the country forward and maintain peace and stability. You hear that refrain from security officials, all the time, saying if you want to keep Uganda peaceful, you need to back the government.
Whereas the opposition leaders, like Bobi Wine, blame the government itself for the violence. You have seen many instances of alleged shootings by police and military with automatic weapons in the capital in the last few days.
Certainly, scores of people killed in those protests. The election is coming up in January; things could get worse, say observers and diplomats, because of this powder keg in Uganda, of a young population with a popular leader and a politician and a president that does not appear to want to have free elections -- Robyn.
CURNOW: Thank you so much. Important story, we will continue to follow it, David McKenzie, live in Johannesburg. Thank you, David.
We get word that British travel writer Jan Morris has died. She's the journalist who broke the news when Edmund Hillary made it to the top of Mt. Everest in 1953. She authored more than 3 dozen books and went by the name James Morris until the early 1970s.
She passed away on Transgender Day of Remembrance. Jan Morris was an extraordinary human being. I urge to read her books. She was 94.
I'm Robyn Curnow, there's much more CNN coming up. "AFRICAN VOICES" is next. Enjoy.
