Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Georgia To Recount Presidential Ballots Again Per Trump Request; Judge Dismisses Trump Campaign's Pennsylvania Lawsuit; Biden Team Still Denied Access To Critical Resources; Thanksgiving Travelers Pack Airports; Record COVID-19 Surge In California; French President To Give National COVID-19 Speech; Iowa Hospitalizations Double; Transporting Fragile Vaccine; Giuliani: From 9/11 Respect To Conspiracies. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired November 22, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Donald Trump's legal avenues for overturning his election loss are closing. Georgia still has to count the votes again.

And the holiday travel season is on even as the U.S. hits a new milestone of 12 million COVID cases.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BRUNHUBER: The state of Georgia once again finds itself at the center of U.S. politics. It's already the site of two runoff elections that will determine the control of the Senate. And one is now complicated by the coronavirus.

Georgia is also preparing for another recount in the presidential race. The Trump campaign requested a second recount Saturday after an earlier audit found Joe Biden won the state by more than 12,000 votes.

Joe Biden's campaign claims Trump is setting himself up to lose the state again. Last week's recount reaffirmed Georgia voters selected Joe Biden to be president. Any further recount will simply reaffirm Joe Biden's victory in Georgia a third time.

On Saturday a federal judge in Pennsylvania tossed out a case for having no legal merits. We'll have more on that in a moment.

In Georgia's Senate runoff campaign, Republican senator Kelly Loeffler announced she tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. But another test on Saturday was inconclusive. She campaigned maskless on Friday, alongside Mike Pence and David Perdue.

All right, back to Pennsylvania, where U.S. Senator Pat Toomey joined a short list of Republican who have recognized Biden as president- elect.

Soon after the judge's ruling on the Trump campaign's lawsuit in Pennsylvania, Toomey said in a statement, "With today's decision by Judge Matthew Brann, a long-time conservative Republican, whom I know to be a fair and unbiased jurist, President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the results of the presidential race in Pennsylvania."

We have more details from CNN's Jeremy Diamond.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Trump is suffering his latest defeat in his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. This time, it came in an opinion from a federal judge in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Judge Matthew Brann throwing out the Trump campaign's attempts to prevent the state of Pennsylvania from certifying the results of the election and Joe Biden's victory in that state.

The judge, Matthew Brann making very clear that the Trump campaign's arguments here are entirely unsupported, especially when they are seeking to essentially throw out the nearly 7 million votes cast in the state of Pennsylvania.

The judge writes, "One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption.

"That has not happened. Instead, this court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by the evidence."

And much of that judge's opinion, which came out Saturday night, reads similarly, a very scathing opinion and notable because the president's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, went into federal court a few days ago to make that case himself after five previous attorneys withdrew from the Trump campaign's lawsuit here.

Now as the president's legal avenues are slimming and they are, this was the 29th case the Trump case has either withdrawn or seen dismissed in state and federal courts over the last two weeks.

As all that is happening, you're seeing the president uninterested in the business of governing and being president of the United States, even as he's fighting to remain president of the United States.

He's had only a handful of public appearances in the more than two weeks since the presidential election. And on Saturday, the president briefly appeared at one meeting for the G20 summit of world leaders, appearing virtually as most world leaders are -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: The Trump White House is still denying President-Elect Joe Biden and his team access to critical resources and briefings. But Biden is staying calm and moving forward. We get more from CNN's Arlette Saenz.

[04:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President-Elect Joe Biden's team welcomed the decision from a federal judge to dismiss Trump campaign's lawsuit in Pennsylvania as the Biden team says it backs up their arguments that there are no legal challenges that the president can credibly wage in order to change the results of this election.

A spokesperson for Joe Biden, Mike Gwin, says, "Yet another court has rejected Trump and Giuliani's baseless claims of voter fraud and their appalling assault on our democracy.

"The judge's ruling couldn't be clearer. Our people, laws and institutions demand more and our country will not tolerate Trump's attempt to reverse the results of an election that he decisively lost."

Biden's team has long argued these lawsuits and legal challenges are simply political theater and they don't believe that anything credible can be raised to change the outcome of the election.

But they have warned that these types of challenges are threatening to American democracy but they also believe that this election is over and the results will stand. Biden is pushing forward with his transition, even as the GSA has yet to ascertain him as the president- elect.

Biden has been convening his own teams of experts and holding briefings with people, as they are gathering more information about how to proceed heading into January. And Biden is also building up his White House staff but also looking at his cabinet decisions.

And the president-elect has sped up his timeline for announcing his first cabinet picks, with the possibility of the first nominees coming at the start of the week -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: For more on this politics, let's bring in Inderjeet Parmar, a teacher of international politics at City University London and a visiting professor at London School of Economics and Politics. Thank you for joining us.

INDERJEET PARMAR, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, CITY UNIVERSITY LONDON: Thank you. Happy to be here.

BRUNHUBER: You've written what's happening now is a dangerous coup attempt by a master of mass disorientation. What's more surprising, the attempt at this so-called coup or the mass

disorientation seems to be working, if you judge by the support by Republicans and followers?

PARMAR: I think both are dangerous. I think they portend a continuation of the politics of mass disorientation. I think when the buildup of public opinion, which is so loyal to the president, as they are in this case, with the Republican Party, voters, then I think it's going to roil politics going forward.

But it also sets a dangerous precedent for anyone in future elections, especially if they're close because it will say, well, we can just kind of draw out the process. We can make legal challenges and so on, undermine the very idea of the popular vote.

In this particular case, I suppose you could say it's very dangerous because the overwhelming sort of vote and the certifications and so on that have happened and the elections called are against President Trump.

But the fact that you can challenge it in these conditions suggests, in future terms, if it's even closer, it's going to get worse. That means there's a sharp authoritarian turn in American politics in general, once you've set a precedent of this kind and it could undermine democracy even more fundamentally.

BRUNHUBER: You say American democracy but obviously, keenly watching all of this are foreign leaders and other democracies and maybe not -- maybe even those who haven't yet been elected but waiting in the wings, watching all this.

What do you think they're learning about the fragility of political norms, about the weaponization of outrage and the subversion of democracy?

I mean, can you export this?

Could we see similar leaders and similar scenes playing out in other previously stable democracies in the coming years?

PARMAR: Well, the United States is a pivotal global power. It's the lead power in the whole world system in all kinds of respects that you've mentioned as well. It also has kind of an image and an aura.

It has fundamental democratic norms and institutions as well. So the signals that come from the United States in a variety of areas, including on a democratic processes, they have a big impact. They actually encourage certain kinds of tendencies, certain kinds of forces.

When a President of the United States like President Trump has been backing say white supremacists, authoritarians, praising autocratic leaders and praising the violation of norms, challenging media freedom, not calling out when journalists are being attacked and harassed and maybe even killed.

[04:10:00]

PARMAR: Calling his own media, the media in the U.S., the enemies of the people, that has a big effect. It sends a signal. And overall, it undermines the whole notion of democracy. So you will have a big effect.

I'm not saying there should be another side pointed out. One of the things that is interesting to me and impressive, perhaps, is that the courts have stood up to these challenges up to now.

But the Pennsylvania judge, for example, called it a massive attempt at disenfranchisement. That will have reverberations. It suggests the U.S. has deep structures which will also prevent some of this kind of tendency as well.

And, of course, we know that county officials, whose only job is to count and verify elections, they have also stood up to the president and have not been intimidated by him. And many GOP lawmakers at state level have stood up, even though they haven't called him out fully. There has been a kind of general tendency against this.

So I think that's important to bear in mind as well.

BRUNHUBER: There has been at least a bit of a bulwark against some of this. We don't have much time left but I want to ask, foreign policy, the president's final days seem to alternate between a scorched Earth policy to make things harder for the president-elect and playing golf.

But looking at his -- the moves that he's making now, what do you think the landscape will be left for President Biden when he's sworn in?

PARMAR: Like everything else, President Trump is a campaigner. And he's already campaigning now for the 2022 midterms on behalf of the Republican Party and, I suspect 2024 for himself or someone like him to run in that year.

So what he's trying to do, I think, is effectively push ahead on a number of areas, such as troop withdrawal in Iraq and Afghanistan, designating certain sanctions in Iran in regard to the nuclear agreement and ballistic missiles and so on.

I think what he's trying to say is look, my supporters, my voters, I have done what I said I would do. And the Democrats are going to have to sort of politically have a much more difficult time in reversing some of these things.

They can. A lot of them are executive order decisions and foreign policy is much more in the gift of the president than is domestic policy. But it does suggest to his voters, I'm doing what I said I would do and we're leaving in that sort of -- in that cast of mind. And look at the Democrats. They are making America much, much weaker.

And I think that's the politics of this. Fundamentally, I don't think there's many changes Trump is making or suggesting which necessarily undermine what the end goal of American foreign policy, what Democrats and Republicans actually is. But I think he's trying to muddy the water and play politics for 2022 and 2024.

BRUNHUBER: Inderjeet Parmar, thank you. We always appreciate it.

PARMAR: Thank you very much.

BRUNHUBER: Home for the holidays, despite coronavirus. Just ahead, why health experts are afraid the recent surge in U.S. cases could be just the beginning.

Plus we'll show you how governments around the world are bracing for the COVID fallout from the holiday season travel.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:15:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. has reached another COVID milestone, now topping 12 million coronavirus cases. And upcoming Thanksgiving travel could spread the virus even further. Experts are pleading for Americans to stay home but the TSA screened more than 1 million passengers at U.S. airports on Friday.

And the airlines say they're bracing for their biggest, busiest week since the pandemic began. CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro has more from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On Saturday, researchers at Johns Hopkins University reported the United States has now passed 12 million cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began.

It's a number that continues to rise. There have now being 19 straight days of more than 100,000 new cases in this country. What scares public health experts is that this surge is coming just at the beginning of the holiday travel season.

Here at JFK airport in New York, things are pretty quiet. But other airports across the country saw big, big crowds, like this crowd at the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport on Friday.

Public health experts worry that those big numbers of people at the airport, people moving from one place to another and congregating before going back to where they started from, is pretty much the worst-case scenario in a surging pandemic.

They are begging Americans to make the hard choice not to travel this holiday season -- Evan McMorris-Santoro, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: As we just saw, rising coronavirus cases don't seem to be enough to stop many holiday travelers. And health experts are afraid the high numbers we're seeing now will be far worse. CNN's Anna Stewart takes a look at how governments around the world are preparing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Going home for the holidays. It's what the CDC advises against this Thanksgiving. Crowded airports, people mingling from different households is the perfect way for a virus to travel as well. But the warning isn't enough to ground some passengers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The planes are safe, they sanitize everything. You got to live your life at the end of the day.

STEWART (voice-over): But in many places, the concern is saving lives. As many governments reimpose restrictions and coronavirus cases reach alarming levels.

On Monday, Toronto, Canada's most populous city, will go on lockdown for nearly a month. That means outdoor gatherings will be limited to 10 people; restaurants, curbside or delivery only. Even grocery stores can only operate at half capacity. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau appealed to people to stay at home.

[04:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: If you are planning to see friends this weekend, maybe don't. If there was a birthday party or a gathering for dinner you were thinking about doing, don't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART (voice-over): A similar message in Iran where the deputy health minister says family gatherings are the main cause of infection. The country recently closed nonessential businesses in 160 towns and cities but some residents say people will continue to gather.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): No matter how much the government imposes restrictions, people do not comply. It's useless.

STEWART (voice-over): In New Delhi, India, not complying with coronavirus rules comes with a. Cost the government has increased fines from 500 to 2000 rupees, about $27, for those who don't wear masks.

Cases in Brazil are once again on the rise, passing the 6 million mark, after infections steadily declined since their peak in the summer. Officials say the surge is fueled by people out in about, in some cities packing into public places at pre pandemic levels.

Russian president Vladimir Putin says he will provide the Sputnik V vaccine to countries that need it. That hope is perhaps too far down the road and the wave of infections sweeping the world right now -- Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The French president Emmanuel Macron is set to address the nation on Tuesday and he may announce a partial relaxation of nationwide restrictions. For more on that and other coronavirus news across Europe, I'm joined by CNN's Jim Bittermann.

With hospitalizations coming down this week in France, I assume that's one of the data points the French government is looking at, as they decide whether to ease restrictions?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kim. The other data point is a leading indicator in terms of deaths, and that is the number of people in ICUs and, in fact, over the last week, the number here has dropped. The number of ICU beds devoted to coronavirus cases has dropped by about 350, around 7 percent or 8 percent of the total ICU load.

So in fact, those kinds of indicators are what led the prime minister here to say on Friday that France is on the right path. Nonetheless, we'll have to see what President Macron does.

The government spokesman has already said it's not going to be the end of the restriction when the president makes his speech. It's going to come off gradually, perhaps letting shopkeepers and store owners open their shops for nonessential things. For essential things, they have been open.

But having a limit on the number of people who can be in any particular space at any particular time. So we'll see what the president announces.

It might also be a lifting on religious institutions, mosques and churches and whatnot so they can go back to having services as they have in the past, with proper spacing, of course.

Now that having been said about France, Germany, on the other hand, which also put in tough restrictions at the beginning of this month, in fact, their situation has stabilized. Although they're really worried now about the number of people in their ICU beds.

They had an increase over the last two months of 13 times the number of people being treated with coronavirus in the ICU beds. They're worried about the system collapsing. But the spokesman for Chancellor Merkel said on Friday that we've not yet managed to bring the numbers back to a low level.

We've basically only managed to get past the first steps so far to stop the strong, steep and exponential increase in infections.

So in fact, it's leveling off in Europe. However, things are still not completely there to let restrictions go completely.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thank you so much. Jim Bittermann. Appreciate it. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Dr. Robert Kim-Farley joins me from Los Angeles, he's a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Thank you for joining us, Doctor. I want to start with what we just saw, the situation in California where things are worse than the peak in the summer. So the question Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti posed this week is intriguing. I want to get your take as a former director with the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

Over the past few months, the fairly strict measures there haven't been relaxed, they've remained constant.

So why are the numbers still going up?

DR. ROBERT KIM-FARLEY, UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Well, thank you, Kim, for having me on the show again.

And I think it is an interesting question about why do we see this surge occurring when there hasn't been much change, if you will in the guidance provided to individuals or businesses?

I think it's a multi factorial. First of all, we have some pandemic fatigue setting in, where people are no longer perhaps wearing masks as vigilantly or keeping physical distance as much as they had been doing, sometimes also letting down their guard of having more people in the house or small parties.

I think also, we see the holiday season tempting us. We've had Halloween, we're soon to have Thanksgiving next week. These, I think, could become amplifiers and have been certainly, after Halloween, where we're having people coming down more with disease.

I think also the cooling weather that we have is bringing people indoors. We know that the transmission is facilitated for COVID-19 when you're indoors, as compared to being outside.

Also, frankly, you have to also realize we are testing more people. We've tripled the number of people being tested in the United States since the 1st of July. I think that we are seeing more asymptomatic people picked up through some of the testing efforts that we're doing as well.

All those things add up in their own ways to one of the reasons we see increasing numbers of cases. But it is real and we have to be concerned.

BRUNHUBER: I want to emphasize that, because, a lot of the time, people who want to deny that, saying, we're testing too much. But hospitalizations are going up as well.

I want to ask you about the first thing you talked about, pandemic fatigue. You can see it in the sheer number of Americans, who are traveling or planning to travel over this Thanksgiving holiday. We've seen pictures of crowded airports and it doesn't look very safe, looking at pictures now.

Even if people are wearing masks, they are sharing air in very crowded locations. Clearly people aren't listening to guidance advising them not to travel or get together.

Are we standing at yet another precipice here?

KIM-FARLEY: I think we are. Again, associated with Thanksgiving, the travel, as you pointed out, as well as the people having persons in their homes or going out and having larger numbers together.

[04:25:00]

KIM-FARLEY: All of these things don't bode well for us to have decreased numbers of cases but rather, increasing.

I think also, as you rightly point out, the crowded areas, oftentimes for travel, for going by air, in the airports itself or in security lines, things like this, it's not necessarily on the plane itself, which have very good air filtration. They've got quick turnarounds of air in the space.

They've got the flow of the air directed such that it's not spreading all over the cabin. So actually, probably the actual getting to the airport is of more concern than the flight itself.

BRUNHUBER: We have to hang in there until the vaccine's available but experts have been drawing that distinction: a vaccine is one thing; vaccinations, quite another. You supervise L.A. County's immunization program.

What's going to be the key to a successful rollout?

If we agree that health care workers should get it first, who gets it next?

How do you decide?

KIM-FARLEY: Yes, so I think firstly, as you point out, we need to realize that is coming. There is a light at the end of this tunnel. So pandemic fatigue, if everybody could double down and hang in there, keep masking, physical distancing, this vaccine will be coming.

As you rightly point out, it's going to be limited at the beginning. We're hoping with both Pfizer and soon to be Moderna asking for emergency use authorization, we'll probably have some 40 million doses by the end of this year.

But it's a two-dose schedule, so about 20 million people. First choice for priority is going to be our health care workers, who are on the front lines. So that will use up a lot of the vaccine.

Probably next in line will be our workers, as well as patients, in nursing homes. Oftentimes, the elderly have multiple medical conditions. Thirdly will be those that are more elderly, over 65, have multiple

medical conditions or underlying conditions that make them more susceptible.

Then essential workers, like teachers that have to be there, also larger numbers of people together, essential workers.

And then finally, it will be for the rest of us. But I think that may be not till April, May, June, July before we actually have all the vaccine that would be needed to vaccinate the entire population.

BRUNHUBER: Until then, follow the guidance. Don't gather. Wear a mask.

KIM-FARLEY: Exactly right.

BRUNHUBER: Thank you so much, Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, we appreciate you coming on again.

KIM-FARLEY: Kim, it's a pleasure as always. See you later.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: COVID numbers are rising in Iowa. When we come back, the strain on doctors, nurses and their vulnerable patients, a health care system pushed to its limits. Stay with us.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to you, our viewers in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

We want to recap our top story. With time run running out on the Trump presidency, his campaign wants a second ballot recount in Georgia. The Republican-led state is granting the request but it's already certified results showing Joe Biden as the winner.

Efforts to block a Biden win have also hit a block in Pennsylvania. A federal judge said it wasn't in the court's power to violate the Constitution.

The president had a virtual G20 summit on Saturday but, on Twitter, he remained fixated on baseless claims of a stolen election. House Democrat Adam Schiff had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), CHAIR, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Well, he is certainly abusing, once again abusing the power of his office. This too is a long pattern of the presidency. For any other president, it would be unthinkable that, after losing an

election, they could be calling state legislators and trying to get them to overturn the results, ignore the popular vote, or they would have their deputies like Lindsey Graham calling secretaries of state in places like Georgia and asking whether they're in a position to effectively throw out thousands of ballots.

But that's the kind of abuse of power we have come to expect from President Trump. I don't imagine that there's anything at this late stage that can be done about that at it will not be successful but it is delaying the transition at great cost.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: On top of the G20 and tweets, Mr. Trump also found time for golf Saturday. This as the U.S. raced past 12 million known cases of COVID-19. Well, Schiff had this response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: It's absolutely shameful. When you think about however long Donald Trump was on the golf course, you can calculate the number of Americans who died while he was out there, you know, driving from the tee and chipping on to the green.

There were Americans dying all the time. We're losing Americans 1,000 to 2,000 a day. So that's what hundreds while he's out on the golf course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: That was House Democrat Adam Schiff.

Johns Hopkins University reports more than 1,400 people died from COVID-19 in the U.S. on Saturday.

Iowa has implemented a mask mandate after initially resisting calls for tougher restrictions. Since the start of the month, hospitalizations in the state have more than doubled. CNN's Miguel Marquez reports health care workers are now being pushed past their limits.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Butch Hansen, 84 years old, diagnosed with COVID-19 last week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to get a CAT scan of your chest. You got some junk, so probably have pneumonia but I want to make sure you don't have a blood clot in your lung.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Today, he's back in the emergency room.

MARQUEZ: Why did you come back today?

BUTCH HANSEN, DIAGNOSED WITH COVID-19: I had a rough time with that phlegm last night. That's all I did, cough up that phlegm. And I thought, well, it's either the COVID or something else. Let's find out what it is.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Hansen, a retired farmer, says he's been careful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Open your mouth. Say ahh.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): But he may have picked it up by a family member.

Regional Health Services of Howard County, in Cresco, Iowa, it's the hospital, the ambulance service, the public health department and hospice for the entire county.

[04:35:00]

MARQUEZ (voice-over): The 19-bed facility moves most its sickest patients to larger hospitals.

With Iowa, the Midwest and the rest of the country seeing a sharp increase in cases and patients, finding an available bed in a larger facility, not so easy these days.

DR. JOHN KAMMERER, REGIONAL HEALTH SERVICES OF HOWARD COUNTY: The biggest concern in the last week is when we call and ask for them to help take care of our patients who may be sicker than we're used to taking care of, they don't have beds for us. And so, that's where the strain really comes on.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Over the last month, hospitalizations across Iowa have skyrocketed, under 500 COVID hospitalized in the mid- October. Now nearly 1,400 Iowans hospitalized with COVID-19.

And if there's a surge with nowhere to send critically ill patients --

MARQUEZ: So this is the in case of emergency, open this?

BRADY NORMAN, DIRECTOR, AMBULANCE SERVICES & EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, HOWARD COUNTY, IOWA: Pretty much, pretty much.

MARQUEZ: How many more people could you surge up to with everything here?

NORMAN: We have the capability of adding up to 50 beds. My hope is to never have to open this trailer.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Today, the entire health care system here pushed to its limits.

CHAD RASMUSSEN, REGIONAL HEALTH SERVICES OF HOWARD COUNTY: It's starting to stress us out.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): In the first month of the pandemic here, Howard County saw 13 coronavirus cases. Over the last month, there were 411.

With holidays around the corner, the fear, it's going to get a lot worse.

MARQUEZ: With Thanksgiving coming up, how concerned are you with what you're going to see around Christmas?

RASMUSSEN: I have a feeling it's going to be out of control. I really worry about health care in general around Christmas because if everybody gets together on Thanksgiving, has all their big gatherings, within two weeks we will start to see the outbreaks start.

MARQUEZ: This is the problem across the country. The system is essentially filling up. There are fewer and fewer places that hospitals can send patients to. They're facing the real possibility that at some point people may be dying in their homes, in the parking lots waiting for care.

The gentleman in the story off the top, he went home. They think he will be OK. They make them tough in Iowa. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: With at least two companies seeking emergency use authorization for COVID vaccines, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering who should be inoculated first. CNN's Michael Smerconish spoke to Dr. Jose Romero, chair of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. He favors the obvious groups first, such as health care workers and the elderly but seemed less impressed with another theory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST: A little bit out of the box, the subject of acquaintance immunization. I was unfamiliar with this until I read a piece by a fellow by the name of Christopher Cox in "Wired."

Put it up on the screen, Catherine, so I can read it to Dr. Romero.

Here's the idea, "To knock out the superspreaders, the ideal target for a vaccine would be someone with many contacts in different settings-someone with a big, multigenerational family, a job that led to a lot of mixing with strangers and a busy social life.

"But how do we find these highly connected individuals across 50 states and 330 million people? This is where most public health officials get stuck."

Is there something to trying to identify the people who are more out and about and active among us, not necessarily health care workers, not necessarily the elderly or pre-existing conditions but they're in contact with more people, therefore, perhaps, they need to be elevated in priority?

DR. JOSE ROMERO, CHAIR, CDC ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON IMMUNIZATION PRACTICES: There may be some -- there may be some benefit in that but we don't have a lot of data suggesting that immunizing these individuals would be beneficial to the entire population. The individuals that are being identified by the ACIP and it's not

just the ACIP, the National Academy of Medicine has come out with their recommendations.

So we're trying to identify those individuals that are essential for keeping the health care system going, that are essential for providing health care and identifying those populations -- I'm sorry -- immunizing those populations that we've already identified as a high risk for mortality or morbidity. So I think at this point our focus is on the high-risk groups at this moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Well, creating vaccines and selecting the initial recipients aren't the only problems. Another enormous challenge is transporting them, sometimes at unbelievably low temperatures. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen looks at how one airline plans to handle the precious cargo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): While the world's passenger airlines face an uncertain future because of COVID-19, freight airlines like Lufthansa Cargo are gearing up for a huge operation to try to help end the pandemic.

[04:40:00]

PLEITGEN: In the coming months and years, airlines like Lufthansa Cargo face the daunting challenge of having to transport billions of doses of vaccine around the world.

As a rule of thumb they say, the colder a vaccine needs to be stored, the more difficult it is to ship it.

Several vaccine makers believe they'll be able to apply for an Emergency Use Authorization for their candidate soon. But Pfizer's vaccine, for instance, needs to be stored at around minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 70 degrees Celsius, requiring complicated cooling.

Lufthansa says, its pharma logistics hubs are equipped to handle ultra-cold medical cargo, using special containers like these, packed with dry ice. Still, keeping them cold enough isn't easy, the head of the pharma hub says.

KARIN KRESTAN, HEAD OF LH-CARGO HUB: The temperature, minus 70 degrees is really a challenge, because we have to use dry ice in the bunker, we for sure need dry ice within the compartments. So we need more dry ice, we have another dry ice concentration on board the aircraft. So these are all things that we have to consider.

PLEITGEN: Another issue -- the dry ice emits a lot of CO2 gas. That can be dangerous for a flight crews inside the plane. So each cargo flight can only carry a limited amount of containers holding dry ice.

The challenges are immense but the airline says it's been building capacities and consulting with vaccine makers. They think it's ready to start delivering vials as soon as a candidate gets regulatory approval.

PETER GERBER, CEO, LUFTHANSA CARGO: Of course, this is a special situation but given what we have done during the last month, with all these masks, with all the flexibility, with all the things we had to produce and to perform on a very, very short notice, our team, I believe, is ready for this challenge.

PLEITGEN: A massive logistical challenge as the world not only waits for a vaccine to be certified but also to be delivered fast and in large amounts -- Fred Pleitgen CNN, Frankfurt, Germany.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: California seeing long food lines as families struggle during the pandemic. The economics fallout of the virus going into Thanksgiving. We'll have that coming up.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. state of California is adopting tough restrictions to halt the spread of COVID-19. But that hasn't stopped it from smashing daily case records. CNN's Paul Vercammen reports from Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We talked about the dramatic jump in cases, this horrifying boomerang in California. In Los Angeles County, they're undergoing extensive COVID-19 testing and tracing campaigns including here at Dodger Stadium. Up to. 10,000 people tested Friday alone. Along with that, new rules in California. They are now forbidding anyone to cluster in restaurants and bars in large groups. A curfew from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am.

This does not mean you can't go to the grocery store or walk the dog, maybe get gas, go to a friend's house. This is aimed at younger people gathering in large groups in the late night and early morning hours. That's what it's come to in California. We're talking about lines.

Well, here in Los Angeles today, as we see these economic impacts of the pandemic raging on, long, long lines to get a box of free food.

This is the Unitarian Church in Korea Town. More than 1,000 people walked up and grabbed food, many of them saying they are either out of work or their hours had been reduced so much they could not make ends meet. Volunteers on the ground saying they've never seen this much anxiety, uncertainty in their community. Reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Ahead on CNN, Rudy Giuliani's journey. How the man revered as America's mayor became one of President Trump's go-to conspiracy theorists. Stay with us.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:50:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BRUNHUBER: When the 9/11 attacks happened, Rudy Giuliani rallied New York and became America's mayor. Now he's taken a political turn that has many people scratching their heads. CNN's Drew Griffin on Giuliani's strange journey.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

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

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

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

GRIFFIN vessel: False, truth, facts?

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

GIULIANI: Wow, what a beautiful day.

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

GIULIANI: Because many, many of them were fraudulent.

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

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

GRIFFIN (voice-over): In a Pennsylvania lawsuit, a judge asked Trump's attorney, are you claiming that there is any fraud in connection with these disputed ballots?

The Trump attorney admitted, no.

Yet along with other Trump cronies, Giuliani keeps feeding the world his debunked conspiracy theories.

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

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

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

GRIFFIN (voice-over): It's a far cry from the man who was dubbed mayor of the world in the wake of 9-11.

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

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

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

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

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

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump must win!

GRIFFIN (voice-over): And perhaps convincing millions of Americans to doubt the U.S. election system. Staunch Republican and former Trump national security adviser John Bolton says it's a damaging strategy that won't end after Trump leaves office. JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Real distrust in the system, casting doubt on the integrity of our electoral system, the constitutional process.

[04:55:00]

BOLTON: The Russians and the Chinese couldn't ask for anymore. What Trump is doing is potentially dangerous for the country.

GRIFFIN: Former colleagues of Rudy Giuliani questioned whether there has been cognitive decline. They just don't know what happened to Rudy Giuliani. One telling me that, because the president doesn't even pay his attorney, Rudy Giuliani seems to be destroying his reputation free of charge -- Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: And that wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber and I'll be back in just a moment with more news. Stay with us.