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CNN: Trump's Allies Urged Him To Drop Controversial Lawyer; U.S. Airports See Record Number Of Travelers During Pandemic; GSA Responds To Congressional Committees, Offers Nov.30 Briefing. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 23, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

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NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN HOST: This just in, President Trump was pushed by allies over the weekend to drop controversial attorney Sidney Powell from his team arguing she was embarrassing him pushing on founded theories. We're going to bring in CNN White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins. So Kaitlan, you got some new reporting on how Sidney Powell ended up on the outs with President Trump.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this has kind of been building for a while because while the President had been obsessed with this baseless conspiracy that she was pushing about these voting machines that were used in several states, which she claimed without any evidence. And something that she says and provided that they were changing votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. And that's a theory that the President became personally obsessed with.

[12:35:08]

But the frustration started to grow because you were seeing Trump allies people normally backup the President like Tucker Carlson and others, saying that Sidney Powell had not presented them with any evidence of the claims that she had been making, including at that press conference at the Republican National Committee just last week, where Sidney Powell appeared next to Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, who was also a Trump campaign and legal adviser.

And so what we had heard is that the President had been growing frustrated about that. He started asking for the evidence of this, and we're told he wasn't presented with any either. And that's really what led to what you saw happen last night, which is when the Trump campaign put out this statement trying to distance themselves from Powell, even though of course, she had just participated in this press conference with his other attorneys, and had been described by the President as a member of the legal team. But basically had gotten to this point where the President often lives in this world where he views things, how they're actually -- not how they're actually happening, but how they're being portrayed in the media.

So he was saying people criticize Sidney Powell, Chris Christie, calling the conduct of the legal team a national embarrassment, after Powell made completely unsubstantiated claims against the governor of Georgia. And so basically, that is what culminated with this. And so the question is, is Sidney Powell still involved? Does she still speak to Rudy Giuliani, that's something that still remains to be seen. But overall, it comes as, you know, the President's legal efforts have been floundering. They've lost or withdrawn 30 or more cases since the day of the election.

And so I think what you're seeing in the question is really, how long does the President continue to keep this up because there is a growing frustration inside his circle that people like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell are doing all the talking here. And of course, they don't think it is working out for the President.

HENDERSON: And Kaitlan, they're all making unsubstantiated claims without evidence. The President, Rudy Giuliani, all of them, I guess, Sidney Powell was a bridge too far with all of her conspiracy theories. Kaitlan, we thank you for that report.

And we're going to bring in Kim Wehle, who is a law professor at the University of Baltimore and former assistant U.S. attorney. Kim, the President, as Kaitlan mentioned, has lost a member of his legal team. Also, the losses are piling up in terms of these cases, but he's still pushing legal challenges. Do you expect any other results from these remaining legal battles to actually mean anything in any of these states? Is there any possibility of overturning of votes in any of these days in the President's favor?

KIM WEHLE, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: No, none of these cases, as far as I can tell, even sought relief that would have produced that kind of an outcome, let alone in multiple states, which is what you would need. But even short of the relief requested as Kaitlan indicated, factual problems and legal problem, you know, I'm a law professor, these kinds of cases would not get past go in most courts. And we saw on Saturday, a federal judge out of Pennsylvania call one of these complaints a Frankenstein's monster.

And that's pretty strong language coming from a conservative judge who was a member of the federal society. The reason these are failing is because the courts are bound by rules of evidence and rules of civil procedure. They cannot let these things go forward with nothing there.

HENDERSON: In Trump's legal team filed and appeal on yesterday after the federal judge that you're mentoring in Pennsylvania and he's a longtime Republican, he dismissed the case that sought to invalidate millions of voters. Judge Matthew Brann of the United States District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania wrote in his scathing order, this Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence.

Kim, given what this Judge wrote, can you explain what the outcome of appealing the case could actually be? Is there any leg to stand on in terms of this appeal?

WEHLE: No, there's no leg to stand on. And actually the appeal is weird and that it's very limited. All they're appealing is the ability to go back and change their claims in other time. They're not actually even asking for their certifications process to be stopped. It's not a direct appeal of everything that the court threw out. So even if they win the appeal, which I think is highly, highly unlikely, because the complaint was so weak and the judge has a lot of discretion, it's not even asking for what could conceivably end up being a reversal of the lower court judge. There's zero chances it's going to go up, up the chain zero chance the Supreme Court in this moment is going to decide this election.

HENDERSON: Zero chance that seems to be the case as long as we've been in this conversation about these legal fights from this President. Kim Wehle, thank you so much for that analysis.

[12:40:06]

Up next, millions hitting the airports ahead of Thanksgiving, despite pleas from the CDC to stay home this holiday.

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HENDERSON: The holiday travel rush is colliding with the surge in COVID-19 cases. According to the TSA, passengers at U.S. airports this week broke the record for air travel during the pandemic. That trend is very much at odds with a call from health experts and the CDC to absolutely avoid Thanksgiving trips.

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We've got CNN Adrienne Broaddus who joins us now live from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Adrienne, I want you to walk us through these numbers that we're seeing and what you're actually seeing there on the ground.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nia-Malika, 3 million, that's how many travelers pass through security checkpoints at airports across the U.S. over the weekend. That's the highest number we've seen since the start of this pandemic. The last time we saw more than a million travelers pass through TSA security checkpoints was back in October, ahead of the Columbus holiday.

Here at Chicago O'Hare International we've seen people wearing masks, and some cases they have on a face shield. And we've seen people without mask in those instances. Employees here at the airport have taken a surgical mask and hand it to the person without a mask to wear. The line behind me is relatively short now in comparison to those long lines we saw here on Friday.

Indeed, we talked to travelers throughout the morning families, college students, all saying they crave light at the end of this dark pandemic tunnel. But right now, they crave a hug from the people they love most.

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ALLISON CILKE, PURDUE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: Definitely hug them. I haven't hugged them in so long. So it would be nice to, you know, see my family and touch them again.

DEVON LOWE, FLYING TO VISIT FAMILY: I only see them once a year. So it's like it's one of my main things that I look forward to every year. So it's the one thing that I can get out of this year that will make my life a little better.

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BROADDUS: And the travelers we spoke with today said they aren't really worried about the coronavirus, many of them telling me that they are taking the necessary steps to protect themselves, for example, wearing a mask and washing their hands. One gentleman even told me he gets tested frequently for COVID. But keep in mind, top doctors told us a negative COVID test is not a green light to travel to see your friends and family. Back to you.

HENDERSON: Adrienne, this is a troubling development. We thank you for that report from Chicago. And as more Americans prepare to travel and gather with family and friends in the coming days, the nation's leading health experts are warning against exactly that. Take a listen.

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DR. JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: We are at a dire point in our fight with this virus by any measure, cases, positivity, hospitalizations, death, we are seeing more Americans negatively impacted than ever before.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: One of the things we're really concerned about is that as we get into this Thanksgiving season, you're not going to see an increase until weeks later, things lag. So what you don't want to see is another spike in cases that we get colder and colder into the December and then you start dealing with the Christmas holiday.

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HENDERSON: Here to discuss we've got Dr. Rob Davidson, who's an emergency room physician in Michigan. Dr. Davidson thanks for joining me. Michigan was among 19 states that saw their highest seven-day average of new cases just yesterday. And according to Johns Hopkins University, how concerned are you going into Thanksgiving and then later on Christmas?

DR. ROB DAVIDSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE COMMITTEE TO PROTECT MEDICARE: Yes. It almost made me cringe thinking about four weeks from now, Christmas is just around the corner and another inevitable time when people are going to want to meet. Listen, I'm in West Michigan. Our test positive rates are around 20 percent right now. Every hospital in our region is either full or within a few beds of being full. Every shift I work, I work last night, I'm working this afternoon. We either start out or and full.

And so the inevitable surge in cases with gatherings like Thanksgiving or Christmas would be tough enough. But when we're starting out it's such a critical point. I just want people to understand the kind of risk they're taking for their communities, for their systems in health care. It's pretty dire.

HENDERSON: In the COVID tracking project tweeted just last night that the Midwest currently has more than twice as many people hospitalized per capita than the Northeast and the West, and all regions are rising quickly. What are you seeing in your hospital?

DAVIDSON: Yes. We are specifically saying, again, full or nearly full, you know, every shift, it's like, well, we have a bad, well we, you know, we might have a bed, give a call to the supervisor and it's really not just beds, it's staff. We have, you know, 50 some staff a day going out with COVID-19 positive tests that have to go home and they have to isolate, they have to quarantine. I'm hearing that from hospitals all over our region. And so you even if there are beds it doesn't do as much good if there's no one to staff the beds.

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HENDERSON: And you saw Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who's former FDA Commissioner who also serves on the board of Pfizer, he had this to say about the looming vaccines

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DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER COMMISSIONER OF FOOD AND DRUGS: We'll be able to vaccinate the public or a good portion of the public heading into the fall of 2021. There's light at the end of the tunnel right now. Try not to be the person who gets infected in the last two or three months in the acute phase of this pandemic.

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HENDERSON: So do you also see that light at the end of the tunnel even though it seems like it's going to be a long in dark tunnel full of a lot of death and dying and sicknesses with Americans all across the country?

DAVIDSON: Absolutely, I will be first in line to get a vaccine when it becomes available to me. And, you know, I hope that we can make this as quick as possible, but we have to be good communicators in public health, like Dr. Gottlieb has been, you know, we have to let people know just because we have good news on a vaccine the routine public health practices we recommend like mask, like distancing, like hygiene are what is going to save lives at this point. Vaccines aren't going to save lives for quite a while now. It's going to be all of us working together.

HENDERSON: Dr. Davidson, thank you so much for that report. We'll be right back.

DAVIDSON: Thanks.

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[12:55:50] HENDERSON: We've got some breaking news, the General Services Administration, the GSA has responded to congressional committees requesting a briefing on certifying the election. We've got CNN's Kristen Holmes, who joins me now with the details. Kristen?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Nia, this was a long time coming. Democrats had been waiting for this. Now just a little bit of background here. As we know Emily Murphy, she's a Trump appointee. She's the administrator of the General Services Administration. And her job is to ascertain the election. What happens when she does that and this is usually a simple process is that fun start going into the Biden transition. And those agencies are formally allowed to work with each other. But she had yet to do this.

So, Democrats on Capitol Hill getting frustrated asking for these briefings, giving her a deadline of today to respond and we have just gotten in her response. They say that they will brief Democrats on these committees, four of the requesting chairman and their ranking members, but it won't be Emily Murphy, it will be her deputy. And they're saying that this will be next Monday.

Now in addition to that, they say that the GSA will also hold in person only briefings for the Senate Appropriations Committee, as well as the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, as well as several of the committee staffs. Now, what does this mean? Well, it's not going to rub Democrats the right way, I can tell you that. I've already spoken to at least two staffers who say this is not what they were expecting, because by next Monday, they were hoping that this was going to be over and done with.

Now we've talked a lot about what exactly she is weighing in this decision. We know that she believes she is working off the President of Bush v. Gore, the only other time a candidate did not concede the election. But experts say that this is just simply not the same. And we know again, offering a briefing next Monday is going to have a lot of Democrats pretty worked up.

HENDERSON: And you've had a lot of prominent Republicans who've also been asking for this. You've had Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman being the latest and what did he have to say?

HOLMES: Yes. I mean, this is really striking. Look, we're starting to see the cracks in this facade of the Republican Party of the wall here. And Rob Portman said that there was no evidence of fraud. And this was time for a smooth transition. Because, again, the big thing to point out here, what her job is, is not to necessarily certify the election in any way. It's just to start that formal transition process. And when that doesn't start, it could hinder incredibly important things like, one, national security and two, creating a seamless response to the ongoing pandemic, Nia.

HENDERSON: And, Kristen, do you have any sense of whether this kind of public pressure campaign is having any effect on Emily Murphy? I know you've talked to people in her circle.

HOLMES: We know that again. She believes that she's doing the right thing that she's weighing all of her options. She is looking at all of the court cases that Trump is losing, that the Trump campaign is losing. She is looking at Georgia, the recount, the audit, the certification there. She is watching for certifications in Michigan and Pennsylvania that we are expecting today. So those are all things that she is looking at. We do know she is under an enormous amount of pressure. She is facing death threats from both sides of the aisle here. But it is still very unclear even to the people that we've talked to who are closest to her, who are still talking to her what that tipping point is going to be to get her to ascertain this election.

HENDERSON: I'm sure we'll hear more about this. Republicans and Democrats are probably not going to be happy with this week long delay, as you said and having them come before those committees next Monday, probably not good enough. Kristen Holmes, thanks for that report.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin is joining President Trump and top Republicans in holding off on congratulating President-elect Joe Biden. A spokesman for the Kremlin says Putin is waiting for all lawsuits to conclude and for President Trump to concede, asked if a delay in sending congratulations would worsen relations between Moscow and Washington. Putin told a Russian network quote, you can't spoil a spoiled relationship.

[13:00:00]

Thanks for joining us. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now.