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AstraZeneca Unveils Vaccine Findings; Trump Continues Denying Election Results; Biden Announces First Cabinet Nominees. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired November 23, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:16]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Hi there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN on this Monday. Thank you for being here.

We begin with the president; 58 days left in office, and he is seemingly in hiding, only leaving the White House to play golf, hiding behind this fantasy that he won reelection, a Twitter feed that has become an echo chamber of lies and lawsuit after lawsuit that continue to be thrown out.

So, it should come as no surprise that more Republicans are emerging to support a peaceful transition of power to president-elect Joe Biden, who, in the face of unprecedented obstruction, is moving forward with building his foreign policy team, naming key members of his Cabinet. You see some there.

And President Trump's former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, listen to this, he is giving Joe Biden some free advice on how not to deal with other world powers. We're going to have more for you on that in just a moment.

And Biden and president-elect -- excuse me -- vice president-elect Kamala Harris are meeting virtually with the Conference of Mayors right now.

This is all happening as another drug giant is announcing the successful results of a COVID vaccine trial. It is welcome news, obviously, for a country still shattering its own hospitalization records, and right as health experts warn the Thanksgiving holiday could lead to a tsunami of new cases.

But let's start with this.

Let's go to CNN Jessica Dean, who is following the presidential transition.

And so, Jessica, as I mentioned, former Secretary Mattis no stranger to setting the record straight on where he disagrees with this current administration, but this news coming out about what he is saying to Joe Biden is a pretty big deal. What is it that he's telling him?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.

So, this statement part of a piece that he wrote. I want to read you part of it, because it becomes very clear what his message is. He writes: "In January, when President Joe Biden and his national security team begin to reevaluate U.S. foreign policy, we hope they will quickly revise the national security strategy to eliminate America first from its contents, restoring in its place the commitment to cooperative security that has served the United States so well for decades."

Again, that coming from former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who did resign his position back in 2018 over disagreements with President Trump over the treatment of the -- of allies of the United States, but pretty remarkable to see those words, of course, America first the keystone to so much of Trump's foreign policy, to see Mattis putting it in writing there, saying they should have nothing to do with that as the administration moves forward -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: What else, Jessica, do you know about other Biden Cabinet choices?

DEAN: They are making some big moves today announcing their first Cabinet nominees and appointees.

I want to walk you through a few of them. A big name here, Antony Blinken is going to be nominated to serve as secretary of state. He has a longstanding relationship with Joe Biden as a foreign policy adviser, served as his national security adviser when he was vice president.

Jake Sullivan, again, another longtime foreign policy adviser from the campaign, he will head up the NSA. He would be the youngest person to do so. Linda Thomas-Greenfield will be nominated to be the U.N. ambassador. She comes with 35 years of experience in Foreign Service.

Alejandro Mayorkas to be nominated for the homeland security secretary. He would be the first Latino and immigrant to hold that position, if confirmed, John Kerry, of course, a familiar face, he's going to be a special environmental climate change czar and, interestingly, Brooke, will sit on the NSA as well.

And that's the first time they will have someone sitting on the national security team that is focused in on climate change as a threat to national security. And then, Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, would be the first woman to hold that post.

Again, Brooke on the campaign trail and since he's been elected, we have heard Joe Biden and Kamala Harris say they want to put together a team that looks like America. And that's diversity across the spectrum. And you're seeing that play out in these first appointees and Cabinet nominees.

BALDWIN: All of it, Jessica, obviously noteworthy, but, again, to have the first Latino, first immigrant heading DHS--

DEAN: Yes. BALDWIN: -- that's a mighty big deal.

DEAN: It's a big deal, yes.

BALDWIN: Jessica Dean, thank you so much for running through all of that for us.

As I mentioned a second ago, the outgoing president is facing this growing list of legal losses, as he is still fighting to overturn the election results. At least 30 cases have either been tossed out by judges or withdrawn by his own attorneys. And now there is disagreement from within the president's own team.

His lawyers are now distancing themselves from attorney Sidney Powell, after her conspiracy theories became a little too much even for President Trump, Trump himself fielding calls over the weekend about Powell herself.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is live at the White House.

And so, Kaitlan, what is going on here?

[15:05:02]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, despite the fact that Sidney Powell spoke at length at that press conference last week, along with the rest of the president's legal team, they now have put out a statement trying to distance themselves from Sidney Powell, saying that she does not represent the president on his legal team or in his personal capacity in any kind of manner, though, of course, she did just speak there last week.

And one of the conspiracy theories that she's been pushing about these voting machines, basically arguing that people voted for Donald Trump and it was switched to Joe Biden, something that she has made this claim with no evidence whatsoever, while also insisting that foreign powers were involved, is a conspiracy that the president himself has amplified to his 80 million followers and repeated publicly.

But, however, what really, it seemed to be, that got to the president was this constant criticism of Sidney Powell. She was being described as an embarrassment by people like Chris Christie, after she was accusing the Georgia governor of crimes with no evidence.

You saw Tucker Carlson also go after her, saying she provided no evidence to back up her claims last week. And so we're told by sources that the president was getting phone call after phone call from people over the weekend saying that he had to drop her from his team because she was basically, in effect, embarrassing him.

And so I think that's what led to that statement coming out last night. But you are still very much seeing the president try to contest the outcome of this election, making these desperate attempts that are not working out, clearly.

But all while that is going on, Brooke, we should note, the president is still continuing to fund-raise. And they have sent over 330 e-mails since the night of the election trying to fund-raise from his supporters.

And while they're arguing that a lot of that is going towards this election defense fund, as they're calling it, we also know a lot of it is going toward the president's new political action committee that's going to help him maintain his influence, at least financially, over the GOP for the next several years.

So they're arguing that they're trying to do this to help fight these battles in court. But we're consistently seeing a string of court losses for the president. At least 30 cases have been withdrawn or lost by the Trump campaign or its Republican allies in just the last several weeks alone -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, we know he's tweeting. We know he's fund-raising. Do we know where he is today?

COLLINS: No, we actually haven't seen the president today. They had a Christmas tree ceremony here at the White House. But you only saw the first lady, Melania Trump, there. The president did not attend. He's not at any public events on his schedule since on Friday. He did golf over the weekend.

But this is this larger pattern that is so unusual for this president. It's probably the quietest period of his entire presidency, where you have seen him stay behind closed doors. And while, of course, it's not quiet, as we just noted what's going on with the legal fights, you're not seeing the president call into FOX News, like he did before.

You're not seeing him on Twitter every single day constantly, though he has been on Twitter a lot. And you're not seeing him take questions from reporters, as he did not on Friday when we saw him in the Briefing Room. He still made his false claims about the election, Brooke, but he's obviously not comfortable backing it up by talking about it and answering questions from reporters, which is incredibly rare for this president.

BALDWIN: So, in the midst of a global pandemic, this president is MIA today. Awesome.

Kaitlan Collins, thank you.

This hour, we are watching two key states that could essentially put an end to the president's efforts to overturn this election. Pennsylvania is supposed to certify most of its election results today, although the Trump campaign has said they hope to take those all the way to the Supreme Court.

And then you have Michigan. Right now, the Board of Canvassers is meeting to certify that state's election results, which would formally grant president-elect Joe Biden the state's 16 electoral votes. But one of two Republicans on that board may vote against that certification.

So, CNN's Dianne Gallagher is live for us in Lansing, Michigan. You have been watching all of this so, so, closely all day, I know, Dianne.

If this one Republican votes against certification, will that have any effect on the overall process?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not necessarily, Brooke.

So here's the thing. There are four members of this board. Two are Republicans and two are Democrats. One of the Republicans signaled before the meeting even began to people in the community, to a GOP congressman that he was not planning to vote for certification.

And his line of questioning and some of his comments so far during this meeting have indicated he still seems to be sticking to that. But all eyes have been on the other Republican, Aaron Van Langevelde.

And, look, they have been waiting. He didn't say anything before the meeting. And he came out and essentially said when the meeting began, look, it seems like this is what we have to do. We are tasked with certifying these county-certified results, reviewing them and certifying them.

I want you to take a listen to what he was saying when a representative for a Republican Senate candidate here in Michigan was talking and trying to say that he thought the board should delay certification while investigations could happen.

[15:10:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON VAN LANGEVELDE, MICHIGAN BOARD OF STATE CANVASSERS: We can agree to disagree, but I think the law is on my side here.

Our duty is very simple, and it's a duty. We have no authority to request an audit, to delay or block certification to review inaccuracies that happened at the local level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: So it sounds like, if he votes to certify, which is what sort of his line of questioning there and his comments, Brooke, sounds like, then it would be certified, because they need three of the four to vote for certification.

If for some reason it is deadlocked 2-2, it would then go to the court system and begin playing out there -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, waiting for that decision to come down any minute.

Dianne Gallagher, thank you so much for now in Lansing.

My next guest says President Trump is -- quote -- "creating a road map to destabilization and chaos." What's he referring to specifically? We will talk about that and just the legal challenges for this president.

Also, a new potential breakthrough on the vaccine front, yes, another one. AstraZeneca says its candidate is 70 percent effective, on average, against coronavirus.

And the TSA reports millions of Americans are not following the CDC's advice to avoid Thanksgiving travel -- why the experts say this is happening at the worst possible time.

You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:39]

BALDWIN: We're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being here with me.

We're still waiting for word to see what's going on in Michigan. The state Board of Canvassers is still meeting now. They're listening to all these comments, before addressing whether or not they will certify the state's election results today. One of the two Republican board members has signaled that he plans to vote against certification. The other indicated today that he would vote in favor of certification.

Meanwhile, you have the president's legal team moving forward with longshot efforts to overturn the election, despite having lost dozens of cases since Election Day.

And this isn't just a spectacle lasting for a news cycle. This could have serious implications for the future and our elections. And I want to get to that with my next guests.

So, I have CNN senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson and Trevor Potter, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission and founder and president of the Campaign Legal Center.

So, welcome to both of you.

And, Trevor, I want to jump in first with you.

As we're still waiting with regard to Michigan, what in the law allows this Republican to vote not to certify? Like, how is he allowed to make that decision personally?

TREVOR POTTER, PRESIDENT, CAMPAIGN LEGAL CENTER: He's really not given that discretion. This is an automatic act. The law says that they shall certify once the votes have come from all of the counties in Michigan.

And every county has certified their results to the state board. So, this is really just a ministerial function. What they're saying is, we got the results from the counties, here are the results.

And that's not discretionary. It's worse than that, because the reason that the one Republican has given for the possibility of voting against certification -- he appears to have tipped his hand and said he will -- is that there are 300 votes in question, meaning they're not certain about them, in Wayne County, out of a statewide margin of 145,000.

BALDWIN: Right.

POTTER: So, even if there were a problem with all 300 votes, it would make no difference to the certification and the statewide total.

BALDWIN: I mean, on the point on the margin -- and this is all about -- if you're living in Michigan, you're thinking, well, this is just disenfranchising the state's voters when you're hearing this person would vote against it, because, Nia, when you look at the numbers, Biden leads Trump in Michigan by more than 150,000 votes, all right?

So that's current? Four years ago, Trump won Michigan by little less than 11,000 votes, quite a different margin. And yet four years ago, there wasn't this certification circus.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, you had Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was gracious in her loss, and you have Donald Trump doing something very differently, essentially being a sore loser.

He is also, I think, really pinpointing specific voters he wants to disenfranchise, and that is African-American voters, in Wayne County in Detroit. Those are the places where these local officials have really zeroed in on and sort of alleging that something was going on in those regions.

You know, what's interesting is that most of these local officials have held the line against Donald Trump. They haven't budged. In many ways, the law sort of doesn't allow for them to budge in many ways. But you had Donald Trump summon these folks to the White House. And so -- and they still said that they were going to stand by the results of this election.

It'll likely -- maybe we will see something of a delay. We certainly see the circus, and that's what you get when you have Donald Trump. But it is, in some ways, heartening to see the process at this local level working in, even though they have had these attempts to disenfranchise particularly African-American voters in some of these cities.

That seems to be on the way to failing.

BALDWIN: So, to Trevor, to Nia's point, all right, glass half-full is, all right, great, the process at the local level is working. You know, it looks to all -- all systems go on this.

But you point out, bigger picture, that Trump is really creating a road map for parties to actually challenge election results in the future. How do you mean?

POTTER: Well, I think this is delay for the sake of delay. It's not going anywhere. Biden will end up being certified one way or the other as the winner in Michigan.

[15:20:00]

But if this were a much closer election, if Michigan made the difference in the Electoral College, then the possibility that the loser would refuse to accept defeat, and essentially ask for a do-over with a different group of voters, which is what we're talking about here, the idea that all the votes from Wayne County, which is Detroit, a predominantly black city, should be thrown out because there are questions with the poll books involving 300 votes, and the certification--

BALDWIN: So, wait. Are you saying that actually could happen if the if the margin of victory is so slight? Those votes in a future election could get thrown out because of what's happening right now?

POTTER: That is what I'm saying, that it's not going to happen this year. But if, four years from now, we have a close election depending on one or two states, what Trump is trying to do here is to say, if I don't like the will of the voters, there's another way around it.

I can get somebody else to decide this election, either state legislators, which I think would be illegal, but that's one of his routes, or somehow get it thrown into Congress and let the House of Representatives decide it, rather than the voters, who have made their decision.

And I think that's a really dangerous road for him to have tried to go down here.

BALDWIN: That's why what's happening here matters so, so much.

Trevor, thank you.

Nia, it was great to see you hosting the show earlier today.

HENDERSON: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We will look for you tomorrow.

Thanks to both of you.

Coming up next, another drugmaker reports positive results for a potential COVID vaccine. AstraZeneca reports its vaccine is 70 percent effective on average.

How that stacks up with the others, we will let you know next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:41]

BALDWIN: The United States surpassing 12 million COVID cases.

And while a third promising potential vaccine was just announced today, the CDC is warning Americans not to let our guards down. Here CNN's Nick Watt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That was the busiest weekend for air travel since the pandemic began. More than a million people passed through America's airports yesterday.

DEVON LOWE, TRAVELER: The one thing I can get out of this year that will make my life a little better.

WATT: CDC guidance is clear: Don't travel over Thanksgiving. But it's just a recommendation, not a rule.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: You're not going to see an increase until weeks later. Things lag. And then you start dealing with the Christmas holiday, we can really be in a very difficult situation.

WATT: Still, the first lady will host an indoor holiday party at the White House next week, while the rest of us are told not to have Thanksgiving with grandma, because:

DR. JEROME ADAMS, SURGEON GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: We're at a dire point in our fight with this virus.

WATT: This weekend was also the worst weekend for spread since the pandemic began, more than half-a-million new cases in just three days; 13 days straight, this country has set successive records for numbers in the hospital.

And, on average, more than 1,500 people are now dying from COVID-19 every single day.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: And over the next few weeks, three to four weeks, we're going to end up hitting 2,500, maybe 3,000 deaths a day.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Almost 60 percent of the spread is by people who are asymptomatic. And that could well be your loved one. So don't let this Thanksgiving be our last one.

WATT: This morning, K-12 schools across Kentucky did not open. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom now in quarantine after his kids were potentially exposed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, no questions?

WATT: And, from Wednesday, here in L.A., all restaurants must close, even outdoors, as cases soar. It's takeout only again.

ADAMS: Cases, positivity, hospitalizations, deaths, we are seeing more Americans negatively impacted than ever before. But I also want Americans to understand that we have never had more reason for hope, thanks to the science. WATT: AstraZeneca is potential vaccine is, according to new early data, about 70 percent effective. Pfizer's and Moderna's are even higher, in the 90s.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL HEALTH, EMORY UNIVERSITY: The FDA was looking for 60 percent efficacy. And now we're over 70, 80, 90 percent efficacy. So, in fact, efficacy has pretty much blown it out of the park.

WATT: By May, 70 percent of the U.S. population could be vaccinated, says the White House vaccine honcho, maybe enough for herd immunity, if enough people trust the vaccine and take it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: I'm hearing myself say the same things I was saying back in the spring, things like this.

Pennsylvania, some modelers say, could run out of ICU beds in a week. New York City, there's a capacity issue at hospitals in Staten Island. So, they're going to open an overflow emergency facility -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: I know. It feels like Groundhog Day in the worst possible way.

Nick Watt, thank you for the big picture on all things COVID.

Let's talk about the vaccine news, though. I want to bring in infectious disease specialist Dr. Amesh Adalja.

And, Dr. Adalja, great to have you on.