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Kentucky Governor Battling Exponential Spread in His State; Ad Spending Shatters Records in Battleground Georgia; Pennsylvania Certifies Election Results for Biden. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired November 24, 2020 - 11:30   ET

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: She will be nominated to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Jake Sullivan, also a longtime Biden aide, will be the president's national security adviser. And former Secretary of State John Kerry has been tapped to serve as the country's first ever climate czar. In 50-plus days from now, what's first on the agenda for this foreign policy and national security team?

One piece of advice just in from the president's -- from President Trump's former defense secretary, James Mattis, writing an op-ed, saying that the Biden administration should eliminate all of President Trump's America First agenda. Quote, in practice, America first has meant America alone.

Joining me now, Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm. It's good to see you, Ian.

First off, what's your reaction to the team that Biden is -- the foreign policy national security team that Biden is putting together here?

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT EURASIA GROUP: Extraordinarily capable, qualified and will not cause a great ruckus in the Senate. These are people that are quite well known to senior senators, both Democrat and Republican. And they're people I personally find to have decent judgment. It's not a very partisan group. It's interesting. And I agree that with former Secretary Mattis that they'll throw out America First.

But Tony Blinken, who I've known for a long time, I remember putting out a piece several months ago that actually wrote about what I considered to be the top Trump successes in foreign policy over his four years, almost four years, and he called me up and he had taken that piece and circulated it to every member of the Biden foreign policy team wanting to make sure they understood, you know, what Trump was up to, how to respond to it, but also that not everything Trump has done is a flaming disaster.

There aren't a lot of people out there that you'd think of as playing, you know, a major foreign policy role for a campaign that would immediately be willing to look at both sides of the foreign policy equation. And I think that this team across them, to a man, to a woman, are people that are driven more by analytics than they are by ideology and partisanship, and I think the country really needs that.

BOLDUAN: You also said something I find really interesting, the people are really well known, right? They're not just people who are well known on Capitol Hill, they are not just people who know government, they are also people that the president-elect knows very well, which is quite a difference, really, to how Trump -- President Trump operated when he was coming in, right?

We all remember the president really meeting people like Jim Mattis and meeting people like Rex Tillerson for the first time when he was nominating them. What do you think -- do you think that means something at the beginning of the administration?

BREMMER: I'm not surprised. But in the sense that, I mean, Trump just had never had any national security or foreign policy experience. So Rex Tillerson comes in, has no idea he's going to be offered a position, and suddenly be my secretary of state. That's astonishing. But Tony Blinken was not only deputy secretary of state, so he truly understands how the position works, but he was also Biden's foreign policy adviser -- top foreign policy adviser when Biden himself was vice president.

And so one of the things I think is most important about this team coming in many is when they're meeting with foreign leaders, you're going to know that they actually represent the president, that you're talking to the government, where frequently, you know, Trump, you have got to watch his Twitter feed or watch his media interviews to know what he's thinking. And if you talk to a member of his cabinet, that may have nothing to do with what the policy is actually going to be tomorrow.

So it's going to be much more deliberate, it will be much more considered. It will be much more consensus in orientation. And most American allies, even those that liked Trump but frequently felt like they were walking on eggshells in meetings, that isn't going to be the new normal in the Biden administration.

BOLDUAN: And you talked about Mattis' advice of throwing out the America First kind of agenda, if you will, position. How do these officials do that immediately? How does Secretary of State Tony Blinken make that clear to the world?

BREMMER: I think it's a lot more focus on the importance of allies, alliances and institutions, so, easy, symbolic things you can do very early, rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, re-engage on international arms negotiations with the Russians. You know, there are so many that try to engage in the -- in the new Iranian nuclear deal that President Trump left, the World Health Organization, COVAX, on the vaccine, and prove the top priority is going to be rolling out the vaccines for Biden his first 100 days.

[11:35:04]

If he gets that wrong, he's got major problems.

But it's not just about the United States, it's also about not vaccine nationalism (ph) but working globally on what is a global crisis both in terms of getting treatments to everyone and getting vaccines to everyone.

So I think that's what they do. But I also think -- we need to understand that Biden/Obama, when they were in power, they were much more multilateral, they were more engaged with allies but they were reluctant to use power. Trump is very transactional, very unilateral, but he uses power a lot.

And if you think about the wins that Trump has gotten, whether it's the Abraham Peace Accords or it's the U.S./Mexico/Canada deal or South Korea or other places that you point to, it's places where the United States is much more powerful and he leverages that power to ensure that things happen.

And I think that you'll clearly get the multilateralism and some of the strategy that we desperately need in a Biden administration but you also hope that they won't be as reluctant to deploy American power when we need it as Obama/Biden were for their eight years.

BOLDUAN: Yes, somewhere in between there, and there's a lot in between you can land in between those two foreign policy divisions.

BREMMER: There's a lot.

BOLDUAN: That's for sure. It's great to see you, Ian. Thank you.

BREMMER: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, Kentucky is breaking records with new COVID cases and the governor there has just made a major move to try to stop the outbreak and he is some facing big backlash. The governor joins us next.

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[11:40:00]

BOLDUAN: The COVID surge is hitting the state of Kentucky very hard. The governor is also sounding the alarm now about what he describes as the exponential spread in his state. More than 2,000 new infections reported yesterday alone, the highest number on a Monday at any point since the pandemic began in that state. And it has followed a record breaking week of more than 20,000 new cases.

Facing that, Governor Beshear has now ordered K through 12 schools, public and private, closed, move to online instruction only and now he has a lawsuit on his hands.

Joining me right now is Governor Andy Beshear. Governor, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate the time.

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): Thanks for having me. BOLDUAN: These record numbers that you're looking at, I mean, the way you've said it is that you're tired of having to report them, tired of having to talk about -- tired of the suffering, what is happening in your state right now in terms of the spread?

BESHEAR: Well, we're being overwhelmed. And we're being overwhelmed with a record number of cases, with hospitalizations going up, with numbers of individuals in the ICU increasing every day. Our positivity rate over the course of really two months has gone from four or five to all the way up to 9 percent. And it's overwhelming our contact tracing and our best defenses.

Take our long-term care facilities. We are testing our workers there three times a week but we still can't keep COVID out of those facilities because the community spread is so high. And one of the most heartbreaking examples is we have a veterans home in Wilmore, Kentucky. We kept COVID out of it until the middle of October. And since then, we have lost 27 veterans to COVID-19.

BOLDUAN: Oh my gosh, that is horrible, Governor. That is tragic.

And in facing all of that, you have put in place new restrictions in the state, new restrictions on bars and restaurants, gyms and retail and you've also ordered schools closed, moved to online instruction, some until -- for some schools until January. And you've gotten quite a lot of backlash for this. You have the state's Republican attorney general suing you over this. The state's treasure, who's also a Republican supporting the lawsuit. They say if daycares and offices can remain open, so should schools.

Are you -- with this backlash that you're facing, are you reconsidering the school's element of the restrictions?

BESHEAR: Well, we're at war with this virus and we have two choices, to surrender and take the fatalities or to fight back. So we are throwing our best punch in a limited period of time, really about over three weeks. We are addressing the main areas where COVID-19 is spreading or could be amplified, especially after the Thanksgiving holiday in ways that could be deadly.

In so many states, you've seen a failure to act until it's past the point of no return. Now, what the surges look like and the loss of life that come with them, I'm not willing to do that. I'm going to take action before my state hits that point, before our health care resources run out.

And as far as schools, we're treating everybody the same, asking everybody to share this sacrifice over a short period of time, it's really about 21 instructional days, so that we can make sure that we can lower our numbers.

And all the time that we talk about schools, which we all want to open, I have a 10 and 11-year-old who do so much better in in-person classes, but we don't think about their teachers, about people we are asking to walk into those classrooms every day when we're on fire with COVID in virtually every one of their communities. [11:45:14]

We're just trying to do the right thing.

Now, the right thing is often a hard thing and it comes with criticism. But these same folks have sued us every time we've tried to do something to stop COVID-19. Right now, we can either all work towards the solution, which we can be effective if we all work together, or some of us can try to knock down the steps that we take and the result is additional lost life that we can avoid.

BOLDUAN: You are not budging is what I hear in your voice. You will not be budging no matter the lawsuit that comes your way when you're looking at this three-week period. That's for sure. As of today --

BESHEAR: We're going to do the right thing.

BOLDUAN: As of today, the Biden transition is getting into full swing. Finally, when it comes to coordination with the federal government on COVID, one of the most important aspects has been the information we hear from governors when they were speaking on those conference calls with Mike Pence or the coronavirus task force. I'm curious, what do you hope to get from the Biden team that you didn't get from the Trump administration?

BESHEAR: Well, let me start by saying that Vice President Pence's team did communicate and did communicate regularly with us. Right now, they're helping us out with some surge testing in Kentucky. What I hope that we will get from the Biden administration is daily example of wearing masks, of encouraging others to wear masks and to push that message really hard and get some uniformity in the steps that we know we have to take across the United States.

BOLDUAN: Do you think hearing that this late --

BESHEAR: I have two border states that don't have a mask mandate.

BOLDUAN: Do you think hearing that message consistently, and I'm going to say this late in the game, do you think it would have an impact?

BESHEAR: I think an example the president sets is really important, and we have seen what type of impact that can have. So, yes, I think it does. The president has the biggest microphone in the world and using it for good to encourage people to do the right things, I think, can be very powerful.

BOLDUAN: Governor, thank you for coming on. Good luck over this period of time, as I would say to every governor that I would have on. Thank you for your time.

BESHEAR: Thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: I really appreciate it.

Coming up for us, the spotlight is on Georgia where the Trump campaign's requested recount is under way. What that means now for those critical Senate runoff races.

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[11:50:00]

BOLDUAN: Georgia holds the key to control of the Senate. The state's two Senate seats are up for grabs now in a January runoff, of course. Ads spending there is shattering records. It's just shy of $271 million right now, more than any other race this year besides the presidential. Republicans outspending Democrats by some $67 million. It is huge money.

But the candidates are not only dealing with. They're also dealing with the recount getting under way today, the recount of the presidential race requested by the Trump campaign.

CNN's Ryan Nobles is live in Atlanta with all of this, he is joining us now.

Ryan, what are you hearing about the recount and will it impact the Senate runoff?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It shouldn't, Kate. This runoff should all be about these four candidates that are running for Senate with the balance of the majority hanging as an open question here. But, unfortunately, we find a lot of Republican voters that are still just as concerned about an election that already happened than they are the election that is still to come.

We were at an event with David Perdue in Griffin, Georgia, where in the middle of Perdue's remarks, a Trump supporter started yelling and asking him why he and Kelly Loeffler, the other Republican, weren't doing more to try and help Donald Trump overturn the results of the election, particularly here in Georgia, which would mean going against the Republican officials that have run the election.

We actually talked to that gentleman after he interrupted Perdue's remarks. This is what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: So give me an example of some things you think they should be doing.

DAVID WEST, GEORGIA VOTER: I think they have a platform like I don't have. This is the first platform I have got. I had social media, but I think that they should be using every news outlet that will give them a voice, every social media that will give them a voice that this whole election is a farce. It is screwed up from the word go, nationwide, not just here in Georgia, nationwide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: So, now, this put Republicans in an awkward position where they have to support the president and his efforts here, which seemed futile, but at the same time, try and convince voters to support them in January.

It's allowed an opening for Democrats. Here behind me is Jon Ossoff, the Democrat running against David Perdue, they're able to now reach out to voters and sell their message on January 5th. And, Kate, we can't express enough, this is for all of the marbles in the United States Senate, if Republicans are able to win even one of the seats, they will retain their majority. Kate?

BOLDUAN: That's right. Thank you, Ryan, I really appreciate it.

Coming up, breaking news, officially Pennsylvania certifying its election results across the commonwealth, making official Joe Biden's critical win in that key battleground state, that's next.

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[11:55:00]

BOLDUAN: Breaking news coming in. Pennsylvania has just certified its 2020 presidential election results, making it official once and for all that Joe Biden won the commonwealth and its critical 20 electoral votes.

This comes, of course, as you've watched, after weeks of President Trump and his attorneys trying to throw everything at it to overturn the Biden/Harris win in the commonwealth, but to no avail. It is official.

Also happening right now, stocks are hitting a record high on Wall Street, the Dow Jones crossing 30,000 for the first time ever earlier this morning. Investors are encouraged that uncertainty surrounding the election is ending.

[12:00:02]