Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump to Appear Twice Today; Hospitals Out of Beds Across the United States; One Family Gathering Infects 15. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 24, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:14]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST, NEWSROOM: Welcome back, I'm Brianna Keilar.

And in just a few moments, we do expect to see President Donald Trump live at the White House for the second time today. Public appearances have been few and far between for the president since he lost the election. Instead, it has been mostly Twitter tirades and golf outings.

But today, we did see a very short statement from him in the briefing room as the Dow cracked the 30,000 mark for the first time. And we will get to see the president in the Rose Garden, taking part in a historically lighthearted tradition, which is the turkey pardon.

This year, Corn and Cob, the turkeys, are being overshadowed by the president's actions as he refuses to accept another tradition, the smooth transition of power from one administration to the next. CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins is with us now.

Kaitlan, set the scene about what we are going to see.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the traditional Thanksgiving pardon the president does. Normally he does it every year before he and the first lady go down to Palm Beach, but, Brianna, we are not seeing that because the president has scrapped that trip this year because aides say the president has a lot that he wants to get done, given the fact that his time in office is coming to a close, just with two months left for the president to be occupying the west Wing.

But of course, this appearance is going to come after what we saw happen yesterday, that stonewalling of GSA for the Biden administration finally coming to an end so the transition can begin, and we're already seeing that start to take place with officials like the HHS secretary saying they are getting ready to start meeting with these officials, providing them with briefing materials. And so the question was, is that as close to a concession as we are

going to see President Trump get? Because even though he basically said on Twitter that he had blessed this move, to let it happen while the GSA said they acted independently, the president also vowed to move forward with the legal fights.

But, Brianna, we know those are only hitting dead ends in court. And so the question is, how much longer does the president keep this up? What we do know is that so far he has not been taking any questions from reporters on what his mindset on all of this is.

KEILAR: Now, earlier today, when the Dow hit 30,000 points for the first time, Kaitlan, this is of course a milestone that is the exact opposite from what President Donald Trump predicted that Joe Biden would bring on if elected. Let's listen to what he has said over time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If Joe Biden ever got in, I think you'd have a depression the likes of which we've never seen in this country. If you look at his policies, where he wants to raise everybody's taxes, you look at what he wants to do in terms of regulation, where he wants to put all of the regulations back on that I took off and then some.

If Biden and Harris get into power, they will destroy America. We will never let it happen. Our stock market would crash, our stocks, our 401(k)s, our jobs, everything would go down. It would be worse than 1929.

They say the stock market will boom if I'm elected. If he's elected, the stock market will crash.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: You know, we heard -- and we heard again from the president as it hit that moment, Kaitlan. It was a very bizarre appearance in the briefing room.

COLLINS: Well, it was bizarre, one, for the fact that we haven't really seen the president that much since the election. He hasn't taken questions in three weeks, he didn't again today. The White House gave us a two-minute heads-up that the president was actually going to be coming into the briefing room, and then he only spoke for about a minute.

But of course, it was also that the president was taking credit for this milestone, with the Dow hitting 30,000, which of course that could be in part due to the fact that this transition is now taking place, that there has been such good vaccine news and also this reporting that Joe Biden is slated to pick Janet Yellen as his Treasury secretary.

So the president is trying to take credit in the briefing room along with the vice president standing next to him -- who we should note did not answer any questions either, also like he did not last week as well.

And so this is the president -- I think we could expect to see more moments like this, where the president is going to come out, people think he might be coming out to concede, but instead the president is coming to try to take credit for something like this, and of course still refusing to answer any questions about the fact that he has been pushing back on the results of this election and actively trying to undermine democracy, something that his aides don't want to talk about and clearly the president does not want to answer questions about either.

KEILAR: No, he does not. Kaitlan Collins at the White House, thank you so much.

Now, just in, the White House Coronavirus Task Force is sounding the alarm on the pandemic. They're calling for Americans to change their behavior fast, but this is coming as the holidays are upon us here. I want to bring in senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen to talk about this. Tell us about what they're warning here, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What they're warning, Brianna, is they're telling Americans, look, we need to get better, we need to be better about mask usage, we need to be better about social distancing -- even saying that in some states that are seeing particularly high rises, that they should think about, for example, cutting out indoor dining or other kinds of place -- things where people congregate. This is -- they were very clear that in some parts of the country, things are going better than in other parts of the country.

[14:05:15]

You know, all of this, I think experts would tell you, is yes, this is what people -- this is what they should be saying. But the words, too little, too late definitely come to mind. I mean, why are they saying this now? Why wasn't this message being put out for the past many months, when you have a president -- this is the White House Task Force -- when you have the president making fun of people who wear masks, it's awful hard to get the message out. Oh no, we want you to wear masks.

So messaging only works when it's consistent, when it's from the top, and when it occurs over time -- Brianna.

KEILAR: And so there's new research that is showing that wearing a mask could be one of the most effective weapons to stop the spread of COVID completely. Tell us about what that research said, and what -- if it's really too late here.

COHEN: You know, it's never too late, right? It's never too, too late. It is always good to take these steps even though it would have been way better if these steps had been taken many months ago. What this study showed is that if 70 percent of Americans wore masks, that it could end the pandemic.

Now, you know, it may not -- I'm sure that experts could argue whether it would actually end the pandemic, and if so, and how much time. But the point is well taken, which is that study after study has shown that masks work. You don't have to be a genius to figure this out. If you're wearing a mask, you're keeping your spit to yourself, and the person you're talking to, they're keeping their spit to themselves.

So it just makes sense that masks work, and unfortunately the messaging on masks -- as I said before -- has been very back-and- forth. You have the White House Task Force, now saying, gee, we really need to get better about masks. But you have the president making fun of people who wear masks, and this has been going on for months, this back and forth. Messaging needs to be consistent in order for it to work.

KEILAR: And we're learning -- and this is key, because one of the delays when it came to the Biden transition was, how are they going to get their hands fully around coronavirus, the vaccine all at this key moment? And we're learning that the transition has begun when it comes to HHS. Tell us about this.

COHEN: That's right. So Secretary Azar, secretary of HHS, did say today, we are in touch with the Biden team, the transition is happening. This is after he said previously, oh, we're not doing any kind of transition work until the GSA tells us that we can. So we -- so this is new, this is new, that Secretary Azar is saying, yes, we are making the transition happen.

Well, this is weeks after the election. Why did it take this long to start this transition? It's a problem for all of government; it's especially a problem for HHS. HHS is at the helm of the greatest public health campaign and effort that has probably ever been done in this country, and that is trying to vaccinate an entire country very quickly, as quickly as possible. It is logistically an incredibly difficult endeavor.

The American -- we're up to the task but it is going to be difficult, and the more you delay the transition, the more that you delay all of the logistics and all of the things that need to be worked on together between the two teams, the longer it's going to take.

KEILAR: So true. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

Now, as President-elect Biden officially begins this transition process, a new model predicts the staggering toll that this pandemic could take by his Inauguration Day. It is forecasting 20 million U.S. cases in total by January 20th, meaning there will be close to 8 million additional cases according to this model from Washington University in St. Louis.

Researchers there also say that if social distancing measures increased by just 10 percent -- a very realistic goal -- there would be 5 million fewer infections. The prediction comes as America continues experiencing skyrocketing spread. This week, many are defying CDC guidance not to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The nation is reporting more than 169,000 new infections on Monday alone with 889 deaths, and that makes three solid weeks, 21 days in a row, of daily case numbers exceeding 100,000. And hospitals, coast to coast, they are inundated. Look at this ramp-up here, it was been two solid weeks of record-breaking hospitalizations with the latest tally finding that nearly 86,000 people are currently in the hospital right now being treated for COVID.

Just listen to this critical care doctor in Minnesota, describing the suffering that she sees from patients who are terrified of dying alone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEE XIE, HOSPITAL MEDICINE SPECIALIST: I think in one word, it's heartbreaking. The last time I was on service, I took care of five patients who had COVID. The other patient I discharged on hospice was 41 years old, and she was terrified of dying alone. And the other two patients I had were a married couple in their 80s. The wife got sicker and sicker, and she died in the hospital. And her husband had to watch her die. And so he had to see that fear and that grief.

[14:10:26]

And I don't think it's -- I don't think you can describe how that feels to us as their caretakers, to have to see that kind of suffering from patients. And it's -- you know, it's -- that was me in one day at the hospital. This is all of my colleagues are experiencing this at every hospital.

We're seeing health care workers, you know? We're taking care of colleagues who we see in the halls every day, people we work with that we're now having to take care of, patients.

And we see entire families who can't isolate from each other that are getting sick. I took care of a woman who, you know, after over a month in the ICU, was recovering from COVID. And that should be a win, but we were trying to call her family every day to give them an update, and we couldn't get a hold of anyone.

And then one day, we found out it's because her husband had died of COVID. And her daughter had died of COVID, all while she was in the hospital. And so how do you tell somebody that? How do you tell somebody that their family has died?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now remember, for weeks in the spring, America's pursuit was all about, quote, "flattening the curve" to help keep hospitals from being forced to turn away patients who are not sick from coronavirus. Now the surgeon general says some health systems have reached that point. CNN's Jacqueline Howard has the details -- Jacqueline.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Brianna, this is a wake-up call about just how dire the COVID-19 pandemic is right now. Because of a surge in cases, many hospitals are running out of beds. That impacts caring for pregnant women, that impacts caring for heart attack patients.

Here's more from Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on what he had to say about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME ADAMS, SURGEON GENERAL: I've heard hospitals not being able to provide care for pregnant women because they're filled with COVID beds. Forty states seeing cases go up, and those cases are turning into hospitalizations and deaths. You may not be able to go in and get your heart attack treated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD: And Brianna, that's the reality. But the surgeon general goes on to say that there is hope. People just need to follow guidelines and have a safe Thanksgiving. And in the meantime, there is progress being made in developing a vaccine. Back to you, Brianna.

KEILAR: Jacqueline Howard, thank you.

And in California, the average number of daily new coronavirus cases has more than doubled in the past weeks. It is a frightening trend, heading into the Thanksgiving holiday. And one of the hotspots is Los Angeles, the mayor there warning residents that the situation could spiral out of control if things don't change soon.

CNN correspondent Stephanie Elam is there. And, Stephanie, Mayor Garcetti laying out a pretty grim future. Tell us about this.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is true, Brianna. And let's just put this into perspective. We're a state of about 40 million people, we've had more than 1.1 million cases in the state. That means the vast majority of the population is still vulnerable to the coronavirus.

And when you take a look at what we're seeing here with the numbers spiking in Los Angeles County, Mayor Garcetti is saying that this is not the time to travel, to stay put. This is the worst of it. I know everyone's tired, but this is the worst of it. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI (D), LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles is on a very dangerous path. And if we don't make changes soon to our day- to-day lives, we'll have mor infections, more suffering, more hospitalizations and yes, more death.

In the last week alone, we've seen it accelerate even more with hospitalizations going up 50 percent in the last week. At this rate, our hospitals won't have any spare beds by Christmastime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: Think about what he is saying there. So he is saying, right now, don't travel anywhere, let alone getting on a plane or a train, he's saying don't even travel across town. And beginning Monday, there will be new implements that they are going

to institute here in Los Angeles County. They're saying that any visitor from a different state or from a different country will have to go ahead and sign a form saying that they understand the travel restrictions in California.

TEXT: Los Angeles Travel Restrictions: Visitors from another state or country must fill out form acknowledging CA travel advisory; Form submitted upon arrival at L.A. International Airport, Van Nuys Airport and Union Station; Anyone arriving from a different country or state, including CA residents, must quarantine for 14 days

ELAM: And even if you're a California resident, you will be required to quarantine for 14 days. This is because we are looking at the fact that the numbers have skyrocketed. We've had record numbers here in Los Angeles County, Brianna, over the last few days. Yesterday we saw over 6,000 -- that did include a backlog of 1,500 from over the weekend, but still, this pace of rise is much higher than it was over the summer.

[14:15:03]

KEILAR: All right, we will be watching it with you, Stephanie Elam in Los Angeles, thank you.

Now, one family has a warning about Thanksgiving after a birthday celebration unraveled into a superspreader event, I'm going to speak with them.

Plus, moments from now, President Trump is scheduled to appear live for the annual Thanksgiving tradition of the turkey pardon, but what should we expect about other pardons that he may be making in his final days? This is CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: With Thanksgiving two days away, one family in Texas wants to spare you from what they call the guilt of gathering. Fifteen members of the Aragonez family contracted coronavirus after getting together to celebrate a birthday on November 1st, after months of staying at home and wearing masks, and they tell their story in a public service announcement from the city of Arlington.

[14:20:18]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- weeks ago I had family over at my house for a portion (ph) of cake for my wife's birthday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I went to my nephew's house. I love seeing my family. But now, I'm fighting against COVID-19.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now I'm fighting coronavirus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have COVID-19. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of my family have COVID-19.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we took my mom to the hospital, our hearts broke. We feel guilty for gathering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And Alexa Aragonez is with me now -- you just say her there in that PSA -- she works in Community Relations for the city of Arlington, Texas, and she spearheaded this PSA of her family.

Alexa, thanks for joining us to talk about this. And I certainly want to mention, you didn't attend this event, you drove your mom to the gathering. So tell us about how your family came to this decision, especially after taking proper measures, but they decided that they wanted to get together.

ALEXA ARAGONEZ, CREATED PSA AFTER FAMILY CAUGHT COVID-19: Of course, and thank you for having me. My family believes that it's just like, you know, many other families here in the U.S., that take their day very seriously, they cover and do every single precaution, and they think that just gathering with those that they know, with the family that's closest to them, that they'd be safe from COVID-19.

So whenever that text message came through, through our group message of the family, we didn't think anything of it. I mean, we thought everyone else is taking care of themselves and we know that they're not putting themselves in harm's way. So, you know, my family just now regrets that decision, where we decided to let our guard down.

KEILAR: And the timing of that is incredibly important, because your family is -- I mean, it's not unique, this is what families all over the country are doing right now, we can see that in the airport numbers. So tell us what happened, tell us about how many people gathered, tell us about how many people got sick.

ARAGONEZ: Of course. My family, whenever they went over to my cousin's house, four of them lived there and eight decided to attend. And all 12 of those people ended up testing positive for COVID-19 just three days later. After that, those 12 infected three more, making a total of 15 of my closest relatives having COVID-19.

KEILAR: And tell us about sort of the range of symptoms. I know your mom particularly has struggled with her coronavirus diagnosis.

ARAGONEZ: Correct. So my family has almost every single symptom that they exhibit. You know, every one from fevers to chills to pain in the chest, cough. Anything that you would think that COVID-19 has to offer, my family, has that.

Unfortunately, my mother was the one that had the worst case. Day six of the infection, she had a fever of 103 that lasted several days. The family decided to not take her to the E.R. right away just because we know that there are so many across this nation that are struggling to find beds in ICUs. And then a couple of days after that, day 12 of the infection, she got

very sick. Took her to the first hospital, and she was -- had pneumonia. She was sent back home because she was OK. And the next day, she felt even worse, took her to a different hospital for a second opinion, and there, they admitted her right away.

KEILAR: They admitted her right away for pneumonia. So -- which obviously is very serious, having difficulty struggling to breathe.

So tell us about how you decided, you know what, I need to share this story. Certainly in your professional capacity it made sense, but it's also about you know, it's about taking a story that could be embarrassing to your family and trying to tell other families about this.

ARAGONEZ: Correct. My family, you know, is like every other family that doesn't want to publicly put out their issues out there, but my family knew that it was a very passionate project of mine to bring up some diversity in communication for the city of Arlington, and understand that our story resonates a little bit differently than other events that we've seen in the past, because it was just a few of us.

So you know, I diligently spoke to my mother first and a couple of others, asking their opinions, you know, heeding their advice and seeing if they were willing and able to. So my family collectively decided that yes, this is a story worth sharing because it could save at least one life, and that one life is important enough to share.

KEILAR: So as you're watching, I mean, I know you have probably seen a news report on what we're seeing at hospitals, and I know certainly, as you made this a priority to reach out to -- as you said, to diversify the message, in particular you were trying to target Hispanic families with the message, who maybe sometimes are not getting as many of the messages as the broader American community is. Tell us what you want people across the country to know.

[14:25:04]

ARAGONEZ: This Thanksgiving, we need to get a little bit more creative in the way that we gather. You don't need to be in person to feel some closeness with one another. If we just modify the way that we celebrate Thanksgiving now, and the holidays later this season, we can save ourselves so many more holidays in the future.

My family is just like every other family that takes precautions, but the only warning that we didn't heed was gathering in enclosed and small spaces. So please, don't gather with those that are outside of your home. Find creative ways to stay together, because only apart together is the way we fight the virus.

KEILAR: All right, Alexa, thank you so much for --

ARAGONEZ: Thank you.

KEILAR: -- coming on to talk with us, thank you for telling us your family's story. Hopefully it will be powerful and people will listen to it.

ARAGONEZ: Thank you so much.

KEILAR: We have some more on our breaking news, President-elect Joe Biden, introducing the first group of his cabinet picks and they all made veiled references to the last four years. The takeaways and what their plans are in the first 100 days.

Plus, we do have some live pictures. The president will soon be pardoning turkeys in his final Thanksgiving tradition at the White House.

This is CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TRUMP: -- rough shape, very big job actually when you go to the wires underground, people have no idea how complex it is. But you've done a fantastic job, thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

And we're also very happy to have with us my daughter Ivanka and Jared, and Theodore, Arabella, Joseph, thank you very much for coming. They like the turkey.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you very much. On behalf of the entire Trump family, I want to wish every American a healthy and very happy Thanksgiving.

We're here today to continue a beloved annual tradition, the official presidential pardon of a very, very fortunate turkey. Because Thanksgiving is a special day for turkeys, I guess, probably for the most part not a very good one when you think about it.

The first turkey to dodge the White House dinner table received unofficial clemency when President Abraham Lincoln's son, Tad, begged his father to spare his new friend. For the past 73 years, the National Turkey Federation has presented the National Thanksgiving Turkey to the president starting under President George H.W. Bush, these birds have received a formal pardon every single year.

Today it is my honor to present to you this year's lucky bird, Corn. And just in case we needed him, Cobb. Corn and Cobb, that's not too hard to remember, is it?

(APPLAUSE)

These two magnificent gobblers were selected from the official presidential flock of 30 turkeys -- some real beauties. They were raised by the chairman of the National Turkey Federation himself, Ron Cardell. Ron, thank you very much, Ron. Please stand up, great job.

(APPLAUSE)

Ron, thank you for being here, and your family, beautiful family, thank you very much for being here, appreciate it.

Like so many presidential flocks, this one started in the great state of Iowa, in what can only be described as an act of blatant pandering -- and by the way, I love the state of Iowa -- these two turkeys sought to win the support of Iowans across the state by naming themselves Corn and Cobb.

[14:29:59]

After today's ceremony, these birds will retire under the care of skilled veterinarians at Iowa State University, a tremendous university in Ames.