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Americans Celebrate Thanksgiving as Cases, Hospitalizations Rise; Bidens Says, Staying Home this Thanksgiving is a Shared Sacrifice; Supreme Court Rules 5-4 for Religious Groups in COVID Case. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired November 26, 2020 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Nearly 2,300 people died just yesterday and almost 90,000 Americans are spending their holiday in a hospital bed.

In the 55 days until the presidency transition, this country is witnessing a stark contrast between the two leaders at the center of it. And President Trump, he is at his golf course today in Virginia. And in his Thanksgiving proclamation, President Trump is encouraging people to gather today, mentioning zero words of caution or safety from the virus.

On the other hand, you have President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, they're asking Americans to keep celebrations small, and they're thanking Americans for the personal sacrifices made to mitigate the spread.

All of this is coming on this holiday as a divided U.S. Supreme Court just ruled on religious gatherings during the pandemic, siding with Christian groups who sued the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, over his coronavirus restrictions. We'll have much more on that a little later this hour.

But I want to begin with my colleague, Rosa Flores. She is live outside Jackson Hospital there in Miami. And also we have Ed Lavandera working this holiday as well there in Dallas.

And, Rosa, let me just first begin with you. And Happy Thanksgiving, friend, nice to see you. It's so tough to have to talk about what we are covering on a day like today, but what are hospitalizations like where you are?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, Happy Thanksgiving to you, too. Look, hospitalizations not only here in Miami-Dade but other areas around the country are increasing. That's what we are hearing from officials from coast to coast, from Rhode Island to Washington State.

Here in Miami-Dade where I am, according to the last data released by the county, hospitalizations have increased by 25 percent in the past two weeks. The use of ventilators has increased by 44 percent. And also, the use of ICUS have increased by 43 percent. Now, medical experts had warned about this. They had said that if Americans were not wearing masks, not social distancing, that we were going to see this surge. And here we are, we're seeing it across the United States, according to the latest data here in the U.S., reports of more than 181,000 cases reported yesterday. Hospitalizations around the country are nearing 90,000.

And when it comes to the number of deaths, this is staggering, they continue to increase. They've been more than 2,000 for the past few days. And, yesterday, that count, more than 2,200 Americans died here in the United States due to COVID-19.

Now, states across the country are beginning to react. We're seeing this across some of the states. Now, what some states are doing is, they're rolling back some of those reopening plans. That's what's happening in Louisiana, for example. Other states are tightening their mask rules. That's what's happening in North Carolina.

Now, here in the state of Florida, where I am, I can tell you, Brooke, there's a lot of frustration by local mayors, especially here in Miami, city of Miami, Francis Suarez, and Miami Beach, Dan Gelber, because they are asking that Governor Ron DeSantis do more to help them curb spread of the virus.

And I will tell you exactly why they're so frustrated. When Governor DeSantis reopened the state in one swoop in late September, the other thing that he did, Brooke, is he banned these mayors from imposing their own restrictions at the local level and also bar them from fining people who are violating the mask rule.

Now, if you ask some of these mayors, they say that was the rule that was helping them curb this virus, and now their power is clipped. They can't do that. And so they're calling on the governor to act, to do something to stop the spread of this virus.

BALDWIN: Right, thus the frustration and the fear, of course, is that the numbers only go up after this Thanksgiving. Rosa, thank you for all of that in Miami.

Ed, to you there in Dallas, I know they have put in some new curfews in Dallas. Tell me a little more about that.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, not here in Dallas, it's in San Antonio, Bear County, and in El Paso County, where city and county officials there have said that over the last couple of holiday weekends, they saw such a surge in the number of new cases because of people gathering. They're taking the step of instituting these curfews.

So, in San Antonio and El Paso area, you're seeing these curfews through this Thanksgiving weekend until Monday morning from 10:00 P.M. to 5:00 A.M., everything must be shutdown. Restaurants are allowed to still do drive through and takeout, there are other caveats in there in each of those locations as to what people can and can't do in this holiday weekend. But as I mention, Brooke, this all stems from the fact it was the last several holiday weekends that health officials noticed a resurgence of the coronavirus because of people gathering, this here in a state that has more coronavirus cases than any other state in the country and is also second in the number of coronavirus deaths.

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So, there's a great deal of concern as the state finds itself in the midst of another surge, a surge that I should also point out, Brooke, is much higher than this state saw back during the summer in July and into early August. So the highest record total of new coronavirus cases was reported here in Texas yesterday, more than 14,000 cases. Back in July, that surge was just over 10,000. So, we're in the midst of another dangerous surge here as we head into the holiday season. Brooke?

BALDWIN: I'm going to talk to a health official about everything you just threw down. Ed Lavandera, thank you very much, in Dallas.

With me now, Dr. Megan Ranney, she's an emergency room physician and Associate Professor at Brown University. So, Dr. Ranney, thank you so much for being on with me and especially on a holiday. It's nice to have you on.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's my pleasure to be here. Happy Thanksgiving, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Same to you.

For the people who maybe went against the CDC guidelines, they got a negative test, they got on a plane, they're now with family today, what advice do you have for them as they sit down for the Thanksgiving meal?

RANNEY: My advice is take that Thanksgiving meal outside for your safety and for your family's. That negative test you got before you got on the plane does not protect you and does not protect your family. It is like a pregnancy test. You could have tested negative yesterday but turn positive today.

And as a health care worker, I am so worried about all these people sitting indoors. You can't come up with a better way to spread the virus than a Thanksgiving meal. You're mixing families without masks, indoors, for hours at a time. So, if you are one of those who has insisted on seeing your family, which I understand, please do it outdoors and wear masks whenever possible, try to keep a distance. do your best to keep yourself and your family safe. I do not want to see you in my E.R. in two or three weeks.

BALDWIN: You were quoted in this New York Times op-ed that discusses American's definition of freedom and how this country's response to this COVID pandemic has actually been quite similar to the gun violence pandemic. And many feel these lifestyle restrictions have been a violation of their own freedoms. What do you think is missing? RANNEY: So, what I think is missing here, Brooke, is an awareness of the larger community. This is not about infringing on freedom. This is about keeping yourself and your family and those around you healthy. Listen, my town right now, we have two-thirds of the firefighters who are out sick because they've been exposed to COVID in the course of their normal job.

That's because of the lack of mask wearing and the lack of following public health precautions of the larger community. So when people say, oh, you're infringing on my freedom by wearing a mask, they are forgetting that freedom is about the larger country, it's about the group all around them.

And if you put a mask on, sure, you might protect yourself. But most of all, you're protecting our right to go out and do the things that make our country great, like, of course, celebrating Thanksgiving. And we are here today because we didn't do the right things back in September and October.

I would love nothing more than to be able to sit down with my extended family today, but I am not doing it, because that's the right thing and that's what we stand for as a country, is doing the right thing for each other, making tough choices. I hope that people will do the right thing to keep themselves safe.

BALDWIN: To that point, there are millions of health care workers today who are away from their families, who are working this Thanksgiving. I know hundreds of staff at University of Wisconsin just wrote this open letter to the people of their state. I just want to read part of it to everyone watching right now.

Wisconsin is in a bad place right now with no sign of things getting better without action. We are quite simply out of time. Without immediate change, our hospitals will be too full to treat all of those with the virus and those with other illnesses or injuries.

Dr. Ranney, post-Thanksgiving gatherings, do you expect hospitals to be even more -- or we've had so many stories about lack of beds already, but even more overcapacity than that initial surge?

RANNEY: I do, Brooke. With only 1 percent of 50 million people who have traveled this week end up catching or transmitting COVID, that's another 500,000 infections today alone. Our hospitals are already at the breaking point. Many of us are already talking about opening field hospitals next week. Many of us have colleagues who are out sick. Mayo Clinic has 900 workers who are out sick with COVID. My own hospital, we are on third backup for E.R. docs today because so many of us are out sick. And I know, right?

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And so you combine that with this transmission today and this is going to be -- I don't mean to be scary, this is a potentially -- today can change the course of COVID for our country for the rest of the year because infections that are sustained today are going to show up in three weeks and are going to show up in deaths over Christmas and New Year's and are going to spread in every state.

So I just -- I'm so thankful to my colleagues at University of Wisconsin for writing that letter, and I just want to emphasize that's not just them, that's how health care workers literally across the country are feeling and hoping and praying today that their communities will listen.

BALDWIN: To that point, I just want to reiterate, you said that today really could be the make or break day with the future of COVID for the rest of the year and then going into 2021. For the people who have gone and seen the family and, again, it is like it is so complicated, part of you wants to understand, part of you thinks why are you doing that for the safety of everyone else. What can people do tomorrow, over the weekend, to mitigate potential spread?

RANNEY: Yes. So I want to start by saying this is a failure of messaging. Americans are confused and they're divided. And just like with the gun violence issue, it is because people have made this political instead of making it about health. So for those that have made the unsafe choice to get together with families today, outside their own nuclear household, the best thing to do is just maintain contact with those people you were with today. Don't then go out to a bar. Don't then go to an indoor restaurant. Stay just with the people you were with today.

And on your return home, I implore them to quarantine themselves, to stay home for 10 to 14 days, and to get a negative test at the end of that. Having a negative test Monday does not mean you did not get sick today. It takes somewhere around a week to ten days for the test to turn positive. So if you made the choice to go and be with family today, do the right thing tomorrow and Monday and next Friday, stay home, don't expose other people.

BALDWIN: Wise words that we all need to hear. Dr. Ranney, thank you so much. Thank you for everything you do and Happy Thanksgiving.

RANNEY: You too.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Pope Francis has written an opinion piece in The New York Times today pushing for compassion for those who have suffered due to coronavirus and, frankly, calling out some people's selfishness. Let me read part of what he has written.

Quote, look at us now. We put on face masks to protect ourselves and others from a virus we can't see, but what about all those other unseen viruses we need to protect ourselves from? How will we deal with the hidden pandemics of the world, the pandemics of hunger and violence and climate change? If we are to come out of the crisis less selfish than when we went in, we have to let ourselves be touched by others' pain.

Pope Francis there in an op-ed in The Times today.

Coming up here on CNN, President-elect Joe Biden delivering a Thanksgiving message in a new op-ed here at cnn.com, expressing gratitude for frontline workers and the shared sacrifice of all Americans during such a tough time.

Also ahead, President Trump pardons Michael Flynn after he admitted to lying to the FBI. The question we're asking today is, are more pardons on the way?

And in a late night ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court sides with religious groups who are fighting restrictions intended to slow the spread of COVID.

You're watching CNN on this Thanksgiving Thursday. I am Brooke Baldwin. We'll be right back.

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BALDWIN: We are back, Happy Thanksgiving. I am Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

A message today from soon to be first family that echoes the campaign and encourages necessary act of COVID kindness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: I know this isn't the way many of us hoped we'd spend our holiday. We know that a small act of staying home is a gift to our fellow Americans.

JILL BIDEN, JOE BIDEN'S WIFE: So many people are celebrating this year knowing that someone they love will never again take their seat at the table. Joe and I know the pain of that empty chair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The empty chair was a campaign trail centerpiece in the president-elect's coronavirus message and there are a lot of empty chairs today, 262,000 Americans missing from the Thanksgiving table.

Let's go straight to CNN's M.J. Lee. She is live in Delaware. And, M.J., both just listening to the president-elect's Thanksgiving speech yesterday and reading the CNN op-ed really making this appeal to unity in this country.

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And they're clearly emphasizing that they understand this is going to be such a challenging and unusual Thanksgiving period for so many families across the country. You know, people who simply can't travel, they can't gather with the family members that they usually would over the holiday because of this pandemic, and this is the same for the president-elect and his wife this year.

They usually have the tradition of traveling so that they can to get together with their extended family. This is a holiday that they really enjoy and love and a time for them to be with their loved ones. And they're not doing that this week. They are staying behind here in Delaware this week and just getting together with a few members of their family and demonstrating that even for them, the rules really do apply.

And as you said, we heard Joe Biden talking about this yesterday in his national address, and then we have this new op-ed that is on cnn.com. And I just wanted to read a piece of that. They write, like millions of Americans, we are temporarily letting go of the traditions we can't do safely.

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It is not a small sacrifice. These moments with our loved ones, time that's lost can't be returned, yet we know it is the price of protecting each other, one we don't pay alone, isolated in our own dining rooms and kitchens scattered from coast to coast, we are healing together.

Now, I think there are two overarching things that both Joe and Jill Biden are trying to do here. They are trying to empathize with sort of the pain that a lot of families are feeling across the country, talking about that missing chair at the dining room table, and then just really urging Americans to please be responsible, that they are trying to do the responsible thing and that they urge others to do the same because a vaccine is on the way soon and they really hope that they can see the country sort of turn the corner sometime soon.

BALDWIN: We know the Bidens are normally in Nantucket for Thanksgiving. And like so many of the rest of us, we're not where we normally are because we just want everyone to be safe and have Thanksgiving next year. M.J., in Delaware, M.J., thank you so much.

The president-elect's priority is COVID, the president's focus meantime in his final days in office, and, yes, they are his final days in office, is very, very different, amplifying baseless voter fraud claims and trying to own the libs by any means necessary. His latest maneuver just so happens to chips away at the justice system. The president has pardoned Michael Flynn.

Flynn, was the president's first national security adviser who twice admitted to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 transition.

So, to Ron Brownstein we go, our CNN Senior Political Analyst. And Happy Thanksgiving to you, Ron Brownstein. Nice to have you on.

The conservative The Wall Street Journal editorial board gives thumbs up, writing, quote, congratulations to Mr. Trump for sparing an innocent man who served his country well but was ill served by too many of his countrymen. Ron, your response to that.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He lied to the FBI on multiple occasions and the president pardoned him as he commuted the sentence of Roger Stone, who also may have been withholding information relevant directly to the investigation of the president. You don't get to appoint like this and act so egregious as pardoning Michael Flynn in a single step, and you don't get there without complicity of essentially the entire Republican Party and much of the conservative kind of intellectual ecosystem.

I mean, you see the step by step process here, Brooke, from extorting the government of Ukraine, to weaponizing the Postal Service, to trying to tilt the census for the first in American history, to the commutation of Roger Stone and so forth. You have got to look at this trajectory and say that we can expect more, I think, actions like this between now and the president's final day in office.

BALDWIN: Ron, the president re-tweeted a message from Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz from Tuesday night. So this is what he wrote. President Trump should pardon Flynn, the Thanksgiving turkey, and everyone from himself to his administration to Joe Exotic, if he has to.

To your point, a second ago, that raises a lot of questions about if the Flynn pardon is really about Michael Flynn or a prelude to a much broader attempt to wipe the slate clean.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think both. I mean, we don't know how far the president is going to go. What we do know is what Susan Collins said after impeachment, I think, will be the defining quote of the Trump era, when she said, as you recall, that she thought he learned a pretty big lesson from impeachment. He had but not the lesson that she thought. The lesson that he learned was that he could act, he could bow (ph) through the rule of law without any meaningful consequence from Republicans in Congress.

And I think one thing we have learned very clearly through the Trump presidency is that one party alone cannot uphold small democracy. And the fact that it continues to this day with so many Republicans either being silent or openly abetting the president's baseless claims, refusing to acknowledge that Joe Biden is the president-elect, I mean, we are in -- I think, as your previous segment showed, we are in the greatest national security crisis this country has faced to its physical security since World War II.

In World War II, the entire country came together to meet the threat. But because of the environment that we are in now, the president has essentially encouraged or intimidated much of the Republican Party into denying what's happening and to refusing to work with the president-elect on what is obviously a great moment of crisis for the country.

BALDWIN: No. And to your point, it is if these Republicans -- some of the Republicans can't even stand up to President Trump, how are they supposed to lead and govern and stand up to the likes of Xi and Putin and leaders like that around the world, dictators like that around the world.

Ron Brownstein, thank you much. Happy turkey day.

BROWNSTEIN: Happy Thanksgiving.

BALDWIN: The Supreme Court siding with religious groups that were fighting against coronavirus restriction in New York. Why Andrew Cuomo, New York governor, says it is irrelevant, next.

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BALDWIN: In a late-night ruling, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of religious groups who were challenging these COVID-related restrictions against larger gatherings.