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Biden Urges Unity In Thanksgiving Speech; U.S. Reports 2,000 Plus Deaths For Second Straight Day; U.S. Experts Predict Major Infection Surge After Holiday; World Mourns Football Legend Diego Maradona; South Korea Reports Most New COVID Infections Since March. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired November 26, 2020 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: And hello everyone. I'm Paula Newton live from CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta ahead this hour. It's the tale of two vastly different presidencies already. President-elect Joe Biden focuses on uniting America while outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump insists the election was stolen from him. Plus this.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When people will come home, some of them will become ill, spread it further into their families and into their neighborhoods. And in a week, more likely two weeks, we will see a surge upon a surge.
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NEWTON: U.S. health experts are ringing the alarm as Americans celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. They can expect cases and that's tolls to climb. And later, tributes are pouring in for one of soccer's most revered legends, how Diego Maradona changed the game for Argentina and the world.
So it is officially Thanksgiving here in most of the United States and the tone couldn't be more different from the current President and the man who will succeed him. Joe Biden is urging Americans to recommit to fighting the coronavirus pandemic, which the U.S. government now predicts will claim up to 321,000 lives by December 19th. That's an increase of about 60,000 from where we are right now. While Biden pleads for cooperation, Donald Trump is peddling more baseless election conspiracies, and pardoning a former adviser who admitted to lying to the FBI.
Now we get more on the President-elect's message from CNN's MJ Lee.
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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: Life is going to return to normal, I promise you, this will happen. This will not last forever.
MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President-elect Joe Biden sharing a Thanksgiving message with the nation on Wednesday.
BIDEN: I know that this time year can be especially difficult. Believe me. I know. I remember that first Thanksgiving. The empty chair. The silence takes your breath away. It's really hard to care. It's hard to give thanks. It's hard to even think of looking forward. And it's so hard to hope. I understand.
LEE (voice-over): Speaking from Wilmington, Delaware, Biden discussing the sacrifices Americans are making as coronavirus cases surge across the country.
BIDEN: We fought nearly yearlong battle with the virus that has devastated this nation. It's brought us pain and loss and frustration. This costs so many lives. We need to remember, we're at war with the virus, not with one another.
LEE (voice-over): After weeks of delay, the Biden transition team now receiving access to classified information.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We believe that we've been getting the information that our teams need.
LEE (voice-over): And announcing Biden will receive his first presidential daily briefing since becoming President-elect on Monday. The former Vice President also preparing to announce some members of his economic team next week. Biden expected to nominate former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen as his Treasury Secretary. Biden predicting that the challenges that confront his future government will be without precedent, and entirely unique from those he faced as Barack Obama's Vice President.
BIDEN: This is not a third Obama term because there's -- we face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration. The President -- this -- President Trump has changed the landscape.
LEE (voice-over): Biden also insisting that as he builds out his administration, a major focus will be bridging political divides across the country, and that he's even open to adding a Republican to his team.
BIDEN: The purpose of our administration is, once again, united. We can't keep this virulent political dialogue going, it has to end.
LEE (voice-over): Every move from Biden and his transition team seeming designed to draw stark contrast to President Trump. No single national issue more top of mind than the COVID-19 crisis. Biden's transition team receiving briefings on everything from vaccine distribution, testing and PPE supply chains. Dr. Anthony Fauci staying he has been in touch with Biden's top aides, including his incoming chief of staff.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I've been in contact with Ron Klain, telling me that we're going to be talking about this very soon now that the transition is in process.
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LEE: Now, as we head into an unusual and tough holiday season for so many Americans, Joe Biden saying that his family is no exception. He said that for many years, his family has had the tradition of traveling out of state so that they can have a big family gathering for Thanksgiving but not this year. He is staying put with his wife here in Delaware and they're only going to be doing a very small family gathering.
MJ Lee, CNN, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
NEWTON: So, shortly after Biden's speech, President Trump announced his pardon of a former aide who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Now in a tweet, the President said it was his great honor to pardon his first National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with the former Russian ambassador to the United States. He first cut a deal to cooperate with the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Then he changed his defense team claimed he was tricked and tried to withdraw the plea.
Flynn's pardon could be the first of many from Donald Trump in the last weeks in office. I spoke earlier with Michael Genovese, the President of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University. And I asked him who could be next.
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MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: There's the self-part and the question of whether a pardon can be issued by a President for himself when he's not yet been accused of a crime. And it's unclear, we aren't certain about that. The President has wide pardoning powers. The only two things he can't do are pardon people in impeachment cases, or his pardons are only applicable to federal law and federal cases.
The Supreme Court's been pretty clear about this. The President has very wide discretion on pardons other than those two exceptions. But a self-pardon violates two central principles of American jurisprudence. One, you cannot be a judge in your own case. That's been something that we've just adhere to for over 200 years.
The other is that no person can be above the law and a self-pardon would place the President above the law. And there was one precedent for this. And that was in the Watergate era, the Acting Deputy Attorney General Mary Lawton wrote a memo, which is legally binding in the Justice Department. And that memo says that a president cannot self-pardon. And so, the answer to your question is absolutely, unequivocally we don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP) NEWTON: OK, and our thanks there to political analyst Michael Genovese for his analysis.
President Trump meantime invited Republican state lawmakers from Pennsylvania to the White House after they held a so-called hearing on baseless allegations of election fraud. The President had planned on appearing with his attorney Rudy Giuliani at Wednesday's meeting, but canceled. The move came after it was revealed Giuliani was exposed to another person who tested positive for coronavirus. President Trump called into the meeting, again, falsely claiming he won the election.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This was an election that we won easily. We won it by a lot. This election was rigged and we can't let that happen. We can't let it happen for our country. And this election has to be turned around because we want Pennsylvania by a lot and we won all of these swing states by a lot.
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NEWTON: State and local officials in Pennsylvania say there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. The results were certified Tuesday, Joe Biden's beat President Trump now by more than 80,000 votes in that state alone.
The second day in a row, the U.S. has reported more than 2,000 new deaths from COVID-19. Now, it's the highest death toll since early May. And according to one analyst, that fatality rate will only get worse from here. Likely doubling in less than two weeks. Now, the number of COVID hospitalizations is expected to keep rising on Wednesday, nearly 90,000 people were being treated for the virus nationwide, the highest total yet. Officials are, once again, urging Americans to change their habits in order to try and avoid further tragedy.
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MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, BIDEN-HARRIS TRANSITION COVID-19 ADVISORY BOARD: We have to understand we're in at very dangerous place. People have to stop swapping air. It's just that simple. And if we don't, we're going to see many, many of our friends, colleagues and loved ones ended up at a hospital and unfortunately some of them not making it.
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NEWTON: Now, the country is currently seeing the worst wave of the pandemic. Several states reported record infection numbers on Wednesday that is including Texas and Nevada. And with millions of Americans traveling for the holidays this week, experts fear this virus will continue to spread uncontrollably.
CNN's Lucy Kafanov reports.
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LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Thanksgiving will be one to remember for all the wrong reasons.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to go see my grandparents.
KAFANOV (voice-over): COVID-19 cases skyrocketing now topping an average 174,000 a day.
DR. JOSEPH VARON, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: My concern for the next six to 12 weeks is that if we don't do things right, America is going to see the darkest days in modern American medical history.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Despite the CDC last week urging people not to travel for Thanksgiving, the TSA says more than 4.8 million Americans have already hit the skies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing has really changed whether that way. When I go home, we're having Thanksgiving.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am going to see my elderly parents, my dad's 90, my mom's 87. And I don't know if -- getting emotional -- if in Christmas they're going to be around.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Health experts warn dinner with grandma and the extended family could be more grief in the weeks ahead.
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's the -- potentially the mother of all superspreader events.
KAFANOV (voice-over): The pandemic changing time honored traditions. The Macy's Thanksgiving parade in New York for living room crowds only this year,
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: It will be different, it will be smaller, it will be made for TV. It is not a spectator event in person.
KAFANOV (voice-over): From coast to coast, families hurting in so many ways, historic lines at food banks across the country with a pandemic shuttering businesses and sending unemployment surging.
CHERYL HOWARD, UNEMPLOYED: Who they runs out and them help them with this, that helps out a whole lot. I will benefit then for my family.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Doctors and nurses on COVID frontlines also feeling the pain. The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota forced to bring in workers from out of state even pulling some staff out of retirement to cope with their shortage.
DR. ANDREW BADLEY, CHAIRMAN, MAYO CLINIC'S COVID-19 RESEARCH TASK FORCE: It's troubling to a degree that that there is, in my opinion, a degree of complacency from some about, you know, how severe COVID is.
KAFANOV (voice-over): But for this struggling nation, some signs of hope. ALEX AZAR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: If all goes well, we could be distributing vaccine soon after December 10th. The American people can be confident that hope and help are on the way.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Until that help is here, health officials are bracing for another COVID surge. One last plea for Americans to do their part in slowing the spread.
FAUCI: The final message is to do what really we've been saying now for some time is -- to the extent possible, keep the gatherings, the indoor gatherings as small as you possibly can.
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KAFANOV: Here in Colorado, hospitalizations are spiking with just 25 ICU beds available in the city of Denver. That's according to the governor. Meanwhile, the Denver mayor, in hot water on Wednesday after urging residents in a tweet to avoid holiday travel, hours later, boarding a plane himself to spend Thanksgiving with his wife and his daughter in Mississippi.
Lucy Kafanov, CNN, Denver.
NEWTON: Now earlier, I spoke with CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen who had this message for those choosing to travel during the holidays.
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DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: There is a magical thinking that we might have around our loved ones that we love them, we trust them therefore they can't have coronavirus, but actually it's in these settings where coronavirus is transmitted the most.
NEWTON (on-camera): Yes, and important warning there. And I have to tell you, Doctor, I've been speaking, of course, to frontline workers for so many months now. And yet I feel for as much as we've tested all of you, the worst is yet to come. What do you have to tell people about the nurses, the orderlies, the doctors, those people who are on the front lines and how much more they can take considering this is Thanksgiving. We've got Hanukkah, we've got Christmas, we've got New Year's still coming up.
WEN: Health care workers are exhausted. They've been working with not much break really running at sprint speed, but they're running a marathon. And there is physical exhaustion and mental exhaustion and burnout. That's very real. And I think what's really hard for us is also seeing very sick patients at the hospital. And then we go out and we see people living their lives as if there isn't a pandemic around us. And we know that these individuals could well become our patients in a few weeks' time or their loved ones and certainly their community members.
Our hospitals are on the brink of becoming totally overwhelmed. And if that happens, then it's not only patients with coronavirus who are going to be hurt, it's all these other patients who may be in car accidents, who may be having heart attack, so may need care for their cancer. And I'm so worried about a total collapse in our health care system that could very well happen if our hospitals become overloaded and we don't have the health care workers to be able to care for patients. We can buy more ventilators but we can't make new doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists.
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NEWTON: Our thanks there of course to Dr. Leana Wen.
Right now, millions around the world are mourning one of the greatest footballers ever to grace the pitch. One who has literally and frequently been called a god.
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NEWTON: Three days of national mourning are underway right now in Argentina for the football legend Diego Maradona. Its President tweeting, he took us to the top of the world. And these images from just minutes ago show some adoring fans waiting outside the Presidential Palace lit up in the national colors. That's where Maradona will now lie in honor in the coming hours.
Now, he died Wednesday at the age of 60 from heart failure according to his lawyer and a government source present during the autopsy. The football legend enjoyed a glittering career but was also well known for his notorious lifestyle and struggles with addiction.
World Sports Don Riddell is with us now. A complicated figure, Don, and yet it's not exaggerating the fact that people actually thought of them as immortal, as a god.
DON RIDDELL, CNN ANCHOR WORLD SPORT: Yes. And for so many different reasons, Paula, I mean, certainly from his success on the field, and the way he played the game, the way he celebrated and embraced it and, of course, the success he had with it, notably leading Argentina to the World Cup in 1986. But you reference the floor genius and the demons and the struggles that he had, which led to so many health issues after he'd finished playing the game. And he went to the brink so many times for those and always seemed to bounce back from them. So it got to a point where I think football fans just kind of came to think of him as just being indestructible.
Of course, we have learned now that that is not the case at the age of 60. He has passed away from heart failure, that coming just a few weeks after he underwent brain surgery. And fans all over the world are now coming to terms with the fact that Diego Maradona is no longer among us. But when you hear what people have been saying, what you hear about fellow footballers and his peers, the way they have been describing him, describing him as eternal as if he will live forever. And that's because of the success that he had and the way he played the game.
We're looking at images of attributes being paid to Maradona around the world. Of course, in Argentina, as you would expect, is where he had the biggest impact and national icon. But also in places like Naples, he transformed the fortunes of the Napoli club when he moved there in the 1980s. That was the club for whom he spent the longest amount of time, seven years.
And this is a big time for football in Europe is the Champions League week. And we've seen games all over Europe, games in Milan, in Liverpool, in Athens, a moment's silence, the start of the game, as everybody came to terms with Maradona's passing just hours after they had learned that news. And we are going to see scenes very similar to this in the coming days, Paula. You have referred to the situation in Buenos Aires where Maradona grew up lying in public now, three days of national mourning. I think we're going to see a lot of very, very sad football fans over the coming days.
NEWTON: Yes. And the tributes really pouring in by the minute here. Don, I know you have so much more for us ahead in just under 30 minutes from now on World Sports. Appreciate it.
Now, a surge of new coronavirus infections is plaguing parts of Asia. Officials in one country say it could take a state of emergency to get things under control. We'll have more after the break.
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NEWTON: South Korea is facing some adversity in its fight against the coronavirus. The country is reporting its highest number of new infections since the first day of March. But when it's -- back when its first major outbreak was traced to a religious group. Now this recent spike in cases comes after the mayor of Seoul declared an emergency period for the city and tightened restrictions.
CNN's Paula Hancocks is in Seoul with the latest. You know, in terms of telling us about all of these restrictions, I'm really curious as to how people in South Korea are taking this. I mean, all over the world, we're suffering from coronavirus fatigue, but how are they taking the fact that there are these new restrictions that could even go further in the coming days or weeks?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's certainly concern, Paula, that these numbers are taking up quite quickly. We heard from health officials just a couple of days ago saying that we could come close to 600 by the beginning of December, well the end of November, we've still got another week to go. And already we've hit that point. So, the numbers do seem to be creeping up quite quickly. Now, obviously putting it into context, 583 daily cases is not a lot for many other countries around the world. But for South Korea, it is a lot.
Now, these restrictions being put into place obviously for small businesses, for cafes, for restaurants, it will impact them but for the greater society there is really an acceptance that this is what has to happen. The fact that there are level two social distancing rules, meaning that cafes are really only a takeout only, masks have to be worn inside, otherwise, there will be fines put in place. And the worry about this wave we're hearing number three from the officials is that there are so many little outbreaks that are happening rather than a big epicenter, which we saw in the first couple of waves which was far easier to contact trace, Paula?
NEWTON: It definitely means that community transmission is there within South Korea, obviously, a concern. Paula Hancocks for us live in Seoul, appreciate it.
Meantime, Japan's government says it might declare a state of emergency soon as the number of new coronavirus cases keeps going up. Health officials say the medical system in Tokyo and other high infection areas is strained. And they're recommending the government blocked travel to and from those hotspots. Officials in Tokyo are asking restaurants and karaoke bars to close early for the next three weeks and they're asking residents to avoid non-essential trips.
The World Health Organization meantime says Europe has been the biggest driver of COVID-19 cases and deaths worldwide in the past week. But it also says strict measures are helping. The President of the European Commission is urging E.U. members not to ease up too quickly, but countries are taking different approaches. Spain, for instance, is considering limiting Christmas gatherings to just six people as cases there rise, or the U.K. is planning to loosen some restrictions during Christmas week. More on that in a moment.
Meantime, Germany might also ease up during the holidays, but until then its partial lockdown will continue. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports from Berlin.
FREDERICK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was some pretty tough negotiations between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the German state governors as all of them together face really big problem and that the light lockdown that Germany has in place when, for instance, compared to very strict measures in countries like France, that light locked down is not having the desired effect that Angela Merkel stated when they originally put it in place. Now the numbers in Germany aren't rising as fast as they were a couple of weeks ago, but they certainly also aren't going down. And that's a pretty big problem for the chancellor.
Now, some of the things that are going to be put in place is that that light lockdown is going to be extended well into December. There's going to be some other measures on top of that as well. Like, for instance, stricter measures in schools, new mask mandates for instance, and also further restricting the amount of contacts that people are allowed to have. The stated aim of all of these is to try and bring down the new coronavirus infections to a point where people can celebrate Christmas even if it is in fairly small circles.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
[02:25:00] SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London where Christmas bubbles are being formed. The government has announced that there will be a special Christmas time dispensation of five days between December 23rd and December 27th. Social restrictions will be eased to allow up to three households to come together and form their own social bubble known as a Christmas bubble so that they can celebrate together safely but in a limited way.
Now, Prime Minister has said this approach is a cautious and balanced one, but many disagree. It's important to remember this country is still very much in the throes of the second wave of this pandemic. Earlier this week, we had the highest daily death toll, more than 600 people died of the virus in a single day. That's the highest daily death toll this country has seen since May, since the first wave of this pandemic. That has scientific advisers very worried, with one saying that this Christmas policy is like throwing fuel on the COVID fire, and that it will be a recipe for regret for many families.
NEWTON: That is Salma Abdelaziz there reporting from London, we thank you.
Now, coming up on CNN Newsroom, the pandemic has left millions of Americans struggling to put food on the table. The efforts underway to ensure others don't go hungry for the holidays. That's next.
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NEWTON: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom, I'm Paula Newton. U.S. futures are setting after the Dow pulled back from the 30,000 mark in Wednesday's trading. Analysts blamed the drop on economic data showing incomes falling last month and jobless claims rising last week. The U.S. markets will be closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Now, well, Wall Street might be reveling in record highs. There's a major crisis down on Main Street. Millions of Americans are lining up at food banks nationwide. Many having lost their jobs during the pandemic. Another 778,000 people filed for first time unemployment benefits just last week, and the struggle to provide is being felt now more than ever, just as families nationwide try to celebrate Thanksgiving.
CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has more.
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VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The journey to get food through the cold and COVID-19 has been long and hard for Regina Status.
REGINA STATUS, NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT: That would take one day at a time. And as long as you have for today, you save for tomorrow when tomorrow get here. Something's going to happen.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): And it did just in time.
STATUS: Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No problem.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Days before Thanksgiving, Agatha House Foundation, a local food pantry in the Bronx, New York made a special Thanksgiving delivery, filled with everything she needs for her and her two teenage daughters.
STATUS: It's just a relief that I don't have to purchase all of that.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Over 50 million Americans like Regina won't have enough to eat in 2020 in part because of the pandemic. Feeding America, the largest hunger relief group in the U.S., projects that 8 billion meals will be needed in the next year to feed food and secure Americans.
CLAIRE BABINEAUX-FONTENOT, CEO, FEEDING AMERICA: About 40 percent of the people who right now are turning to food banks for health around the country are who -- people who never before relied upon the charitable food system.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Regina is out of a job. Her car was totaled (ph) months ago, and she's not receiving unemployment. She now relies on a once a week delivery from the food pantry.
YURKEVICH (on-camera): Day-to-day, is your pantry stocked or what does it look like day-to-day?
STATUS: Just survive it. That's all I can say. You just have to survive it.
YURKEVICH (on-camera): The 15th congressional district here in the Bronx has the highest food insecurity rate among children in the country. At Agatha House, they're hoping to take the stigma out of needing a little extra help.
JEANETTE JOSEPH-GREENAWAY, FOUNDER, AGATHA HOUSE FOUNDATION; We have to look and try to imagine ourselves in the position, what we would want for ourselves, not just to give them a cardboard box, but to make them feel love special.
YURKEVICH (on-camera): This small operation says it's seen a 100 percent increase in need.
JOSEPH-GREENAWAY: Even with the little that they get, hopefully there's someone in their building or one of their neighbors that they can invite for a plate of food.
STATUS: Yes, I've got to give Ms. Mamie (ph) some stuff.
YURKEVICH (on-camera): Despite her struggles to put food on the table --
STATUS: You're welcome, Ms. Mamie (ph).
YURKEVICH (on-camera): -- Regina is sharing what she has with her neighbor, and remains grateful for this Thanksgiving. STATUS: Even if we didn't get the Agatha House, or we will just have a regular chicken every day, just to say that she was alive to eat it, that's a blessing in itself.
Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, Bronx, New York.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: So earlier, I spoke with Matthew Barnett, he's the co-founder of the Dream Center, which is a charity organization providing resources to communities right across the United States. And he had one word to describe the need right now, relentless.
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MATTHEW BARNETT, CO-FOUNDER, THE DREAM CENTER: Oh, man, there's people that are showing up. And some of them are showing up in literally a cars we've never seen before. And you can imagine that they would be in a need, and kind of, you know, top of their head a little bit embarrassed to receive food. And when we just try to do is celebrate, make it a big party and they come through the line because it's not just what we give away that matters, it's a spirit of joy.
And some people are coming through the line were saying, look, I'm coming to get food because I need to survive. But I think the survival I'm getting is the hope and the joy by which people are giving it away. So there's a crisis of food but there's also a major crisis of hope. People are losing hope every single day.
And the most important thing we can do to change the atmosphere of our neighborhood with 45 percent unemployment is just to keep showing up every single day. And I think that's been the secret of what we've been able to do over 263 straight days in a row is we earn the right to be heard by saying and not leaving the community in hard times.
We're not seeing, unfortunately, the cases go down. We're just seeing them go up. And it's terrifying to think, to be honest with you Paula, we're living one day at a time. We're just saying, maybe we could just make it 24 hours.
We used to have game plans for two to three years down the road what our vision is going to look like, it's now turned into how can we survive 24 more hours. And I'm afraid that's where we're headed in this charitable organizations. We're just going to have to believe for 24-hour miracles, and dip into our own pockets, do whatever you got to do, because when you're called to people that are in need, you don't take that time off just because it gets hard. We signed up to be an essential service, we signed up for a difficult moment. And, you know, like so many, we're willing to lay down our lives in order to reach one more person.
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NEWTON: Some of the need he was describing there now. He also urged the new Biden administration to look at every type of resource available and reach out to charities already working in so many communities.
Now, we now have a better idea in how costly the pandemic has been for the airline industry. The International Air Transport Association says airlines will lose a staggering $157 billion this year next because of the virus. The figures are even worse than what was predicted. It's the largest blow to the industry since World War II.
CNN's John Defterios is in Abu Dhabi with details. John, I mean, the vaccine -- everyone is hanging on the vaccine now, how quickly do you think that'll help airlines recover?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, both the airline and the hotel industry, you know, travel and tourism represents one out of 10 jobs worldwide, Paula, so it's very important. Some of the things that even stood out for me in the United States we've seen traveled down around this Thanksgiving holiday, around 50 percent compared to the year before both leisure and business travel.
[02:35:06]
This number stood out for me. Two out of three hotels will close in the United States before this pandemic is over. So, a lot of bankruptcies to come, more layoffs that disproportionately fall on women and the youth who worked in this industry.
And you were talking about the airline sector itself. Let's take a look at that tally, you had the overall number, let's take a look at it in two years. $118 billion this year, something we've never seen before, worse than expected, as you noted. And even $38 billion next year is worse than they were projecting just two months ago. If you're looking for a silver lining, that could be profitable by this time next year. But it really depends on that silver bullet, if you will, vaccines getting a distributed.
So where did this industry come from? You know, the emerging markets of the world from here in the Middle East, South Asia, India, China, of course, is a big, big market. We have 4.5 billion passengers in 2019. Look at the number for 2020 down to 1.8, that's the lowest since 2003. They're expected to add a billion passengers next year.
Now, this is an industry that had $173 billion injected into it. Paula, they're saying they'd have about eight months before more airlines go bankrupts. We might be in a case before the vaccines get out into the market that the governments will have to pony up more money to make sure that even more don't go under during this transition to when we can reopen up the economy again. Pretty bleak numbers for an industry that is so vital to employment around the world.
NEWTON: I know, so staggering. You're saying that basically, it's going to be tough to just get back to passenger levels they were at two decades ago or nearly two decades ago. John, I appreciate you keeping us up to date on this. Thanks so much.
Just ahead on CNN Newsroom, China's President is finally acknowledging Joe Biden's victory. We're live in Beijing with details.
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NEWTON: More than two weeks after Joe Biden claimed victory in the U.S. presidential election, he finally got a message of congratulations from China. President Xi Jinping says a healthy and stable relationship is fundamental to both countries in the world. The leaders of Brazil, Mexico and Russia have not yet congratulated Biden.
We want to hit now to Beijing, though and talk to CNN's Steven Jiang who is following the developments here closely. It was bound to happen even though there was a delay. I think what most people are wondering is what does it mean for future relations between China and the United States?
STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: That's right, Paula. If you read the message itself, it's just filled with the usual jargons. You hear from Beijing. You mentioned some of that, but also non conflict, non- confrontation, win-win cooperation. It's actually not very dissimilar from what she sent to Trump in 2016. But if Beijing's expectations to having some sort of reset in this relationship which has really plunged to its lowest point in decades, analysts say the leadership here may be in for disappointment because since the last Mr. Biden was in the White House, things have changed dramatically in terms of geopolitical tensions and the Adams fear in D.C.
[02:40:17]
Right now, China's a rare bipartisan consensus in Washington, both parties want to get tough on China. And Mr. Biden has said so himself. And remember, Mr. Biden has met Mr. Xi quite a few times when he was the Vice President. I actually covered his trip here back in 2011 when he spent almost a week with Mr. Xi before he took power. Even back then, he was telling us -- Mr. Biden was telling us he understood Mr. Xi will be a tough leader to deal with. And now of course, Mr. Xi has become the most powerful Chinese strongman leader in decades, Mr. Biden is definitely under no illusion.
But his approach to this relationship would definitely is likely to be very different from Mr. Trump who, of course, prefers to going along. Many expected Mr. Biden to really go back to the more traditional multilateral approach by rallying traditional U.S. allies and partners around the world to form a united front against an increasingly assertive or even aggressive China. So, if that's the case, many think this will be making life more difficult for the Beijing leadership in the long run, but at least in the short term, I think they would be probably relieved that they no longer have to find out new U.S. policies against China on Twitter anymore, Paula?
NEWTON: Yes. And it's important that you point out these two men know each other, they've met before and so it'll be interesting to see the new footing for this relationship. Steven Jiang for us in Beijing, appreciate it.
Now, would you drive 1,700 kilometers for a total stranger? Now, I'm going to tell you, you'll be driving in snow too. That's exactly what one Canadian man did to help out a woman and her kids who got stranded in British Columbia. The family from Georgia right here in this state was trying to get to Alaska to meet up with dad, who's in the U.S. military. But when the drive got treacherous in Canada's wintry weather, believe me, I've been on that road, it is horrendous. The woman went online to ask for help and that's when Gary Bath saved the day.
He drove them the rest of the way to Alaska. And here's the thing, we talked about snow, this guy had a trailer in tow, which is really tough. And the story gets better. That's not the only act of kindness. So CBC News reports that Bath got donations from the public for a flight back home so he didn't have to get back into a car on that wintry road. Love that story. Remember, complete strangers.
Well, I want to thank you for joining me for CNN Newsroom. I'm Paula Newton. My colleague, Rosemary Church takes over in about 15 minutes for now, but -- from now. But right now, CNN World Sport is next. Don Riddell takes a look at the life and legacy of soccer legend, Diego Maradona. And we will be right back with that.
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DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Hello there, it is time for World Sport. I'm Don Riddle at CNN Center. And there really is only one story to bring you today, the death of Diego Maradona.
Tributes have been pouring in from world leaders, top athletes, and even the Pope after we learned on Wednesday that the legendary Argentine footballer had died from heart failure at the age of 60.
[02:45:04]
Football fans took to the streets in Buenos Aires where the atmosphere was a mix of celebration for his life and sadness at his passing. The government there has declared three days of national mourning. On Thursday, Maradona will lie in honor for public viewing at Argentina's Presidential Palace. A multitude of people are expected to attend.
Maradona is considered to be one of the greatest football players of all time. He is revered in Argentina for whom he won the World Cup tournament in 1986. He's also idolized in Naples retransform the fortunes of the Napoli club in the 1980s. One of his former teams Boca Juniors in Argentina postponed their match on Wednesday night, and games all over the world, Maradona was being remembered.
This was the scene in Ecuador ahead of a Copa Libertadores match the empty stadium, a reminder of how awful this year has already been. In Europe, it was a Champions League night and this scene was repeated across the continent from Milan, Italy to Liverpool, England, and Athens in Greece, players bowed their heads in remembrance of a man who rose to the very top of their profession and inspired so many others. Manchester City's manager Pep Guardiola began his career at Barcelona just after Maradona had left the Catalan clubs and he spoke for everybody in his praise for the world famous number 10.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PEP GUARDIOLA, MANCHESTER CITY MANAGER: When I was a little boy with my dad, sometimes I came across to see Maradona playing football. It was incredible. Unfortunately, he had any blow, blow, a great, great injure, big injure. And his spirit was short. When I arrived to the academy, he leaves to Napoli. I could not -- no sure time of being there in the academy in Barcelona being closed more for the Barcelona games.
But his impact in the world football of his career and the love and the joy and -- I was not in the locker room with him, but all the people who was with him in the locker rooms express how his generosity, his thinking for all of them, defend the position for the -- to make a better, better world football. And on the pitch was something unique for one or two generations. He was a player, like I said, wow, what a player is playing right now.
So, it's a sad news. We knew that it was not perfect, and yes, a big hug for all his family.
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RIDDELL: As a football player, Diego Maradona was just brilliant. Those who saw him play up close with talk of his artistry and the spells that he seemed to cast on the ball to make it obey his every command. They used to say that people would have paid just to see him juggle the ball in warm ups before the game had even begun. But he was complicated, a floor genius and he demonstrated both sides of his personality in one iconic World Cup game in 1986.
Against England in the quarterfinal, Maradona scored the first goal with his hand. He chased (ph) it. But the ref had missed it. And afterwards, Maradona cheekily described it as the hand of God, divine intervention. But if there was any kind of divine intervention that day, it came four minutes later with his second goal considered to be the greatest World Cup goal ever scored. He lifted the trophy after the final. This is the game he will always be remembered for.
Patrick Snell has more.
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PATRICK SNELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR (voice-over): For many, Diego Armando Maradona will be remembered as the greatest footballer of all time, but he'll also go down as one of the sport's most controversial and polarizing figures. After bursting onto the scene as a free scoring team in his home end (ph) of Argentina, the South American moved to Europe when he joined Spanish giants Barcelona before heading to Italy's Napoli. Most (ph) have saw him become the only player in football history to set a world record transfer fee twice.
Maradona became an instant cult hero in Serie A during a trophy laden period in the late 80s, in which he helped the Neapolitans when the Scudetto for the first time in their history, as well as the UEFA Cup. But a dark side had been brewing and reported drug problems from earlier in his career came back to haunt him when a 15-month ban for testing positive for cocaine was handed down in 1991. If there's one match, though, that best sums up his life, it has to be the 1986 a World Cup Quarter Final with England that took place in Mexico, a match set against the backdrop of the recent Falklands war between the two countries. The fame number 10s now notorious first goal was allowed to stand despite the fact Maradona, who would like to refer to it as the hand of God. It actually punched the ball into the back of the net.
Minutes later, though, he left England players trailing in his wake, scoring a goal that would later be voted the greatest in tournament history. Argentina would go on to beat West Germany in the final.
[02:50:04]
JURGEN KLINSMANN, 108 CAREER APPEARANCES FOR GERMANY: A favorite World Cup memory of Maradona. I mean, people wouldn't simply say the goal that he's got against England, you know, in '86. But at the same time, you would bring up the handball in the game. So, that may be shows also the kind of extremes of Diego Maradona in the positive and in the negative way. That's what often soccer is about. It's about the extremes and it's about all the different emotions and depending on what side on the field you on, you take it positively or you take it negatively.
SNELL (voice-over): But at the 1994 tournament in the USA, Maradona would again hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. After being sent home from the tournament after failing a drug test for ephedrine.
JIMMY BURNS, AUTHOR, "HAND OF GOD: THE LIFE OF DIEGO MARADONA": For him it was a shattering moment. And it also was a shattering moment for Argentina and Argentine fans. This was really the end of the road. I mean, you couldn't have more of a humiliation than to have your great icon, your great national figure expelled from a grandstanding sporting event like the World Cup and particularly the first one to be held in the United States.
SNELL (voice-over): Despite his health problems, Maradona surprised many in the game and he returned to the national team as manager leading the Albiceleste to the quarterfinals of the 2010 tournament in South Africa. In 2000, he was joined winner with the legendary Pele of the FIFA player of the century awarding.
KLINSMANN: He was not only an amazing player, he was an artist. He could see through people, he could see through backlines, he could pass, you know, in moments where you don't think that's the right path and, boom, he goes through a couple of three, four guys and finds a striker and they finished up scoring or he does it himself. So you have this artistic brain. And then the sad part, he was not capable to get his own personal life under control, you know, with drug issues and whatever personal issues and you suffer with Diego Maradona because, you know, it was one of the most outstanding players in soccer history.
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RIDDELL: If you want to learn more about the complicated life of Diego Maradona, then I can highly recommend the documentary film with the same name. It was released in 29 -- 2019 and directed by Asif Kapadia, who is fascinated with child prodigies and how they are affected by fame. He's also chronicled in the center and the singer Amy Winehouse. Kapadia spends a lot of time with Maradona and last year, he told me why he was so special.
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ASIF KAPADIA, FILM DIRECTOR, "DIEGO MARADONA": We were in the right place at the right time, and I got to meet one of my heroes, I touched his left foot, which was kind of a mad feeling of being someone like Maradona, and realizing I had this kind of mad feeling, I had to touch him.
RIDDELL (on-camera): Yes.
KAPADIA: I never felt --
RIDDELL (on-camera): Did you mind?
KAPADIA: He wasn't a huge fan of. Yes, I have to be honest, because I've set his feet at the time doing an interview when I was recording the audio and I just wanted him to talk into the mic. So I thought the way to do it is sit on the floor next to the mic, he will talk to me and then I just had this urge to touch him.
[02:55:00]
And so, while he was answering the question, I just couldn't help I'm going to touch him, his left foot, which he didn't really like and he pushes me away and I hit the mic and it all becomes quite embarrassing when we pretend to carry on like nothing happened.
RIDDELL (on-camera): What did you learn about him that you didn't already know?
KAPADIA: I think really the film is about going back to when he was a supreme footballer. He looked like no footballer ever, you know, his body shape is different the way he moves, the way he plays. Really people know Diego because of the World Cups in '86 and '99 to '94 in the U.S. What they don't know is his period of time as a club footballer. And we focus on Italy. The seven years in Italy, the longest he's ever been at any football club. And it's where he became the best player in the world. And it's also where all of his personal problems really began.
RIDDELL (on-camera): What was it that drove him do you think and what was it that enabled him to become so great from such humble beginnings?
KAPADIA: I think what drove him is the fact that he did come from humble beginnings. I know a lot of footballers come from, you know, poor background, but he's a street fighter. Diego Maradona is something very particularly, he's from his place outside of Buenos Aires via Freetown, really rough, really quite tough and scary. And he played street football, he has a way of moving and controlling the ball that came from being on a very -- growing up in a rough surface.
But mentally, he's also like, he's a street guy. So the way he played football, the way he played against England in 1986, the idea of scoring, on one hand, the best goal ever, perhaps, versus the handball, that's both sides of his personality. And it's how he lived on the pitch and off the pitch. And so the people he hung out with off the pitch Wall Street guys, and that's really again, what the films about.
Wherever he goes, he will want to know who runs this town, who's in control, who's in power. They want to hang out with Diego Maradona, but he also wants to know he's going to be protected and looked after. I think our film explains, you know, it's to do with this idea of a kid coming from nothing, rises up to the top becomes undisputed, best player in the world of his generation. But it's given everything, no limits. And I think that kind of way he was treated, essentially means he unravels and gets a bit out of control. And I think that's really where his problems of addiction begin.
And the film has interesting kind of similarities with (INAUDIBLE) in terms of his Latin American hero. But also, Amy, he's quite vulnerable. And he has lots of issues and he's quite lonely at times. And you see a side of him I think, in the film that you probably haven't seen before. And his issues of addiction come out, which are actually what the problem is. It looks like he's kind of crazy guy who acts really stupid and is having fun, but actually underneath it is some of (ph) cry for help going on there.
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RIDDELL: Film Director Asif Kapadia there on the great Diego Maradona, who has died at the age of 16. I'll see you again soon.
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