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U.S. Records More than 100,000 New Cases for 24th Straight Day; Trump Claims Vaccine Deliveries Will Begin as Early as Next Week; Black Friday Shopping Kicks Off as Pandemic Worsens; Trump Says He'll Leave the White House if Electoral College Chooses Biden; Biden and Harris to Receive First Presidential Daily Briefing on Monday; Biden, Kerry Promise Dramatic Steps to Tackle Climate Crisis. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 27, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

BRIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: With or without the massive crowd. Stores urging customers to shop online as the holiday shopping season officials kicks off. And for good reason. Coronavirus cases surging out of control. Yesterday as millions celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday, more than 90,000 Americans were hospitalized. More than 1200 people died. And for the 24th straight day the U.S. reported more than 100,000 new cases.

President Trump, taking questions for the first time since he lost the election, suggested that a coronavirus vaccine would begin to be delivered in the coming weeks, but here is the problem. The FDA has not yet given Emergency Use Authorization to any vaccine candidate.

Our correspondents are standing by to bring you the latest. Let's begin with CNN's Rosa Flores in Miami.

Rosa, good morning to you. You know, while many families downsized their Thanksgiving celebrations, millions of others ignored the pleas from health experts not to travel this weekend. What are the concerns that you're hearing now?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, experts are very concerned about the surge that they've been talking to us about and they're expecting there to be a surge upon the surge. Now you were talking about travelers. According to the TSA 6.8 million Americans crisscrossed airports in the week before Thanksgiving, that's of course what the CDC was not recommending people to do.

And so here we are the U.S. shattering its COVID-19 hospitalization record, reporting more than 90,000 hospitalizations and that means that more than 90,000 Americans are waking up this morning in a hospital room.

As for cases, for the past 24 days the U.S. has reported more than 100,000 coronavirus cases. Now yesterday that number was more than 110,000, the number of deaths more than 1,200. Now that is a dip in the numbers and we expected this. We're actually expecting for these numbers to dip for the next few days.

Why? Well, we know that at least 20 states did not report their COVID- 19 numbers and they didn't report the number of deaths either. And so we are expecting these numbers to go down for the next few days. Also because testing sites were closed in some states.

Now after the numbers dip a bit we are expecting a spike. That is not the surge that experts have been telling us about, that surge will come later.

Now here in the state of Florida where I am this is one of the states that did not publish its numbers yesterday but Miami-Dade County did publish its hospitalization numbers and here they are. Ventilator use is up 48 percent in the past two weeks, ICUs 37 percent and hospitalizations 26 percent.

Now, Bianna, we know that hospital systems across the country are being tested right now and what we hear from experts is it gets to a point where they can convert beds, regular beds, into ICU beds, but at some point they are going to need the staff to be able to provide that care -- Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: And we're also hearing stories of people putting off elective surgeries as well. These are grim figures.

Rosa Flores, thank you so much.

Well, President Trump suggesting deliveries of a COVID-19 vaccine would start in the next two weeks. CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is following the latest.

Elizabeth, is he right by suggesting that?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: And Bianna, it does not appear that he is right. It may be a couple of weeks after that and of course, Bianna, that is the question on everyone's mind, when will we get a vaccine?

So let's take a listen to what President Trump said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are rounding the curve. The vaccines are being delivered literally. It will start next week and the week after, and it will hit the frontline workers and seniors and doctors, nurses, a lot of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Now, in order for vaccine to be delivered -- we are told by the CDC, in order for vaccines to be delivered the FDA needs to issue an Emergency Use Authorization. The FDA needs to actually do that. The FDA can't do that until they meet with an advisory committee of independent experts.

So let's take a look at a calendar because I think this will really help lay it all out. That FDA advisory committee is not meeting until December 10th. December 10th. So that's not next week, that's the week after. And then we are told by the head of the FDA branch that does all of this work, he said earlier this week that it will take weeks to make a decision. He said it's possible it could be done in days, but more likely in weeks.

So even if it were done in days to weeks it still doesn't get to the timing that the president is looking for. So the bottom line here is what Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN last week and that is vaccines will most likely be getting shots into arms the latter half of December.

[09:05:03]

Again, we will most likely see the first Americans vaccinated in the latter half of December. That's what Dr. Fauci said. That timing up until now is still holding up -- Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: And of course the first recipients are expected to be first responders as well. Not the general public. That will be months ahead.

Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much. Good to see you.

Well, joining me now to discuss is Syra Madad. She's the senior director for special pathogens at New York City Health and Hospital.

Syra, thank you so much for joining us and Happy Thanksgiving to you. Let's start with Thanksgiving because it's Black Friday. What is your advice to those who are considering going out shopping today? Are they fine if they just wear a mask or are there still some risks by being in stores with others?

SYRA MADAD, SENIOR DIRECTOR, SPECIAL PATHOGENS, NYC HEALTH AND HOSPITAL: Well, I think, first, individuals that are newly infected yesterday are not going to start showing signs and symptoms basically three to five days from now. Individuals that were tested before getting together are going to now basically be the contagious period. So the blanket, you know, recommendation is everybody should be quarantining for 14 days.

You're going to see a number of people with being able to spread the disease through pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic spread. The numbers that you're looking at, the statistics are just very, very high. And so we want to make sure people don't go to Black Friday deals and shopping, and what we want to avoid is basically the three C's, crowds, confined spaces and basically areas with, you know, poor ventilation, close contact settings. That is the advice that we're trying to give to everybody right now.

GOLODRYGA: And that's typically what you would find in a shopping mall. So your advice is to not go out now. You mentioned the 14-day quarantine. I want to ask you about that because there are reports that the CDC may lower the days, may lessen the days to perhaps 10 days that Americans would have to quarantine. Would you subscribe to that? Because when people hear 14 they get alarmed. That is not something practical for most people. Fewer days would be better, but does that work medically? MADAD: Yes, so if you look at the scientific literature, does it

support it? It does support it in a sense that individuals are, you know, most contagious earlier on in their infection. And looking at some of the studies that are conducted, you know, basically, you know, samples that were taken from upper respiratory symptoms of individuals showed that no live virus was cultured essentially after day 10.

So the science does back it up. However, you know, you're going to have maybe certain individuals that are outliers that will essentially still be able to spread the disease but that number is still very, very small. So a large number of individuals that essentially will start showing signs and symptoms, the large bulk 50 percent are going to be within day three to six. And then that number continues to decrease to almost less than 10 percent after day 10. And we want to have something that's practical that people can actually follow, that they can comply with. So I generally do agree with that.

GOLODRYGA: You also are a big subscriber as most medical experts in wearing masks. You say you're thankful to have that and to have that ability now that we have the data that shows that masks does help reduce the spread of the virus.

What is your message to Americans now who are home together perhaps for Thanksgiving but perhaps for weeks longer through the rest of the holidays? How important is it to continue to heed the warnings from medical health experts to continue to wear masks?

MADAD: Mask-wearing is so important and science proves it. The data is out, the verdict is out. We know that masks work. Even something as simple as a cloth mask that's multi-layered we know it has the ability to, you know, essentially protect an individual and those around them from inhaling and exhaling by 50 percent to 80 percent. That CDC information is right on their Web site. So it's really important.

And I think the big kicker here is this is not medical equipment like a ventilator that requires over 600 items to build or a pharmaceutical drug that has a very long supply chain component. This is at its barest form a cloth mask that all of us can do to really protect ourselves and our loved ones. So it's certainly something that's a high impact but, you know, basically something that everyone is able to do day to day.

GOLODRYGA: Of course just to reiterate the University of Washington's IHME study shows that more than 40,000 lives could be saved over the next two months if 95 percent of Americans wore masks. It really isn't a big ask if you think about it from the larger perspective.

Let me talk to you a little bit about what we heard from Elizabeth Cohen and the president suggesting that vaccines are just a few weeks away. Let's take a listen to the president answering questions about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Don't let Joe Biden take credit for the vaccines. If Joe Biden -- you know, Joe Biden failed with the swine flu. H1n1. Totally failed with the swine flu. Don't let him take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me and I pushed people harder than they've ever been pushed before, and we got that approved and through and nobody has ever seen anything like it. And you've got a big resistance in the FDA from years and years of people working there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:10:02]

GOLODRYGA: Given how polarized the country is right now from a health perspective, would it be better if the president took himself out of the equation in terms of vaccines and just promoted the efficacy of it and the importance of people being vaccinated?

MADAD: One hundred percent. The political theater absolutely has to stop because everything has been politicized and, in fact, what is happening is that because politics is Trumping the science and the data, you know, behind, you know, these results, people are much more reluctant and hesitant. Even health care workers. You know, I'm in a health care setting and health care workers are also hesitant even though they're going to be the first priority group because of all of this politicization of everything that's been going on.

We need to focus on the science, we need to focus on what is actually being provided to us that's evidence-based. We want to make sure we're hearing from the scientists not a politician, and then we want to follow the public health guidance. We know that a vaccine will be made available soon, and I think nothing has been approved. We haven't gone through anything yet and so certainly we are thinking that if all goes we'll have, you know, a safe and efficacious vaccine by end of December, but that's through a process that we've established and so, you know, I'm not going to follow Trump and I know that a number of my colleagues are not as well.

GOLODRYGA: Well, a vaccine only works if people are vaccinated.

Syra Madad, thank you so much for coming on. We appreciate your expertise. Thank you.

MADAD: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Well, a Black Friday like we've never seen before. Many Americans choosing to shop online. Still, plenty of major retailers moving away with big in-store shopping promotions today. CNN's Alison Kosik is live from Palisades Mall in West Nyack, New York.

Alison, I've been watching you over the past few hours. I've seen more trickles of people coming in as the sun has been coming up. What are you seeing?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are more people, Bianna, that have come in since we've been here since 6:00 a.m. but, you know, I've covered many Black Fridays and this Black Friday is certainly different from the others. This -- I could easily say this mall is pretty empty considering it's 9:00 a.m. on Black Friday and usually it would be crowded with people. But retailers are ready just in case crowds arrive. They've got those

safety protocols in place. You see the stickers on the floor here to keep customers six feet apart when they wait to go into the store. Here at Abercrombie and Fitch you have to wear a mask and if you don't have one they provide one for you. And once you're inside they're limiting the occupancy of the store to 65 only.

And these are sort of the ways that consumers are adapting to a new way of shopping on Black Friday during the coronavirus pandemic. And it's not just consumers adapting, it's retailers as well because they've got to balancing act here. They want to go ahead and keep their employees safe and keep customers safe but bring in revenue as well. Shoppers came out nonetheless and they came out early, believe it or not, to avoid the crowds. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRED KNOX, BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPER: I feel good. I feel safe. I feel comfortable. I like t there's nobody out here. It's perfect. Perfect for a shopper like me.

NATHALIE JIMENEZ, BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPER: We're wearing our masks as we should be. We decided to come early so we don't catch it like at a very busy packed time. So that's the main reason why we got up as early as we did.

DAMIEN GHECCO, BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPER: I figured the earlier you go, the less crowd you're going to have to face and I don't know about you, but I think I'm right in terms of the crowds here, there's very few crowds here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: And despite the fact that millions of Americans continue to struggle during the coronavirus pandemic the National Retail Federation is expecting a strong holiday shopping season saying that they expect to see sales up between 3 percent and 5 percent versus last year -- Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Well, it's good to see that the retailers are promoting and encouraging safety protocols and measures.

Alison Kosik, a Black Friday like no other. Thank you so much.

Well, still to come, President Trump finally says he will leave office if the electoral college votes for President-elect Biden. But will he attend the inauguration?

And with some colleges and universities closing their campuses for the rest of the semester, many students are forced to travel home for the holidays despite warnings from the CDC.

Plus, millions are out of work as we head into this holiday season. When will those Americans begin to see relief? All eyes are on Congress.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

GOLODRYGA: For the first time in three weeks, President Trump answers questions from reporters, and then says he will leave the White House if electors don't choose him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If the electoral college does elect President- elect Joe Biden, are you not going to leave this building?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Just so you -- oh, certainly, I will. Certainly I will. And you know that. But I think that there will be a lot of things happening between now and the 20th of January, a lot of things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the White House. And Kristen, there was as usual, a lot of behavior unfitting of a president including berating a reporter who was just doing his job. But the headline that he will leave, though, that was followed by him insisting he will still win, that, that does stand out, though.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. I mean, it's -- a lot of what happened last night stood out, particularly, as you've said, the president hasn't taken a single question since election day. Now, this was a 25-minute-ish rant, most of it was those baseless claims of widespread election fraud.

And I do want to point to that sound that you just played of him talking about how a lot could happen before January 20th. He has no doubt there, again, talking about these baseless claims of fraud. And the important part here is that he has an entire team of lawyers who are trying to prove this, but yet has provided absolutely no evidence.

And we have seen court case after court case get thrown out here. Now, lots of other things he touched on as well. He said that Biden should not be picking a cabinet just yet, and here is what he said when he was asked if he would attend Biden's inauguration. Take a listen.

[09:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't want to say that yet. I mean, I know the answer, I'll be honest, I know the answer, but I just don't want to say it yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So, clearly, they're not answering the questions, saying he knows the answers but he's not going to say whether or not he will. This is of course a presidential tradition here.

Now, the other thing I want to point out that he said is, he said he's going to be traveling down to Georgia to campaign for those two senators, Loeffler and Perdue, who are in a runoff, the election there on January 5th. And even though these coronavirus cases are spiking across the country, he indicated that they were looking for a venue where they could hold a very large rally. Bianna?

GOLODRYGA: Some things never change. Kristen Holmes, thank you so much. Well, my next guest is very familiar with peaceful transitions of power and the inner workings of the White House. John Podesta served as chief of staff for President Clinton, he was also a counselor to President Obama. John, thank you so much for joining us, happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

JOHN PODESTA, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO BILL CLINTON: And to you, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: So President Trump says that he will leave the White House if electors do choose Biden, but he's not letting up on conspiracy theories and he is still predicting his own victory. John, at this point, it really is less a matter of whether he thinks he won. But are you worried about the 70 million people who voted for him hearing that and maybe actually buying it and believing it?

PODESTA: Well, sure, we've seen very high numbers of Republican voters who think that Biden won, but Biden won because of massive fraud. There's absolutely no evidence of that. But this is destructive to the democracy and it's harmful to that -- what you introduced the piece with, a peaceful transition of power.

I think people are ready to get on to a new administration, someone who can bring people together rather than constantly tearing them apart. But he's, you know, kind of lacked maturity and any kind of gracefulness since the election. I don't expect that to change in the next 54 or 55 days.

GOLODRYGA: So let's move forward. President-elect Biden and Vice President Harris-elect are expected to receive their first president's daily brief on Monday. You are very familiar with these briefings. What will President-elect --

PODESTA: Sort of --

GOLODRYGA: Biden be gaining now from this moving forward?

PODESTA: Well, he has up to the minute and deep intelligence, the collection of intelligence from all 17 intelligence agencies will be available to him. He can ask questions of the briefer to -- if he wants more information to go back to those agencies and they will provide that to him.

And he'll ultimately, again, have the ability to begin to shape his national security and foreign policy based on the best analysis and the best intelligence. You know, he made history this week when he named the first woman to head -- to be the director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, who is terrific, I worked with her in the Obama White House. And you know, that team will be talking to their counterparts now, and he'll have the ability to kind of fit pieces together as they think about resetting the U.S. position in the world.

GOLODRYGA: So despite this delay, one advantage the President-elect Biden has is that he's more familiar with the inner workings of the federal government than any other president going back to George H.W. Bush, right? So in terms of what your concerns are right now, what are they and what are you most focused on?

PODESTA: Well, you know, I was concerned by the delay in the head of GSA ascertaining that Biden was the -- was indeed the president-elect, but that's happened now, and I think while every day is precious in a transition, it's a very short amount of time, that the Biden-Harris transition was up and running, they were putting together the personnel system, they were picking their cabinet, they were picking the White House staff. I think you'll see more of that happen next week and maybe even over the weekend.

But the other thing that needs to happen is to get into those agencies, to get the information that's necessary to pull together budget information, see where the problems are, decide how you're going to confront them, and of course, the biggest issue confronting the country is how we're going to get on top of the virus, what are the plans for distribution of the vaccine, the access to the people who with deep knowledge on that were being denied, but now that's resolved, and I think particularly at the non-political level, I think there's a lot of cooperation going on.

GOLODRYGA: Let me ask you about some of vice president-elect's initiatives and some of his big focus going forward into his first year in office. Obviously, climate change is going to be at the center of this, one of the reasons why he put such a recognizable name like John Kerry to lead that charge. But in fact, if we do have a divided Congress which we could very well have, is there any policy that he's going to be able to put forward of significance without legislation?

[09:25:00]

PODESTA: Yes, look, I think he can get a lot done on climate change, he campaigned on it, he -- and I think the recognition of its importance is reflected in the first ever special envoy in Senator Kerry -- Secretary Kerry, you know, a very knowledgeable, committed person, tremendous credibility across the globe. But here at home, he also, I think, can work with Congress where he can to build out green infrastructure, to try to find some compromise even in a closely- divided Senate.

But he's going to have to use all the authority he has under the -- under the existing statutes, you know, particularly the Clean Air Act, to move things forward, and to try to build a robust recovery to this COVID economy by investing in these jobs, in innovation and these industries that can provide good work, family-supporting jobs, really across the country as we transition to a clean energy future and a 100 percent clean power sector. GOLODRYGA: Obviously, this was an area you advised President Obama on

as well. John Podesta, thank you so much for your insights, we appreciate it. Have a great weekend.

PODESTA: Thanks so much.

GOLODRYGA: Well, thousands of college students are now home for the holidays as experts sound the alarm about a record surge in new cases. The steps some students took to travel safely. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)