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Trump Denies Reality In First TV Interview Since Election; Joe Biden To Be Examined By Doctor After Twisting Ankle; Millions Of Travelers Returning Home Today As Cases Surge; New York City Public Schools Set To Reopen For In-Person Learning; Trump To Campaign In Georgia Ahead Of Senate Runoffs. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired November 29, 2020 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:12]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: It's the top of the hour. I'm Boris Sanchez in for Ana Cabrera. Thank you so much for joining us in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Twenty-six days. That's how long President Trump has had to accept the reality that he lost the 2020 election. And today he revealed just how badly he has become disconnected from reality, at least in his rhetoric. The president airing his delusions to millions of viewers on cable news. It was billed as an interview, though it kind of wasn't. It was basically a diatribe. A monologue teetering on madness and absurdity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is total fraud and how the FBI and Department of Justice -- I don't know, maybe they're involved, but how people are allowed to get away from this -- with this stuff is unbelievable. This election was rigged. This is the essence of our country. This is the whole ball game and they cheated. Joe Biden did not get 80 million votes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: You just heard the president suggest that his own attorney general, William Barr, and his own FBI director Christopher Wray may be involved in some plot to steal the election from him.
What we saw this morning was a major news network hand him a platform to pollute anyone willing to believe him with misinformation and flat- out lies. As a purported journalist just nodded along, as though his claims of widespread election fraud had any shred of legitimacy or even made any sense.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm telling you, 10:00 everybody thought it was over and then the phony mail-ins started coming in, Maria. There are many mailmen that are in big trouble right now for selling ballots, getting rid of ballots. This is the craziest thing you've ever seen. But many ballots -- MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Well, it seems to me --
TRUMP: Many ballots with the name Trump on were thrown out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: I don't have to tell you that that's not true. What we're watching here is sad and it hurts me to watch. And I'm going to go off-script for a second to explain that, as journalists, we're trained to be impartial, to be objective, to look at policy, to look at the marketplace of ideas and judge from a dispassionate position. But this is not about the marketplace of ideas. This is about the marketplace of realities.
It appears this president is in a desperate downward spiral because he can't accept and he cannot fathom that he lost, that it may have been his own fault. A president who appears to reject the idea that he is responsible for the consequences of his own actions. A president who's also spent a fifth of his days on the golf course. Something that he routinely criticized his predecessor for.
He will not acknowledge the reality of his loss and he will not acknowledge the reality of a pandemic, even after we've lost a quarter of a million American lives. More than a quarter of a million lost -- our family members, our friends, our loved ones -- in just a matter of months. And even as we're barreling towards what volunteers -- rather, what experts say could be the worst phase yet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: I want to be straight with the American people. It's going to get worse over the next several weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: So this is how the president chooses to spend his remaining time in office, either completely in denial and delusion or peddling nonsense to keep his base engaged and keep those donations flowing into his pockets.
CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond joins me now.
Jeremy, the president had been on an unusually silent streak in terms of his media appearances, so what happened today?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, what happened today was you heard the president's lying, expressing delusion about the results of the election and, frankly, disbelief at times as well about the idea that he could have possibly lost to President-elect Joe Biden, but disbelief and disillusionment doesn't mean anything. It isn't evidence of voter fraud in this country.
As the president was talking, he repeated suggested that there was widespread voter fraud, that there was some kind of a plot to steal this election, claiming repeatedly without any evidence, without offering any evidence, that this election was rigged. And yet what we've seen, Boris, is time and again the president's claims have been thrown out. So while FOX News and Maria Bartiromo didn't do any fact- checking of the president, we can do it right now.
And the fact-check that we have is to talk about what the judges in these cases have said. While the president claimed widespread voter fraud, here's what a judge who was appointed by the president, said just this past Friday about the president's case. Quote, "Calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here. The campaign's claims have no merit."
[16:05:04]
And that is the reaction when some claims of fraud are presented. When they aren't presented, here's what they're left to say, is simply the fact that Rudy Giuliani, the president's attorney, he even acknowledged at one point in a courtroom, in federal court in Pennsylvania, that they were not alleging fraud. He said, quote -- the campaign, quote, "doesn't plead fraud. This is not a fraud case."
And yet the president continues to make these claims in the court of public opinion where of course the bar is far, far lower. The president also made other baseless allegations. He talked about hundreds of affidavits which the Trump campaign has been unwilling to provide. Those that we have seen as far as affidavits they have been rejected in state and federal court as well. One state judge talking about these affidavits being hearsay within hearsay, completely inadmissible in a court of law.
And then the president also made this claim about voting machine switching or deleting votes that were intended for him. That was something that the Republican National Committee chairwoman, she was confronted with a question about just that in Georgia this weekend. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Machines are switching the votes and we should go there in crazy numbers and they should have won, but then they still --
RONA MCDANIEL, CHAIR, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Yes, we have to -- we didn't see that in the audit, so we've got to just -- that evidence I haven't seen, so we'll wait and see on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAMOND: Even the RNC chairwoman, Boris, who has been willing to engage and indulge the president's fantasies about this 2020 election, even she wasn't able to back up what the president is saying. And one thing is clear is that the president made quite clear that he doesn't plan to give up on this, even once this inauguration happens, once Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States.
The president said even six months from now his mind won't change about the fact that he believes that this election was rigged. But of course, his beliefs aren't evidence and we know that this election was indeed legitimate based on every judge, every state, every local election official in this country -- Boris.
SANCHEZ: Yes. You're absolutely right about that, Jeremy. The thing that I cannot stress enough is the cost. Not only in terms of our democracy and having a large portion of the population believe this fantasy, but also in the actual lives cost as we waste time talking about this as a quarter million Americans have been lost to coronavirus.
Jeremy Diamond reporting from the White House, thank you.
This story brings us to our next guest who co-wrote an incredible piece entitled "20 Days of Fantasy and Failure: Inside Trump's Quest to Overturn the Election." I want to read you one excerpt about how the president reacted to his defeat. Quote, "Trump was, in the telling of one close adviser, like Mad King George, muttering, I won, I won, I won.
However, clear-eyed Trump's aides may have been about his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, many of them nonetheless indulged their boss and encouraged him to keep fighting with legal appeals. They were happy to scratch his itch, this adviser said. If he thinks he won it's like, shh, we won't tell him."
Joining me now is one of the writers for that piece, White House reporter for "The Washington Post," Josh Dawsey.
Josh, thanks so much for spending part of your Sunday with us. Let's go ahead and start at the beginning. According to your reporting, very early on, on election night, Trump and his team believed they were witnessing a repeat of 2016 until FOX News called Arizona for Joe Biden. Walk us through what happened.
JOSH DAWSEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: That's right, Boris. They believe that a lot of these states were trending in the direction, Florida, North Carolina, a range of other key battleground states, and then when FOX News called Arizona for Biden, the president and his advisers, (INAUDIBLE) to Jared Kushner called Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the channel. There were so many calls into FOX executives, FOX anchors, FOX personalities, FOX management, trying to get them to reverse course on that decision.
That obviously did not happen. FOX stuck with their decision, later other outlets included the Associated Press went with it as well.
SANCHEZ: Josh, we're going to ask if you have a few moments to stand by for a second because we have breaking news that we're following right now.
Just into CNN. We're learning that President-elect Joe Biden was taken to the doctor's office after hurting his ankle. CNN's M.J. Lee is in Wilmington, Delaware.
M.J., it sounds like this was out of an abundance of caution. M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Boris. We don't
have a ton of information yet but what we've just heard from President-elect Joe Biden's office is that out of an abundance of caution he has been taken to see an orthopedist. This is because we are told that yesterday, on Saturday, he slipped and twisted his ankle while playing with his dog, Major. Obviously, you might recall that he had been spending the Thanksgiving weekend out in Rehoboth Beach.
[16:10:01]
He had skipped his usual tradition of having a big family gathering in Nantucket, opting to spend the holiday with just a few members of his family instead, again in Rehoboth Beach. And we followed his movements from Rehoboth Beach here back to Wilmington, Delaware, where he lives. And now we are learning that he is, again just out of an abundance of caution according to his office, is being taken to be examined by a doctor because he did twist his ankle while playing with his dog.
I should note this could be a reason that we didn't get a public glimpse of him over the weekend. Sometimes when he's out at his beach house, it's not unusual for reporters to get a sighting of him, maybe going for a bike ride or something like that, but it had been a quiet weekend. Now he is back in Wilmington. And again, out of an abundance of caution, he is now being examined by a doctor because of this twisted ankle.
SANCHEZ: M.J., two quick questions for you. Have we heard anything directly from President-elect Biden since the news broke?
LEE: We have not. We've really just gotten this news directly from his office so we have not heard directly from him. Obviously, the next time that we see him we'll see sort of what condition his leg is in. He certainly will be asked about it. And, you know, this is obviously a situation that occurred that didn't really have anything to do with his age, according to his office. He slipped and hurt his ankle playing with his dog, but I do think sort of the overall context is important about his age.
There have been a lot of discussions in the 2020 campaign whether it is about the president-elect, whether it is about the sitting president, President Donald Trump, because keep in mind, Biden is 78 years old. He will be the oldest person to take office when he is sworn in -- on inauguration day, rather, on January 20th. So there is, as there should be, a lot of interest about the health of this man who is going to be sworn in as the next president.
So it is always sort of important to follow these developments closely. Interesting that the president-elect's office just sharing the news today, just a few minutes ago, that this incident had happened, that he had slipped and hurt his ankle. But they did say that this happened yesterday, so we are just learning about this today.
SANCHEZ: M.J., very quickly, if you could, help put this into context for us because right now the president-elect is very busy filling out his cabinet and we expect some new names to be put up for nomination potentially this week.
LEE: That's right. He does have a busy week ahead. We'll see if any part of his schedule is affected by the fact that he has hurt his ankle, but what we do know is that tomorrow is the first day that he is going to receive the Presidential Daily Briefing.
We also know that he is going to be unveiling some members of his economic team, including potentially his Treasury secretary pick of Janet Yellen. We are also waiting on some other very important announcements, like who he is going to name as his CIA director, who he wants to nominate as his Defense secretary.
So those are all announcements coming down the pipeline. And of course, the focus for the transition overwhelmingly, too, has been about how to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Just yesterday, even though it was a quiet weekend, the transition team did announce additional members who are going to be serving on Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board as well, Boris.
SANCHEZ: Yes. We know you'll be watching it for us. Keep us updated, M.J. Lee, in case we get any news from the president-elect. We wish him a speedy recovery as well.
Let's get back to our conversation with Josh Dawsey regarding this piece in which he reported out, along with a group of other reporters at "The Washington Post," some of the denials and, frankly, madness ongoing at the White House as the president tries to cope with his election loss.
You write in the piece, Josh -- by the way, thank you for hanging in there with us as we got the breaking news. You write in the piece about how everything sort of culminated with the Trump legal team on November 19th when this elite strike force of lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, et cetera, when they gave this press conference at the RNC and they essentially floated a ton of conspiracy theories that even President Trump was sort of embarrassed by, and he was also sort of embarrassed by the image of Rudy Giuliani being up there sweating the way he did.
DAWSEY: Right. Well, the lead-up to that was the president has decided to change his legal strategy and go with Giuliani and Ellis and Sidney Powell, after getting frustrated that his campaign lawyers, who were seen as more traditional lawyers, were not on television defending him, and that things did not seem to be going well.
[16:15:14]
And they went to the RNC and held this press conference where for about two hours they espoused a lot of theories that they have not been able to provide evidence for. And during that, some of those theories really frustrated the president.
The president, you know, saw Sidney Powell up there, saw Rudy Giuliani, and it got entirely negative reviews. I mean, you looked at Tucker Carlson's comments about Sidney Powell. Those were particularly disturbing to President Trump. There were lots of, you know, concerns that it didn't necessarily go well. But that said, he stuck with that team because that team, you know, was still willing to go out and propagate the theories that he wants pushed and still willing to fight.
SANCHEZ: Yes. So I want to read another part of your piece that entails some of these folks that have been out there speaking for the president. It's about the Trump team's legal strategy and you write, quote -- that's actually not the right graphic. We'll get the right one.
But here's the quote: The strategy, according to a second senior administration official, was anyone who is willing to go out and say, they stole it, the Democrats stole it, roll them out. Just roll everybody who is willing to do it into a clown car. And when it's time for a press conference, roll them out.
How did everyone feel about the strategy behind the scenes, this clown car?
DAWSEY: If you will notice, Boris, a lot of the president's traditional allies and surrogates have not been out much pushing these things. Bill Stepien, the president's campaign manager, has not been on television, you know, making these claims. Kellyanne Conway has not been out doing this. There have been some around the president who have been skeptical of these various efforts and have thought they're a little too far, they're too much, and they're not supporting them.
You haven't really heard much from Jared Kushner or Ivanka Trump about the various fraud in a lot of the states that his team is alleging without evidence. You're mainly seeing a few, you know, of his lawyers and a few kind of the more fringe advisers wanting to push this repeatedly.
SANCHEZ: Yes. A lot of the folks that defended him during impeachment, Pam Bondi, Jay Sekulow, Pat Cipollone, none of these folks are out front for the president on this.
DAWSEY: Right.
SANCHEZ: And I think that says a lot.
DAWSEY: And in fact some of those folks, Sekulow and Cipollone and others, you know, were behind convincing the president to allow the transition go forward even if he did not, you know, allow -- even if he did not concede that he lost or said that he lost, to at least allow Joe Biden and his team to have, you know, the transition materials and to get the daily briefing. You know, some of the lawyers that have been fighting for him in the past are conspicuously absent here.
SANCHEZ: Yes. Josh Dawsey with a great piece in the "Washington Post." I recommend to all our viewers take a look at it. Thanks so much for joining us this Sunday.
DAWSEY: Thank you for having me.
SANCHEZ: Of course.
Coming up, the United States has already added four million new coronavirus cases this month alone. On average, an American is dying about every 60 seconds and at a time when it feels like it cannot get any worse, the U.S. surgeon general is offering a sobering warning. That is next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:22:29]
SANCHEZ: Millions of Americans are returning home after spending time with family or friends this Thanksgiving. And there are very real fears that travel and gatherings could fuel even more COVID infections as coronavirus numbers continue to skyrocket. In November alone the U.S. adding more than four million new COVID-19 cases.
So far just today, a Sunday when there's often a lag in reported cases, there's actually been more than 46,000 new infections confirmed and more than 300 reported deaths from the virus. The nation's top infectious disease expert Dr. Fauci warns that another potential surge may soon be yet to come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: What to expect, unfortunately, as we go for the next couple of weeks into December, that we might see a surge super imposed upon that surge that we're already in. You know, and when I give that message, I don't want to frighten people except to say, it is not too late at all for us to do something about this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: I want to bring in CNN's Miguel Marquez in New York and CNN's Natasha Chen at Atlanta's Hartsfield Jacksonville International Airport. Of course, this is one of the busiest travel days of the year.
Natasha, what are you hearing from travelers out there today?
NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, travelers coming into Atlanta tell me that it's been a relatively easy process. And that's because there are not as many people as you would typically see on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. In fact the Atlanta airport officials tell us that they were expecting about a third of their typical travelers during Thanksgiving week.
And just behind me I know there is a group here trying to figure out which way they're going to go. But typically people all day have been going straight on through security. In years past you'd have people lined up past where we're standing right now. So it's a stark difference.
We did ask a couple of the people arriving home in Atlanta about their tough choices that they made to actually travel to see family for Thanksgiving and what they were going to do now to make sure that they didn't bring the coronavirus home. Here's what they said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we came in from Vegas, we're actually going to quarantine for about 14 days and then we're going to, you know, go out to the city, see what Atlanta has to offer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My parents were super nervous but it turned out to be OK. We got tested and everything before, during and after. So it was OK, yes.
CHEN: Do you plan on testing again in a few days just to make sure --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Sure. Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHEN: TSA screened more than a million passengers on three separate days this past week starting from the Friday before Thanksgiving.
[16:25:01]
That's breaking records considering that the last time that happened, it's only happened once in the month of October during this entire pandemic. So, we can tell that people are picking up their travel, but again, far less than there would typically be on a Sunday after Thanksgiving -- Boris.
SANCHEZ: Yes. And we can only hope that they're following the advice of health experts now that they have gotten back home and are going to quarantine and get tested after a certain number of days.
Natasha Chen, please stand by.
Let's get to CNN's Miguel Marquez, he's in New York where schools are set to resume in-person learning.
Miguel, what are you learning?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, at least some schools are. The mayor announced today after -- you know, it's been very, very difficult for New York to get back to normal once they shut schools down. They tried to reopen in the summer. It took them a couple of tries. They finally got reopened then they had to close back down in November. They tried to reopen again after that.
This is the second attempt now to reopen and this is only for a limited number of students. This is elementary students, essentially, younger kids, from 3 to 8 through grade five. Elementary students, they will start to be able to go back to school on the 7th of December. And then those students with the most severe disabilities, the so-called District 75 students in New York, they will begin to go back to school on the 10th of December.
But keep in mind, all of this is subject to whether or not those kids had previously said they were fine to go to in-person learning. Those that didn't say that or check in to that system will have to remain at home doing their learning via the Internet and Zoom.
So, it's going to be, you know, a slow start to get people back into school and hopefully as they get going, they will learn more about how they will handle the metrics for dealing with students if they come down with coronavirus or teachers and the like. But all of that is yet to come -- Boris.
SANCHEZ: Yes. It is an incredible challenge. Miguel Marquez in New York, Natasha Chen in Atlanta, thank you both.
Let's dig deeper with CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine at George Washington University, Dr. Jonathan Reiner.
Dr. Reiner, thank you so much for joining us today. You have Dr. Fauci warning of a surge on top of a surge during this holiday season, and yet even though the CDC warned people against traveling this Thanksgiving, millions did so anyway. So come Christmas and New Year's, what are we in for?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: We're in for many cases per day. My guess is 200,000 plus new cases per day, upwards of 3,000 deaths per day and on top of that, we're in for -- I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am -- just devastated hospitals.
If you remember in certain parts of the country during the initial surge in the spring, many hospitals, not just in places like New York or D.C., but all around the country canceled elective cases. We're going to see that happen very soon. As our intensive care units fill up, hospitals are going to have to start curtailing some of the usual important work we do every single day.
So, for instance, we stopped doing heart valve replacements for about 10 weeks in the spring because we didn't have intensive care unit beds to use for these patients. So, you're going to start seeing that all over the country. Elective procedures started to be curtailed. Not only that, the concern is, as hospitals fill, some of the usual urgent and emergent care will be affected because we just won't have enough staff, enough highly trained staff to care for these patients.
Another reason to wear your masks, social distance, and don't travel for Christmas.
SANCHEZ: I'm glad you shared that piece of advice there. But I'm curious from your perspective, what can be done from an administrative point of view, from a government point of view at this point to secure hospitals to make sure they have all the PPE and all the personnel that they need?
REINER: Well, first of all, it would help if with he had a nationwide mask mandate. It would also help if we had a nationwide testing policy. It would also help if we had really, truly coordinated hospitals around the country.
What New York state did during the darkest days of the pandemic is they basically made one hospital network so that they could transfer patients and equipment between hospitals. We don't have that, you know, state-to-state in the United States, so it's been a little bit of what, you know, we call Darwinian federalism, every state on its own. So what the public can do is to mask up. It's going to be a very tough eight to 10 weeks.
SANCHEZ: I guess the light at the end of the tunnel is the fact that there are vaccinations coming. And barring any unforeseen changes, vaccinations could be under way around the time of the inauguration, around the end of January.
[16:30:07]
The White House coronavirus testing czar, Admiral Brett Giroir, promises that there will be a smooth transition between the Trump administration and incoming Biden administration when it comes to vaccine distribution.
Have you seen anything, Doctor, that would indicate differently?
REINER: No, I haven't. And also, Boris, you have to remember some of the initial distribution is going to be handled almost entirely by the manufacturing. So, almost certainly the first vaccine to be injected into folks is the Pfizer vaccine and Pfizer is handling distribution on their own. They're going to ship to already designated state agencies overnight as soon as the vaccine is approved. I expect that to happen smoothly.
And we'll learn a lot in December from the initial two to three weeks of the vaccination program, what works and doesn't work. We'll learn if there are any chinks in the chain of the ultra cold distribution system. We'll learn a lot and we'll fix it as it goes forward, but I'm not anticipating the transition is going to create a problem.
SANCHEZ: Yeah, that is certainly a relief given some of the hiccups we've seen about the transition more broadly. Dr. Jonathan Reiner, we have to leave it there. Thank you so much for the time, sir.
REINER: My pleasure.
SANCHEZ: Of course.
Coming up, he moved to Georgia to help Democrats win back the Senate. We'll speak with former presidential candidate Andrew Yang about the get out the vote effort there and what he thinks of President Trump's upcoming visit to the Peach State. Stay with us.
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[16:36:08]
SANCHEZ: Next Saturday, President Trump heads to Georgia to campaign for Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelley Loeffler in runoff elections that will make the balance of power in Washington and have tremendous implications for Joe Biden's first two years in office.
Since losing his own race, the president has railed against Georgia's Republican governor and secretary of state, making baseless claims of voter fraud, but now, he has to convince his supporters in Georgia to still vote, even though he had said with no evidence that the system there is rigged.
And helping him spread those false claims today, Senator Kelly Loeffler. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): I'm glad we're having a recount for the president. We owe him that and we need to get to the bottom of what's going on. But we have built a robust field organization. We're going to make sure that we're at those places where they're observing the ballot openings, verifying the signatures.
We're going to make sure that is done on every single signature and that where there's fraud, we will hold people accountable. That's a felony. That's what I want to remind people who think they're going to move into our state and take our election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Former Democratic presidential candidate and CNN political commentator Andrew Yang joins me now from Atlanta.
Mr. Yang, thank you for joining us.
As someone who just moved to the Peach State to campaign for the Democratic Senate candidates there, Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, what's your reaction to what Senator Loeffler is saying?
ANDREW YANG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Senator Loeffler and President Trump are trying to thread a very strange needle where they think there's been fraud and the election has been rigged here in Georgia, but they need everyone to get out and vote on January 5th. So, it's a very mixed message.
On the Democratic side, there's a lot of excitement. People recognize the enormity of these Senate races. And a lot of people want Senator Loeffler to be former Senator Loeffler after January 5th, so she's definitely tied herself to President Trump, who's still very popular here in some quarters.
SANCHEZ: So, I want to play for you a moment from the RNC chair -- actually, we don't have that sound byte, but the RNC chair, Ronna McDaniel, she was in Georgia this weekend. She had a stunning exchange with a supporter who asked her why Republicans should vote in the runoffs if the elections are rigged in Georgia and already decided? Again, that's echoing Trump's claims. There is absolutely no evidence to support them.
McDaniel is having to persuade Republicans to vote, but as you noted, they're threading this strange needle where they're suggesting that there was voter fraud but they also have to drum up urgency from their supporters. There would be no urgency if Trump actually even had won, right? The Senate wouldn't even be in play.
So, have these claims of voter fraud backfired on Republicans?
YANG: They certainly have the potential to backfire, which would be poetic in its own way, Boris, because we all know there are no foundations for claiming voter fraud in any scale here in Georgia or in other states around the country. Right now, it's a turnout game. The Democrats are certainly beating the bushes, trying to make sure that everyone who voted for Joe in November comes back to vote in January.
And it is going to be a lot of energy on both sides because the fact is from the people here in Georgia I've spoken to, a lot of folks do not realize that there's a special election on January 5th, that they can start voting again early December 14th. So, it really is an education effort that's requiring many in-person conversations and outreach for both parties.
SANCHEZ: Yeah, it's a lot easier when there's a presidential election that gets people engaged. Runoffs you tend to have a lot less turnout typically. I want to ask you about an idea that seems like it came from a page in your book.
[16:40:00]
It's from former Maryland congressman and presidential candidate John Delaney to pay Americans $1,500 to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
You've come out in favor of this plan. Why do you think it's a good idea?
YANG: We all know that it's vital that a critical mass of Americans get vaccinated so we can return to some degree of normalcy but we also know that there's a lot of skepticism.
So, we should put our money where our mouth is and say, look, if you get the vaccine, we'll give you $1,000, $1,500. We should be putting money into people's hands right now, Boris, because we're asking more and more folks to stay home and stay out of their places of employment because coronavirus infection rates are increasing. So, we should be sending money to people right now.
But certainly, we should be putting money where our mouth is where these vaccinations are concerned.
SANCHEZ: So, I want to give you a chance to break some news in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Joe Biden has started to announce his cabinet picks. Do you have any word on what role you might play in a Biden administration?
YANG: I know that Joe has his pick of people. We have had contact with the transition team but nothing to announce just yet, Boris. You know when it happens, if it happens, it's going to happen on CNN.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: All right. We appreciate that very much. And we appreciate your time as well.
Thank you for joining us this Sunday. Andrew Yang, thanks for the time.
Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.
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[16:31:35]
SANCHEZ: New today, Iranian media says a remote-controlled machine gun was used in the assassination of a top nuclear scientist. That scientist the mastermind of Iran's nuclear program and he had been reportedly traveling with his wife in this bulletproof car you see when he heard gunfire and got out of the car to check to see what happened. And that's when reports say a machine gun apparently reported by remote control attached to a Nissan pickup truck gunned him down. There were no guns on the ground.
That Nissan apparently exploding in what Iranian media claims was a self-destruct function. And again, according to Iranian media, the attack lasted only three minutes. It's not clear at this point who was behind the ambush, although Iran has publicly blamed Israel and vowed revenge.
Some terrifying moments to show you at the Bahrain Grand Prix today. Look at that, former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean narrowly escaping a fiery crash that ripped his car in half. His car veering off the track on the first lap after coming in contact with another driver.
And look at this, he plowed into barriers, exploding on impact. But miraculously, he jumps out. The French driver emerging from the flaming car after several seconds and appears to walk away with good health. He's said to be doing okay. Only light burns on his hands and ankles. Truly incredible.
Legendary actor David Prowse, who played one of the greatest movie villains of all time, has passed away. The British actor known for his role as Darth Vader in the original "Star Wars Trilogy" was 85 years old. His agent says he died after a short illness but provided no other details.
CNN reported back in 2018 that Prowse was treated for prostate cancer. Today, actor Mark Hamill, who played Darth Vader's son, Luke Skywalker, alongside him, tweeted in part, quote, he was a kind man and much more than Darth Vader. He loved his fans as much as they loved him. May he rest in peace.
Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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SANCHEZ: This year's "CNN HEROES: AN ALL STAR TRIBUTE", will be a special celebration of the heroic efforts of the many men, women and children from around the world who when faced with two simultaneous crisis of COVID-19 and racial injustice, stood up to do more to help others.
It's been a challenging year, but there have been moments of resilience, hope, joy and inspiration. And we want to share those with you and for you to tell us which ones inspired you the most.
Here's one of the year's most inspiring moments.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Sometimes a photograph can capture the mood and attention of the world. In June, one image did just that.
During a protest on the streets in London, events turned violent. Black Lives Matter group was there to condemn statutes of people with racist ties and many white protesters were there to protect the statutes. Things got heated.
One man, Bryn Male, a white former police officer, wandered into the crowd, he started to get beat up. One of the Black Lives Matter protesters, Patrick Hutchinson, saw that he was in peril, Patrick moved in, picked up the injured man, carried him through the crowd to safety.
PATRICK HUTCHINSON, BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTER: The biggest thing for me was making sure that no harm came to him because I knew if harm had come to him, the narrative would just be changed and then the blame would fall on the young Black Lives Matters protesters. We made sure we got him out of there safely.
COOPER: Patrick, a father and grandfather, hopes everyone that sees the image understands the responsibility to do the right thing resides in all of us.
HUTCHINSON: We just want equality for all races, for all people. Right now, we're the ones who seem to be the oppressed ones, and it's about time things were changed, you know, the world over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Incredible poise and perspective in a moment of chaos. Go to CNNheroes.com right now.
[16:25:01]
To vote for this moment or any of our most inspiring moments, you can vote now at CNNheroes.com.
Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.
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